Millions of people across Europe studied during secondary school La Chanson de Roland that represents an essential piece of our common cultural heritage. But 1,200 years after the adventures related in it, what is the truth? 778 - LA CHANSON DE ROLAND is a 1200-year-journey back into the past, searching the origins and the meaning of one of the most famous and oldest literary piece of European culture.

The film is set in the year 2033 in a dystopian view of the future, in the Mexico City which by that time has been renamed Villaparaiso (Paradise City). The totalitarian militaristic/corporate government has outlawed the freedom of expression and religion in general. The government maintains control through pharmaceutical additions to the food and drink supply, which at the same time includes toxic chemicals.

Filmmaking siblings Joel Coen and Ethan Coen both embraced and poked satirical fun at their Minnesotan roots with this comedy-drama-thriller. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant police chief whose affable, folksy demeanor masks a whip-smart mind. When a pair of motorists are found slain not far from the corpse of a state trooper, Marge begins piecing together a case involving a pair of dopey would-be kidnappers, Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Bergman stock player Peter Stormare).

On March 14, 1938 the armies of Nazi Germany crossed the border with Austria, consuming the nation into their new Germanic Empire. But when Hitler arrived in Vienna just two days later, the very first thing he did was to go to the Hofburg museum to lay claim to what appeared to be a simple Roman spear head. This spear head was something that Hitler had apparently coveted ever since he had first nurtured ambitions to become the ruler of a new German Reich. It was an item said to make its holder invincible and it was known as the “Spear of Destiny.”

A contradiction of Ryan’s Daughter is that, in spite of the sheer expansiveness of its style and production, it’s an often painfully intimate tale. The film’s antiheroic romanticism is nailed solidly together by two rigid spikes: one, a bolt of irony that borders on cruelty as the characters’ fantasies seem to be fulfilled only to be snatched away to leave them squalidly floundering, and the other, a steely insistence upon moral backbone

Acclaimed Russian theater director Valeri Fokin offers a unique take on one of Kakfa's greatest short stories. Yevgeni Mironov stars as Gregor Samsa, the mild-mannered clerk who awakens to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Without the aid of special effects or outlandish makeup and costuming, Fokin succeeds in constructing a compelling and plausible transformation thanks in large part to a strong performance from Mironov.

Two Red Arrows pilots recreate the challenges the aviators of World War I faced, flying original WWI aircraft, to find out how this pioneering form of warfare changed so rapidly during the conflict.

In the dead of a Moscow winter, three bodies are found in Gorky Park. Police Inspector Renko (William Hurt) is unable to identify the corpses, since even their fingerprints have removed. For reasons unknown to him, Renko's investigation is somehow being stymied by his higher-ups. Ferreting out information on his own, Renko makes the acquaintance of Soviet dissident Irina (Joanna Pacula), a friend of one of the victims, and Lee Marvin as Armand Hammer-style American businessman. As in Martin Cruz Smith's novel, the identity of the killer is not as well hidden as the reasons behind the killing. "Glasnost" had not yet taken effect in 1983, thus Gorky Park was filmed in Finland rather than Russia.

Dostoyevsky’s dark parable on human emotion is uprooted from its Russian Summer setting and manoeuvred to the cold, snowy straits of northern Japan in Akira Kurosawa’s bleak but majestic adaptation of The Idiot.
The Idiot, his only adaptation of a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel, was a cherished project on which it is claimed he expended more effort than on any other film. A darkly ambitious exploration of the depths of human emotion, it combines the talents of two of the greatest Japanese actors of their generation — Toshiro Mifune (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo) and Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story, Late Spring). The Idiot is perhaps the most contemplative of all Kurosawa’s works, a tone which is heightened by the unusual, trance-like performances.

This Disney family adventure, directed by Robert Stevenson in his Jules Verne mode, concern a group of explorers who travel to the Arctic Circle in 1908 to explore the uncharted wastes of the North Pole. Sir Anthony Ross (Donald Sinden), a rich Londoner, organizes an Arctic exploration team in hopes of locating his missing son. Providing expert advice is Prof. John Ivarson (David Hartman), a professor of Nordic history. As the group explores the frozen tundra, they come across an unknown valley, skirting the borders of a giant volcano, that turns out to be a lost Viking kingdom.

Who was Pontius Pilate? Strip away Christian mythology and a vivid portrait of a flesh-and-blood Roman emerges. A Roman man who had the unenviable task of maintaining order within the Empire. Pilate’s biography provides an unrivalled snapshot of 1st Century Judea: the realpolitik of Roman governance, and the factional nature of Jewish society. At the heart of this film is the story of Christ’s trial and execution, re-imagined from Pilate’s point of view. The Roman Prefect saw no real reason to condemn Christ to death, but equally little reason to jeopardise the peace by making a stand.

Achingly romantic and creepy-funny, this funereal fantasy is unlike any Italian film in memory. Rupert Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte, a lonely cemetery caretaker who just wants to get out of his small town of Buffalora. His assistant and sole companion, Gnaghi is an overweight cretin who speaks only in grunts, and the dead people outside are rising from their graves as zombies and trying to have him for breakfast. This situation, coupled with all his other problems, gives Francesco a real complex.

Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the company of aspiring actress Kathy Selden, whom he met while escaping his screaming fans. Watching these intrigues from the sidelines is Cosmo Brown, Don's best pal and on-set pianist. On the strength of the plot alone, concocted by the matchless writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Singin' in the Rain is a delight. But with the addition of MGM's catalog of Arthur Freed-Nacio Herb Brown songs - "You Were Meant for Me," "You Are My Lucky Star," "The Broadway Melody," and of course the title song - the film becomes one of the greatest Hollywood musicals ever made.

Benito Mussolini's rise to power from revered activist to fascist dictator was swift. Along the way, the Pope praised him and Winston Churchill deemed him a "Roman Genius." Before the world knew it, he had taken complete and total power over Italy. The question became: What would he do with this power? The answer would shake the world.

Anthology series features 65 adaptations of the works of famous S.F. author Ray Bradbury, including such stories as "Marionettes, Inc.", "The Veidt", "A Sound of Thunder", "Mars is Heaven," "Usher "", "The Jar", "The Long Rain", and many more. Featured actors included William Shatner, Drew Barrymore, Elliot Gould, Jeff Goldblum, Peter O'Toole, Shelley Duval, and many others.