A man and a woman, two casual acquaintances, learn that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. This discovery drives them to do things they didn’t dare to do before. What will prevail—the feeling of jealousy or passion? What to choose—revenge or forgiveness? The protagonists are looking for something to build a new life upon, but it is not easy: their every action is influenced by the fact of infidelity, and this infidelity has its own logic.Read More »
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Yvan and Elie are two loners who wander aimlessly through their lives. Yvan is a quick-tempered 40-year-old vintage car dealer while Elie is a young burglar and ex-junkie. One day Yvan catches Elie trying to rob him. Instead of beating him up, he becomes strangely attached to him and agrees to drive him home to his parents in his old Chevrolet. Yvan and Elie are both nostalgic about lost relationships, which is what leads them to undertake a bizarre journey through a region that is as spectacular as it is crazy. Both are trying to find the pieces of a puzzle that they want to put back together, but it might be too late.
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Marfa exists at a particular cultural nexus with a constant clash between the art community (inspired to come to Marfa by the American sculptor, Donald Judd), the white community and the Mexican American community. On top of that theres a smothering Border Patrol presence despite the fact the Mexican border is 68 miles away. There is an 11pm curfew for teenagers and they still have corporal punishment in the schools. They paddle kids in school from kindergarten through high school.Read More »
Synopsis
It’s summer and a young foreigner saunters through the streets of this city of street cars and canals.
A lone wanderer, the hypotheses surrounding him will be changing: An artist, at leisure, a simple tourist, a parasite, paranoid, in love…?
Lodged at an old, family-run hotel, he walks through the city, observing, writing and drawing –sketching gestures and expressions caught at random on the street.
In the evenings he haunts a night club called “Les Aviateurs”.
He peers through the open windows of certain façades.
He revisits one of them at different times of day, here and there making out minor domestic contents, more insinuated than seen.
A certain mystery floats over the nature of his intentions, with attitudes reminiscent of those of a voyeur or even a psycho-killer…Read More »
Based on a play by Charles Méré, the 1926 French production Le Vertige was released in the U.S. two years later as “The Living Image”, or “The Lady of Petrograd”. The film opens with the overthrow of the Czar during the 1917 Russian revolution. The family of General Count Svirsky (Roger Karl) cower in their home, certain that the mobs of angry peasants will tear them apart. But even in this moment of crisis, Svirsky can find time to murder the young officer who has been having an affair with Countess Svirska (Emmy Lynn). The Countess knows what has happened, but she loyally remains with her husband as they escape to the safety of the French Riviera. It is here that the Countess meets Henri de Cassel (Jaque Catelain), the “living image” of her dead lover. Once again, the General prepares to shoot the Countess’ paramour in cold blood — but this time, the outcome is quite different.From Hal EricksonRead More »
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A story of a middle-aged woman, Irena, living alone on the outskirts of Wroclaw with her 8-year old son. They live in a drab apartment. She is a mail carrier and her son is her only pride and joy. She hardly communicates with anybody else in a humanly open and natural way. She also cares for a sick relative. One day when delivering a monthly pension to a crippled young miner Jacek, she faints at his doorsteps. Even though she is determined to live alone after divorcing her drunken first husband, she also knows that her boy needs a male figure to correct his bad habits. She also needs a man badly. The love affair between Jacek and Irena begins however their first physical encounter shatters them both. Irena has a lot of problems: her son makes a lot of trouble at school, and at work her supervisor wants to take her route and give it to somebody else. Finally, the sick relative dies, and she is hit with the funeral bill instead with the expected inheritance. She steals pensioners’ money she should be delivering. Tells Jacek that she indeed has received inheritance, places her son in a boaring institution and buys a used car for a trip to West Berlin, opting to immigrate. Now the accident happens… Written by Polish Cinema Database link (link)Read More »
Synopsis:
Recently-divorced fashion designer Julia (Faye Dunaway) arrives in Venice from the U.S. and meets handsome race car driver Valerio (Marcello Mastroianni) at the airport. While she initially brushes off his advances, she soon has a change of heart and invites him to spend a few days with her at the villa where she’ll be staying. After several days divided between lovemaking and sightseeing, a party at Julia’s home turns into an orgy, and Valerio decides that he’s bitten off more than he can chew and leaves her. However, Valerio soon learns that there’s a reason for Julia’s reckless abandon — she is suffering from a terminal illness and has a very short time to live. Faye Dunaway and Marcello Mastroianni were romantically involved at the time Amanti was in production, though little of their personal chemistry appears onscreen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie GuideRead More »
Synopsis (possible spoilers):
‘Adapted from Herman Melville’s short story, Bartleby features John McEnery in the title role. A secretive, solitary lad, Bartleby works as a clerk in the accounting office of Paul Scofield. Unable to deal with Bartleby’s eccentricities, Scofield fires the clerk. But Bartleby refuses to leave, and shows up each day for work at the proper time. Only when the young man is carted away to hospital does Scofield find any peace of mind-but even then, the spectre of Bartleby looms large over the proceedings. Some find this British adaptation of the Melville original exasperatingly slow and mannered, but given the curious nature of the protagonist, how could the story have been told otherwise?’
– Hal Erickson (allmovie)Read More »
Plot / Synopsis
Ingrid Jonker lived an impossible contradiction, writing heart-rending poetry about being a woman of privilege living under apartheid rule, all the while dealing with pressure from the head of the censorship board, a man who also happened to be her father. “Black Butterflies” is the story of how Jonker, a woman with unending sexual cravings and a noted mental imbalance, managed to cope with this dichotomy. In the opening, the least poetic of a number of unconvincing metaphors writ large, Jonker is saved from drowning by handsome publisher Jack Cope, an older gentleman who immediately falls for the leggy writer. What he doesn’t know is that her self-abuse, due to living under the rule of her oppressive, emotionally-abusive father, has fractured her personality. She is not the creator she becomes when she puts pen to paper, but rather a little girl seeking stimulation (which she chases in a number of unavailable men) and hoping for the approval of her father (an impossibility).
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