Di Roberts Movies
While South Georgia Island in the Southern Atlantic Ocean neighbors the forbidding wastes of the Arctic, it's also a temporary home to large bands of migratory animals, particularly penguins and sea lions. In the spring and summer, South Georgia Island teems with life as flocks of penguins form huge animal villages, and Survival Island offers a look at the habits of the animals who call this strange island home for part of each year. Shot in the high-definition IMAX film format, Survival Island is narrated by David Attenborough. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
The large-format IMAX presentation Secrets of Life on Earth is a nature documentary narrated by Patrick Stewart. Beginning almost four billion years ago, the origins of all forms of life are explored using micro, macro, and time-lapse photography. The complex relationships between plants and animals are shown in close-up, with a glimpse of the disturbances caused by humans. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
This film is a documentary, nominated for an Academy Award, of the destructive fires set by Iraqi soldiers at the close of the Persian Gulf War. In defeat, Saddam Hussein remained defiant, committing one last war atrocity: setting fire to oil wells in Kuwait, the land his troops invaded. The video presents graphic film footage that shows the magnitude of the fires and the immense destruction and waste that resulted. Scorched earth and terrible air pollution were Hussein's war legacy to the Middle East. The film shows the heroic efforts of thousands of firefighters to contain the blaze. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
Set in a 1950s-era American heartland of sprawling wheat fields and lonely old houses, The Reflecting Skin is British director Philip Ridley's fascinating and very strange investigation into the horrors of childhood innocence and fantasy. The film's mixture of gruesome subject matter, morbid sexual perversion, and disarming humor has spawned comparisons to the work of David Lynch, particularly Blue Velvet and the Twin Peaks series. Young Seth Dove (Jeremy Cooper) lives with his mother and father in a ramshackle farmhouse that also serves as the local gas station. After reading one of his father's pulp horror magazines, Seth convinces himself that Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan), the attractive widow who lives nearby, is a vampire. When Seth's friend Eben is found dead (and sexually abused) in the family cistern, Seth is sure that Dolphin is to blame. The authorities, however, point to Seth's father, whose secret homosexuality -- and past affair with a young boy -- is a skeleton in the town's closet. Seth's father refuses to have the affair dragged into public view, and so he burns himself alive at the family gas pump, prompting Seth's older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen) to return home from a military tour. Cameron falls for Dolphin, and at the same time he becomes weak and begins losing hair. Seth takes this as a sign that Cameron is being drained of vitality by Dolphin, although it is suggested that his sickness is in fact due to overseeing A-bomb tests while on a ship in the South Pacific. Meanwhile, a roving gang prowls the country roads in a sleek, black Cadillac, and more children are found dead. It is not surprising that writer/director Philip Ridley has also published books for children, since watching The Reflecting Skin is a lot like reading a young adult novel, albeit a horrific one. Presented from a child's strangely warped point-of-view, this film should be appreciated by anyone looking for films far outside the mainstream. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viggo Mortensen, Lindsay Duncan, (more)
