Catherine Deneuve

Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans (the film shares the same name as Evans's famous 1994 autobiography). This documentary captures the life story of legendary Hollywood producer and studio chief Robert Evans. The first actor to ever to run a film studio, Robert Evans' film career started in 1956, poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel. His good looks, charm and overwhelming confidence captured the eye of screen legend Norma Shearer, who offered him a film role. After a glamorous--but short-lived--career as a movie star, Evans tried out producing. At the age of 34, with no producing credits to his name, he landed a job as chief of production at Paramount Pictures. Evans ran the studio from 1966-1974. During his tenure, he was responsible for such revolutionary films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Odd Couple, Harold and Maude and Chinatown. By the early '80s, the Golden Boy of Hollywood was losing his luster. After a failed marriage to Ali MacGraw, a cocaine bust and rumored involvement with the Cotton Club murder, he disappeared into near-obscurity. Only through tremendous will and uncanny luck did he once again rise as the kid who stays in the picture. —Sujit R. Varma Movie mogul Robert Evans self narrates the story of his movie life. Once an aspiring actor, he was a successful business owner of a woman's wear company when, independently, Hollywood royals actress Norma Shearer and producer Darryl F. Zanuck plucked him out of nowhere to be featured in major supporting roles in two separate movies. His acting career was short as he realized that he was not very good at it, and that his passion lied elsewhere in the movie business. He wanted to be the next Darryl F. Zanuck. In large part due to an article written by entertainment columnist Peter Bart, Evans did become a producer and then ultimately head of Paramount Pictures, one of the then lower tier of the premier movie studios. Evans' place at the studio hinged on the success of a few key movies including Rosemary's Baby (1968), Love Story (1970) (working on which sparked the short but passionate personal relationship with future wife, actress Ali MacGraw), and The Godfather (1972). Under his tenure, Paramount became the number 1 studio in Hollywood. Those successes led to an unusual contract with Paramount, which in turn led to his return to producing such acclaimed movies as Chinatown (1974), and ultimately quitting his job at the studio. But Evans' life had some major falls, especially in the 1980's, with the start of his cocaine use, the failure of some highly touted and big budget films such as The Cotton Club (1984), and implication in the murder of aspiring producer Roy Radin, which in combination led to major bout of depression. He would need the assistance of his true friends to help him regain his life. —Huggo

Selma is a young Czech mother living in Washington state in the early 1960s. How she loves musicals! Alas, she is going blind, and this is threatening her job (not to say her limbs) at the local factory, where she is friends with Cathy, who is a bit flummoxed by Selma's increasing workload, which includes pinning hairpins to unbent cardboard as a side job. Selma lives with her understandably ungrateful 12-year-old delinquent son in a mobile trailer on the property of a local sheriff and his happy-go-lucky wife. One day, the sheriff reveals a dark secret to Selma, and being the type to cement friendships, she tells him a secret, too: that she is going blind. Life spirals downard for her after this revelation, but Selma is resolute in protecting her friend's secret. Cathy, who grows increasingly frustrated with Selma's decisions, comes to realize Selma's methodology was right after all, and in the gripping final moments of the film, she tells Selma that she did right. This is a curious, highly depressing, yet exhilarating film (with various experimental camera techniques) about the power of friendship and maternal love -- not to be watched alone!

