Drama

  • Josef von Sternberg – Macao [+Extras] (1952)

    1951-1960DramaFilm NoirJosef von SternbergUSA

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    Synopsis:
    A sultry night club singer, a man who has also traveled to many exotic ports and a salesman meet aboard ship on the 45-mile trip from Hong Kong to Macao. The singer is quickly hired by an American expatriate who runs the biggest casino in Macao and has a thriving business in converting hot jewels into cash. Her new boss thinks one of her traveling companions is a cop. One is — but not the one the boss suspects.

    — IMDb.Read More »

  • Gabriel Mascaro – Boi neon AKA Neon Bull (2015)

    2011-2020ArthouseBrazilDramaGabriel Mascaro

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    Iremar works at the “Vaquejadas”, a rodeo in the North East of Brazil where two men on horseback try bring down a bull by grabbing its tail. It’s dusty and back-breaking work, but Iremar is a natural vaqueiro feeding, prepping and taking care of the bulls. Home is the truck used to transport the animals from show to show which he shares with his coworkers; Galega, an exotic dancer, truck driver and mother to her spirited and cheeky daughter Cacá, and Zé, his rotund compadre in the bull pen. Together they form a makeshift but close-knit family. But Brazil and the Northeast are changing and the region’s booming clothing industry has stirred new ambitions in Iremar. Swinging in his hammock in the back of the truck, his head is filled with dreams of pattern cutting, sequins and exquisite fabrics as he mentally assembles his latest sexy fashion designs.Read More »

  • Woody Allen – Café Society (2016)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaUSAWoody Allen

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    In the 1930s, a young Bronx native moves to Hollywood, where he falls in love with the secretary of his powerful uncle, an agent to the stars. After returning to New York, he is swept up in the vibrant world of high society nightclub life.Read More »

  • Wayne Wang – While the Women Are Sleeping (2016)

    Drama2011-2020ArthouseJapanWayne Wang

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    Seduction, betrayal, murder, insomnia and apparitions are the elements at play in Wayne Wang’s tense and masterful version of the eponymous short story by Spanish writer Javier Marías, which takes a bewitching look at the meaning of love…Read More »

  • Bertrand Bonello – L’Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close) aka House of Tolerance (2011)

    2011-2020Bertrand BonelloDramaFrance

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    The dawn of the XXth century: L’Apollonide, a house of tolerance, is living its last days.
    In this closed world, where some men fall in love and others become viciously harmful, the girls share their secrets, their fears, their joys and their pains…

    Des derniers jours du XIXe siècle à l’aube du XXe, la vie quotidienne des prostituées et de leur patronne dans une maison close. Criblée de dettes, cette dernière dissimule à ses employées la fermeture imminente de l’établissement. Connue sous le nom de « La femme qui rit », une prostituée a le visage marqué par un client dément. Une autre mourra de la syphilis. La plupart des filles rêvent de mariage, d’argent, de liberté. « L’Apollonide » est une cage dorée dans laquelle elles se fanent doucement. Le monde extérieur, ses tragédies, ses nouveautés et ses changements, n’y entre que par l’intermédiaire des habitués qui viennent rejoindre leurs filles favorites tous les soirs, et se confient à elles…Read More »

  • Agnieszka Holland – Aktorzy prowincjonalni AKA Provincial Actors (1979)

    1971-1980Agnieszka HollandComedyDramaPoland

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    Quote:
    Talented Polish director Agnieszka Holland who would be better known in later years because of her films like Europa, Europa (1991) or some of her American works like Washington Square (1997), hits the mark early and again with this ostensible story about provincial actors in Poland. In reality, the comedy-drama can be read as a commentary on the contemporary Polish scene in politics and society. The story begins as a savvy director arrives in a small town to put on a stage play. His leading man is filled with insecurities and goes beyond the confines of his lead role to expand his part, restore his cut lines, and generally outdo himself while taking on some of everyone else’s job, including the director’s. No one wants to lose him because of his drawing power, and the director is caught in a bind. At the same time, the lead actor’s wife is slowly losing her chances at success, being relegated to a much lesser position in the troupe. This fine comedy won the Fipresci award at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

  • Petr Kazda & Tomás Weinreb – Já, Olga Hepnarová AKA I, Olga Hepnarova (2016)

    2011-2020CrimeCzech RepublicDramaPetr Kazda and Tomás Weinreb

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    Olga Hepnarova was a young, lonely lesbian outsider from a coldhearted family who couldn’t play the part society had chosen for her. Her paranoid self-examination and inability to connect with other people eventually drove her over the edge of humanity when she was only 22 years old. The film shows the human being behind the mass murderer. Guided by her letters, we delve into Olga’s psyche and witness the worsening of her loneliness.

    Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Tôkyô boshokuAKA Tokyo Twilight (1957)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapanYasujiro Ozu

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    Synopsis:

    Two sisters live with their father. The younger sister is embroiled in an affair and becomes pregnant. The elder sister has run away from her husband and returned with her child to her parent’s home. Both sisters are astonished when their mother, long thought dead, turns up alive. The sisters are even more stunned when they learn what their mother’s life has been.Read More »

  • Jan Troell – Nybyggarna AKA The New Land (1972)

    2011-2020DramaJan TroellSweden

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    Quote:
    For many, The New Land will be where Jan Troell’s two-part Swedish immigrant story set in 19th-century America really starts to take off. In many ways, The Emigrants was merely preamble to get us here.

    Released in 1972, a year after the previous entry, The New Land picks up the story of the Nilsson family almost immediately after the final scene in The Emigrants. Karl Oskar (Max von Sydow) has claimed a patch of riverside Minnesotan land as his own, and he’s bringing Kristina (Liv Ullman) and the kids, along with his younger brother Robert (Eddie Axberg), to start transforming it into a home and farm. The work will be hard, but it ends up being rewarding, and the Nilssons become part of a growing community of Swedish transplants.Read More »

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