Canal+ (France): 75

The erotic historical drama film Total Eclipse (1995), directed by Agnieszka Holland, is based on Christopher Hampton’s 1967 play. In a Paris café, Paul Verlaine meets Isabelle, the sister of Arthur Rimbaud. Isabelle and her mother ask Verlaine to give them any remaining copies of Rimbaud’s poems so they can burn them. Verlaine reflects on his relationship with Rimbaud, which began when the young poet sent his work to Verlaine from his home in the provinces in 1871. Impulsively, Verlaine invited him to his wealthy father-in-law’s home in Paris where he ...

Assassins (1995), an American action thriller film directed by Richard Donner, features a screenplay written by The Wachowskis and Brian Helgeland. Protagonist Robert Rath, plagued by guilt over his past deed of killing mentor Nicolai, is ready to hang up his deadly profession. However, his plans are halted when he finds out that fellow assassin Miguel Bain has taken out one of Rath’s assigned targets. Despite admiring Rath, Bain also wishes to eliminate him in order to claim the title of the world’s greatest ...

Murder in the First (1995) is an American legal drama film directed by Marc Rocco and written by Dan Gordon. As a 17-year-old orphan, Henri Young is turned down for a job at a grocery store and resorts to stealing $5.00 to feed himself and his sister Rosetta. Despite their desperate circumstances, he is caught and arrested while Rosetta is sent to an orphanage. Since the store also housed a U.S. Post Office, his crime becomes a federal offense. Henri never reunites with Rosetta and receives a sentence at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas. Years later, he is transferred ...

Royal Deceit (1994) is a drama adventure film co-written and directed by Gabriel Axel. Prince Amled witnesses the murders of his father, King Hardvendel of the Danes, and brother, leading him to enter a semi-catatonic state. This saves him from being killed like his family members by Fenge (the king’s brother) and his henchmen. The king and prince’s bodies are brought back to Amled’s distraught mother, Geruth, at their castle. Fenge claims he arrived after the murders and offers support to Geruth as she mourns her loss. He is eventually crowned king and declares Geruth as queen. During the funeral ...

Stargate (1994), a sci-fi action-adventure film, was directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. In 1928, at Giza in Egypt, archaeologist Professor Paul Langford unearthed cover stones engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs and other markings. Underneath these stones, he found a large metallic ring that served an unknown purpose. Sixty-six years later, Professor Langford’s daughter Catherine invites Egyptologist and linguist Dr. Daniel Jackson to translate the hieroglyphs. The stones are now part of a classified project overseen by Special Operations Colonel Jack O’Neil of the U.S. Air Force. With Dr. ...

The American comedy film, Made in America (1993), stars Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson. When Zora Matthews discovers she has a blood type that does not match her deceased father or mother Sarah, she confronts her mother. Sarah admits to using a sperm bank after her husband’s passing and specifically requesting for an intelligent black donor. Determined to uncover the truth, Zora enlists the help of her best friend Tea Cake to pretend to be a donor while she searches through the records at the sperm bank. After gaining access to the computer, Zora learns that her ...

The indie film Arizona Dream (1993), written and directed by Emir Kusturica, follows Axel’s journey from New York City to Arizona for his uncle Leo’s wedding. After being convinced by his cousin Paul, Axel agrees to stay in Arizona and take over the family business of selling Cadillacs. Along the way, he meets two intriguing women: Elaine, who dreams of building a flying machine, and her stepdaughter Grace, who longs to be reincarnated as a turtle. In one memorable scene, Axel and Paul struggle with Grace’s stubborn pet turtle during dinner while she floats in a levitating chair with a smile on her ...

Cliffhanger (1993), an American action thriller film, directed and co-produced by Renny Harlin and co-written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. Rangers Gabriel ‘Gabe’ Walker and his girlfriend Jessie Deighan are sent on a mission to rescue their friend Hal Tucker and his girlfriend, Sarah. Due to an injury, Hal is unable to continue the climb in the Colorado Rockies, leaving them stranded on a peak. As they attempt to save Sarah, her harness breaks, forcing Gabe to try to catch her. Despite his best efforts, Sarah tragically falls to her death. Overwhelmed ...

Heaven & Earth (1993) is an American biographical war drama film written and directed by Oliver Stone. The story centers around Le Ly, a young girl living in a Vietnamese village during the time of political unrest. Her life is forever altered when communist insurgents arrive to defend against French and American forces. As the conflict escalates, Le Ly is taken prisoner by South Vietnamese soldiers who accuse her of being a spy for the North. This accusation causes her to lose the trust of her village, leading to her family’s relocation to Saigon. In Saigon, Le Ly finds work with a family where she becomes ...

The film Chaplin (1992) tells the story of iconic English comedian and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. Directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Robert Downey Jr., the movie follows an aging Chaplin as he reflects on his life in a conversation with George Hayden, a fictionalized version of his autobiography editor. Growing up in poverty-stricken Victorian London, Chaplin finds solace in the world of variety shows. When his mother Hannah loses her voice onstage, five-year-old Charlie steps in to perform instead. As ...

Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) is an American comedy-drama film directed by John Carpenter. Nick Halloway, a stock analyst known for avoiding responsibility and connections with others, frequents his beloved Academy Club where he meets Alice Monroe, a TV documentarian, through his friend George Talbot. Their immediate chemistry leads to a steamy encounter in the ladies’ room and plans to meet for lunch on Friday. The next day, still feeling the effects of the previous night’s festivities, Nick attends a meeting at Magnascopic Laboratories where he quickly becomes bored and decides to take a nap. A mishap ...

The Power of One (1992) is a drama directed and edited by John G. Avildsen. It is loosely based on Bryce Courtenay’s book with the same name, published in 1989. The story revolves around Peter Philip Kennith Keith (also known as ‘PK’), born in 1930 on a South African homestead to an Englishwoman who had recently lost her husband. PK received dual education – from his mother in England’s ways and from a Zulu nanny whose son Tonderai was his closest friend. However, their peaceful existence is disrupted when the farm’s cattle succumb to ...

The French film All The Mornings of the World (1991) is an adaptation of Pascal Quignard’s book of the same name. It tells the story of aging court composer Marin Marais, who reflects on his former master, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe – an unmatched viol player and strict Jansenist. Following his wife’s death, Sainte-Colombe finds solace in his music, raising his two daughters on his own and teaching them to play instruments. They form a consort and perform for nobles in their local area. Eventually, word of Sainte-Colombe’s talent reaches King Louis XIV and an envoy named Caignet is sent to ...

The American epic political thriller film, JFK (1991), written and directed by Oliver Stone, delves into the investigation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The New Orleans district attorney, Jim Garrison, becomes convinced that there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was used as a scapegoat. Outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower had warned about the dangers of the military-industrial complex in his 1961 farewell address. However, Kennedy takes over as president and is faced with challenges such as the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis before his tragic assassination in ...

The drama film Hamlet (1990), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is an adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy. After the death of his father, the King, Hamlet returns to Denmark where he discovers that his mother Gertrude has married his uncle Claudius, who is now the new King. Both Gertrude and Claudius encourage Hamlet to marry Ophelia, but soon he is visited by the ghost of his father. The ghost reveals that he was murdered by Claudius and Gertrude, leaving Hamlet with a difficult decision between passively accepting his fate or seeking revenge, which could have tragic ...