The film opens in a New York night club. The gothic rock band Bauhaus is onstage performing the song "Bela Lugosi's Dead." In the crowd are John and Miriam Blaylock (David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve). Stylishly dressed and predatory, they stalk the crowd and connect with a young couple (John Stephen Hill, Ann Magnuson). The couple takes them back to their home, where John and Miriam seduce them before viciously slashing their throats. John and Miriam are vampires, although not in any traditional sense; lacking fangs, they use ancient Egyptian pendants to cut open the jugulars of their victims. The center of their strange existence is Miriam. She is an immortal being, able to pass along her supernatural qualities to selected human beings that she chooses to be her lovers. However, her progeny are not truly immortal as she is, and sooner or later, usually after 300 years or so, they find themselves suddenly and rapidly getting old. However, the progeny are unable to die, but continue to live forever withered, in a fully conscious, vegetative state. Miriam packs their decaying, aging bodies in caskets that she keeps in the attic of her residence. In the 18th century, Miriam offered this gift of immortality to John, who eagerly accepted, as had all her previous lovers through the ages. Suddenly, John develops trouble sleeping, and starts aging at a rapid rate. Miriam is aware of the significance of this happening, and she goes looking for a famous gerontologist, Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon), desperately seeking her help for a cure for John's fast deterioration. She makes contact with Dr. Roberts, and through her psychic powers, finds out that the doctor is just guessing, and that her research is inconclusive. Therefore, John, as all her lovers before him, is doomed to extinction. John also attempts to meet with Dr. Roberts at her clinic, but she dismisses his claims as delusional and leaves him to sit in the waiting room, hoping that he will grow bored and leave. John ages decades within a few short hours, and when Sarah sees him later, she begs John to stay so she can examine him. But John refuses to speak to her, his hunger for blood nearly overpowering him and forcing him to leave in search of a victim. Driven by his bloodlust and desperation to reverse the aging process, John makes a kill out of young Alice (Beth Ehlers), a music student that he and Miriam are tutoring. Her blood does nothing to help John, and he eventually falls down a flight of stairs at the townhouse, his legs no longer able to support his own weight. Miriam carries John's withering body up to the attic and puts him in a casket, next to several other caskets containing her earlier lovers. Later on, when Dr. Roberts shows up at Miriam's door looking for John, Miriam sees in the doctor a replacement for John in her life; it is love at first sight for Miriam, and she immediately proceeds to seduce Sarah. Sarah is a willing participant in Miriam's seduction, but she doesn't know that Miriam has now transformed her into a vampire, just as she did to John and her other lovers. Lieutenant Allegrezza (Dan Hedaya) shows up at Miriam's house looking for Alice, and is immediately suspicious of Miriam, although he has no real proof of any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Sarah begins to manifest symptoms of vampirism. She is ravenously hungry, but eating normal food makes her vomit. She also starts seeing Miriam everywhere she looks. Finally she confronts Miriam about what happened between them on that day, and Miriam vaguely states that she has given Sarah eternal life, and that they belong to one another now. Sarah rejects what Miriam has told her, but she does understand that something terrible has happened to her. Sarah and her partners at the clinic, including Sarah's boyfriend, Tom Haver (Cliff De Young), cannot find a cure for the change that is occurring in Sarah's blood, and in desperation Sarah returns to Miriam. Miriam arranges for Sarah to make her first kill, bringing back a male prostitute, but Sarah is unwilling to take a human life. Finally, Tom arrives at the townhouse looking for Sarah following her disappearance, and is surprised to find that Sarah is there. Miriam knows that Sarah's hunger is now beyond reason, and when she takes Tom to Sarah, Sarah kills him for his blood. Miriam is now convinced that she has found her new lover, and she tells Sarah that they will now share an eternity together. Sarah, however, is wracked with guilt over taking Tom's life, and she attempts suicide by cutting her own throat with Miriam's ankh as they kiss. Sarah's blood pours into Miriam's throat and then Sarah collapses. Miriam is horrified at what Sarah has done, but she dutifully carries Sarah's limp body into the attic to place her among her other desiccated lovers. This time, however, she finds her crumbling lovers now out of their coffins, waiting for her. The sudden intake of Sarah's blood has caused a change in Miriam. Suddenly released from Miriam's spell, the lovers crumble into dust as Miriam herself begins to wither. The film's conclusion shows Lieutenant Allegrezza returning to question Miriam, only to find that the townhouse is now mysteriously empty and up for sale, all of the luxurious furnishings in the home gone and the money funneled to the sleep clinic where Sarah, presumably missing, used to work. In the final shot, Sarah herself is seen living in a high-rise luxury apartment with a couple lovers, while Miriam, imprisoned in a coffin just as she did to her own lovers, screams for her release.

Martin lives alone on a Caribbean island. On an excursion to the port city, he helps Nelly, who has fled from her groom. Caracas, Venezuela. Just after her engagement to Vittorio, Nelly runs away. As he pursues her, Nelly looks to Martin, a French middle-aged man she met by accident, for help. He drives her to the airport and gives her a plane ticket to Paris. Then he thinks he can go back to his peaceful, lonely life on his island. Of course, he is wrong.

