Drama

Plot Synopsis (by Hal Erickson)
Unlike most Italian films of the 1940s, Augusto Genina’s Cielo Sulla Palude opened in Venice rather than Rome. The film’s American title was Heaven Over the Marshes, and indeed most of the story is set in the disease-ridden Pontine Marshes on the outskirts of Rome. This was the home of Maria Goretti, a pious young girl who was murdered by her would-be seducer. For reasons elucidated in the course of the film, Maria’s short time on earth made her worthy of Sainthood, which was actually bestowed upon her shortly after the release of this film. Maria Goretti is well-played by Ines Orsini. Cielo Sulla Palude served as the comeback feature for director Augusto Genina, whose previous pro-fascist films had caused him to be blacklisted after WW II.Read More »

Heated tempers, frustrated desires and dashed hopes plague a diverse group of individuals whose lives cross paths in Mexico City. There is the bar-owner’s son, Chava (Juan Manuel Bernal), who yearns to emigrate to America. A poor barber, Abel (Bruno Bichir), is madly in love with the gorgeous Alma (Salma Hayek), who eventually becomes a high-class prostitute. Finally, there is Susanita (Margarita Sanz), the desperate spinster who pursues many love affairs in hopes of finding a husband. Adapted from the novel of the Egyptian Nobel prize winner Naguib Mahfuz. (From Film Movement)Read More »

Summary:
Anne lives with her husband in Belgium where she works as a restorer of paintings. When she becomes pregnant, she finds herself remembering a picture she did some time ago and of which she has no memory, no recollection of what happened to it. It becomes her goal to discover and clarify the mystery behind this painting, at the same time she notices that a strange man is following all of her moves.Read More »

Polish entry to this years academy awards.

Sunshine, a beautiful scenery and a good time with loved ones: a Ukrainian family is spending their last holidays on the island of Tenerife. Little do they know that the next day their lives will change forever when Russia attacks their homeland and their flight back to Kiev is being cancelled. From one day to the next, they are no longer tourists on the volcanic island, but refugees – trapped in paradise. This sensitive and authentic family drama shows us the effects of war without any battle scenes. ‘Damian Kocuur’s feature film debut is a breathtaker. No other feature film has managed to convey the helplessness and powerlessness of the Ukrainians with such sensitivity.’Read More »

boblipton@IMDB wrote:
At a popular resort during the Edo Period, a man is murdered. As everyone gossips about the matter and waits for the samurai in charge of the investigation to do something, honeymooning Hideko Takamine takes time out to solve the crime.Read More »

This Senegalese melodrama tells the story of a young girl called Mossane who lives in a village between the ocean and the savannah. There, veneration for the traditions is very common. There’s a legend saying that every other century a girl is born who is doomed because of her beauty. Mossane is only fourteen years old but is already considered to be extraordinary beautiful. Even her own brother is in love with her. According to the custom she has been promised to a rather wealthy man called Diogoye since the day of her birth. However, Mossane is in love with the poor student Fara who is forced to return to the village while the university is on strike. Torn between her own dreams and traditions, Mossane decides to escape. The film shows the resistance of the young generation and is dedicated especially to the African women, their courage and their wish for emancipation.Read More »

IMDB wrote:
An atmospheric indian summer triangle drama.
Decent melodrama from the studio era. Liana Kaarina plays a vamp-like young vagrant hitch hiker, who gets a ride from older industrialist who consequently takes her to his summer house to be his mistress. She takes full advantage of the situation and plans a prosperous marriage when she meets a young man while skinny dipping…

Surprisingly fresh effort from (the biggest studio mogul of Finland) Särkkä, who (with great help from the master cinematographer Olavi Tuomi) succeeds in creating a suitably sleazy atmosphere to unfold the drama in.Read More »

Plot Summary
The film opens through the telescope lens of one of the city’s many colorful outcasts, as he watches a truck arriving carrying mattresses. We meet La Garza, the proprietor of The Smoking Fish nightclub and brothel and her current lover Dimas. Dimas, exuberant and yet full of suppressed dissatisfaction, is at his peak. We see him jubilant at the arrival of the fresh beds for the prostitutes and proud as he watches children celebrating round the burning pyres of old mattresses. But the ritual is tense and uneasy, foreshadowing the community’s easy embrace of substitutes.Read More »

A rude, contemptuous talk show host becomes overwhelmed by the hatred that surrounds his program just before it goes national.Read More »