Drama

  • Ming-liang Tsai – Hai Jiao Tian Ya AKA All the Corners of the World (1989)

    1981-1990DramaMing-liang TsaiTaiwanTV

    Quote:
    All the Corners of the World sees the family unit as a disaster waiting to happen. Mr and Mrs Chang live in Taipei’s Hsi-Men-Ding (the city’s entertainment/red light/nightlife district) with their teenaged kids. The parents work as cleaners in a “love hotel” and send the kids out to work as ticket scalpers, block-buying seats for hit movies like A City of Sadness and reselling them at a profit. Tragedy strikes when the daughter Mei-Hsueh flirts with the idea of prostituting herself and changes her mind at the last moment, leaving her first client with injuries that put him on the critical list. The focus throughout is on the son Ah Tong, who has a latent talent as a writer that is never going to flower.Read More »

  • Juan José Campanella – El mismo amor, la misma lluvia AKA Same Love, Same Rain (1999)

    Drama1991-2000ArgentinaJuan José CampanellaRomance

    In 1980, Jorge Pellegrini (Ricardo Darín), a young and talented Argentinian writer, upon returning from a trip to Europe, is forced to write short love stories for “Cosas”, a local, light-themed magazine, to aid his dire financial situation. His boss and best friend, Roberto (Eduardo Blando), constantly censors Jorge’s stories, by deciding which parts to take out or which stories not to print. Jorge’s friend and mentor, Mastronardi, often visits the magazine HQ asking Roberto for work, but due to his history of struggling against the military government in Argentina, finds himself in a black list and cannot find work.Read More »

  • Daisuke Itô – Hangyakuji AKA The Conspirator (1961)

    Drama1961-1970ActionDaisuke ItôJapan

    Synopsis:
    During an era of civil wars, in the 7th year of Tenso, Yoshimoto Imagawa was overthrown by Oda Nobunaga with the help of Ieyasu Tokugawa. Ieyasu’s wife, Lady Tsukiyama, was of the ruined Imagawa clan. She was basically abandoned by Ieyasu lest his fealty with Oda Nobunaga be doubted. Ieyasu’s son, half Tokugawa & half Imagawa, was married to Oda’s first daughter Tokumine Gozen, to further assure Oda that there would be no attempt at revenge over the downfall of the Imagawa clan. Read More »

  • Lloyd Bacon – 50 Million Frenchmen (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyDramaLloyd BaconUSA

    Olsen and Johnson on the loose in France.

    50 Million Frenchmen is the film adaptation of the hit Broadway play with all of Cole Porter’s music eliminated, with the exception of “You Do Something To Me”, which is used as background music. The songs were omitted because box office receipts for musicals were down and Warner Brothers apparently didn’t want to risk a flop. The movie was originally filmed in 2-color Technicolor, but all that remains is this black and white version.Read More »

  • Etienne Comar – Django (2017)

    Drama2011-2020Etienne ComarFranceWar

    -Synopsis-
    The story of Django Reinhardt, famous guitarist and composer, and his flight from German-occupied Paris in 1943.Read More »

  • Robert Aldrich – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

    1961-1970DramaRobert AldrichUSA

    Quote:
    In a tale that almost redefines sibling rivalry, faded actresses Blanche and ‘Baby’ Jane Hudson live together. Jane was by far the most famous when she performed with their father in vaudeville but as they got older, it was Blanche who became the finer actress, which Jane still resents. Blanche is now confined to a wheelchair – Jane ran her over with the car while drunk, even though she has no memory of it – and Jane is firmly in control. As time goes by, Jane exercises greater and greater control over her sister, intercepting her letters and ensuring that few if anyone from the outside has any contact with her. As Jane slowly loses her mind, she torments her sister going to ever greater extremes.Read More »

  • Roger Spottiswoode – The Children of Huang Shi (2008)

    2001-2010AustraliaDramaRoger SpottiswoodeWar

    Quote:
    Like an eager frequent flyer, Western paternalism changes destinations but not its baggage. The Children of Huang Shi takes the good intentions and terrible methods of The Constant Gardener and Blood Diamond and takes them to China, where another traumatizing upheaval is whittled down to window-dressing for the personal romance and redemption of a couple of chalky-white stars. Business as usual for Roger Spottiswoode, who in the 1983 thriller Under Fire envisioned the Nicaraguan revolution as mere scrim on which a hotshot American reporter could get his shit together. The adventure-seeking outsider this time around is real-life British journalist George Hogg (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who arrives in late-1930s China as invading Japanese forces plow the land, slaughtering everyone in their way.Read More »

  • Henrikas Sablevicius – Musu vasara (1963)

    1961-1970DramaHenrikas SableviciusShort FilmUSSR

    Synopsis:
    A children’s short film about the summer adventures of a schoolboy and his dog. The protagonist of the film seeks to get on TV to demonstrate the “extraordinary talent” of his four-legged friend … The game story is illustrated with the documentary shots of the summer holiday of the Lithuanian pioneers of the early 60’s. The information: “Our summer” is the first Lithuanian children’s television film, as well as the first work of the Lithuanian SSR television, specially shot for the “Intervision” system – an international television network, which included some socialist countries and republics of the USSR, and Finland. Read More »

  • Stefan Ruzowitzky – Die Fälscher AKA The Counterfeiters [+commentary] (2007)

    2001-2010AustriaDramaStefan RuzowitzkyWar

    Quote:
    The moral conundrum at the heart of Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky’s “The Counterfeiters” is worthy of Kafka or Dostoevsky: What is the value of a single human life in the face of unspeakable evil? During World War II, one of Europe’s greatest counterfeiters decides, for a while, that his own survival is more important, until inevitably he learns that surrendering one’s soul and humanity may be worse than losing your life altogether.Read More »

Back to top button