TV Guide: Mike Figgis

Listing: Timecode

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:00:00 -0500

Mon Nov 24 05:00 AM HBOe

Listing: Internal Affairs

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:20:00 -0500

Mon Nov 24 02:20 AM HBO2e

Video: Liebestraum

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:12:00 -0500

Liebestraum is a moody, stylish suspense thriller written and directed by British director Mike Figgis. Nick (Kevin Anderson) is an architectural writer who goes home to be with his dying mother, Mrs. Anderssen (Kim Novak) from whom he was separated as a baby. There he meets an old friend and has an affair with the friend's wife, who was herself adopted after her mother went insane. Through a series of coincidences and a good deal of investigation Nick learns some terrible truths concerning everyone. The film, while beautiful to look at, and with a wonderful score composed by Figgis, is more interested in style and emotion rather than cogent explanations for the actions of the characters, however, taken for what it is, a mood piece, Liebestraum succeeds beautifully. Figgis has beautiful technique and is greatly aided by Juan Ruiz-Anchia's stark and evocative images. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide.

Video: Leaving Las Vegas

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:11:36 -0500

Mike Figgis' grim drama documents a romantic triangle of sorts involving prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue), failed Hollywood screenwriter Ben (Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage), and the constant flow of booze which he loves more dearly than life itself. Arriving in Las Vegas with the intention of drinking himself to death, Ben meets Sera, and they gradually begin falling for one another. From the outset, however, Ben warns Sera that no matter what, she can never ask him to quit drinking, a condition to which she grudgingly agrees. A darkly comic tragedy, Leaving Las Vegas charts the brief romantic convergence of two desperately needy people who together find a brief flicker of happiness. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide.

Video: Loss Of Sexual Innocence

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:10:26 -0500

Director Mike Figgis, creator of the Academy award-winning Leaving Las Vegas, presented this film's world premiere at the 1999 {~Sundance Film Festival}. The story is made up of non-linear, interconnected episodes about a man at different stages of his life, all of which explicate thematically the film's title. The film also juxtaposes a retelling of the classic biblical fall-from-grace tale of Adam and Eve. We see the leading character, Nic, at 5 years old as a boy in colonial Kenya, at age 16 in swinging London in the '60s, and as a grown man working as a film ethnographer. Each sequence shows how he lost some degree of his sexual innocence, whether it be through love, puberty, or masturbation. Shot all over the world, including Tunisia, Italy, and England, the film is an exploration of sex and loss through the life of one individual. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide.

Video: One Night Stand

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:06:55 -0500

A man's brief fling threatens to ruin what he values most in life in this drama. Max Carlyle (Wesley Snipes) lives in California, where he has a successful career directing television commercials and is happily married to Mimi (Ming-Na Wen), with whom he has two children. While visiting New York City, Max meets Karen (Nastassja Kinski) by chance after missing a flight; circumstances keep bringing them together over the course of the evening, and they end up spending the night making love. When he returns home, Max seems distant and unhappy, though Mimi can't tell why and Max won't say. A year later, Max and Mimi fly to New York to visit his close friend Charlie (Robert Downey, Jr.), who is in the last stages of an AIDS-related illness. Max meets Charlie's brother Vernon (Kyle MacLachlan) and is introduced to his new wife -- Karen. Facing Karen sends Max into an emotional tailspin, and he realizes that he must tell Mimi the truth about his indiscretion. Writer/director Mike Figgis adapted One Night Stand from

Video: Miss Julie

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:00:25 -0500

August Strindberg's once-controversial play is brought to the screen in this adaptation directed and co-written by Mike Figgis. Miss Julie is set on the estate of a wealthy Swedish family in 1894, where the servants live a life of uncomfortable poverty while the masters of the house enjoy their riches. On Midsummer's Eve, the servants and the local peasants have gathered for their traditional celebration, while one of the household cooks, Christine (Maria Doyle Kennedy), is waiting for her fianc , a footman named Jean (Peter Mullan). However, Jean is intercepted by Miss Julie (Saffron Burrows), whose family owns the estate (and pays Jean's salary). She instructs Jean to change into a formal suit (which Miss Julie has borrowed from her father) and dance with her. Jean has little choice but to accept, and he finds himself slipping into an affair that both questions and affirms the traditional relationship between mistress and servant. This was the third screen translation of Miss Julie, following versions rele

Video: Timecode

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:45:51 -0500

Director Mike Figgis helmed this ground-breaking experimental feature, filmed with four synchronized digital video cameras in four separate locations. The story, outlined in advance but otherwise improvised, was enacted in a single continuous take, like a stage play, with the unedited images from all four locations presented on the screen at once. Figgis and his crew chose the best single run-through, and the result is the film's final release version. The story focuses on four main characters around the casting sessions for a film called Bitch of Louisiana to be directed by Lester Moore (Richard Edson): Alex Green (Stellan Skarsgard), the studio executive overseeing Moore's project; his wife Emma (Saffron Burrows); gangster Lauren Hathaway (Jeanne Tripplehorn); and her unfaithful lover Rose (Salma Hayek). These characters' paths cross as murder, infidelity, and dirty dealings are interrupted by an earthquake and its aftershocks. Time Code 2000 also features Kyle MacLachlan, Holly Hunter, Julian Sands, Steve

Video: Hotel

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:02:04 -0500

Following up on his innovative work Timecode, which featured four stories being told in real time simultaneously, Mike Figgis returns to a modified form of his technique in this film about the tourists, the prostitutes, the tour guides, a killer, and a film crew who frequent the Hungarian Palace Hotel in Venice, Italy. A corrupt Eastern European politician and his moll are visiting the city to complete a shady business deal while Sophie is a high-priced call girl who makes an office in one of the hotel's suites. The film crew is attempting to shoot a Dogma 95-style adaptation of John Webster's {+The Duchess of Malfi} only to run into one problem after another. Magic is a professional assassin with a very odd kink -- he must have sex immediately after completing a job. Quintus, who abandoned his attempts to get fame and fortune as an actor, is a tour guide with an unusual secret. And then there is maid who not only has the skeleton key to the hotel, but also a habit of snooping. This film was screened at the

Video: "Revelations"

Yahoo Movies — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:06:03 -0500

Director Mike Figgis and stars Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, and Juliette Lewis explain the complexity and naiveness of the characters in the psychological thriller 'Cold Creek Manor.'

Photo: The Blues - Mike Figgis, director

courtesy (c)Blues Inc./PBS

The Blues, Mike Figgis