Drama

  • Pilar Palomero – Las niñas AKA Schoolgirls (2020)

    2011-2020AdventureDramaPilar PalomeroSpain

    Celia, an 11-year-old girl, studies at a convent school and lives her mum, a 30-year-old widow. The arrival of a new classmate hurls Claudia into adolescence.

    11 wins & 40 nominations.
    San Sebastián International Film Festival 2020 Winner – Dunia Ayaso AwardRead More »

  • King Vidor – Stella Dallas (1937)

    1931-1940DramaKing VidorRomanceUSA

    Quote:
    A working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.Read More »

  • Paolo Benvenuti – Confortorio (1992)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaItalyPaolo Benvenuti

    Quote:
    The Italian filmmaker Paolo Benvenuti is little known outside of Italy, although several recent festival retrospectives have begun opening the world’s eyes to this iconoclastic director. His 1992 work Confortorio is set during one long night in 1736 Rome, as a group of Catholic high priests attempts to “convert” two Jewish thieves who have been sentenced to death. “Every death has to be comforted; every soul has to be saved,” says one priest; the two stubborn thieves, however, have other plans for their (after)lives, even as their “saviors” move from religious fervor to torture.Read More »

  • Peter Liechti – Marthas Garten AKA Martha’s Garden (1997)

    1991-2000DramaPeter LiechtiSci-FiSwitzerland

    Quote:
    Since weeks it’s cold and wet. It’s already late, Karl Winter is on his way home. Under dark circumstances he accidentally meets a woman of mysterious fascination – Martha… And so begins a love story of fatal dynamics which throws Karl far off the tracks of reason. Wicked dreams and subliminal changes in Karl’s surroundings confirm his feelings that with Martha the uncanniness has also entered his life.Read More »

  • Edmund Goulding – The Razor’s Edge (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaEdmund GouldingUSA

    Synopsis:
    Well-to-do Chicagoan, Larry Darrell, breaks off his engagement to Isabel and travels the world seeking enlightenment, eventually finding his guru India. Isabel marries Gray, and following the crash of 1929, is invited to live in Paris with her rich, social climbing, Uncle Elliot. During a sojurn there, Larry, having attained his goal, is reunited with Isabel. While slumming one night Larry, Isabel and company are shocked to discover Sophie, a friend from Chicago. Having lost her husband and child in a tragic accident, Sophie is living the low-life with the help of drugs and an abusive brute. Larry tries to rehabilitate her, but his efforts are sabotaged by Isabel who has tried in vain to reignite Larry’s interest in her.Read More »

  • Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia – Violette nei capelli (1942)

    Drama1941-1950Carlo Ludovico BragagliaComedyItalian Cinema under FascismItaly

    Quote:
    Lilia Silvi stars as Carina, an orphaned little seamstress, who is in the habit of sneaking out of her window at night, and go to the theater. Once back in her small chamber, she will act out all the parts of the play she has just witnessed.
    Her longing is to be on the stage, and then she meets Oliva and Mirella, two sisters who share her ambition to enter the world of dance and drama. The three girls become inseparable friends, and we follow them in their aspirations to make it to the stage.

    2 small roles for Steno (still an assistant director of C.L. Bragaglia) and Marino Girolami (Fugitive lady).Read More »

  • King Vidor – Ruby Gentry (1952)

    1951-1960DramaKing VidorRomanceUSA

    Synopsis:
    Despite their different social class Ruby and Boake grew up together in the 1950s North Carolina. Ruby Corey lived with her poor family in the swamps while Boake Tackman lived in a mansion with servants. As long as their friendship stayed within the socially acceptable limits no one objected. In adulthood their friendship becomes a mutual romantic attraction. Ruby wants to marry Boake but he only seems interested in romantic play without commitment. Maybe conscious of his social status or maybe being afraid to offend his snobbish family and conservative hometown folk, he marries a rich girl. Out of revenge Ruby marries Jim Gentry, a recently widowed rich old man to whom many townsfolk and local businesses owe money. When Gentry dies in an accident, the town blames Ruby. A now rich Ruby takes revenge on the town’s folk by calling in their debts and loans. The girl from the swamps has become the town’s biggest nightmare.Read More »

  • Suzana Amaral – Uma Vida em Segredo (2001)

    Drama2001-2010ArthouseBrazilSuzana AmaralThe Female Gaze

    Young girl, born and raised in an isolated farm, is brought to a small town to live with her cousins, her only relatives. Once in town, she encounters great difficulty adapting to city life.Read More »

  • Mario Pinzauti – Emmanuelle bianca e nera aka Passion Plantation (1976)

    Drama1971-1980EroticaItalyMario Pinzauti

    imdb comment : Racial and sexual tensions haunt a Southern plantation. Hilariously overwrought Eurotrash sex-n-violence fest is apparently part of the notorious, ubiquitous Emmanuelle series in name only, sharing none of the stars or characters of the main series, which is fine, because this then comes across as a wild-n-wooly little nothing that stands brilliantly on its own. The premise itself is classic: a Mandingo-like Southern plantation romp filmed in Italy, replete with bitch-nymphos, black slaves with huge afros, white landowners with bad hats and mustaches, slave rape, bathtub masturbation, slave torture, black-n- white love, etc. The two “Emanuelles” (Maria Luisa Longo, Rita Manna) are both pretty homely. Read More »

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