Drama

  • Arthur Penn – Four Friends (1981)

    Arthur Penn1981-1990DramaUSA

    Exerpts from the NY Times review December 11, 1981

    To get quickly to the point, Four Friends is the best film yet made about the sixties, that harrowed time of war, prosperity, and broken promises, of turning on and dropping out to colors described as psychedelic, when establishment came to be written with a capital “E.”
    Four Friends, directed by Arthur Penn and written by Steven Tesich, initially suggests a sort of big-budget The Return of the Secaucus Seven. It’s a film that embraces the looks, sounds, speech, and public events of the sixties, but not in the way of a documentary. It has the quality of legend, a fable remembered. Because Mr. Penn and Mr. Tesich see everything in terms of legend, even a tumultuously funny barroom brawl near the film’s end becomes not only a brawl but also a revivifying re-creation of all barroom brawls in all of the Western films the four friends grew up with.Read More »

  • Anthony Mann – Strategic Air Command (1955)

    Anthony Mann1951-1960ActionDramaUSA

    An ex-pilot and current baseballer is recalled into the U.S. Air Force and assumes an increasingly important role in Cold War deterrence.Read More »

  • Cheng-sheng Lin – Fang lang AKA Sweet Degeneration (1997)

    Cheng-sheng Lin1991-2000ArthouseDramaTaiwan

    Quote:
    Chuen-Sheng is a young man fresh out of military service with dreams of making it as a musician. His sister Ah Fen, unhappily married, nurses a secret incestuous passion for him. While Chuen-Sheng steals money from his father and squanders it on roach-infested hotel rooms and cheap hookers, Ah Fen decides she can’t face her life any more and runs away.Read More »

  • Leida Laius – Libahunt (1968)

    1961-1970DramaLeida LaiusRomanceUSSR

    Quote:
    A triangular love story evolves in a peasant family in southwestern Estonian countryside around Halliste in the beginning of 1800s over a time span of 15 years.Read More »

  • Kazimierz Kutz – Milczenie (1963)

    Kazimierz Kutz1961-1970DramaPoland

    Quote:
    A young boy is accused of attempting to murder a local priest. When the boy gets hurt in an accident, the townspeople are not willing to give him a hand.Read More »

  • Henry Hathaway – Peter Ibbetson [+Commentary] (1935)

    Henry Hathaway1931-1940DramaRomanceUSA

    Synopsis
    When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter (Gary Cooper) is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke (John Halliday) and Duchess of Towers (Ann Harding). When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair’s second chance.Read More »

  • Julian Schnabel – Before Night Falls (2000)

    Julian Schnabel1991-2000DramaRomanceUSA

    Synopsis
    Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. He joins Castro’s rebels. By 1964, he is in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; a love-hate relationship lasts for years. Openly gay behavior is a way to spite the government. His writing and homosexuality get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. He befriends Lázaro Gomes Garriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, “Revenge.”Read More »

  • Marcel Carné – Thérèse Raquin AKA The Adultress (1953)

    Marcel Carné1951-1960CrimeDramaFrance

    After being adopted by her aunt, Thérèse Raquin was forced into marrying her sickly cousin Camille at an early age. For the past 17 years, she has been trapped in a loveless marriage, working in her aunt’s haberdashery shop in Lyon to support the husband she has grown to despise. One day, Camille gets himself drunk and has to be carried home by Laurent, an Italian lorry driver. The instant that Thérèse sees Laurent she is attracted to him. He is everything a man should be, not the mean sickly creature she is married to. Laurent is equally drawn to Thérèse and the two embark on a clandestine love affair. When he realises his wife’s infidelity, Camille decides to take her to Paris, to place her with relatives who will cure her of her wanton nature. Read More »

  • Leos Carax – Annette (2021)

    Leos Carax2021-2030DramaFranceRomance

    Los Angeles, today. Henry (Adam Driver) is a stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor who falls in love with Ann (Marion Cotillard), a world-renowned opera singer. Under the spotlight, they form a passionate and glamorous couple. The birth of their first child, Annette, a mysterious little girl with an exceptional destiny, will turn their lives upside down.Read More »

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