All That Jazz (1979)

Directed by Bob Fosse
Available on disc at Amazon

Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is the center of the universe in show business and he uses it to full advantage. His creative endeavors include dance and TV show production. However, Joe’s main area of expertise is dance choreography. His preferred dancers are sexually stimulating women. As a kid he grew up on the same stages as showgirls and it influenced him heavily in his art and in his personal life. His talent would allow him to get away with it in spite of it being common knowledge within the company. His infidelities become the inspiration for his next number for which he has struggled to find. But they also personally affected his relationships with women who couldn’t keep away from him, specifically his girlfriend, his ex-wife and his daughter. And yet it’s in his women that he finds his wisdom. It would be Joe’s addiction to cigarettes and drugs that would undermine him in the end.

Favorite scene

Joe’s girlfriend Kate (Ann Reinking) and his daughter Michele (Erzsebet Foldi) perform a special surprise dance just for him in a gesture of true love and admiration.

Alice in the Cities (1974)

Directed by Wim Wenders
Available on disc or streaming at Amazon

Phil (Rudiger Vogler) is a foreign journalist on an assignment in America writing about the American scene. The only way he can relate is by taking Polaroids. The assignment has caused Phil to feel lost, alone and isolated in a society that moves at a rapid speed and provides constant stimulation. The only connections Phil has to his homeland are his publisher and a girlfriend but they want nothing to do with him. At a dead end, he decides to go back to Germany. On the way, he encounters an unlikely friend in a girl named Alice (Yella Rottlander), who is likewise abandoned by her mother. They use what little income they have to find a home for Alice while Phil attempts to finish his story.

Favorite scene

Phil and Alice are looking through telescopes atop the Empire State Building. Alice looks through her telescope and sees a bird gliding freely amidst the bustling city.

Alice (1988)


Directed by Jan Svankmajer
Available on disc at Amazon

Reality and fantasy mix and become intertwined for curious little Alice (Kristina Kohoutova) when the white rabbit in her room comes alive. Alice follows the White Rabbit often close enough to touch it before he scuttles away. The rabbit the leads Alice to various encounters such as a resourceful rat, an army of animal skeletons, sock worms, the Mad Hatter and March Hare and then finally the Queen of Hearts. Alice is able to change sizes herself at critical times to keep up with the rabbit which puts her in perilous situations. The animation and sound effects distinguish the pace of reality and imagination.

Favorite scene

Little Alice is swimming when she finds herself being attacked by birds, to which she is vulnerable but when she regroups she discerns the birds as objects in her room.

Age-Old Friends (1989)

Directed by Allan Kroeker
Available on disc at Amazon

Since his wife’s death Cooper (Hume Cronyn) spends his time at the Twin Pines retirement home, where he confines himself to the surroundings of his room with a walking cane. His arthritis makes him susceptible to falls and any innocent bystander who regrets that they volunteered to help the verbally sparring Cooper to his feet in the first place. Cooper calls his falls a “surrender of dignity,” when it’s typically Cooper himself that always has the last laugh, whether it’s against his nurse, his housekeeper or his daughter and her husband. Day to day, Cooper learns through his window, his caretakers or his walks on the ground, that he has to keep his mind sharp to fight against the deterioration into “zombieland” like he slowly notices with his best friend Aylott (Vincent Gardenia). The mind games they play keep them from slipping away from reality.

Favorite scene

In an effort to find his missing friend Aylott, Cooper walks about the ground. When he descends the staircase he runs into a fellow resident and it becomes a contest for the banister, which they both happen to be using.

Adam (1983)

Directed by Michael Tuchner
Available on disc at Amazon

When John (Daniel J. Travanti) and Reve’s (JoBeth Williams) only child goes missing from an urban department store they conduct an overnight search involving local authorities and community members. During the continuous search, they slowly come to grips with the reality that they have seen the last of their little boy. They go through stages of intense grief and anger while trying to keep their marriage from coming apart at the seams, until they are touched by an outpouring of support locally and nationally. They set up their own personal help center for the large number of families going through the same experience. Through various television interviews and visits to Washington D.C., they become outspoken voices on the FBI’s lack of expediency in assisting cases involving missing children. They mend their wounds with new beginnings and become the faces of the Missing Child Act.

Favorite scene

John conducts an interview in his office regarding his help center and the state of missing children. During the interview he loses his train of thought reflecting on an early memory with Adam in the exact same room.

A Nous La Liberte (1931)

Directed by Rene Clair
Available on disc at Amazon


Aimless inmates Emile (Henri Marchand) and Louis (Raymond Cordy) escape a massive prison of monotonous labor. Louis becomes the head of a lucrative phonograph company. Emile falls in love with a factory girl while she is listening to a record on a phonograph nonetheless. The girl works in Louis’ company and they attempt to persuade the girl to marry Emile. But their irresistible loyalty to each other makes it difficult to conceal their identity even with Louis continuing to make the company a considerable profit. The company reveals an upgraded phonograph designed by Louis and the city flourishes. Emile and Louis are pushed back to the fringes without reaping any of the profit. But it’s their friendship and music that has liberated the city.

Favorite scene

The phonograph company’s profits, which were haply in a suitcase on its roof gets blown open in a whirlwind while an employee who is hard of hearing gives a speech, remaining oblivious to the chaos.