Projects matching: ISO

Synopsis

Edinburgh International Film Festival - NBX review: Another George is the latest feature film to be produced by students at the prestigious Northern Media School at Sheffield Hallam University. An arthouse film, it tells the story of a man, played by Gregor Jordan, on an archaeological dig in the Peak District. He develops insomnia and starts writing a story based on the quest of Saint George that gradually becomes intermingled with the story of his own life. The post-graduate course in Screen Arts attracts film-making students from around the world and across the film-making disciplines. Such a potent mix is evident in Another George which is co-written and co-directed by Uruguay's Pablo Casacuberta, a writer, and Japan's Yukihiko Goto, a director. Co-director of photography Alex Gabbay comes from a documentary film-making background, while the producer is Scotland's Alison Garritty. "Bringing together film-makers from across the disciplines creates a unique relationship with the visuals," says Jan Worth, executive producer of the project, and head of the Northern Media School. Shot on a digital video camera for £4,000 and majority financed by the Northern Media School, Another George was completed at the end of 1999 and premiered at London's Lux Cinema in June. One impressed critic described the film as "a Jim Jarmusch remix of Rossellini".

Synopsis

Matt and Ross leave Birmingham behind for a weeks holiday in Brighton. Matt is cynical, love can't touch him. Ross meanwhile is a nervous mothers boy on the verge of another breakdown. The film follows the lads' antics and subsequent liaisons during their week away. Matt drives into the local prostitute scene while Ross is seduced by local girl Kelly, who takes a firm hand with him and his rubber wearing fetish. Matt's desperate for love, even though he doesn't realise it, and Ross is getting all the love he can handle. At the end of the holiday, the question is, do they return home or start a fresh life in Brighton? Beach Boys is a fresh, touching and unusual take on male sexual angst.

Synopsis

Telephone confessors relate true stories of sexual embarrassment.

Synopsis

Sam Morrison challenges the view that old is senile in his debut film, Emma 18. Emma's quiet life of semi-retirement is disrupted by the surprise family visit of Sylvie, Derek, Tom & Otis who are just passing on their way home. Their flying visit is abruptly ended by an upsetting phone call, yet Emma seems strangely unperturbed.

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A young Japanese man, who is living in self-inflicted isolation, meets an old man who is waiting for his death. They develop a silent friendship.

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Woven in with a constantly surprising and colourful thriller plot, Five Seconds to Spare is the witty and poignantly observed story of William, a young aspiring musician who pins his hopes in London, the dream city which will bring him rock 'n' roll success and true romance. Only trouble is, in reality, William's life is beset with frustration: his witless band seem intent upon turning his dark, heartfelt songs into commercial pop; the coolly desirable Madeleine hangs out of reach and even catching a bus on a Sunday seems a hopeless act of faith. Things could hardly get any worse, but they do - when he becomes the only witness to a bizarre murder.

Synopsis

1974, Alan Riply (Joseph Fiennes), a young idealistic 23 year old, works as a beach boy at an exclusive Miami resort. There he dreams of one day owning his own Hotel but resists the temptations and short cut to riches taken by his peers by dealing in drugs and working in the underworld. Alan meets the recently married Ella (Gretchen Mol), the young wife of middle-aged and ruthless New York businessman Mark Brice, with whom she is on vacation. Alan falls deeply in love with Ella and against her instincts and knowing it's wrong to do so, she starts a passionate affair with him. Aware the liaison is doomed, Ella determines to finish it at the end of her trip but Alan will not be thwarted and follows her back to New York. There, he continues to court her but when Ella loses her nerve and confesses all to Brice he becomes mad with rage and takes swift and vicious retribution. He frames Alan in a drugs raid and subsequently visits him in prison and on hearing Alan remaining defiant and still refusing to stay away from Ella, attempts to have him killed by other inmates during a routine prison transfer. Although, unknown to Brice that his action has failed, Alan is left permanently scarred, both physically and emotionally. He retreats to Florida to begin a healing process which will take years but never forgets his love for Ella nor forgives her husband. He also changes, literally, into a new man and after thirteen years certainly not the one recognisable as the young beach boy in Florida. 1987, in the intervening time Alan has become successful and formidable in his own right with his own dubious connections. At last he goes back to New York with a new identity, 'Manuel Esquema', to claim his lost love. He returns to find Brice has huge legal and political problems and not recognising Alan, is desperate for help. He has no idea that Alan has come back to gain revenge and reclaim the lost love of his life . . .

Synopsis

A visually stunning film, both beautiful and bizarre, Frog enters a dark fairytale world where mysterious frog creatures enter a house over successive nights and steal the eyes of the three strange residents only to replace them with surreal clockwork eyes that need to be wound by a special key.

