Drama

Quote:
In 1956, there was an uprising of Hungarians against their Russian overlords, which the Russians briefly allowed to flower and then ruthlessly suppressed. One suspects that the country’s rulers knew about the uprising in advance and permitted it to continue so as to be able to identify who was most actively involved. In this film, it is 1958, and five very different men are waiting in their prison cells to be taken out and executed. Their dreams, fantasies and recollection relieve what might otherwise seem to be an unnecessarily repetitive situation. The internationally known French star Matthieu Carrière plays one of the condemned men. ~ Clarke Fountain, RoviRead More »

In 1840, a young Russian aristocrat, Dimitri Sanin, is returning home after a long tour of Europe. In Germany, he falls in love with a beautiful pastry shop girl, Gemma Rosselli, who soon starts sharing his feelings. They decide to get married and, in order to finance the wedding, Dimitri goes back to Russia to sell his family estate. Unfortunately he falls prey to a seductress, Princess Maria Nikolaevna, who pretends to be willing to buy his land to come nearer him. Now Sanin is in a fix: should he choose the pure Gemma or the evil but irresistible Maria?Read More »

A Schatzberg film that is probably too little known. Its theme reminds faintly of Reunion, but different and in the other direction.

rottentomatoes summary:
A young Frenchman’s search for his American father provides the thematic center of this drama by septuagenarian director Jerry Schatzberg. Daniel (Guillaume Canet) repairs brass instruments for a living, and when he journeys to New York to work on some French horns for Paul (Tony Lo Bianco), a business friend, he brings with him a scrap of paper bearing the identity of his father, whom he has never met. Upon his arrival in New York, Daniel is introduced to Paul’s family, which includes his daughter Tilly (Monica Trombetta) and Joey (Nick Sandow), her abusive lout of a husband. Read More »

Review
“In French cinema, the simplest subjects often make the most striking films, and Marion Vernoux’s charming but touching romantic drama Rien à faire bears that out. Although the plot is admittedly anodyne stuff, its treatment is pure auteur and the result is a captivating film showing the brutal fragility of an ephemeral romance. The inventive cinematography vividly conveys the mood of the lead characters – frequent moments of euphoria piercing a sense of suppressed melancholia as Marie and Pierre discover a shared relief from their monotonous and unfulfilled lives. Compelling naturalistic performances from Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Patrick Dell’Isola make this a satisfying and moving minimalist drama about those eternal themes of love, loneliness and desire. “Read More »

Quote:
A man with the mental faculties of a child must save his mother, thereby becoming god and devil.Read More »

The film, starring Karyofyllia Karabeti and Alptekin Serdengeçti in its title roles, follows the story of Irini, a young Greek woman who comes to İstanbul to trace the roots of her family.

Turkish film director Seçkin Yaşar’s 2nd feature “Sevgilim İstanbul” (İstanbul, My Love) won the best film and best director prizes at India International Women Film Festival 14 – 21 December 2008.Read More »

Quote:
Claire (an American) wakes up in a terrible state at the end of a runway in Spain. As she tries to account for her state (blood-soaked and bruised), she has flashbacks from the past few days. She thinks she’s killed someone, but isn’t sure, and now she’s wandering the Spanish streets without money or a clear memory.Read More »

Characters adrift in an isolated landscape collide with the past and each other as they unravel the secrets of a dead man’s dreams. A moody meditation on anti-heroism, the film pays tribute to the black and white style of cinema noir.Read More »

Quote:
A managing editor of a LA newspaper must put together headlines for the next day in a way that’ll attract the potential readers, deal with hectic going-ons at the workplace and have a serious talk with his wife about her wish to adopt.Read More »