10 Feb 2003 USA, France 1996 97mins Director: Kevin Spacey Albino Alligator is an enthralling crime drama. Three petty thieves flee the police in a stolen car. They take refuge in a latenight basement bar and take the five staff and patrons hostage. The drama unfolds between these eight people trapped in the bar with… Continue reading Albino Alligator
Tag: 1996
The Crucible
1 Oct 1997 Director: Nicholas Hytner US 1996 123 min The first American film rendition of Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” based on the Salem witch trials. Set in the Year 1692 a group of New England girls are caught performing a sinful dance in the woods. They claim they were possessed by the Devil… Continue reading The Crucible
Fargo
15 Oct 1997 Director: Ethan & Joel Coen USA 1996 97 min A crime/thriller by the Coen Brothers (Ethan and Joel) laced with satire, comedy and suspense. Based on a true story. William H. Macy is desperate for money for a business deal and hires two hoodlums to kidnap his wife and to split the… Continue reading Fargo
Kolya
12 Nov 1997 Director: Jan Sverak Czech Republic 1996 110 min Winner of the Oscar for best ‘Foreign Language Film’. Set in Prague in 1988, Louka is a cellist out of favour with the Russian authorities who must scrape a living playing at funerals and repairing gravestones. He agrees to a marriage of convenience to… Continue reading Kolya
Flirting With Disaster
10 Dec 1997 Director: David O. Russell USA 1996 92 min Mel Coplin decides to go off in search of his natural parents triggered by the arrival of his first born child. He enlists the aid of Tina from the adoption agency, who wishes to come along for research purposes. The trio of Ben, his… Continue reading Flirting With Disaster
The English Patient
07 Jan 1998 Director: Anthony Minghella USA 1996 162 min Winner of nine Oscars. A powerful and gripping love story based on Michael Ondaatje’s novel. A Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche) nurses a man badly burned in a plane crash. Alone with him in an abandoned Italian monastery during World War Two, she slowly learns his… Continue reading The English Patient
Romeo & Juliet
21 Jan 1998 Director: Baz Luhrmann USA 1996 120 min A strikingly original and modern portrayal of the classic love story. The words are authentic but the style is definitely Luhrmann, the director of ‘Strictly Ballroom’. The backdrop is Los Angeles after the riots. The narrator is a news anchor woman, the prince is police… Continue reading Romeo & Juliet
Shine
04 Feb 1998 Director: Scott Hicks Australia 1996 105 min Based on the life of Australian pianist David Helfgott. As a young prodigy he is pushed to the edge by a domineering father. He becomes unglued by his fathers demands and as an adult wanders the Australian outback dysfunctional and forgotten. Will he find peace… Continue reading Shine
Stealing Beauty
18 Feb 1998 Director: Bernado Bertolucci USA 1996 119 min Liv Tyler plays 19 year-old Lucy who comes to a Tuscany village in search of her real father, the man who seduced her mother 20 years ago, and to lose her own virginity. There she discovers herself and, with a new found independence, affects the… Continue reading Stealing Beauty
Self Made Hero
04 Mar 1998 Director: Jacques Audiard France 1996 105 min A comedy about a hero Albert Dehousse (Mathieu Kassovitz) who decides to invent himself a better life and joins the French Resistance nine months after the Allied liberation of Paris. There he assumes the role of someone more adventurous and superior to himself. Little by… Continue reading Self Made Hero