Drama

  • Stellan Olsson – Sven Klangs kvintett AKA Sven Klang’s Combo (1976)

    1971-1980DramaMusicalStellan OlssonSweden

    Sweden 1958. In a small provincial town there is a band who plays dance music twice every week. All decisions are made by Sven Klang, the undisputed leader of the band. A new member joins them, saxophone player Lasse. He starts to criticize Sven’s decisions, questions the way they divide the money and he also wants them to be more of a jazz band.

    This is a very underrated movie with a strong jazz score. Norwegian cartoon artist Cristopher Nilsen has named this as the main inspiration for his Jazzbasillen book. As people familiar with the cartoon will know, this inspiration should involve the more shady sides of jazz culture.Read More »

  • Hirokazu Koreeda – Distance (2001)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaHirokazu KoreedaJapan

    Synopsis:
    A massacre initiated by the followers of an apocalyptic religious sect, the Ark of Truth, leaves more than a hundred people dead – including the self-appointed executioners, slain by fellow cult members.

    Three years pass. On the anniversary of the slaughter, four friends who lost loved ones in the tragedy seek solace by journeying to the secluded lake where it all began. They encounter a man who was with the executioners until the very moment the killing began, and their pilgrimage takes a strange, unexpected turn.Read More »

  • May el-Toukhy – Dronningen AKA Queen of Hearts (2019) (HD)

    2011-2020DenmarkDramaMay el-ToukhyThriller

    Anne, a successful lawyer, lives in a beautiful modernist home with her two daughters and physician husband, Peter. Yet when Gustav, Peter’s troubled teenage son from another relationship, comes to live with them, she forms an intimate bond with him that jeopardizes her perfect life. And what initially seems like a liberating move for her soon turns into a disturbing story of power, betrayal, and responsibility with devastating consequences.Read More »

  • Zoltán Fábri – Életjel AKA Fourteen Lives Saved (1954)

    Drama1951-1960HungaryZoltán Fábri

    Quote:
    Életjel (1954).September 1952 in a mine in Northern-Hungary after an explosion water breaks in from the neighbouring shaft and fourteen miners become trapped. The whole country unites to save them.Read More »

  • David Lean – Doctor Zhivago (1965)

    1961-1970David LeanDramaEpicUSA

    Eastman Museum writes:
    An epic romance of doomed love, Doctor Zhivago is set amidst the tumultuous years encompassing World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) is a married physician and poet who falls madly in love with Lara (Julie Christie), a nurse who is also married. The tangled epic of love and war “did nothing less than re-create Moscow and its countryside,” according to Roger Ebert. “Doctor Zhivago,” Ebert continues, “believes that history should have a lot of room for personal feelings . . . the individual over the state, the heart over the mind.” Banned in the Soviet Union for decades, Doctor Zhivago won five of the ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated and has continued to garner acclaim ever since.Read More »

  • Don Siegel – Flaming Star (1960)

    1951-1960Don SiegelDramaUSAWestern

    Synopsis:
    West Texas in the years after the Civil War is an uneasy meeting ground of two cultures, one white. The other native American. Elvis portrays Pacer Burton. The son of a white rancher (John McIntire) and his beautiful Kiowa Indian wife (Dolores DelRio). When fighting breaks out between the settlers and natives, Pacer tries to act as a peace maker, but the “flaming star of death” pulls him irrevocably into the deadly violence.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – They Gave Him a Gun (1937)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Synopsis:
    While serving in World War I, mild-mannered Jimmy (Franchot Tone) strikes up an unlikely friendship with outspoken Fred (Spencer Tracy), but an Army nurse named Rose (Gladys George) comes between them. While Fred ends up in a POW camp, Jimmy makes a courageous turn in battle, thus winning Rose’s love. Unfortunately, after the war ends, Jimmy still yearns for the thrill of combat. Without an outlet, it isn’t long before he willingly enters the seedy criminal underbelly of New York City.Read More »

  • Michal Aviad – Isha Ovedet AKA Working Woman (2018)

    2011-2020DramaIsraelMichal Aviad

    Quote:
    Working Woman is a beautifully performed drama about the everyday struggles of being female in the workplace. Orna (Liron Ben Shlush) is the mother of three young children whose husband is struggling to start his own restaurant. To help support her family Orna lands a job with a former army superior, Benny (Menashe Noy), who is now a successful real estate developer. While Orna embraces her new position and tries to balance its demands with her home life, she begins to experience escalating sexual harassment from her boss. Her rapid rise through the ranks and her increasing financial success seem to parallel a pattern of predatory behavior which ultimately brings her career and marital relationship to the brink. This timely and devastating story is expertly told by long time feminist filmmaker Michal Aviad.Read More »

  • John Brahm – The Locket (1946)

    Drama1941-1950Film NoirJohn BrahmUSA

    Synopsis:
    Lovely Nancy seems like the ideal bride to fiancée John Willis… until, just before the ceremony, Willis is approached by Harry Blair, claiming to be Nancy’s former husband. The tale Blair unfolds (in a flashback within a flashback within a flashback!) paints Nancy as a kleptomaniac, habitual liar, and perhaps worse. But is Blair telling the truth? And does fate have another surprise in store?Read More »

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