Drama

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Based on the novel of the same title by Heinrich Böll.

The young electrician Walter Fendrich has started a promising career. Everything seems to be on the right track. As the future husband of his employer’s daughter Walter even can hope to once succeed him as head of the company. All of a sudden, the visit of a girl from his home town, whom he last saw seven years ago, changes his entire life. Walter realizes that his entire life so far has been all wrong. He breaks out of his former “reasonable“ life and gives up and the wonderful security of the affluent society. He simply disapperas without a farewell or explanation… Read More »

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In 1966, a former gymnast returns to his hometown Danzig, which is now a part of Poland. He begins to reflect on one of his classmates, Joachim Mahlke, who disappeared during World War II. Mahlke was initially marked as an outsider due to his oversized Adam’s apple, but when he turned out to be a great diver, the in-crowd embraced him. Then he steals a Knight’s Cross from a soldier and is expelled from school. Volunteering for war service, he earns a medal himself and hopes his reputation will be rehabilitated. But the school principal refuses and Mahlke deserts from the army … Read More »

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Clifford Groves, toy manufacturer, is in full charge at the factory but feels left out and taken for granted by his wife and children at home. Alone and depressed, he meets old flame Norma, and one thing leads to another. While their relationship is still fairly innocent, his son Vinnie sees them together and suspects the worst. It’s time for tortured souls behind rain-streaming windows…Read More »

Brisbane, Australia, late 1910s. A man on the run from a murder charge buys a place as a stowaway on a smuggler ship bound for Mexico, by way of a tiny coral reef atoll.

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Between 1923 and 1952 Maurice Gleize managed to direct twenty two films in France without distinguishing himself. This one, with a screenplay by top French scriptwriter Charles Spaak, had arguably the best cast he ever got to work with (on other occasions he directed Fenandel, Charles Vanel and Marie Bell) from co-stars Jean Gabin and Michele Morgan – hot on the heels of Quai des brumes that same year – to Saturnin Fabre, Gaston Modot and Julien Carrette but for all Gleize extracted from them it might as well have been John Lund and Maria Montez supported by Leo Gorcey and the Bowery Boys.Read More »

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The second half of the 60s. The era of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the sexual revolution and the rebellion of youth. Those events indirectly penetrate behind the walls of an elite English language high school. The pupils are confronted with conformity and prejudice, friendship and betrayal, the death of a best friend – situations that have molded the generation of today’s forty-year-olds. A nostalgic and realistic vision of life in language schools during the years of Socialism. Friendship, betrayal, love, hatred – they all exist in that micro-society, and the scandals are of the most diverse nature, from the pregnant schoolgirl to the latest Western gramophone records. The impressive acting of the rising stars, the conspiring comradeship of the characters and the hit song, make it a cult work among young viewers.Read More »

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Allegedly based on a number of true cases, The Guys From Paradise is a prison story set in the Phillipines against a background of corruption, drug trafficking and paedophilia. This being a Takashi Miike film however, the results are far from conventional. It’s essentially a film of two parts: the first set in a prison named “Paradise” where a small community of Japanese prisoners led by veteran criminal Yoshida (Tsutomu Yamazaki) enjoy a life of relative freedom and privilege, the second the story of their exploits outside prison walls with police and a deranged yakuza on their trail.Read More »

Two neighbors, young Vincenzo and old Mr. Bartoloni, are utterly unhappy. On the one hand Vincenzo must lead a miserable and frustrating life as he cannot find any regular job, despite his Arts degree. On the other hand, Mr. Bartoloni is fed up with his despotic wife: the woman who used to be a beautiful artist is now a fat and shabby drunkard. The two men meet on a particularly sad night and, during an outburst Mr. Bartoloni asks Vincenzo to help him to get rid of his wife by simulating an accident with the promise of a considerable amount of money. Read More »

Synopsis:
‘This Spanish/Italian melodrama concerns the rivalry between a mother and her daughter for the affections of a rakish drifter. The mother has known his affection before, but on this particular journey through their town, he is drawn to the girl instead. He takes her to his favorite assignation place, a nearby whorehouse, and they begin to see one another regularly, until one day the mother takes her place. The girl’s response to this is somewhat drastic.’
– Clarke FountainRead More »

Review Summary

This combination romance and wartime drama by Etienne Perier was unusual at the time it was released because it portrayed World War II in the Pacific from the perspective of Gwen Terasaki, a woman from the Southern U.S., married to a Japanese diplomat. Based on her autobiography, the interesting story relates how the couple left for Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and remained in Japan throughout the duration of the war. Their experiences and hardships during the war are detailed, as well as the tragedy that separated them once the war was over. Since the suffering of the ordinary Japanese citizen at this time and the racial undercurrents connected to the Pacific war are brought forward, the film stirred some controversy when it was released. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »