“Haru no mezame” was Naruse’s third full-lenth post-war film — and a delightful surprise. It turns out to be a slice of life film, centered around a couple of years in the life of a rural high school girl — played by 16 year old Yoshiko Kuga (future star in Portrait of Madame Yuki, Banka, Equinox Flower, Good Morning) — still a tiny bit plumpish — and not full grown. Almost no plot to speak of — just normal events of school and home life and hanging around with friends.Read More »
Synopsis:
Charles is a young provincial coming up to Paris to study law. He shares his cousin Paul’s flat. Paul is a kind of decadent boy, a disillusioned pleasure-seeker, always dragging along with other idles, while Charles is a plodding, naive and honest man. He fell in love with Florence, one of Paul’s acquaintances. But how will Paul react to that attempt to build a real love relationship ? One of the major New Wave films.Read More »
Quote:
A family scandal causes a wealthy and powerful Mexican rancher to make the pronouncement–‘Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia!’ Two of the bounty-hunters thus dispatched encounter a local piano-player in their hunt for information. The piano-player does a little investigating on his own and finds out that his girlfriend knows of Garcia’s death and last resting place. Thinking that he can make some easy money and gain financial security for he and his (now) fiancée, they set off on this goal. Of course, this quest only brings him untold misery, in the form of trademark Peckinpah violence.Read More »
Synopsis:
Mr. Mito (Shuji Sano), a Tokyo businessman, is demoted and sent to Osaka. There, he finds lodging in the titular inn, and makes the acquaintance of many of the town’s citizens. Notable among them are the maids at the inn, a hard-drinking geisha, and a mysterious woman Mito encounters at the mailbox. In Japan, director Gosho’s name is synonymous with melancholy and finding laughter through tears; An Inn at Osaka bears up that reputation. The struggle to stay afloat in life, especially financially, is a running theme of the film, as all of the characters struggle with looming poverty and gnawing loneliness, but it all ends with a kind of quiet triumph.Read More »
Quote:
Istanbul Tales is a film which tells five interconnected stories set in modern-day Istanbul based on the fairy tales Snow White, Cinderella, Pied Piper, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. The film, which went on nationwide general release on 11 March 2005, won several awards including Best Film at the 24th International Istanbul Film Festival.Read More »
Quote:
Inspired by a true crime, a man begins to experience mystifying events that lead him to slay his mother with a sword.Read More »
Quote:
Shot in murky black and white, Hong’s film traverses an open-air spectrum of repeating nuances, locations, and dialogue in charming ways. The small groups of characters, including mildly famous film director Sungjoon (Yu Jun-sang), who’s visiting an old friend in Seoul, graze on the coincidences and human fallibilities defining their overlapping mental quirks. Together, they’re like lost sheep roaming the urban academic landscape for a shepherd.Read More »
Quote:
A war photographer returns home to Montréal to discover that his two partners have left him to be together. Alone in the city, he photographs what he sees, trying to heal both his war memories and a broken heart.Read More »
Quote:
In Buenos Aires of the 1840’s, a young Jesuit and a wealthy socialite fall in love and begin a torrid affair. They escape from the city, and, in disguise, set up house in a village, assuming they are safe and beyond the cares of anyone. However, both the church and Camila’s family are enraged, vowing to hunt down the lovers for a capital crime. Based on a true story.Read More »