Drama

NY Times:
The notion that our sexual behavior is the purest expression of our deepest selves is delicately explored in “9 Songs,” Michael Winterbottom’s lyrical, graphically explicit chronicle of an ordinary love affair between two attractive people. The movie isn’t the first art film to show real as opposed to simulated sex, but it’s the first to scrutinize at length one couple’s bedroom etiquette in a search for their identities. If anything, “9 Songs,” conceived and directed by Mr. Winterbottom, the British filmmaker responsible for movies like “In This World” and “Welcome to Sarajevo,” that boldly enter the topical fray, proves that showing what people do in bed may not reveal all that much. The truth lies hidden in their minds.Read More »

The members of a British working-class family see their lives starting to come apart as the Nation prepares to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (named for an anarchist who tried to blow up Parliament) in Michael Winterbottom’s drama Wonderland. Eileen (Kika Markham) and Bill (Jack Shepherd) are a married couple with four grown children. Bill has lost his job and is drifting through life, unsure of what to do. He’s also having sexual problems with Eileen, who is being driven insane by their noisy neighbors. Neither Bill nor Eileen have seen their son Darren (Enzo Cilenti) for a long time, and his birthday is a heartbreaking experience for them. (Darren, on the other hand, would prefer to celebrate his birthday by spending the night in a hotel with his girlfriend rather than seeing his parents.) Bill and Eileen also have three daughters, Nadia (Gina McKee), Debbie (Shirley Henderson) and Molly (Molly Parker). Nadia works in a cafe and has trouble meeting men; she’s signed up with a dating agency, but has yet to meet anyone she likes.Read More »

Making its debut with Romeo and Juliet on 3 December 1978, and concluding nearly seven years later with Titus Andronicus on 27 April 1985, the BBC Television Shakespeare project was the single most ambitious attempt at bringing the Bard of Avon to the small screen, both at the time and to date.Read More »

The film Maddalena tells the story of a woman who is desperate to find real love in a real steady relationship on the one hand; and a priest who is doubting his ability to cope with celibacy on the other hand. When Maddalena decides the priest is the man that she wants, an atmosphere of erotic tension and self-questioning about true Faith fill up the air. The film is long forgotten (thus the five), but the score for the film, parts of which were used in other films, is considered by some as one of Morricone’s finest, and quite rightly so. The already mentioned title part ‘Come Maddalena’, which mixes jazzy drumming with a modest church organ, the lyrical voices of Edda dell’Orso and a scatting choir, is probably one of the most evocative and thrilling parts of film music I have ever heard. Long before the world had ever heard of lounge music and chill-out, maestro Morricone must have sent the shivers down many a spine… as he has done so many times before and after.Read More »

After receiving a letter from a woman named Asiye asking for help to save her, the President of the Associations Against Prostitution visits the brothel to save Asiye. However, she finds herself in a strange musical show.Read More »

This serial killer suspense thriller by Robert Altman was originally broadcast as an episode of Kraft Mystery Theater, then expanded into a longer cut and released to theaters. It stars Charles McGraw, Ted Knight, and Carroll O’Connor, among others, and features an orchestral musical score by John Williams (billed as “Johnny Williams”) before he became famous with his scores for Jaws, Star Wars, and Superman.Read More »

Cult director Koji Wakamatsu (famous abroad for titles such as “Go, Go Second Time Virgin”) returns to helm the sixth in this perversely entertaining series. A Kabukicho gigolo with a gambling debt Mikio Osawa agrees to bump off a rich wife’s husband for a bundle of cash, but botches the hit. On the run in the snow-covered hills of northern Japan, he holes up in a shuttered, deserted house. But the house is not empty: a timid, traumatized girl Mika Ito lives there, in the thrall of a sick, hot-tempered trucker Shiro Sano who has kept her there since she was a tiny girl. Osawa tries hard but looks out of his depth here, as veteran Sano and 23-year-old ingenue Ito build an all-too-believable, monstrous relationship as sadistic paternal pervert and terrified tremulous child. File under guilty pleasure.Read More »

The Isle is a case in point. Based around a primitive fishing community on a lake, it’s beautifully shot though morally bankrupt, far too eager to visually astound one moment then deeply shock the next. It focuses on a pseudo sado-masochistic relationship between a mute woman and a murderous ex-cop and, seemingly, is out to break almost every taboo available. There’s animal cruelty on a grand scale. There’s at least one rape scene, and one scene in which sexual violence towards women is almost justified by the filmmaker. There’s self-mutilation; a myriad of bodily functions; and, perhaps only a hundred lines of dialogue in the entire movie. It’s almost as if Kim is setting himself up to be Korea’s Takashi Miike, only with better cinematography.Read More »

Synopsis
A mother’s last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed play, “Incendies” tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults’ voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love….Read More »