Drama

Voyage of the Damned is a 1976 war drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, with an all-star cast featuring Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Max von Sydow, James Mason, and Malcolm McDowell.

The story was inspired by actual events concerning the fate of the ocean liner St. Louis carrying Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba in 1939. It was based on a 1974 nonfiction book of the same title written by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts. The screenplay was written by Steve Shagan and David Butler. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment and released by Rank Film Distributors in the UK and Avco Embassy Pictures in the US.Read More »

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.Read More »

The internet is an integral part of Rudolf Thome’s feature, VENUS TALKING. Novellist Venus lives with her family out of Berlin and moves temporarily to the city where she is starting to write a new book. Her fans can watch her via a webcam. Away from husband and children she begins an affair with Fabrizio…Read More »

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Kędzierzawska’s first full-length feature film deals with issues of intolerance and rejection. When a gypsy caravan arrives in a small town, the population is curious, but feels threatened and rejects the gypsies. This rejection is also felt by a local teenage girl, whose fascination with the strangers inspires her to approach them. Awards: 1991 – Gdynia Polish Film Festival Direction Award; Cannes Youth Film Festival Youth Jury Mention; Bellinzona Children and Youth Film Festival Grand Prix of the City of Bellinzona; also 1989 – Andrzej Munk Studio Competition 1st prize for screenplay (awarded before the film was made).Read More »

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Shukichi is a professor, a widower, absorbed in his work. His unmarried daughter, Noriko, runs his household for him. Both are perfectly content with this arrangement until the old man’s sister declares that her niece should get married. Noriko is, after all, in her mid-20s; in Japan in 1949, a single woman that old is approaching the end of her shelf life. His sister warns the professor that after his death Noriko will be left alone in the world; it is his duty to push her out of the nest and find a husband who can support her. The professor reluctantly agrees. When his daughter opposes any idea of marriage, he tells her he is also going to remarry. That is a lie, but he will sacrifice his own comfort for his daughter’s future. She marries.Read More »

東京物語

They one hot beautiful summer day joyfully left home
She one hot sad day stumbled sideways
He strangely found himself back home
one of those so beautiful noisy hot summer days one saysRead More »

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“Sooner or later, everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu. He is the quietest and gentlest of directors, the most humanistic, the most serene.” — Roger Ebert

It took long enough, but I sampled my first Yasujiro Ozu film, Good Morning (Ohayo), and will soon indulge myself with as many of his works as I can locate. At one time, his films were thought to be “too Japanese” and weren’t available in the West, but if Good Morning is any indication of his craft and appeal, Ozu deserves a much wider audience. It’s a film that works at multiple levels, and only artistic geniuses like Shakespeare have been able to pull off such a universal work that works with both down to earth people and with the upper levels of critical audiences equally.Read More »

English scholar visits a small Spanish town in the Andalusian mountains to investigate the disappearance of another English scholar long ago. He learns of the legend of Sabina, a mysterious dragon woman who becomes his obsession.Read More »

Synopsis: Jed and Chloe, in their early 20’s, live a very simple life in the city. They love each other, find happiness in the smallest things and plan to get married. One day the death of Chloe’s cat triggers inconsolable sadness and a deep confusion in the meaning of life for both Jed and Chloe. Chloe’s tears keep her home but Jed begins a fruitless search for the meaning of life, hoping he can bring back Chloe’s smile. Alone at night he sees a tramp Max on TV whom he believes may hold the key. Jed visits him in the city dump. The awkward duo starts a journey that unexpectedly brings newfound hope to both men and Chloe.Read More »