Drama

  • Pedro Almodóvar – La ley del deseo AKA Law of Desire (1987)

    1981-1990ComedyDramaPedro AlmodóvarQueer Cinema(s)Spain

    Quote:
    Pablo and Tina have complicated sexual lives. Pablo writes and directs plays and films; he’s gay and deeply in love with Juan, a young man who won’t reply to Pablo’s affection or letters. Pablo’s sibling Tina is a transsexual, angry at men, raising Ada, and trying to make it as an actress. Pablo takes up with Antonio, a youth who becomes jealous of Pablo’s love for Juan. Antonio seeks out Juan, and violence leads to Pablo’s grief and a temporary loss of memory. When memory returns, he learns that Antonio has taken up with Tina. In horror, he hurries to Tina’s rescue and must face Antonio and his desire.Read More »

  • Bernard Knowles – Park Plaza 605 (1953)

    Drama1951-1960Bernard KnowlesCrimeUSA

    Classic British mystery thriller starring Tom Conway as suave gumshoe, Norman
    Conquest. After intercepting a secret message, Conquest meets foreign femme fatale,
    Nadina Rodin (Eva Bartok), in room 605 of the Park Plaza hotel. When Conquest wakes up
    in the room the next morning he is lying next to a corpse and the mysterious Rodin is
    nowhere to be seen. Conquest is now the police’s number one murder suspect with
    Inspector Williams (Sid James) shadowing his every move. In order to clear his name,
    Conquest enlists the help of Pixie Everard (Joy Shelton), but things turn even uglier when
    he discovers that the murder is connected to a stash of stolen diamonds. As gun-toting,Read More »

  • Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel – Mister Universo (2016)

    2011-2020DramaItalyRainer FrimmelTizza Covi

    Review:
    The filmmaking team of Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel concoct fictional narratives around the real lives and professions of the nonactors with whom they work. This is an unusual formula but not an entirely novel one. While other examples of this method, or some variant of it, have yielded films that come off as condescending or creepily exploitative, Ms. Covi and Mr. Frimmel’s “Mister Universo” is a disarming and humane picture, an unexpected delight.Read More »

  • Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaUSAWes Anderson

    Quote:
    An island off the New England coast, summer of 1965. Two twelve-year-olds, Sam and Suzy, fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As local authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing offshore . . . Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom stars Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as the young couple on the run, Bruce Willis as Island Police Captain Sharp, Edward Norton as Khaki Scout troop leader Scout Master Ward, and Bill Murray and Frances McDormand as Suzy’s attorney parents, Walt and Laura Bishop. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Bob Balaban. The magical soundtrack features the music of Benjamin Britten.Read More »

  • Sun-Woo Jang – Gojitmal AKA Lies (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaSouth KoreaSun-Woo Jang

    Plot:
    A conscious exploration of fantasy and flesh. The director talks about the novel upon which the film is based, we see the crew at work, the actors talk about what’s going on. Y, a schoolgirl of 18, chooses her first lover (rather than wait to be raped, as were her two older sisters). After phone sex with J, a sculptor who’s 38, they begin an affair that, by the second meeting, includes spankings as foreplay. J brings a suitcase full of rods, hoses, and wires; Y gathers sticks to bring. Y’s brother discovers the affair. J’s wife, studying in Paris, calls him to join her. Will the lovers part? Will the violence get out of hand? When do the lies begin?Read More »

  • Christian Nyby – Operation C.I.A. (1965)

    1961-1970Christian NybyDramaThrillerUSA

    Set during the Vietnam war before U.S. involvement, this political drama tells the gripping story of an American operative who is sent to Saigon to protect the U.S. ambassador from an unknown assassin’s bullet. ~ Sandra Brennan, RoviRead More »

  • Humberto Solás – Lucía (1968)

    1961-1970CubaDramaHumberto Solás

    A formally dazzling landmark of Cuban cinema by Humberto Solás, the operatic epic Lucía recounts the history of a changing country through the eyes of three eponymous women. In 1895, Lucía is a tragic noblewoman who inadvertently betrays her country for love. In 1932, she is a member of the bourgeoisie drawn into the workers’ uprising against the dictator. And in the postrevolutionary 1960s, she is a rural newlywed struggling against patriarchal oppression. Shot in an array of distinct, evocative visual styles, Solás’s sprawling triptych is a vital document of radical progress.
    CriterionRead More »

  • William A. Berke – Roaring City (1951)

    1951-1960CrimeDramaUSAWilliam A. Berke

    Story
    A private detective gets hired for two jobs: the first is to bet on a fighter in a fixed boxing match, and the second is to pose as a woman’s husband.Read More »

  • George Blair – Destination Big House (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaGeorge BlairUSA

    School teacher Janet Brooks innocently involves herself in a scandal while spending the week-end alone in the mountain cabin of her fiancée, Dr. Walter Phillips. She gives first aid to a wounded racketeer, Joe Bruno, who is running out on his mob with eighty thousand dollars in cash. Unknown to Janet, Bruno hides the money in the cabin. She goes on an errand and two mobsters, Ed Somers and “Stubby” Moore), make a call on Bruno and then depart after delivering a couple of soon-to-be-fatal gunshot wounds. Bruno manages to get to the highway and hitches a ride from a passing motorist who drives him to the Coniston hospital. In front of a number of doctors as witnesses, Bruno draws up a will leaving the eighty-thousand bucks to Janet, but dies before he can reveal where the money is located.Read More »

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