Conversation Piece - BLU-RAY

The setting for Conversation Piece is a handsome old Roman palazzo owned by a Professor (Burt Lancaster), an aging, American-born, Roman bred art historian who devotes his life to his books, his paintings, and his stereo recordings of Mozart. His life is turned upside down when his house and his intellectual life is invaded by a rich, pushy, overdressed marquesa, played by Silvana Mangano, the wife of a Fascist industrialist, and her teen-age daughter (Claudia Marsani), her young German lover (Helmut Berger) and her daughter's lover (Stefano Patrizi). These four characters are able to persuade the Professor to lease them his upstairs apartment for a year and what unfolds is a truly revealing exploration of the idle rich and the humble intellectual.

Thirtysomething Torontonian Cassandra (Amy Nostbakken) woke up to the news of her mother's abrupt death... and the realization that taking care of the funeral and affairs just fell squarely on her shoulders. Her navigation of the next few days-as she starts to interactively commiserate with her younger self (Norah Sadava)-informs this challenging drama, co-adapted by Sadava and Nostbakken from their stage show with director Patricia Rozema. Maev Beaty, Paula Boudreau also star. 91 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack English; audio commentary; featurette; theatrical trailers.

As he toured war-torn Europe in 1944, a noted conductor (Charlton Heston) found himself-and his entire orchestra-waylaid by German troops. Fortunately, the Nazi C.O. (Maximilian Schell) is a classical music buff, and desirous of a command performance. With no promise that they'll live for an encore, can the trapped maestro finagle an out? Leslie Nielsen, Anton Diffring, Kathryn Hays co-star; performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 107 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack English; Subtitles English; audio commentary; theatrical trailer.