Synopsis

Based on real-life events, Joel Hershman's Greenfingers is a triumph-over-adversity story, starring Helen Mirren, Clive Owen and Natasha Little, about a man serving a long-term prison sentence who unexpectedly discovers a love of gardening. His talent is recognised by a famous horticulturist and he goes on to compete in the world's biggest garden show, win the heart of the woman he loves and regain his will to live. US producer Travis Swords first read the story in 1998 in a piece in the New York Times by Paula Deitz called Free To Grow Bluebells In England. Swords had been looking for the right feature to back following his 1992 film, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, directed by Hershman. Swords and Hershman then teamed up with BoneYard Entertainment's Daniel J Victor, who had previously helped to finance and executive produce such films as Sling Blade and Henry Fool. Victor set up an equity fund called Motion Pictures Partners to finance and produce two to three features a year, of which Greenfingers is the first. Trudie Styler's London-based Xingu Films then came on board as co-executive producer and the Los Angeles-based Overseas FilmGroup took worldwide sales rights. Greenfingers shot on location in England in the summer of 1999. It will premiere either later this year or in 2001.

Synopsis

Guest House Paradiso is the much-anticipated feature debut of two popular UK comedians, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. The anarchic story of the world's worst hotel was written by the pair, directed by Edmondson and produced by Phil McIntyre, the music and live show promoter who had worked with Mayall and Edmondson on their live show. The trio had long wanted to make a feature together and funding came from Video Vision, a division of the then-PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, and now Universal Pictures International (UPI). "With the opportunities available to Rik (Mayall) and Ade (Edmondson), it has been easier for them to take the course of least resistance and to write a book, do a TV series, or act in somebody else's film, that somebody else has financed, than actually to do their own thing," says McIntyre. "But things became easier so we made a film." In addition to Mayall and Edmondson, the cast is populated by some of Europe's most dynamic acting talent including Vincent Cassel, Helene Mathieu and Bill Nighy. "There's only one criterion in the whole film, which is that it's very funny," Mayall explains. "We find it's much better to build your own world, to make a fantasy and invite people into it. It's a world where the level of reality is such that you can do the kind of things we do, such as be swung around by meathooks through your nose without it seeming unreal." Shooting took place in April 1999 at Ealing Studios and on location on the Isle of Wight. Universal International Pictures released the film in the UK in April 2000.

Synopsis

Richie and Eddie run Guesthouse Paradiso: possibly the worst hotel in the world. The drunken chef has eaten all the food and most of the guests have departed without paying. But things look up when the Nice family check in. Rummaging through the family's luggage, Richie finds exotic rubber underwear. Naturally he has to try them on. Interrupted, he hastily leaves his clothes in their bathroom and makes for the reception area. There, beautiful actress Gina (having just jilted her fiancé Gino) wants to check in. Unsuitably dressed, Richie hides in the oven - but it ignites, fusing the underwear to his body. Eddie tries to remedy this with compressed air and a skewer - but the pants blow up, hurling Eddie onto the road. Still unconscious, a truck runs over his head, the jolt causing some fish to spill. This, at least, eases the catering problem and Eddie incinerates the fishy windfall for dinner. Things take a turn for the worse when Mr Nice finds video evidence of Richie's panty-pilfering and threatens to sue. The guests also start to show signs of severe indigestion . . .

Synopsis

Harry, a seasoned CIA agent in his mid forties, wants nothing more than to forget his years of duty in places like Nicaragua and to become his cover as a jazz club owner in Helsinki. Natasha, a young and ambitious KGB agent with more chutzpah than experience, wants to secure a future for herself amid the uncertainty of the floundering KGB and Russian Republic. Natasha's assignment to spy on Harry has blossomed into a torrid love affair. Like any two career couple they keep secrets from each other. But theirs have international implications. The delicate balance of their life together is disrupted when a young, over eager CIA agent, Dave, arrives in Helsinki to intercept a videotape encoded with state secrets en route from New York - its concepts so hot that everybody who touched the tape is now dead. Dave pursues the unsuspecting courier, Max, a manic ex-bond trader who stumbled into the delivery job fresh from a prison sentence for SEC fraud. For Natasha, the tape could be a ticket out of the KGB and into the American dream - if she crosses her boss. But as satellites hover overhead and the rusting Russian fleet leaks radiation nearby, absolutely everyone except Harry hatches a personal plan to exploit the encoded tape. Harry is left to try to stop Natasha from getting herself killed - or worse, leaving him for America.