LA Police Lt. Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) and Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve), a high-priced call girl and the lieutenant's girlfriend, have their weekend plans dashed when Gaines receives a call that a dead woman was found on the beach. Before he leaves, the two plan a romantic trip to Rome, Italy. At the police precinct, Gaines and his partner, Sgt. Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield), meet Marty and Paula Hollinger (Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan), and ask Marty to view the deceased to see if it is his daughter, Gloria. Upon seeing Gloria's naked lifeless body, Marty punches Gaines in the face, screaming they should have covered her up. Sgt. Belgrave insists they charge Marty with assault, but Gaines apologizes for not covering the girl. Later, Gaines enters an interrogation room to find Belgrave and another police officer beating a confession out of an Albino man (David Estridge). Infuriated by their brutality, Gaines orders the prisoner released and given something to eat. Gaines then learns that Jerry Bellamy (David Spielberg), a murderer he arrested, was paroled after only serving five years of his two life sentences. Gaines goes to his office and stares wistfully at a seven-year old calendar showing the Roman coliseum. That night, Marty Hollinger lies in bed picturing his daughter, Gloria, as she grew from a toddler to teenager. His wife reminds him they "lost" Gloria a long time ago. Meanwhile, Gaines stands on his balcony overlooking Los Angeles, California, while Nicole has phone sex with a client. When Nicole hangs up, she complains her job is getting harder every day. Gaines suggests she quit, but is silent when she asks if he will take care of her. To lighten the mood, Nicole encourages him to reminisce about the love affair he had when he visited Rome. The next day, Belgrave and Gaines brief their boss, Capt. John Santoro (Ernest Borgnine), on the Gloria Hollinger case. Although the girl tested positive for semen, there was no sign of rape. Plus, blood tests indicate that Gloria died of suicide. After learning the girl's father is "a nobody," Santoro tells them to close the file. Meanwhile, Nicole entertains mob attorney, "Kingfish" Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), on his yacht. Sellers goes ashore to make a telephone call. In Akron, Ohio, his call is answered by a man at a telephone booth. Three men leave a union meeting hall, and are killed when the car explodes. Afterward, the man tells Sellers "it is done", and hangs up. Back in Los Angeles, Gaines removes a picture of Sellers and Gloria Hollinger from the dead girl's wallet. Sgt. Belgrave snatches it from him and gives it to another officer to enlarge it and make additional prints. The Hollingers arrive to collect their daughter's personal effects, and Marty refuses to accept his daughter's death was a suicide. When Gaines tells him the case is closed, Marty threatens to find the killer and take care of him. After Marty leaves, Paula explains he has never been the same after his traumatic experiences in the Korean War and a sympathetic Gaines gives her his business card in case she needs his help. Gaines learns that Jerry Bellamy has killed two women and taken a third hostage while holed up in a downtown factory. When Gaines arrives at the scene, Bellamy threatens to shoot his prisoner unless the police lieutenant comes in alone. Inside, Bellamy orders Gaines to kneel, then, as the killer rants about the evils of women, Belgrave drops from a skylight, distracting the killer. Gaines pulls his gun and kills Bellamy. Later, Gaines and Belgrave are drinking in Gaines's office, when Belgrave insists they investigate Leo Sellers's connection to Gloria's death. He argues that Seller is a mob lawyer, and Gloria was carrying an envelope holding $2,000 in cash and had Sellers's picture in her wallet. Knowing Seller is one of Nicole's clients, a reluctant Gaines agrees. Meanwhile, Marty collects Gloria's things from Gloria's roommate, Peggy Summers (Catherine Bach), who shows him a much larger photograph of Gloria and Sellers. Learning Gloria was a stripper who dated Herbie Dalitz, the emcee at her club, Marty goes to confront Herbie. That night, Gaines confesses he is having trouble accepting Nicole's profession. When he refuses to marry her, she packs to leave him. Gaines slaps her and she hits him in the head with an ashtray. He throws her on the bed, and what starts as a violent kiss turns passionate and they make love. The next morning, a narcotics officer gives Gaines a tape recording of Sellers calling Ohio and the bomb blast that killed the union men. He explains that the telephone booth was "bugged" to catch drug deals, but the tape now belongs to homicide. Later, Gaines and Belgrave respond to a telephone call from Paula Hollinger and go to her home where they find a badly beaten Marty. Marty says Gloria was at a