Darci Kistler

On Christmas Eve, a little girl named Marie falls asleep and dreams herself into a fantastic world in which her toys become larger than life. She meets up with the Nutcracker Prince who takes her on a journey to his kingdom and defends her from the Mouse King.

Ballet of Serenade by George Balanchine, directed by Judy Kinberg 1990

Loosely based on a section of Mikhail Lermontov's classic Russian novel of the same title, the film involves a displaced cowboy (played by Kevin Jarre, the screenwriter of Rambo), a sociopathic record producer (Dennis Hopper) and, caught between them, a gum-chewing valley girl who would rather be somewhere else (Natalie Zimmerman). Lermontov's 19th century novel leaves a vapor trail on the action, but A Hero of Our Time is more precisely a portrait of contemporary Los Angeles, a tale of wayward heroism played out against a landscape of yearning and desolation. Director/writer Michael Almereyda, whose screenplay for Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World will be produced this year, completed principal photography for A Hero of Our Time in October of 1985. Dennis Hopper's participation occurred during a break in the filming of Blue Velvet.