Biopics and Docudrama
Dramatized documentaries of historical figures. True stories that have changed the world.
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- DirectorGary JohnstoneStarsAidan McArdleShirley HendersonSteven RobertsonThis docudrama examines the history of scientific discovery that lead up to Albert Einstein's famous equation E=mc2 and its aftermath in the creation of nuclear energy. This includes Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic fields; Antoine Lavoisier's discovery that mass is never lost; and Emilie du Chatelet's demonstration that Newton's calculation of the velocity of a falling object was incorrect. By 1905, the miracle year where the publication Einstein's four physics papers changed over 200 years of scientific fundamentals, all of this came together with his now famous equation. Afterwards, Lise Meisner's work on uranium let to her conclusion that splitting an atom would release large amounts of energy.
- DirectorChris OxleyStarsPhilip HarveyPhillip KeimanClare Angelini HeatherThis BBC documentary outlines the evidence that suggest that Newton's revolutionary ideas about light came from his secret work as an alchemist.
- DirectorPeter JonesStarsSimon CallowJohn FraserCornelius GarrettGalileo's struggle to convince Roman Catholic Church authorities that Earth revolves around the sun. Why the headstrong Galileo (1564-1642) didn't succeed is explored in interviews with scientists.
- DirectorPhilip MartinStarsDavid TennantRichard McCabePatrick KennedyDrama about the development of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, and Einstein's relationship with British scientist Sir Arthur Eddington, the first physicist to experimentally prove his ideas.
- DirectorMarc AbrahamStarsGreg KinnearLauren GrahamAlan AldaRobert Kearns takes on the Detroit automakers who he claims stole his idea for the intermittent windshield wiper.
- DirectorPenny MarshallStarsRobert De NiroRobin WilliamsJulie KavnerThe victims of an encephalitis epidemic many years ago have been catatonic ever since, but now a new drug offers the prospect of reviving them.
- StarsJeremy IronsAnna ChancellorEmma KayIn two parallel stories, the clockmaker John Harrison builds the marine chronometer for safe navigation at sea in the 18th Century and the horologist Rupert Gould becomes obsessed with restoring it in the 20th Century.
- StarsCharles HazlewoodJack TarltonKenneth CranhamThe story begins with the composer's father Leopold, with whom he conducted a passionate, tortured correspondence; it is Leopold who knows Mozart's secrets. There is another voice: that of the music itself. Music is the key to unlocking the emotions of Mozart, starting in this film with the great piano works. Without this key, how can we ever understand the emotions that gave birth to some of the most beautiful sounds the world has ever heard? The first great phase of Mozart's brief life was that of the traveling child prodigy, gifted as a performer and writer of music, who grew into the genius who, working within the restrictions of his time, began to rewrite the musical rules. But there was another facet to Mozart: the adult thinker aware of the bigger picture, passionately attached to the progressive values of the Enlightenment, impressively well-read, a speaker of most European languages (even a little English), an Austrian Catholic, a Freemason, and above all a composer at the height of his formidable powers, determined to succeed in the most difficult and lucrative area of all: Opera. Towards the end of his life, Mozart mastered the language of instrumental and orchestral writing--and how both love and loss provoked in him an extraordinary burst of creativity. This was essentially crystallized in three ambitious works that changed the future course of music: his last, great trilogy of symphonies--numbers 39, 40 and 41--which he wrote in six short weeks.
- DirectorPhilip MartinStarsBenedict CumberbatchMichael BrandonTom HodgkinsTheoretical physicist/cosmologist Stephen Hawking's life and search for the beginning of time (1963-6).
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsSigourney WeaverBryan BrownJulie HarrisThe story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
- StarsPaul RhysCharles HazlewoodDavid BamberA dramatized documentary on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsRussell CroweEd HarrisJennifer ConnellyA mathematical genius, John Nash made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.
- DirectorPeter HoarStarsDominic WestDenis LawsonOliver DimsdaleA historical drama that tells the story of the development of penicillin in the 1930's/40's, by a group of scientists in Oxford at The Dunn School of Pathology
- DirectorRichard RichStarsMark HuntKevin QuinnMarion Calvert"You have a gem of a great idea, if you can perfect it," Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian Institute tells Alexander Graham Bell when he presents his theory for the invention of the telephone. When Thomas Watson and Bell begin their work for a multiple telegraph, Bell becomes convinced that he can send the complex sounds of human speech over a wire from its vibrations. Mr. Hubbard, the financier of the telegraph project, laughs when Bell first tells him about the idea for the project and says he will not finance it. Frustrated, Bell and Watson begin to work on the telephone while working on the telegraph without Hubbard knowing it. Bell is constantly inspired by his deaf students and longs to teach them to speak and communicate. His first dedication had always been to be a teacher of the deaf. But, as Bell becomes more and more engrossed in making the telephone invention work, he has little time to work with the students. As the inventors experience triumph in transmitting sound while playing with the telegraph, Bell is distressed to learn of a student, David, who is giving up and going home because he is frustrated with his inability to speak. He meets David at the train as he is leaving to convince him to stay and keep trying, but David refuses. Bell is greatly disappointed in his failure to help the boy and in the unsuccessful attempts to make the telephone work. Bell is frustrated and tired. As he rests on a park bench, his spirit is renewed when a mime communicates with him. He realizes he could never fail if he keeps trying. He and Watson continue working on the telephone with great enthusiasm. Finally, the telephone experimenting works as sound is transmitted through a tube. Watson clearly understands Bell when he says, "Watson, come here. I want you." As they share the joys of success, school begins again. Bell is rewarded by the return of David who has practiced all summer and knows he can succeed, too.
