Owen Roizman Movies

An American woman discovers that Paris truly is the city of love -- though not in the manner she expected -- in this romantic comedy. Kate (Meg Ryan) is desperately afraid of flying, so when her fiancée Charlie (Timothy Hutton) flies to Paris on business, she must stay behind. Kate has been having second thoughts about her impending marriage, but that changes when Charlie calls her to say that the engagement is off -- he's met a beautiful French woman named Juliette (Susan Anbeh), and he's fallen in love. Determined to win Charlie back, Kate confronts her fears and hops on board the next flight to Paris, where she finds herself seated next to Luc Teyssier (Kevin Kline), a French thief who stashes some valuable jewelry in her baggage hoping to avoid capture. While Luc simply wants to get his jewels back, he pretends to be willing to help Kate find Charlie and win him back in order to keep her luggage out of harm's way, but to his surprise (as well as Kate's), the two become infatuated as they make their way through the City of Lights. Leading lady Meg Ryan also served as co-producer for this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The film equivalent of a stroll through the Louvre, the documentary Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography collects interviews with many of modern-day Hollywood's finest directors of photography and is illustrated by examples of their best work as well as scenes from the pictures which most influenced them. A who's-who of cinematographers -- Nestor Almendros, John Bailey, Conrad Hall, Laszlo Kovacs, Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Haskell Wexler, Gordon Willis, Vilmos Zsigmond and others -- discuss their craft with rare perception and insight, paying homage to pioneers like Gregg Toland, Billy Bitzer and John Alton and explaining the origins behind many of the most indelible images in movie history; from Citizen Kane to The Godfather and from Sunrise to Night of the Hunter, many of the truly unforgettable moments in American film history are here in all their brilliance and glory. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Inspired more by the 1960s TV series than by the original Charles Addams New Yorker cartoons, The Addams Family proved to be one of the more successful of the TV shows-turned-movies of the 1990s. The film opens on a recreation of the magazine cartoon wherein the ghoulish Addamses prepare to pour hot oil upon a group of merry Christmas carolers. After a series of vignettes which establish the characters of Gomez (Raul Julia), Morticia (Anjelica Huston), Wednesday (Christina Ricci), Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) and family servants Lurch (Carel Struycken) and Thing (Christopher Hart), the plot proper gets under way. A stranger, played by Christopher Lloyd, shows up on the Addams doorstep, claiming to be long-lost Uncle Fester. It appears, however, that Lloyd is a ringer, in cahoots with attorney Tully Alford (Dan Hedaya) to strip the Addamses of their fortune. In their usual against-the-grain fashion, the Addams Family seems to delight in the possibility that they're being hoodwinked-indeed, not even kidnapping or death threats dampen the Addams clan's joy of living (or should we say dying?). The Addams Family served as the directorial debut of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A cynical gambler reluctantly comes to the aid of a mysterious beauty in this interpolation of Casablanca and the real-life Cuban revolution. Big-stakes American gambler Jack Weil (Robert Redford) is comfortable in the anything-goes Havana of 1958. But with Fidel Castro out in the wilderness broadcasting revolutionary messages, it seems the good times may be on the way out. On a boat back to the island nation from the U.S. mainland, Weil agrees to help beautiful Bobby Duran (Lena Olin) smuggle in some contraband by trading vehicles with her on their way through the checkpoint. He's amused to discover not jewelry, but radio transmitters squirreled away in her car. Eventually, he learns that she's the European wife of monied Cuban communist Arturo Duran (Raul Julia), who believes his class and status will protect him from the ruling party. When that assumption turns out to be false, Jack finds himself sucked in by the plight of the suddenly widowed Bobby, who remains committed to her dangerous ideals. Risking his cushy lifestyle to protect Bobby from the coming tumult -- and from herself -- Jack must grapple with the dictates of his newfound conscience. With a supporting cast that includes Alan Arkin and Tomas Milian, Havana reunited director Sydney Pollack with Redford and David Rayfiel, star and co-screenwriter of The Way We Were. Rayfiel has also worked on a number of Pollack pictures, stretching from 1969's Castle Keep to 1995's remake of Sabrina. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), a brilliant but troublesome New York actor, has managed to alienate every producer on both coasts. Michael's agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack) can't even get his client a commercial since Michael complained that the tomato he was playing wasn't properly motivated. "You were a tomato!" screams George in desperation, adding that Michael is so obnoxious that he will probably never work again. Dorsey thinks otherwise; when he hears of an opening on a popular soap opera, he applies for the job--even though the job is for a woman. Posing as "Miss Dorothy Michaels," Michael wins the part and becomes a widely-known actress. Yet complications ensue when Michael falls for his co-star Julie (Jessica Lange, in an Oscar-winning performance) but, as Dorothy, is courted by Julie's widowed father (Charles Durning). Michael ultimately finds that his disguise as a woman has made him a better man. One of the classic comedies of the 1980s, Tootsie's gender-bending premise boasts a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, and by a host of memorable supporting comic performances from Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, George Gaynes, and Bill Murray. Future Oscar-winner Geena Davis makes her screen debut as a daytime drama queen, which indeed she had been before Tootsie came along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Devery Freeman's novel Father Sky was the inspiration for the far-fetched but convincingly acted and directed Taps. When an exclusive military school is threatened with demolition by a rapacious real-estate company, the students, headed by Timothy Hutton, take drastic action. Utilizing every bit of military know-how at their disposal, the boys take over the school, arm themselves to the teeth, and prepare to do battle against the "invading" developers. General George C. Scott, the head of the academy, tries to quell the rebellion, but soon he too is swept up by the students' to-the-death determination when the Army is called in to rout the boys. Whenever the action of Taps begins to flag, we recommend that you keep an eye on the show-stopping performances of Sean Penn (in his movie debut) and Tom Cruise as two of the cadets. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A cowboy-turned-huckster unexpectedly finds love as he tries to regain his self-respect in this romantic comedy drama. Sonny Steele (Robert Redford) is a one-time rodeo star whose career as a cowboy has ground to a halt. He makes a good living as a spokesman for Ranch Breakfast, a sugar-coated cereal for kids, but he's lost most of his self-respect in the process; his boss, corporate mogul Hunt Sears (John Saxon), considers him a property rather than a human being, and Sonny has developed a serious problem with alcohol. Sears' cereal company is negotiating a highly profitable merger with another firm and brings Sonny to Las Vegas for a publicity stunt, in which Sonny, wearing a garish cowboy outfit complete with blinking lights, will ride on-stage at Caesar's Palace aboard prize-winning thoroughbred stallion Rising Star. When Sonny discovers Sears' men have drugged the horse so that it will be able to walk on an injured leg, he's appalled, and he rides Rising Star off the stage at Caesar's and into the Nevada desert, looking for grazing land where he and the horse can heal their wounds. Sears is shocked to discover that Sonny has run off with a 12 million dollars, and he realizes that Sonny knows enough to make his firm look very bad in the press, potentially scotching the merger. Sears files charges against Sonny and posts a reward for Rising Star's safe return, though he implies that it wouldn't bother him if Sonny died in the rescue attempt. Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda), a television journalist covering Sonny's Vegas appearance, is convinced that something is fishy and manages to catch up with him in the desert; as Hallie tries to get Sonny to tell her his story, the has-been cowboy and the city-girl reporter fall in love. The Electric Horseman also stars Valerie Perrine and Willie Nelson; the country & western star made his screen debut in this film and has a very memorable line about tequila and trailer hitches. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Pop star Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees star in this musical, loosely based on the popular 1967 Beatles album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the story, Billy Shears, who now heads the Lonely Hearts Club Band, is the grandson of the famous Sergeant Pepper. He is confronted by the need to save the magical musical instruments of the band from the bad guys, led by music tycoon B.D. Brockhurst (Donald Pleasance), who want to steal them. If they succeed, the magic which infuses "Heartland U.S.A." will disappear. Among the many Beatles' songs performed in the film by well-known popular artists are: "She's Leaving Home" (Bee Gees, Jay MacIntosh, John Wheeler), "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (Steve Martin), "Got To Get You into My Life (Earth, Wind & Fire), "When I'm 64" (Sandy Farina), "Come Together" (Aerosmith), "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (sung by the Bee Gees, Paul Nicholas), "With a Little Help from My Friends" (Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees), "Fixing a Hole" (George Burns), and "Get Back" (Billy Preston). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to A Man Called Horse, Richard Harris is back as a blue-blooded Englishman who returns to America to help the Indians who had once adopted him. Seeing their lands being taken over by greedy whites, he joins forces with the Sioux tribe to help them defend their birthborn rights. ~ All Movie Guide

