From the very beginning, actor Paul Newman captivated the cinema audience with his exceptional azure eyes. The reserved Newman himself finds it trivial and even disturbing that everyone is so taken with his appearance. The actor and director - who has played in more than sixty films and directed twelve of them - prefers to focus on his work and family. And, at least as important, on his philanthropic ventures and political activism.
Werner Herzog's documentary film about the "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in one man's attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
An account of the short life of genius musician Jimi Hendrix (1942-70), probably the most talented and influential guitarist of the twentieth century: his humble beginnings in Seattle, his time in New York, his rise to fame in swinging London… Live fast, love hard, die young.
Sachin Tendulkar plays himself in this sports-docudrama that traces the life and times of one of the world’s biggest cricket phenomenas.
He is considered one of the most important athletes in football history. Franz Beckenbauer was the shining light of German football, won everything there was to win in club football as a player and coach, became world champion as a player and coach and, as the father of the "Summer Fairy Tale", brought the 2006 World Cup to Germany. He was also a pioneering advertising icon and an occasional singer and actor. The man whom everyone in his home country simply calls “Kaiser” shaped the image of the Federal Republic of Germany like no one else. The legendary footballer seems like a national treasure today, but little is known about the person behind the ball artist. Public knowledge of his private life is shaped by his long-term relationships with four women. The documentary, completed shortly before his death, uses archive material and prominent contemporary witnesses from sports, politics and entertainment to weave both facets into a look at a life's work with light and shadow.
A biographical film about cinematic illusionist Georges Méliès featuring Méliès’s widow, Jeanne d’Alcy, as herself, and their son André as his own father.
Bad boy or football genius? Famed French footballer Nicolas Anelka's controversial legacy is examined in an unflinching documentary.
Director Sam George chronicles the remarkable life and times of the late Eddie Aikau, the legendary Hawaiian big wave surfer, pioneering lifeguard and ultimately doomed crew member of the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokulea.
It all begins with a childhood memory: that day when the father of the future filmmaker Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva forces him to listen to certain music that initially terrifies him; a distant echo from the past that leads him to follow the trail of his mysterious ancestor, the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988), who claimed that his music was directly inspired by the gods.
Balkan Baroque is a real and imaginary biography of the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Rather than a mechanical reproduction of the artist's work, the film tries to create a new reality by translating the performances into cinematographic images that intensify the fictional context of the film. Abramovic plays herself, but ,appearing in multiple forms, blurs her own identity. Memories and fantasies intermingle with day to day rituals. The chronological narrative often breaks to reflect the interior voyage of the protagonist from the present to the past and back to the present. The result is a visually impressive film. Balkan Baroque had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1999.
Invasion 1897 is an epic film based on the invasion of the Benin Kingdom by the British Empire in 1897 and the looting the priceless ancient artifacts of the Benin kingdom.
Documentary that involves a tribute to the life and work of Juan Filloy, the writer of the three centuries.
Michael Strunge and other young Danish poets, accompanied by images of night-time Copenhagen.
Shot over the course of a year, this intimate portrait of provocative composer John Adams presents scenes of the artist at work and at play against the backdrop of dramatic American landscapes that reflect the themes of his music. Though he has a number of credits to his name, Adams is best known for his unconventional opera "Nixon in China," which explores the former U.S. president's meeting with Mao Zedong in 1972.
She is one of the greatest divas of the present day and has left her mark on the world of opera: Anna Netrebko. On her 50th birthday, ARTE is dedicating a special portrait to her. As a disciplined professional in preparations and behind the scenes. And very personally in a private conversation. An encounter with a true superstar of classical music.
Legendary western swing band leader Bob Wills rose up in the Great Depression to fame in Oklahoma and Texas that soon swept the entire nation. The documentary FIDDLIN MAN offers a full biography of Wills, using a vast array of on camera interviews with his friends, family, and fellow musicians. The film also draws on a wealth of rare archival footage.