Village of Stars

A French village and its inhabitants go through the ups and (mainly) downs of the occupation by the German army from 1940 to 1945. The village doctor is assigned as mayor, and confronted with the challenges, dilemmas and contradictory demands and situations. At the same time, there is a lot of personal interaction with a number of interesting characters.

Live at the Village Vanguard is a live album by pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian. It was recorded in 1990 at the Village Vanguard and released on the Japanese DIW label. Allmusic awarded the album 4 stars, stating, "Live at the Village Vanguard is a good CD musically, but there's not much jump-up factor here – it's moody and very bluesy in feeling if not actual form, almost like chamber jazz at times. The very compressed, muted recorded sound doesn't alleviate the somber aspect of the listening experience any, but jazz is about capturing the moment. And those were the moments, emotional and musical, caught by these three master musicians on those two December nights".

In early 1961, a 19 year old Bob Dylan, having dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year, travelled to New York City, ostensibly to visit his idol Woody Guthrie, hospitalised with Huntingdon's Disease. He headed straight for Greenwich Village, by then the epicentre of the folk music revival that Dylan was hoping to become a part of. In his recent autobiography Chronicles he writes; 'Greenwich was full of full of folk clubs and bars and those of us who played them all played the old timey folk songs, rural blues and dance tunes'.

Set on the Bihar-Bengal border, where Marwari businessmen — a powerful Hindi-dialect community of entrepreneurs much disliked throughout India — and Rajputs of warrior caste (from Rajasthan) have both settled. The central character of Narsingh (Soumitra Chatterjee), is a disillusioned, frequently drunken Rajput reduced in status to an ill-educated taxi driver. Proud and hot-tempered, with a passion for his 1930s Chrysler, Narsingh is offered work transporting tins of ghee for Sukhanram, a shady merchant, and finds himself drawn against his better judgement into trafficking opium. Having failed in everything honest, he has to decide whether or not he will engage in criminal activity to make money.

Boxset contains three masterpieces of the video poet Yōichi Higashi. His 1992 The River With No Bridge ("Hashi no nai kawa") about the controversial issue of the Burakumin people received numerous awards in Japan. His film The Village of dreams ("E no naka no boku no mura") won him international acclaim: awarded in more than 20 film festivals among which the Silver Bear at the 1996 Berlin Film Festival, and the Grand Prix at the Ghent and Amiens Festivals, it was successfully released in many countries including France and the USA. The Crossing ("Boku no ojisan") is an engaging, discreetly philosophical but over-elusive pic that too often slips like sand through your fingers.

Angela Lansbury takes over the legacy of Margaret Rutherford as Agatha Christie's dogged sleuth Miss Marple in The Mirror Crack'd. The story takes place on a film set in a small British town in the 1950s. Elizabeth Taylor plays a washed-up actress trying to make a comeback but is plagued by a mysterious incident from her past. Unfortunately for her mental state, a collection of murders jar the quiet village where the movie is being made. Miss Marple arrives on the scene with her nephew, Inspector Craddock (Edward Fox), to investigate. In addition to Taylor, an assortment of other movie stars grace the roster of suspects, including Rock Hudson, Kim Novak, and Tony Curtis.

This exquisitely crafted surreal fairy tale for adults by renowned Czech director Juraj Jakubisko takes place in a small village lost in the mountains, somewhere at the end of the world, and offers the fateful story of two sinful lovers in which the prophecy of Nostradamus is fulfilled. A bitter parable of mankind at the turn of the millennium, filled with dark human passions which from time immemorial have moved the world and doomed it to extinction. A fine example of why Jakubisko is considered a master of Czech cinema.

Good crossover album from Fania All-Stars featuring the track "Picadillo" - tough, tough Nu Yorican latin-jazz-funk-soul tune!