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The Last Valley (1970 Film)
''The Last Valley'' is a 1971 film directed by James Clavell, a historical drama set during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). While war ravages southern Germany, a mercenary leader (Michael Caine) and a teacher (Omar Sharif) stumble upon a valley untouched by the war. Based upon the novel ''The Last Valley'' (1959), by J. B. Pick, the cinematic version of ''The Last Valley'', directed by James Clavell, was the final feature film photographed with the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process until it was revived to make the film ''Baraka'' in 1991. Plot "The Captain" leads a band of mercenaries who fight for whoever will pay them, regardless of religion. His soldiers pillage the countryside, raping and looting when not fighting. Vogel is a former teacher trying to survive the fighting and resulting chaos in south-central Germany. Vogel runs from the Captain's force, and eventually stumbles upon an idyllic mountain valley, untouched by war. The Captain and his small band are not far be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Clavell
James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was an Australian-born British (later naturalized American) writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as the author of his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also wrote such screenplays as those for '' The Fly'' (1958) (based on the short story by George Langelaan) and '' The Great Escape'' (1963) (based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill). He directed the popular 1967 film ''To Sir, with Love'' for which he also wrote the script. Biography Early life Born in Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. Richard Clavell was posted back to England when James was nine months old. Clavell was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School. World War II In 1940, Clav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baraka (film)
''Baraka'' is a 1992 American non-narrative documentary film directed by Ron Fricke. The film is often compared to ''Koyaanisqatsi'', the first of the '' Qatsi'' films by Godfrey Reggio for which Fricke served as cinematographer. It was photographed in the 70 mm Todd-AO format, and is the first film ever to be restored and scanned at 8K resolution. Content ''Baraka'' is a documentary film with no narrative or voice-over. It explores themes via a compilation of natural events, life, human activities and technological phenomena shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period. The film is named after the Islamic concept of baraka, meaning blessing, essence or breath. The film is Ron Fricke's follow-up to Godfrey Reggio's similar non-verbal documentary film ''Koyaanisqatsi''. Fricke was cinematographer and collaborator on Reggio's film, and for ''Baraka'' he struck out on his own to polish and expand the photographic techniques used on ''Koyaanisqatsi''. Shot in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Innes
George Innes (born 8 March 1938) is a British actor. Stage career Innes was born in Stepney, East London, and began his career on the stage with the National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier. Before that, he trained at Toynbee Hall and evening classes at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he was awarded the Shakespeare Cup for excellence. He appeared in the Bernard Kops play ''The Dream of Peter Mann'' at the Edinburgh Festival and on a tour of Great Britain, directed by Frank Dunlop, under whom he had trained at Toynbee Hall and LAMDA. His final year of study and training was at the Bristol Old Vic School. He worked with Dunlop again in ''The Pantomime'' at the Bristol Old Vic, before a season at Nottingham Playhouse with Dunlop and John Neville. Other theatre credits include working for The Royal Court production company in ''Chips with Everything'', which played in the West End and on Broadway. He appeared in ''Othello'' (understud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Gothard
Michael Alan Gothard (24 June 19392 December 1992) was an English actor, who portrayed Kai in the television series '' Arthur of the Britons'' and the mysterious villain Emile Leopold Locque in the 1981 James Bond film '' For Your Eyes Only''. Early life Michael Gothard was born in London in 1939. As a child, he lived in both Wales and London. After leaving Haverstock School, he travelled in France for several months before returning home. He went through various jobs, including being a building labourer and a trainee reporter. He even had a brief spell as a clothes model, but he never felt comfortable doing that job. He said: "I was as stiff as a board and I couldn’t overcome my sense of the ridiculous. I was a clothes hanger, an object, not a person." Career He joined the New Arts Theatre as a scenery mover, and became part of an amateur film a friend was making. After landing the lead role, he was encouraged to take up the profession. He attended evening classes at an ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Hogg (actor)
Alexander Ian Hogg (born 1 August 1937) is an English actor. Early life Hogg was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, the son of Ena Mary (Robinson) and Walter Alexander Hogg, a doctor. He was educated at Durham School and Durham University ( St John's College), where he graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama under the direction of Yat Malmgren and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has an older sister called Thelma Hogg (Hoggie). Television, stage and film He is best known for his lead role in the BBC1 television series ''Rockliffe's Babies'' and its follow-up ''Rockliffe's Folly'', playing Detective Sergeant Alan Rockliffe. However, he has played many television roles, appearing as Purishkevich in the film '' Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny'' (1996), as Mike Cherry in ''EastEnders'' (1999) and as Alois Hitler in '' Hitler: The Rise of Evil'' (2003). Hogg played a chechaquo (newcomer) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Blessed
Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer. Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of ''I, Claudius'', King Richard IV in the first series of ''Blackadder'', Prince Vultan in ''Flash Gordon'', Bustopher Jones and Old Deuteronomy in the 1981 original London production of '' Cats'' at the New London Theatre, Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter in ''Henry V'', Boss Nass in '' Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' and the voice of Clayton in Disney's ''Tarzan''. In 2016, Blessed was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the arts and charity. Early life Blessed was born on 9 October 1936 at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough, Yorkshire, the son of William Blessed, a socialist coal miner at Hickleton Main Colliery (and himself the son of a coal miner) and cricketer for the Yorkshire second team, and Hilda (née Wall). Bless ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Roberts (actor)
Christian Charles Roberts (17 March 1944 – 26 December 2022) was a British actor, best remembered for playing the rebellious Bert Denham, his debut film role in the 1967 movie '' To Sir, with Love'' starring Sidney Poitier and Judy Geeson. Roberts was born in Southmoor, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Cranleigh School, Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ..., before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Despite several screen appearances, much of his acting career was primarily based in theatre. Roberts starred in the late 1960s cult science-fiction show '' UFO'', playing the hippie-turned-alien spy in the final episode “The Long Sleep”. Roberts died of cancer on 26 December 2022, at the age of 78. Filmography References External links * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladek Sheybal
Vladek Sheybal (born Władysław Rudolf Zbigniew Sheybal; 12 March 1923 – 16 October 1992) was a Poles, Polish character actor, singer and director of both television and Theatre director, stage productions. He was well known for his portrayal of the chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster Kronsteen in the James Bond in film, James Bond film ''From Russia with Love (film), From Russia with Love'' (1963), a role for which he had been personally recommended by his friend Sean Connery, and as Otto Leipzig in ''Smiley's_People_(TV_miniseries), Smiley's People'' (1982). He became a British nationality law#British citizenship by naturalisation, naturalised British citizen, but remained "fiercely proud of his homeland and its culture." Life and career Sheybal was born in Zgierz, near Łódź, in the Second Polish Republic. The son of a university professor, he was attracted to acting at an early age. At the age of 16 he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camps, Nazi concentration ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yorgo Voyagis
Yorgo Voyagis ( el, Γιώργος Βογιατζής, Giorgos Vogiadzis ; born 6 December 1945) is a Greek actor. Career as an actor Voyagis' film debut was in Michael Cacoyannis's ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964). He reappeared three years later in the Italian Western ''Killer Kid''. Voyagis then starred in the film ''Chronicle of the Years of Fire'' by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (1975). In ''The Ballad of Mamluk Abdelhafidh Bouassida'' (1982), he played the titular role alongside Bekim Fehmiu and Irene Papas. He also played Joseph alongside Olivia Hussey (Mary) in Franco Zeffirelli's TV Production of ''Jesus of Nazareth'' in 1977, in which he powerfully portrayed a strong, yet humble, man. In the following years, his career was divided between television and film, from one country to another: from the French series ''X'' with Capt. Pierre Malet; the film '' The Little Drummer Girl'' by George Roy Hill, opposite Diane Keaton; an episode of ''Miami Vice''; and the movie ''Julia and Ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur O'Connell
Arthur Joseph O'Connell (March 29, 1908 – May 18, 1981) was an American stage, film and television actor, who achieved prominence in character roles in the 1950s. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both ''Picnic'' (1955) and ''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959). Early life Arthur O'Connell was born to Julia (née Byrne) & Michael O'Connell on March 29, 1908, in Manhattan, New York. His father died when O'Connell was two; he lost his mother when he was 12. He was the youngest of four children. His siblings were William, Kathleen, and Juliette. William, the eldest, became a justice of the New York State Supreme Court and died in 1972. After his father's death, Arthur was sent to live in Flushing, New York with his mother's sister, Mrs. Charles Koetzner, while his sisters moved in with other relatives and William remained with his mother. Arthur attended St John's College for two years. His early jobs included working in the engineering department ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Of Saxe-Weimar
Bernard of Saxe-Weimar (german: Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar; 16 August 160418 July 1639) was a German prince and general in the Thirty Years' War. Biography Born in Weimar within the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, Bernard was the eleventh son of Johann, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and Dorothea Maria of Anhalt. Bernard received an unusually good education and studied briefly at the University of Jena, but soon went to the court of Duke John Casimir of Saxe-Coburg to engage in knightly exercises. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War he took the field on the Protestant side, and served under Mansfeld at Wiesloch (1622), under the Margrave of Baden at Wimpfen (1622), and with his brother William at Stadtlohn (1623). Undismayed by these defeats, he took part in the campaigns of King Christian IV of Denmark. After a severe defeat in Holstein in 1627, Bernhard left Danish service and went to the Dutch Republic. There he was present at the famous Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1629. When King Gus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands refers (physically speaking) to a loosely defined region embracing the land on the banks of the Rhine in Central Europe, which were settled by Ripuarian and Salian Franks and became part of Frankish Austrasia. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the former stem duchy of Lotharingia, without developing any common political or cultural identity. A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth until the eighteenth centuries when the Empire's Imperial Estates (territories) were grouped into regional districts in charge of defence and judicial execution, known as Imperial Circles. Three of the ten circles through which the Rhine flowed referr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
