“I see dead people.” Does ten year old Cole (Haley Joel Osment, a year before Spielberg cast him in AI) have the sixth sense, as he claims — or is this sensitive, unusual child responding to stress, as his mother (Toni Collette) would like to believe? Child psychologist Dr Crowe (Bruce Willis) thinks he can help, but becomes unsettled by his patient’s creepily persuasive testimony…
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan scored a big hit with this, his third feature, the one that put him on course to become one of the most successful filmmakers of the next decade. It’s a genuinely disturbing ghost story, but it’s also a tricksy film that still treats its characters (and by extension, the audience) with respect.
A film that left an indelible footprint on the popular culture, a film that remains one of my favorite titles of the 1990s in any genre.
Richard Roeper
A poignant study of the searing pain caused by loss, this all-too-human horror film provokes tears as well as fears.
Nigel Floyd, Time Out
Media Partner
M. Night Shyamalan
Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
USA
1999
English
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Credits
Producer
Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel
Screenwriter
M. Night Shyamalan
Cinematography
Tak Fujimoto
Editor
Andrew Mondshein
Original Music
James Newton Howard
Production Design
Larry Fulton
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Three Colours: Blue
The first of Kieslowski's acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy, inspired by the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity and the French flag, the Tricolour. Blue stars Juliette Binoche as a young woman grieving her husband and child.
Schindler's List
One of the most acclaimed films of the 90s, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark is the story of a German industrialist whose conscience is stirred to save his Jewish workers from the camps.
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Three Colours: Red
Irène Jacob plays Valentine, a runway model living in Geneva, who crosses paths with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who's a bit of an eavesdropper. Initially repelled, she becomes intrigued by this man, as do we... Kieslowski's sublime adieu.
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings begins with an onslaught of fucks. It's the first signal that this rom-com will break from tradition, despite the ritualized structural conceit described in the title. The witty screenplay is by Richard Curtis — it's still his best.
The Lion King
With its beautifully drawn East African setting, its humour, pathos, and engaging characters, as well as its stirring songs, The Lion King stands as the pinnacle of traditional Disney family entertainment.
Image: © Disney, 1994
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Casino
Revisiting the wise guy milieu for the third (but not the final) time, Scorsese tells the story of Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro (Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci), two New York hoodlums who become major players in the history of Las Vegas.
Andrea Superstein Sings Burt Bacharach + Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery Film Screening
Local hero and Anglophile Mike Myers scored a massive comedy hit with this spot-on spoof of James Bond and his many imitators. Before the yucks, Andrea Superstein treats us to a set of timeless Burt Bacharach tunes.
Before Sunrise
An American backpacker (Ethan Hawke) meets a French girl (Julie Delpy) on the train to Vienna. They decide to spend the next 14 hours together until it's time for his flight. They walk and talk. This brief encounter will mark the rest of their lives.
Ghost in the Shell
This seminal anime which inspired James Cameron and the Wachowskis, anticipates how AI technology encroaches on the human domain in ways we can scarcely comprehend. "A work of profound and melancholic beauty." Daily Telegraph
La Haine
This angry French thriller about alienated kids (a skinhead, an Arab, and an African) in the working class outskirts of Paris plays like a cross between Do the Right Thing and Mean Streets. French cops turned their backs on the red carpet at Cannes.
