The best Helen Mirren’s documentary movies
Dame Helen Lydia Mirren DBE (née Mironoff) is an English actor. Mirren began her acting career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967, and is one of the few performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting, having won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2007, after two previous nominations, for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen. In 2015 she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, after two previous nominations, for her performance in The Audience, in which she also portrayed Elizabeth II. The Audience was written by Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen. Mirren won her first of several Emmy Awards in 1996 for her performance as police detective Jane Tennison on the acclaimed ITV series Prime Suspect, which ran for a total of seven seasons between 1991 and 2006.
Some of her other notable film roles include Marcella in the 1984 film Cal, for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, 2010 (1984), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Madness of King George (1994), Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999), Gosford Park (2001), Calendar Girls (2003), The Last Station (2009), Hitchcock (2012), and The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014). She also starred as Victoria Winslow in the action-comedy films Red and Red 2.
Istintobrass
6.4/10
One of the most controversial, original and loved figures of Italian cinema. The most censored director of all time. An anarchist of the film, a gifted experimenter, an inventor of dreams. A truly great artist.
Unity
7.3/10
Despite the advent of science, literature, technology, philosophy, religion, and so on -- none of these has assuaged humankind from killing one another, the animals, and nature. UNITY is a film about why we can't seem to get along, even after thousands and thousands of years.
And the Oscar Goes To...
7.1/10
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
On Broadway
7.2/10
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.
#AnneFrank. Parallel Stories
6.6/10
One single Anne Frank moves us more than the countless others who suffered just as she did but whose faces have remained in the shadows-Primo Levi. The Oscar®-winning Helen Mirren will introduce audiences to Anne Frank's story through the words in her diary. The set will be her room in the secret refuge in Amsterdam, reconstructed in every detail by set designers from the Piccolo Theatre in Milan. Anne Frank this year would have been 90 years old. Anne's story is intertwined with that of five Holocaust survivors, teenage girls just like her, with the same ideals, the same desire to live: Arianna Szörenyi, Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard, Helga Weiss and sisters Andra and Tatiana Bucci. Their testimonies alternate with those of their children and grandchildren.
The Prince of Egypt: From Dream to Screen
The making of The Prince of Egyot (1998).
National Theatre Live: 50 Years on Stage
8.7/10
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the National Theatre of Great Britain presents National Theatre: 50 Years on Stage, bringing together the best British actors for a unique evening of unforgettable performances, broadcast live from London to cinemas around the world.
The Making of 'Gosford Park'
7.2/10
A documentary giving film fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making this Robert Altman film about a murder at an English country estate. Includes interviews with the cast and crew, who relate some of their experiences with making the film, as well as giving their views on all the work that went into it.
Arabia 3D
6.1/10
From the Academy Award-nominated producers of Everest and Grand Canyon Adventure comes an all-new IMAX 3D Theatre experience—Arabia 3D—about the extraordinary culture, history and religion of Arabia.
Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts
7.2/10
Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts is a feature-length documentary that takes an in depth look at the life, career and mind of the British comic book writer Warren Ellis. The film combines extensive interviews with Ellis with insights from his colleagues and friends, as well as ambient visual re-creations of his prose and comics work.
An Accidental Studio
7.1/10
Charts the early years of HandMade Films seen through the eyes of the filmmakers, key personnel, and the man who started it all: former Beatle George Harrison.
Excalibur: Behind the Movie
7.4/10
This retrospective documentary looks back on the making of director John Boorman's 1981 movie, Excalibur. Self-described as the toughest film he ever made, Excalibur told the tale of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone and helped start the careers of actors Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Patrick Stewart. In this one hour film, they join other cast and crew to share their memories from the filming of this Arthurian masterpiece. Documentary originally released in 2013 with the title Behind The Sword In The Stone; a later, renamed version with updated biographical information on the actors involved was then released in 2016. The 2016 version has since been shown on various on-demand channels.
Killers Kill, Dead Men Die
4.9/10
The most ambitious portfolio in the 13-year history of Vanity Fair's Hollywood Issue, this year's homage to noir had its own dramatic imperatives.
Cries from Syria
8.3/10
An attempt to re-contextualize the European migrant crisis and ongoing hostilities in Syria, through eyewitness and participant testimony. Children and parents recount the revolution, civil war, air strikes, atrocities and ongoing humanitarian aid crises, in a portrait of recent history and the consequences of violence.
The Pulitzer At 100
6.5/10
The Pulitzer at 100, by Oscar and Emmy winning director Kirk Simon, is a ninety-minute independent documentary released in conjunction with the Pulitzer Centennial in April 2016. This film is told through the riveting stories of the artists that have won the prestigious prize. With Pulitzer work read by Helen Mirren, Natalie Portman, Liev Schreiber, John Lithgow and Yara Shahidi; journalists include Carl Bernstein, Nick Kristof, Thomas Friedman, and David Remnick; authors include Toni Morrison, Michael Chabon, Junot Díaz, Tony Kushner, and Ayad Akhtar; and musicians Wynton Marsalis, David Crosby, and John Adams also share their stories.
Pas de Deux: Making 'White Nights'
8/10
Documentary on the 1985 film White Nights, with interviews from Taylor Hackford, Helen Mirren and Isabella Rossellini.
Escape from Extinction
7.7/10
Rare footage of endangered animals and interviews with the world's leading animal welfare specialists and conservation scientists working to protect animals from all seven of Earth's continents, and its mighty oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Children of God
6.4/10
A former member examines the lingering effects of being raised in the Family, a cult whose disturbing practices include the sexual abuse of children.
Invocation: Maya Deren
6/10
Maya Deren is a legend of avant-garde cinema. This authoritative biography of the charismatic filmmaker, poet and anthropologist features excerpts from her pioneering Meshes of the Afternoon and her unfinished documentary on Haiti, interviews with Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, and recordings of her lectures. Narrated by actress Helen Mirren, this definitive documentary offers startling insights into one of the most intriguing, accomplished figures in cinema history.
Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story
7.2/10
In 1943, Noor Inayat Khan was recruited as a covert operative into Winston Churchill's Special Operations Executive. With an American mother and Indian Muslim father, she was an extremely unusual British agent. After her network collapsed, Khan became the only surviving radio operator linking the British to the French Resistance in Paris, coordinating the airdrop of weapons and agents, and the rescue of downed Allied fliers.