Historical overview of the events and personalities involved in the creation of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

"His code name is Condor. In the next 24 hours, everyone he trusts will try to kill him." As the ads ominously announced, a low-level spook confronts the unfathomable in Sydney Pollack's 1975 political thriller, adapted from the James Grady novel Six Days of the Condor. CIA researcher Joe Turner (Robert Redford) returns from lunch to find the entire staff of his small New York office assassinated. When he meets his boss (Cliff Robertson) at another location to tell him what happened, someone tries to shoot Turner as well. On the run from the cops and his agency, a desperate Turner resorts to holing up with innocent civilian Kathy (Faye Dunaway), who becomes his only ally. Joe decides to save himself the only way possible: by going to The New York Times. But will it work? One of a cycle of conspiracy films from the 1970s that also included The Parallax View (1974) and Redford's All the President's Men (1976), Three Days of the Condor pits a working Everyman (albeit a CIA everyman) against a far-reaching conspiracy, as it also criticizes the CIA during a period of increasing publicity about federal wrongdoing, from the Pentagon Papers through Watergate and other congressional investigations; the challenge of negotiating New York City, shot on location, becomes one more sign of the forces that Joe must face. With its timely subject matter, taut suspense, and sympathetic Redford hero, Three Days of the Condor became a substantial hit. Balancing the conspiracy cycle's pessimism with a margin of attenuated hope, Three Days of the Condor suggests that one man can still discover the truth, but whether it helps him remains to be seen. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Novelist William Peter Blatty based his best-seller on the last known Catholic-sanctioned exorcism in the United States. Blatty transformed the little boy in the 1949 incident into a little girl named Regan, played by 14-year-old Linda Blair. Suddenly prone to fits and bizarre behavior, Regan proves quite a handful for her actress-mother, Chris MacNeil (played by Ellen Burstyn, although Blatty reportedly based the character on his next-door neighbor Shirley MacLaine). When Regan gets completely out of hand, Chris calls in young priest Father Karras (Jason Miller), who becomes convinced that the girl is possessed by the Devil and that they must call in an exorcist: namely, Father Merrin (Max von Sydow). His foe proves to be no run-of-the-mill demon, and both the priest and the girl suffer numerous horrors during their struggles. The Exorcist received a theatrical rerelease in 2000, in a special edition that added 11 minutes of footage trimmed from the film's original release and digitally enhanced Chris Newman's Oscar-winning sound work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide