1981-1990

Quote:
Sam Lion has led a full and successful life. As a young boy, abandoned by his mother, he was adopted by a circus family, where he developed an afinity for big cats. His career as a circus acrobat was cut short by an accident, after which he started a new life in commerce. His revolutionary cleaning products made him a wealthy man, the head of a corporate empire, but his private life was just as eventful. He marred young, had two children, his first wife died tragically, and he re-married. Now in his fifties, Sam has only one wish – to escape. Whilst crossing the ocean in a one-man dinghy, he decides to fake his own death.Read More »

Based on the mid-eighteenth century novel by Cao Xueqin, the third version (previous version was 38 episodes) of “A Dream in Red Mansions” (aka Dream of the Red Chamber) is known by many to be the ultimate and best adaptation of the story either on TV or film. It is a story about the tragic love of Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu, and the prosperity and decline of the four notable feudal ruling-class families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue. Daiyu is a beautiful and talented girl, but prone to ill health. Baoyu, nonetheless, falls for her over the years and puts up with her sensitivity and ill-tempered personality. They, along with their family-favored and tactful cousin Xue Baochai, reside in the Grand View Garden. The garden was built to honor the visit of Baoyu’s sister, Imperial Consort Jia Yuanchun. Her installment marked the height of the families’ status, prosperity and power. This story also gives praise to the work and revolts of the many servants and nurses in the Grand View Garden. With its beautiful scenery, solid cast ensemble, haunting and superb music score and elegant songs, “A Dream in Red Mansions” remains one of the most beloved and popular Chinese TV-series to date.Read More »

A close-up of Berlin coal carriers from Prenzlauer Berg. No portrayal of heroic workers or progress here. Instead, bright, deeply-felt sketches of rough men and their resolute female boss.Read More »

Jeune femme à sa fenêtre lisant une lettre
1983, 45 min, super-8

“Through the window, we cannot distinguish the scene: a street, a canal, a view of Delft, perhaps a port. We are on the inside, with the light pouring in. The maps on the wall are bigger than the paintings, yet we do not know where we are. The woman stands at the window reading a letter. She loses track of location as she reads. She could be anywhere, at any random point on the map. Outside. Through the window, we cannot distinguish the scene: a street, a canal, a view of Delft, perhaps a port. We are on the inside…”(Jean-Claude Rousseau)Read More »

Synopsis:
In Zola’s Paris, an ingenue arrives at a tony bordello: she’s Nana, guileless, but quickly learning to use her erotic innocence to get what she wants. She’s an actress for a soft-core filmmaker and soon is the most popular courtesan in Paris, parlaying this into a house, bought for her by a wealthy banker. She tosses him and takes up with her neighbor, a count of impeccable rectitude, and with the count’s impressionable son. The count is soon fetching sticks like a dog and mortgaging his lands to satisfy her whims. She bankrupts him, arranges the debauching of his wife, and seduces his son on his wedding day. What else can she accomplish before she leaves Paris airborne?Read More »

A version of the famous kabuki play Yotsuya Kaidan from 1981.Read More »

When Teresa’s husband dies she only inherits debts. In order to pay them she must assume her husband’s place as a truck driver.
She will have to avoid the moves fellow male drivers make on her, for she is still a very attractive woman. While working, she begins a steamy love affair with an experienced driver that helped her with her new job. But the debts are too big and the truck owner demands her to marry him to settle them. Things will settle at the altar, but not in the expected way!Read More »

Comment from IMDb:
The tragic life of Rita Hayworth, one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood’s golden years, is examined in this documentary directed by Arthur Barron. Her life, during her ascent into glory, was the stuff that filled the pages of the fan magazines of that era. She was adored by her fans and envied by others because she had it all.

Her daughter, Princess Yasmin Khan, talks about her mother in a caring manner. It is obviously they had a bond that was only shattered by a horrible disease that took away her dignity, which was the crowning blow to a woman whose life was full of sadness and misery, in spite of the glamorous appearance. The men in her life didn’t give her the happiness she deserved, but used her in whatever way they could.Read More »

Quote:
Iguana is an allegorical fable of the abuses of power which follows a disfigured and fiercely misanthropic sailor who jumps ship to become the improbable king of a remote barren island. Featuring a haunting score by Joni Mitchell and starring Everett McGill as a man raging against the calcified hierarchies of 19th century society, Iguana has gained the reputation of a cult film maudit for its harrowing depiction of the savagely exacting master-slave society created by the despotic sailor. Among Hellman’s least discussed works, Iguana will be presented in its rarely screened extended director’s cut. – HGRead More »