O Die Zee

Dig!

May 2004 •English

A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.

Porgy and Bess

June 1959 •English

In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, loves the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.

West Side Story

December 1961 •English

In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, tensions are high as a gang of Polish-Americans compete against a gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, but this doesn't stop two romantics from each gang falling in love.

A Chorus Line

December 1985 •English

A group of dancers congregate on the stage of a Broadway theatre to audition for a new musical production directed by Zach. After the initial eliminations, seventeen hopefuls remain, among them Cassie, who once had a tempestuous romantic relationship with Zach. She is desperate enough for work to humble herself and audition for him; whether he's willing to let professionalism overcome his personal feelings about their past remains to be seen.

Rent

November 2005 •English

This rock opera tells the story of one year in the life of a group of bohemians struggling in late 1980s East Village, New York, USA. The film centers around Mark and Roger, two roommates. While a tragedy has made Roger numb to new experiences, Mark begins capturing their world through his attempts to make a personal movie. In the year that follows, they and their friends deal with love, loss, and working together.

Two for Tonight

September 1935 •English

A songwriter has to come up with a full-length theatrical piece within a few days.

Hadrian

August 2020 •English

Rufus Wainwright's original opera finds Emperor Hadrian devastated after his lover Antinous drowns in the Nile River. While matters of state encroach on his grief, and advisors clamour for war against a radical new threat to the Empire, Hadrian slips out of time to re-encounter the vision and reality of Antinous—and learn the truth about what happened on the Nile.

She Loves Me

June 2016 •English

Amalia and Georg work together at a modest Hungarian perfumerie, and have disliked each other from the very beginning. He thinks she's stuck up, and she thinks he's arrogant and mean. But each rapturously writes to a lonely hearts pen pal when the workday is done, and it doesn't take long for the audience to see that they're in love without realizing it. Originally live-streamed by BroadwayHD, then broadcast as an episode of the PBS series "Great Performances" (season 45, episode 3).

The Green Music Box

May 1955 •Japanese

Ruriko's father is a well known scientist who's involved in secret research that even his family doesn't know about. Ever since he moved up to the research laboratory in Hokkaido, Ruriko hasn't heard from him. The only thing that reminded her of his warmth was the green music box that he’d left behind for her. She longed to reunite with her father. The little box played music that lifted her spirits, to a place where everything was perfect.

Falstaff

July 2000 •English

The Graham Vicks production of FALSTAFF opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, and was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections.

Mozart: Idomeneo Teatro Real de Madrid

February 2019 •German

The Emperor of Atlantis

January 1977 •German

Simon Boccanegra

April 2010 •Italian

Coming just before the mature final works, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra - along with Un Ballo in Maschera, Les Vêpres Siciliennes, La Forza del Destino and Don Carlos - occupy a strange but fascinating hinterland in the career of the composer. Each of the operas, influenced by Verdi's political involvement in the Risorgimento for the reunification of Italy during the period, are very much concerned with the exercise of power, but they all rely on typically operatic conventions of bel canto and French Grand Opéra in their use of personal tragedies and unlikely twists of fate to highlight the human feelings and weaknesses that lie behind their historical dramas. Written in 1859, but revised by the composer in 1881, Piave's libretto given an uncredited reworking by Arrigo Boito, Simon Boccanegra is consequently one of the more interesting works from this period, certainly from a musical standpoint. Live from Teatro all Scala, Milan 2010.

Reckless Living

March 1938 •English

This harmless Universal musical comedy is worth having as one of the few filmed records of legendary Broadway comedian Jimmy Savo (his previous starrer, Once in a Blue Moon, is among the rarest of collector's item). The story proper is carried by Robert Wilcox and Nan Grey, cast as a pair of mismatched lovers who share a common interest in horse racing. Hero and heroine get mixed up in a shady get-rich-quick scheme, which threatens to turns disastrous but which ends up solving everyone's problems.

Shahid

August 2024 •German

Narges Shahid Kalhor is a director seeking to be rid of the "Shahid" (martyrs), who are too heavy a burden. From Bavarian bureaucracy and therapy to dancing with Iran’s past generations and their long shadows, she twirls through a heady autofiction.

Jem

April 1986 •English

With the help of her father's greatest creation, a holographic computer named Synergy, Jerrica Benton and her sisters team up to create the band Jem and the Holograms. Together, they will go head-to-head with their rivals, the Misfits and their greedy road manager Eric Raymond, in a battle of the bands for control of Mr. Benton's music company, Starlight Music.

Hairspray Live!

December 2016 •English

A teenage girl living in Baltimore in the early 1960s dreams of appearing on a popular TV dance show.

Evita

December 1996 •English

The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-movie Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president and dictator Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.

Big Fella

January 1938 •English

Singing Marseilles docker Joe is hired by wealthy English couple, the Oliphants, to find their missing son Gerald. When Joe finds him, he learns Gerald escaped of his own will and takes him to stay with a local singer, who offers a refuge from his repressed white parents.

Para Viver Um Grande Amor

April 1984 •Portuguese

Poor people who live in the slums in Rio de Janeiro decide to occupy an empty apartment building in the rich part of the city. Meanwhile, a rich girl falls in love with a poor composer. Based on the musical play "Pobre Menina Rica", by Vinícius de Moraes and Carlos Lyra.