The amazing and epic story of how the Paris Opera House, the Palais Garnier, was built from 1852 to 1870, thanks to the decisive impulse of the French Emperor Napoleon III; a story that is also that of the birth of a golden age for orchestral music, opera and ballet; of the rise of the urban bourgeoisie turned social elite; and of a certain mysterious inhabitant of the darkest corners of a legendary place.
In Kings of War, director Ivo van Hove focuses on political leadership. The original texts were retranslated by Rob Klinkenberg and then thoroughly adapted: the Hundred Years' War between England and France, and the Rose Wars between the houses of Lancaster and York for the English throne, which are emphatically present as a historical context in the original pieces, were referred to the background in the adaptation in order to accommodate a varied portrait of successive kings. As leaders in times of political instability and war, they show remarkable affinities with world leaders today.
The night of July 15, 2016 changed the history of Turkey. On that day there were coordinated attacks by parts of the Turkish army, among others in Istanbul. The aim of the military: a coup against the government. The decisive confrontation occurred on the Bosporus Bridge. While President Erdogan was still on vacation, live at TV he called on the people who were devoted to him to stand against the military. As an enemy for the masses, he presented his adversary Fethullah Gülen, whom he branded as the coup leader. He also urged the imams of the country's mosques to condition the population to resist. And so it happens that at night thousands of agitated people take to the streets to oppose the armed insurgents. The death toll was high. 352 people died across Turkey during the attempted coup. The consequences are even more serious: Erdogan used this gift, as he called it himself, to undermine democracy, to arrange mass arrests of dissidents and to transform Turkey into a dictatorship.
Amid the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago, the Baltic nations fought to regain their independence and freedom, while die-hard believers in the Soviet empire saw ways to force them back under Moscow's control. In order to protect their reborn state, the Latvian people began to build barricades in the center of Rīga. Unique footage and previously unheard historical evidence contributes to the documentary film “The Fortress of the Nation. 30 Years since the Barricades" from Latvian Television.
The history of skiing is an amazing journey through small and big events starring strong and avant-garde people who were not afraid to break with the prevailing social prejudices of their time and invented a new sporting discipline.
As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future.
Ludwig van Beethoven, absorbed in his world, composes in the forest under the snowstorm. In the solitude of this place, his temple, he feels happy, full, fertile. Johanna, his sister-in-law, widow of his brother Caspar, approaches him by surprise and chases him through the trees, trying to reach an agreement with him about the guardianship of his son Karl. In his will, Caspar left his brother Ludwig as the sole guardian of his son Karl. But Ludwig was away for a few hours on Caspar's last night and when he returned in the morning the will had changed... Between them there is more than a hard fight for the child. They are two untamed, wild, asocial beings, fighting for their freedom.
Called the 'AP of the underground press,' Liberation News Service printed news from hundreds of underground papers in the '60s and '70s. LNS reporters were 'soldiers of the revolution who happened to use typewriters' providing news to a generation of readers ignored by the mainstream press. The film includes interviews with former staffers, journalists, and activists, as well as archival footage.
Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today.
In the early 1970s, Swedes flock to Mallorca, as Lars Molin debuts on TV, Badjävlar emerges, a hunger strike for jobs begins, and Sweden reacts to the murder of the Yugoslav ambassador. Tjejsnack premieres, "We must raise our voices to be heard" becomes a hit, women's camps are held, a courthouse tragedy occurs in Söderhamn, protests erupt in Stockholm's Kungsträdgården, and Björn Gillberg protests food additives by washing his shirt in milk substitute powder.
In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II. Millions of viewers worldwide make Das Boot the most internationally successful German film of all time. But due to disputes over the script, accidents on the set, and voices accusing the makers of glorifying the war, the project was many times on the verge of being cancelled.