Abstract

Films

This article presents information on several motion pictures. The film "12 Monkeys," directed by Terry Gilliam, is based on Chris Marker's 1962 film "La Jetée," a twenty-nine-minute, black-and-white fantasy about memory, loss and the intersection of public and private catastrophe. The film is a big-budget remake, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. A while ago, Ian McKellen went on tour in a Richard Eyre production of the play "Richard III," that reimagined the crookbacked usurper as a rising fascist dictator in thirties England. McKellen and director Richard Loncraine now have adapted the production for the screen, and it's terrific. The supporting cast of the film "Richard III," includes Kristin Scott Thomas as a morphine-hooked Lady Anne, Jim Broadbent as an oily, cigar-chomping Buckingham, Maggie Smith as a Duchess of York who was born to curse and Nigel Hawthorne as the simplest, gentlest Clarence imaginable. People have got another thirties strongman in the film "Shanghai Triad," perhaps the final collaboration between director Zhang Yimou and his leading actress, Gong Li.