Movies Starring Don Francks
I'm Not There
Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Kris Kristofferson, Don Francks, Roc LaFortune, Larry Day, Paul Cagelet, Pierre-Alexandre Fortin, Richie Havens, Tyrone Benskin, Kim Roberts
DIRECTOR:Todd Haynes
Six incarnations of Bob Dylan: an actor, a folk singer, an electrified troubadour, Rimbaud, Billy the Kid, and Woody Guthrie. Put Dylan's music behind their adventures, soliloquies, interviews, marriage, and infidelity. Recreate 1960s documentaries in black and white. Put each at a crossroads, the artist becoming someone else. Jack, the son of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, finds Jesus; handsome Robbie falls in love then abandons Claire. Woody, a lad escaped from foster care, hobos the U.S. singing; Billy awakes in a valley threatened by a six-lane highway; Rimbaud talks. Jude, booed at Newport when he goes electric, fences with reporters, pundits, and fans. He won't be classified.
Lie with Me
Lauren Lee Smith, Eric Balfour, Polly Shannon, Mayko Nguyen, Michael Facciolo, Kate Lynch, Ron White, Kristin Lehman, Don Francks, Richard Chevolleau, Frank Chiesurin, Nicola Lipman, Theresa Tova
DIRECTOR:Clément Virgo
Leila ('Lauren Lee Smith' (qv)) is a sexually voracious young woman who connects with men through brief physical encounters. One night at a crowded house party, Leila meets David ('Eric Balfour' (qv)) and its lust at first sight. Later, as she has casual sex with a stranger just behind the house, David and his girlfriend mirror her actions in their car. Leila and David's eyes lock as they watch each other having sex with others, a courtship ritual that initiates their own sexual affair. Seduction is easy and very satisfying. Leila and David get to know each other — which means being intimate — in bed, at the park, on the roof, everywhere. For them, and for other members of their generation, sex is a form of communication. But Leila starts to realize that her attachment to David is different from anything she's experienced before, and David is just as serious about her. For the first time, they experience needs and desires that go beyond the physical. It is an emotional connection they crave. Afraid of the feelings they have unleashed in each other, they retreat to the safety of their former lives. Real life, and the messiness of emotional attachments, have punctured their sexual and romantic bubble and threaten to keep the lovers apart. David's father dies after a long illness and he turns to his ex-girlfriend for support. Leila, meanwhile, is distracted by her parents' looming divorce. Leila and David are trapped between two worlds. Anonymous sex, or sex without context, is losing its appeal. But a conventional approach to commitment - marriage and the seemingly inevitable divorce that follows, as evidenced by Leila's parents — is not the answer. They set out to find a way to build lust and love, spontaneity and substance, into a new life together.
Johnny Mnemonic
The future's most wanted fugitive.
Keanu Reeves, Dina Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Dennis Akayama, Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier, Tracy Tweed, Falconer Abraham, Don Francks, Diego Chambers, Arthur Eng
DIRECTOR:Robert Longo
The year is 2021, and half of the Earth's population is suffering from the disease known as Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS). Johnny, a mnemonic data courier, is hired to carry 320 gigabytes of crucial information to safety from the Pharmacom corporation. Pursued by Yakuza agents and a crazed cyborg, Johnny must deliver the data or die in twenty-four hours.
Heavy Metal
A Step Beyond Science Fiction
Rodger Bumpass, John Candy, Jackie Burroughs, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Martin Lavut, Marilyn Lightstone, Eugene Levy, Alice Playten, Harold Ramis, Susan Roman, August Schellenberg, Richard Romanus, John Vernon, Zal Yanovsky
DIRECTOR:Gerald Potterton
An astronaut brings home a glowing green orb for his daughter. However, the orb kills him and corners the girl for its purposes. Claiming to the embodiment of all evil, the malevolent sphere, known as the Loc-Nar, terrorizes the little girl by showing a series of bizarre and fantastic tales it has influenced. The first is "Harry Canyon," a cynical taxi driver in a squalid futuristic New York who finds himself involved with a damsel in distress who is relentlessly pursued by murderous thugs who desire the Loc-Nar her archaeologist father found. The second is "Den" which chronicles the adventures of a nerdish boy who is thrown into the fantasy world of Neverwhere, where he is transformed into a studly naked muscle-man, desired by beautiful women, who must get involved in a conflict revolving around possession of the Loc-Nar. The third is "Captain Sternn" where the title character is a handsome but irredeemable scoundrel who stands accused in a trial that Loc-Nar throws into chaos. The fourth is "B-17", where a World War II bomber plane limps home after a bombing run, only to have the Loc-Nar ram into it and revive the dead crew members as murderous zombies. The next is "So Beautiful, So Dangerous" where a buxom secretary at the Pentagon is abducted by stoned alien wastrels and a oversexed robot. The final story is "Taarna", where the Loc-Nar has to come to a future Earth and changes a peaceful people into a horde of murderous barbarians who rampage with genocidal zeal. Only the last Tarackian, a silent swords-woman known as Taarna, can avenge the victims and stop the Loc-Nar.
My Bloody Valentine
Harry's out to steal your heart.
Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Keith Knight, Alf Humphreys, Cynthia Dale, Helene Udy, Rob Stein, Thomas Kovacs, Terry Waterland, Carl Marotte, Jim Murchison, Gina Dick, Peter Cowper, Don Francks
DIRECTOR:On Valentine's Day 20 years before, an explosion of methane gas took the lives of a group of coal miners working in the Hanniger Mine near the small Nova Socia town of Valentine Bluffs. The accident occurred because supervisors left their posts to attend the annual Valentine's Day dance. A year afterward, Harry Warden - the only survivor of the accident - retaliated by killing the two supervisors, and leaving a terrifying warning never to hold another Valentine's Day dance. Now, a group of young adults decides to hold another dance, despite warnings. When a blood-soaked heart arrives at the police station, accompanied by an ominous message, the dance is canceled. But a Valentine party is held in its place... at the coal mine, and it isn't long before the town's young people begin dying violently. It appears Harry Warden has returned to punish those who did not heed his warning...
Fast Company
The danger. The rush. The victory.
William Smith, Claudia Jennings, John Saxon, Nicholas Campbell, Don Francks, Cedric Smith, Judy Foster, Robert Haley, George Buza, David Graham, David Petersen, Chuck Chandler, Sonya Ratke, Michael Bell
DIRECTOR:An early departure from director David Cronenberg's canon of visceral horror, 1979's Fast Company profiles one of his personal passions, racecars, in a gritty melodrama that also features exciting racetrack footage. Veteran toughguy William Smith is top-billed as a champion drag racer who clashes with the unscrupulous oil-company executive (John Saxon) who sponsors his team. Though lacking the gruesome clinical obsessions of his horror features (Cronenberg admits on the disc's commentary that the film was a tax shelter for its Canadian producers), Fast Company is also fascinated with internal machinery (here, car engines instead of human bodies), and it's easily Cronenberg's most approachable film, with plenty of automotive action alongside the solid performances (the cast includes B-movie queen Claudia Jennings in her final performance).
