Drama

Shot in 1968, but banned by the Czech government until the fall of the Communist regime in 1990, Menzel’s wry comic drama is a hymn to humanity and nonconformity. The film’s principal characters are residents of a state-run junkyard / labour camp for those whose actions have been deemed counter-revolutionary. On one side of the yard live the men, most sent here for re-education. On the other side, are a group of women interned for the crime of attempted defection. Separately, the two groups lazily toil, sorting out piles of scrap metal (one huge pile is nothing less than a veritable mountain of crucifixes and religious icons); together, they flirt, philosophize, and occasionally sneak off behind the hillocks of slag to make love. Larks on a String is at once a stinging indictment of the repressive politics of Czechoslovakia’s past, and an endearing comedy and affecting love story.Read More »

Nathuni and Lakhua are driven by hunger across the undulating terrain of Jharkhand to the nearest town. Nathuni has a paralytic husband and two children, while Lakhua is a loner, perpetually on the fringes of survival. When the monsoon clouds overpower the sky, they encounter Chopatlal, whose makeshift van is stuck in the mud as he carries an ailing old couple to the hospital.Read More »

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A family of nomads live in the high, remote mountains of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia; elderly herdsman Tabyldy, his wife Karachach, their daughter-in-law Shaiyr and their 7 year old granddaughter Umsunai. Shaiyr’s son studies in the city and visits them only during the summer holidays. Her husband died many years ago when he was drowned in a mountain river, trying to save a foal. Shaiyr decided to stay with the family due to her strong attachment to the wonderful land and its people. The family breed horses and life goes on as normal amidst the beautiful scenery of the mountain gorge. But another resident of the area appears in Shaiyr’s life, meteorologist Ermek, whose weather station is located near to the family’s home…Read More »

The “white paws” of this noirish melodrama are the gaudy white spats sported by a reclusive French aristocrat in a fishing village on the coast of Normandy. Scripted by French playwright Jean Anouilh, who was originally to have directed it, Pattes blanches was ultimately brought to the screen by Grémillon, who accepted the project after the commercial failure of his Le ciel est à vous. The moody plot concerns the relationship of the aristocrat (Bernard) and his vengeful half-brother (Bouquet) and their rivalry over a promiscuous flirt from the city (Delair) who has married the local innkeeper. Although produced within the framework of the commercial cinema, Grémillon’s film manages to imbue the melodrama with a sharp sense of class divisions and his characteristic visual harmonies. (Harvard Film Archives)Read More »

In a Bavarian forest, the pupils of a boarding school are about to have their lives changed by the arrival of Vincent, a young man who can charm wild animals with his guitar. One day Vincent ventures across the lake and meets the mysterious Marianne…Read More »

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René, an actor, who has long lived withdrawn from reality after the death of his wife, Hélène. Proud in his isolation, he rarely sees anyone, yet enjoys spending hours on the phone with friends. His ghosts from a distant past haunt him. The deep restlessness of a first love remain indecipherable as before. Like Hermann Hesse’s short story Juin, from which the film is freely inspired by, it is about the mysteries of memory, about the strength of its expression through the spoken word. On the strength of the word as cinematic image.Read More »

Synopsis
A photographer has drawn his world by populating it with clandestine images. Photography allowed him years ago the excuse to try to escape from the family nucleus. And so, lightly packed, he boarded the first and only train.
(translated from FILMAFFINITY)Read More »

Roman Polanski wrote the screenplay for this decidedly offbeat drama. Bernie (Mark Burns) plays a rootless wanderer with a fondness for alcohol and no clear goals in life. Bernie stumbles into a seaside resort community with Winnie (Beatrice Edney), a young girl in leg braces, in tow. As Bernie starts hitting the bottle, his physical and emotional stability starts to crumble, and Winnie begins to worry for his safety, until he finally collapses and Winnie panics, with no one left to look after her. Peter Sellers makes a brief cameo appearance as a gay shopkeeper who sets up a booth to take advantage of the beach traffic. While Polanski originally intended to direct A Day At The Beach, he later turned over the reigns to filmmaker Simon Hesera; it was his first dramatic feature, and his last.Read More »

A young film student in the early ’80s becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man.Read More »