Drama

After the death of his beloved fiancée, a man reads her diary and finds out that she was having an affair with a young construction worker.Read More »

Directed by the late, great Jun Ichikawa (Tony Takitani, Dying at a Hospital); about the storied Tokiwa apartment that in the 1950s housed up-and-coming manga luminaries such as Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Fujiko Fujio and numerous others.

Mark Schilling of the Japan Times called Tokiwa: the Manga Apartment one of the best Japanese movies of the 90s; Kinema Jumpo named it among the 200 greatest Japanese films of all time.Read More »

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Nik, a released prisoner who started writing in prison, wants to leave his past behind, but refuses to contact his former girlfriend and her family. Under the name of his jail buddy Henry, he moves in with his pen pal–who has never seen him–and is always watched suspiciously by their roommate. Nik seeks contact with the literary culture, although he feels disgusted by the pompous fuss of this society. He is not without talent and works on a novel in which he minutely describes the abduction of an industrialist. Henry gets shot at the prison breakout and visits Nik to get help from him. He likes his novel plot and wants to put it into action.Read More »

Though it was accepted as standard entertainment upon its first release, the German Jugend (Youth) has in recent years been perceived as an implicitly pro-Nazi tract. Adapted by Thea Von Harbou from a controversial 19th century play by Max Hulls, the story concerns a young girl named Annchen (Kristina Soderbaum), who from childhood onward has had her judgment warped by the self-righteous proclamations of a fanatical priest (Eugene Klopfer). After her first sexual experience, Annchen is so overwhelmed by guilt that she commits suicide, profoundly affecting the lives of those closest to her. Some critics have suggested that the film advises its audience to beware false prophets-except those wearing brown shirts and armbands, who will lead the populace from the opiate of religion to the glories of National Socialism. The fact that Jugend was directed by Kristina Soderbaum’s husband Viet Harlan, one of the German film industry’s leading torch-bearers for the Third Reich, has not been a point in its favor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

Synopsis: An aspiring film student is denied a scholarship to the state-funded university when his father is thrown in jail. The man had stopped a train in order to facilitate the union between two old friends. The son then takes a job as a land surveyor and meets a Greek man who works towards the collective benefits of the peasants. The man is killed in a peasant uprising prompted by a bureaucratic boondoggle. The surveyor looks after the man’s widow as his emerging political and social awareness leads him take a stand against government injustice. Another incident, in which gypsies are rounded up by state hygiene workers, further galvanizes the man’s beliefs. He photographs the incident, and his work allows him to be accepted into the school from which he was previously denied admission.Read More »

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La quarantaine (Beyond Forty) is a psychological drama by Anne Claire Poirier, veteran and pioneer of feminine and feminist cinema in Canada. As a director and producer, she broke the silence of women, reversed taboos and paved the way for women’s films in Quebec and Canada. “If I feel this way, it’s because others have to live the same thing as me.” This leitmotiv leads Anne Claire Poirier to make a feminine cinema that is both personal and plural.Read More »

Shunzo (Bengal) and his wife Michi (Masako Motai) run a beloved greengrocer on the outskirts of Tokyo. When Lee, a struggling exchange student from China, visits the shop but is unable to afford the produce, an uneasy relationship sprouts. Begrudgingly, Shunzo agrees to lower his prices. Soon, Lee’s classmates begin frequenting the shop. As Shunzo’s generosity sneaks up on him and strains his family’s welfare, he confronts his role as surrogate father to his newfound Chinese friends.Read More »

Synopsis
A company of French bourgeois travel through the territories occupied by Germans in a stagecoach accompanied by a woman of the oldest profession.Read More »

Teréz (Mari Törőcsik) has hit 40 and after her divorce she feels life to be empty and void of purpose. Although those around her do everything they can to help through these difficult times, she slips further into lethargy. This film by Gyula Maár is outstanding for accurately registering the tiniest of spiritual flickers, building on the acting sensibilities of Törőcsik and the incandescent intensity of Lajos Koltai’s camerawork.Read More »