- DirectorMichael AndersonStarsRichard ToddMichael RedgraveUrsula JeansDrama based on the attempt by the RAF to destroy six dams in Germany during World War II.
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.
- DirectorOwen HarrisStarsDaniel RadcliffeBill PaxtonRyan GageThe struggle of Houser's legal feud against American lawyer Jack Thompson, over the morality of the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsMichael FassbenderKeira KnightleyViggo MortensenA look at how the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud gives birth to psychoanalysis.
- DirectorJoseph LoseyStarsTopolEdward FoxColin BlakelyThis biopic is about Galileo Galilei, the seventeenth century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the moons of Jupiter. He supported Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. This brought him in conflict with the Catholic Church. By threatening him with torture, the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest. However, Galileo's trials and theories inspired others like Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler to prove that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Some years ago, the Pope accepted that Earth does revolve around the Sun and issued a rare apology for what the Church had done to Galileo. The Catholic Church recanted.
- DirectorMichael AptedStarsIoan GruffuddAlbert FinneyMichael GambonThe idealist William Wilberforce maneuvers his way through Parliament, endeavoring to end the British transatlantic slave trade.
- DirectorJames MarshStarsEddie RedmayneFelicity JonesTom PriorStephen Hawking gets unprecedented success in the field of physics despite being diagnosed with motor neuron disease at the age of 21. He defeats awful odds as his first wife Jane aids him loyally.
- StarsAdrien BrodyKristen ConnollyEvan JonesFollow the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era, from U.S. presidents to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Grigori Rasputin.
- DirectorKrzysztof RogulskiStarsElisabeth DudaErick DeshorsLola LasseronThe film tells of the principal stages in Marie Curie's life and career. She was a citizen of Warsaw, famous scientist- double winner of Nobel prize in Science. Our interlocutors they are e.g. L'Oreal-Unesco prize winner "Women in Science" from 2011. There are women-scientists from five continents. All are awarded of the prize amounted of 100 000 dollars for scientific works of the greatest meaning to the humanity.
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsRachel WeiszMax MinghellaOscar IsaacA historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsEdward G. RobinsonRuth GordonOtto KrugerTrue story of the doctor who considered it was not immoral to search for a drug that would cure syphillis.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsPaul MuniJosephine HutchinsonAnita LouiseThe biography of the pioneering French microbiologist who helped revolutionize agriculture and medicine.
- DirectorFrank VogelStarsReimar J. BaurTrude BechmannKurt BöweBiography of the astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
- DirectorPanos AnestisStarsNikos BourniasDimitris PetakosMichalis TamboukasExploring new insights into Galileo Galilei' s life and scientific works, we follow one of the greatest men in the History of Science to a journey through intense social, academical and political battles. For the Dawn of Modern Science.
- StarsPeter AckroydMiriam MargolyesKenneth CranhamA docudrama biopic of the 19th-century author Charles Dickens
- CreatorGeorgia BrownVerity LambertMidge MackenzieStarsSiân PhillipsPatricia QuinnAngela DownThis series dramatizes the lives of the Pankhurst women and their role in the Suffragette Movement.
- DirectorJon AmielStarsPaul BettanyJennifer ConnellyIan KellyTorn between faith and science, and suffering hallucinations, English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to complete 'On the Origin of Species' and maintain his relationship with his wife.
- DirectorBernard RoseStarsGary OldmanJeroen KrabbéIsabella RosselliniThe life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.
- StarsMartin ShawFrances BarberNeil PearsonThe story of the British 19th-century businessman who became the wealthiest man in the Western world and founded the nation Rhodesia.
- StarsFrank GillardArthur LoweJames GroutDramatised documentary series charting the development of vaccines by Pasteur, Koch and others in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- DirectorMatt BrownStarsDev PatelJeremy IronsMalcolm SinclairThe story of the life and academic career of the pioneer Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and his friendship with his mentor, Professor G.H. Hardy.
- StarsJeff WilburnBenjamin LoehJohn S. Howell Sr.Documentaries about great American thinkers, and how their ideas have changed the world.
- StarsMichael EmersonMichael AronovYan TualFrom early alchemists to those obsessed with the atom itself, the collective knowledge of centuries of bold thinkers and tinkerers constructed what is today the basis of modern chemistry. This is the story of the trailblazers whose curiosity about their world helped unlock some of natures best kept secrets.
- DirectorMarjane SatrapiStarsRosamund PikeYvette FeuerMirjam NovakThe incredible true story of Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her Nobel Prize-winning work that changed the world.