Drama

In this notorious Nazi propaganda historical costume melodrama, a conniving, ambitious Jewish businessman, Süß Oppenheimer, snares a post as treasurer to the Duke of Wurttemburg by showering the corrupt duke with treasure and promises of even greater riches. As the Jew’s schemes grow more elaborate and his actions more brazen, the dukedom nearly erupts into civil war. Persuaded by the Jew, the Duke all but scuttles the constitution and alienates the assembly by lifting the local ban on Jews in Stuttgart. In a final outrage, the Jew rapes a wholesome German girl and tortures her father and fiancée. When the Duke succumbs to a sudden heart attack, the assembly of Elders try the Jew and sentence him to death for having “carnal knowledge of a Christian woman”.Read More »

Mark Cunliffe:
“You don’t know how low I was, how down. Everything was like it was raining all the time. The way the rain sort of glints all dull like on the slates. On the roof”

In 1978, tired of and frustrated by not having the power over the BBC’s drama department Dennis Potter went some way to realise his dream of being a writer with total control over his work by forming the independent production company Pennies From Heaven (or PFH) Ltd with producer Kennith Trodd and his agent Judy Daish. Two years later, the companies independent nature came to fruition thanks to a deal with BBC rival, LWT to produce six new plays by Potter along with three other plays comprising of two from Salford socialist Jim Allen and one writer/performer Ken Campbell.Read More »

A teenage boy is having his first sexual problems. Although his father tries to remedy the situation, it is his aunt who really takes care of business.Read More »

Synopsis:
The troubled life of French sculptor Camille Claudel and her long relationship with legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin are portrayed in this passionate biographical drama, featuring an acclaimed performance by Isabelle Adjani. Beginning in the 1880s with a young Claudel’s first meeting with Rodin, the film traces the development of their intense romantic bond. The growth of this relationship coincides with the rise of Claudel’s career, helping her overcome prejudices against female artists. However, their romance soon sours, due to the increasing pressures of Rodin’s fame and his love for another woman. These difficulties combine with her increasing doubts about the value of her work to drive Claudel into an emotional tumult that threatens to become insanity.Read More »

Harrowing drama is set in an alternate version of the 1990s in which World War II never ended and the citizens of Japan are subjected to nightly bombing raids.

Hakuchi (1999) is based off of Ango Sakaguchi’s novel of the same name and directed by Makoto Tezuka, Osamu Tezuka’s son. “Hakuchi” means “Idiot” (and is in reference to a mentally handicapped woman in the storyline). It stars my favorite Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano (Kakihara in “Ichi the Killer”, Mamoru in “Bright Future”, etc.) as a directing assistant named Izawa who works at a television station in a war-ravaged Japan. He gets harassed and abused by a pop star/actress named Ginga who he works for. One day Izawa returns home to find that the mentally-challenged wife of the crazy man next door is hiding in his closet.Read More »

Synopsis
An incompetent lawyer defends an accused wife murderer.Read More »

Quote:
THE LOST MASTERPIECE OF SOVIET CINEMA

Belye Tuchi – or as it should be called, Bili Khmary – is a movie that has somehow got lost and is now all but forgotten. The title is usually translated into English as White Clouds but it’s really closer to something like “the dark clouds are coming” but any translation will be miss the correct subtle meaning. The movie was directed by the Ukrainian Rollan Serhiienko, although IMDb mistakenly lists him as Sergiyenko. He was better known as a documentary film maker and later made the award winning Bell of Chernobyl. His career as a feature film director only produced two movies of which this is the best.Read More »

Quote:
In a small town in present-day Bulgaria, a mother and her two daughters are struggling to survive. The dreamy and distracted younger daughter often invents stories to make life more interesting. Unwittingly, she eventually gets caught in a web of her own lies and destroys her older sister’s well-ordered materialistic world. While struggling to get to the facts, the two sisters find out the truth about their mother.Read More »

Quote:
At the time when Sovražnik (1965) was filmed , Živojin Pavlović had only two omnibuses that he made with colleagues from the Belgrade Cinema Club, Kapi, vode, ratnici and Grad . The latter was banned by the court, as the only Yugoslav film of that period (produced by the Sarajevo Sutjeska film) to suffer such a fate. It was much more common for a controversial film to end up in the producer’s “bunker” and for permission to be shown at all. This is how Pavlović’s first feature film Return (1964), produced in Belgrade’s Avala Film, went through , and in the meantime he received an offer to direct in Slovenia: he and writer Bora Ćosić adapted FM Dostoevsky’s story, but adapted it to modern times.Read More »