Drama

  • Glauber Rocha – Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol AKA Black God, White Devil [+commentaries] (1964)

    1961-1970ArthouseBrazilDramaGlauber Rocha

    Quote:
    After killing his employer when said employer tries to cheat him out of his payment, a man becomes an outlaw and starts following a self-proclaimed saint.

    Reehan Miah wrote:
    Glauber Rocha’s Aesthetics of Hunger – a 1965 essay which attempts to explicate the Cinema Novo – reads like a convoluted mass of allegations, opacities and rhetoric (none of which are necessarily without substance). Somewhere within these imbroglios however, one stumbles upon an assertion that’s especially jarring:Read More »

  • Rosa Friedrich – Topfpalmen AKA Potted Palm Trees (2020)

    2011-2020AustriaDramaRosa FriedrichShort Film

    The dress is too lavish and the toilet cubicle too small for the bride to fit in. The ballroom is jam-packed and the mood is alarmingly good. Something is about to burst: the groom’s delusion of grandeur? The pregnant belly of deaf Betti? Her step-father’s patience? Or the wine-filled bladder of his ex-wife?Read More »

  • Tulapop Saenjaroen – People on Sunday (2020)

    2011-2020DramaShort FilmThailandTulapop Saenjaroen

    In this updated homage to the 1930 German silent film of the same title, Thai artist Tulapop Saenjaroen examines the paradox of people relaxing while being filmed. As a film shoot appears to be in perpetual delay, crew members kill time fiddling on their smartphones, all the while under the persistent gaze of the camera.Read More »

  • Oliver Hirschbiegel – Elser AKA 13 Minutes (2015)

    2011-2020DramaGermanyOliver HirschbiegelWar

    Quote:
    In November 1939, Georg Elser’s attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler fails, and he is arrested. During his confinement, he recalls the events leading up to his plot and his reasons for deciding to take such drastic action.

    Quote:
    The German director Oliver Hirschbiegel impressed viewers the world over with his brutal and psychologically astute 2001 film “The Experiment,” but it was with 2004’s “Downfall,” a spectacularly effective picture about Hitler in his last days, that he not only made his reputation as a world-class filmmaker but also inadvertently created an Internet meme.Read More »

  • Jun Lana – Mga kuwentong barbero AKA Barber’s Tales (2013)

    2011-2020DramaJun LanaPhilippines

    Barber’s Tales (Filipino: Mga Kuwentong Barbero) is a 2013 Filipino drama film by Jun Robles Lana. The film stars Eugene Domingo as Marilou, a widow who is forced to take her late husband’s job as community barber during the end of Marcos era. The film is the follow up to Lana’s film Bwakaw and second of a trilogy focused on the small town life in the Philippines.[1] The film had its world premiere and competed at the 2013 Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won the Best Actress Award for Eugene Domingo’s performance.

    The film had its commercial release in the Philippines on August 13, 2014.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke & Howard Hawks – The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaHoward HawksUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Synopsis:
    Steve is just a heavy duty bartender when Edwin J. Bennett, known as the Professor, starts training him for the ring. While doing road work, he is almost killed by a speeding car which crashes into a ditch. In the car is Belle Mercer and her driver. Steve takes Belle to a farmhouse and is smitten by her, but she is Willie Ryan’s Girl. The fight is a breeze and later, Steve again meets Belle with Willie. That night, Steve and Belle disappear and return married, much to the disappointment of Ryan. Then Steve starts training in ernest and is 19 for 19 in the ring. However, he has an eye for the women and an expanding ego to match.Read More »

  • Marek Koterski – Dzien Swira aka Day of the Wacko (2002)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaMarek KoterskiPoland

    Quote:
    24 hours in the bitter life of a frustrated divorced teacher who stays in the vicious circle of his numerous obsessions.

    Marta Jazowska for culture.pl wrote:
    Afilm portraying the painstaking life of a 44 year literature professor with obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Divorced, pedantic and frustrated his life consists of a series of rituals performed around the simplest every tasks. Capturing his unbearable stagnation and anger, the film is about isolation and lonelinessRead More »

  • George Lucas – American Graffiti [+commentary] (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaGeorge LucasUSA

    It’s the last night of summer 1962, and the teenagers of Modesto, California, want to have some fun before adult responsibilities close in. Among them are Steve (Ron Howard) and Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), college-bound with mixed feelings about leaving home; nerdy Terry “The Toad” (Charles Martin Smith), who scores a dream date with blonde Debbie (Candy Clark); and John (Paul Le Mat ), a 22-year-old drag racer who wonders how much longer he can stay champion and how he got stuck with 13-year-old Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) in his deuce coupe. As D. J. Wolfman Jack spins 41 vintage tunes on the radio throughout the night, Steve ponders a future with girlfriend Laurie (Cindy Williams), Curt chases a mystery blonde, Terry tries to act cool, and Paul prepares for a race against Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), but nothing can stop the next day from coming, and with it the vastly different future ushered in by the 1960s.Read More »

  • Giuliano Montaldo – Sacco e Vanzetti AKA Sacco & Vanzetti (1971)

    1971-1980DramaGiuliano MontaldoItalyPolitics

    Synopsis:
    In 1920, the anarchist Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco (Riccardo Cucciolla) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (Gian Maria Volonté) are sentenced to death, falsely accused of a robbery and murder. Indeed they are condemned due to their political beliefs, in one of the most shameful and hypocrite judgments of the human history.Read More »

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