sex party at a home owned by a man named Leo. Gaines agrees to investigate Gloria's death, but only if Marty promises not to take any more chances. Gaines interviews Herbie Dalitz, who admits procuring Gloria for Leo after he saw her in a pornographic movie. When questioned, Leo Sellers admits partying with Gloria, but insists she left his house alive. When Gaines asks if Leo feels any responsibility for the girl's suicide, Leo answers she was screwed up before he met her. Gaines then reveals that police taped his call to Ohio. Leo's only response is to say that he knows Nicole and Gaines are living together and admires that Gaines does not let her profession get in the way of their relationship. Later, Gaines has drinks with Paula Hollinger and learns that Gloria was the result of an affair she had while Marty was in a veteran's hospital being treated for mental illness. Although Marty learned of the affair, he never suspected he was not Gloria's father. The next day, Gaines tells Marty that Gloria committed suicide. When Marty accuses Gaines of being paid off, the lieutenant shows him film of Gloria and Peggy Summers having sex with a man. Marty leaves in tears, goes to Peggy and beats her until she reveals Leo's last name. When he leaves, Peggy calls Belgrave. Carrying a loaded gun, Marty confronts Sellers at his house. Sellers ask why kill him, as there "were a lot of men who led Gloria astray?" Marty replies that he cannot kill everyone and shoots him between the eyes. Gaines and Belgrave arrive to find Leo dead and Marty slumped in a chair. Gaines tries to get Marty to understand the trouble he is, but Marty just repeats that he will have his day in court. After learning Marty bought the gun from a pawnshop without giving his name, Gaines takes the pistol and shoots Marty in the shoulder, then concocts a story that Sellers pulled the gun when Marty confronted him and, in the ensuing struggle, Marty was wounded and Leo killed. Belgrave protests, but Gaines explains that even though Leo did not kill Gloria, he was a murderer and there are times justice is served by "sticking up for the Marty's of the world." Gaines telephones Nicole and tells her to meet him at the airport so they can fly to Sausalito, California, and get married. After hanging up, Gaines walks into a liquor store, where an armed man attempts to rob the place. Gaines intercedes, but he is shot dead. Later, Belgrave finds Nicole at the airport and breaks the news. As they leave, an airplane headed for Rome takes off.

Movie opens at a swanky Wall Street Party hosted By Ted, Howard's Boss, and CEO of big Wall Street firm. It turns out the party is a gathering of wealthy Wall Street traders employees and big wigs looking to hook up with women. Ted encourages Howard, and teaches him how to land a one of the various women and then bed them. Howard is uncomfortable as he makes his rounds at the party and is unable to get the attraction from any of the multitude of intoxicated, attractive, but vulgar women. Another party-goer, Catherine, also seems put off by the entire party and all of its patrons, but like Howard she moves around the party, entertained by the vulgar, highfalutin, grandiose, vain, pretentious, garish, and gaudy people and the shenanigans they engage in. Catherine and Howard meet, the two are instantaneously attracted to each other, and decide to leave the party for more civilized gathering. As Catherine gather her coat, Ted give Howard the key to a particular night club, The Safari Club, he consider a "second home". The two grab a cab and head to the Safari club, which turn out to be another absurd scene with scantily clad women in cages acting like animalistic cave women. To grab the attention of the cave women waitresses male club goers are given pop guns and shoot the women in the tuchus. Howard has not yet learned that Catherine is his new boss' wife. The two agree that the Safari club is no better then the party they just left and decide to leave. Catherine recommends dancing and the two go to a hipster club with real music and dance their tuchus's off and have a great time. Catherine meets a an astrologist at the party who tell her that Ted is not a good love match for her but that Howard is a perfect match. Catherine seems to agree. Catherine reveals to Howard that she plans on leaving Ted the next day and grabbing a one way flight back to her home town of Paris. Howard follows suit and decides to leave his wife and grab the same flight with Catherine to start a new life with her in Paris. Howard has no problem leaving his uncaring wife behind and his young boy who doesn't seem to care if his father is alive or dead. The rest of the movie dedicated to the road blocks Howard must overcome to get on the plane with Catherine to Paris. Ted tries everything he can to win back Catherine. Eventually Howard wins out and is able to board the plane at the last minute. The movie ends with the two holding hands on the plane.