Drama

  • Alexander Pfeuffer – Frühstück? aka Breakfast? (2002)

    2001-2010Alexander PfeufferDramaGermanyQueer Cinema(s)Short Film

    Boris, on the cusp of coming out, is smitten with Til. Upon leaving a club one night, just as they are about to kiss for the first time, an interloper joins them and much to Boris’ chagrin, Til is delighted. Boris doesn’t know how to deal with this and is jealous.

    This is a well-made short that gives the audience a peek into the difficulties that arise when two boys look at love (and their relationship) differently.

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  • Emmanuelle Bercot – Mes chères études aka Student Services (2010)

    2001-2010DramaEmmanuelle BercotEroticaFrance

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    Plot / Synopsis

    A cash strapped college student goes to work as an escort in order to make ends meet, only to realize that her education has taken a back seat to her budding career in the pleasure industry. In her struggle to stay financially stable during her first year at the university, 19 year old Laura discovers that a part-time job just won’t pay the bills. Then, just when Laura is at her most desperate, she sees an internet ad from a man who’s willing to pay £100 an hour to spend an intimate evening with a willing student. Compelled by the lure of some easy money, Laura answers the ad. Later, despite a promise to herself that this will be a once time occurrence, Laura finds herself falling into a new bed every night, and making more money than she ever thought possible. By the time Laura realizes she has stumbled into the downward spiral of prostitution, she begins to doubt her ability to break free from temptation, and finish her education. ~ Jason Buchanan, Allrovi
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  • Alain Resnais – Hiroshima mon amour [+Extras] (1959)

    1951-1960Alain ResnaisArthouseDramaFranceHiroshima at 75

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    REVIEWS
    Strictly Film School, by Acquarello
    […]They are kindred spirits, bound together by personal shame and guilt of survival, and an overwhelming sense that they can never go home again (as in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s White. It is through their affair that the memory of her beloved is reawakened. In essence, the architect is the catalyst: the receptive soul who guides her through the painful, introspective path that leads to closure.Read More »

  • Lasse Hallström – Mitt liv som hund AKA My Life As A Dog (1985)

    Drama1981-1990ArthouseLasse HallströmSweden

    Quote:
    My Life as a Dog (Mitt liv som hund) tells the story of Ingemar, a twelve-year-old from a working-class family sent to live with his uncle in a country village when his mother falls ill. There, with the help of the warmhearted eccentrics who populate the town, the boy finds both refuge from his misfortunes and unexpected adventure. Featuring an incredibly mature and unaffected performance by the young Anton Glanzelius, this film is a beloved and bittersweet evocation of the struggles and joys of childhood from Oscar-nominated director Lasse Hallström.Read More »

  • Roman Polanski – Oliver Twist (2005)

    2001-2010CrimeDramaRoman PolanskiUnited Kingdom

    Polanski’s greatly under-rated adaptation of the Dickens classic boasts stunning set design, exemplary, understated acting quite unlike the “Dickensian” grotesques of most TV adaptations, and definitive portraits of Sykes and Fagin by the great actors James Foreman and Sir Ben Kingsley. The latter’s night of terror in the execution cell at the film’s end is one of the most moving scenes in the director’s canon. Polanski is not scared of invoking Lean. In fact, several scenes pay specific homage to the earlier version while offering a totally valid, more naturalistic update. One for the ages, if not the box office.Read More »

  • Monte Hellman – Iguana (1988)

    1981-1990ActionDramaMonte HellmanUSA

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    Description: Everett McGill stars as a 19th Century sailor whose bizarre facial deformity earns him the name “Iguana.” Beaten and tortured by his shipmates, he escapes to a deserted island where he declares war on all of mankind. Soon, a group of shipwrecked sailors and one kidnapped young maiden are made prisoners of Iguana’s brutal slave empire. In a kingdom ruled by savagery and lust, can these survivors face the greatest evil of all?Read More »

  • Roman Polanski – Nóz w wodzie AKA Knife in the Water (1962)

    1961-1970DramaPolandRoman PolanskiThriller

    Quote:
    Before he got all famous with movies like Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist, Roman Polanski created Knife in the Water, his first feature film.

    Water is a small but incredibly engaging movie, taking place during a day trip on a Polish lake. In the film, upscale couple Andrzej and Krystyna (Leon Niemczyk and Jolanta Umecka) drive out to the marina to take a little ride on the water, picking up a tenacious, beefcake hitchhiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz, whose character is unnamed in the film) and letting him go along on the trip. Andrzej goes to outrageous lengths to belittle his passenger, as the two men obliquely battle for the attention of Krystyna. It all comes to a head with Andrzej pushing the non-swimming blonde kid into the water, right after tossing his beloved knife into the drink. And there’s more to come after that.Read More »

  • Sergei M. Eisenstein – Bezhin lug AKA Bezhin Meadow (1937)

    1931-1940DramaSergei M. EisensteinShort FilmUSSR

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    This short film is only still-image restoration of an unfinished film.

    What is one to make of Bezhin Meadow? What is one to make of Sergei Eisenstein? The questions are in many ways the same as this film maudit and its maker are in much the same boat these days – lost to history both artistic and political. Filmed between 1936 and 1937 Bezhin Meadow was to signal Eisenstein’s return to the Soviet fold after his sojourn in America and the debacle of Que Viva Mexico. What resulted was an even greater debacle in that no sooner had the film neared completion than it was attacked and banned from view – with Eisenstein contributing to the banning by penning an essay in which he ‘confessed’ to the ‘mistakes’ of Bezhin Meadow. Finally adding injury to insult, the sole surviving print of Bezhin Meadow was destroyed – supposedly in a bombing raid during World War II, but just as likely burned outright. Then around 1968 a ‘reconstruction’ of the film was engineered when splices from the editing table, saved by Eisenstein’s wife, Pera Attasheva, were discovered. Cobbled together with a track of Prokoviev music, intertitles fashioned from the original script and cutting continuity and a brief spoken introduction, it exists today as a 35-minute silent film-cum-slide show. Of obvious interest to film scholars, and doubtless pleasing to those who share Roland Barthes’ preference for still images over moving ones, Bezhin Meadow once again begs the question of Eisenstein’s actual value – once the myth of the Great-Individual-Artist-Suffering-at-the-Hands-of-Stalin is scraped away. For all the ups and downs of his career Eisenstein was always Stalin’s favorite filmmaker, never meeting the fate of his teacher Vsevolod Meyerhold. Internationally celebrated, a linchpin of Soviet propaganda, photographed more than any other director in the history of the cinema, Eisenstein was a Movie Star – first, last and always.Read More »

  • Roman Polanski – The Pianist (2002)

    2001-2010DramaRoman PolanskiUSAWar

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    Plot Synopsis: A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw.Read More »

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