Drama

Quote:
Poem is the last film in Jissoji’s Art Theatre Guild trilogy and deals with the traditional stem-family system on the verge of collapse allegorically. Not very satisfied with the optimistic last scene of Mujo, Jissoji approaches a similar subject matter from a different perspective. And the film is more in line with his concern about the radical change in the society which prompted him to make the trilogy. It appears that the script was written through intense discussions between Jissoji and Ishido, this time too.Read More »

Synopsis:
Irascible and domineering millionaire Walter McCoy marries the beautiful, but shady and duplicitous Karen Petrie. Walter’s son Steve automatically becomes smitten with Karen while both Walter’s daughter Cynthia and loyal housekeeper Sarah suspect that something is up. This provokes a tangled web of deception, infidelity, and even murder.Read More »

When computer programmer, Leo Fang, is passed up for promotion, he feels it is because he is Chinese, and quits. He takes his Chinese-American family to Mainland China to visit his sister and her family for the first time.Read More »

Along with Franz Osten and Himanshu Rai, Niranjan Pal was extremely important in the making of this film. A synopsis from his memoirs:

This story was about “the ill-fated love of a Brahmin boy for a scheduled caste girl. As no equivalent film title could be found for Level Crossing, Himansu agreed to Achhut Kanya much to my disgust. The film was shot, edited and readied for release in just eight weeks and turned out to be an outstanding success. The Congress leader, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, specially came to Bombay to see the film at the Roxy cinema and gave it unstinted praise. Devika was hailed as the Queen of the Indian screen, though Ashok Kumar was to wait for a few years before having a similar distinction.” (Such is Life), ed. Lalit Mohan Joshi and Kusum Joshi, p. 240).Read More »

Pascal makes a modest living selling newspapers on the streets of Paris. He may have a surly temperament but he is a good natured soul at heart, always ready to help a fellow creature if he can. Naturally, when he sees a man jump into the River Seine, he does not hesitate to come to his rescue. The visibly distressed man, Didier, reveals he was driven to this desperate act by his family, in particular his wife Catherine who is determined to rob him of his fortune. Moved by this tale of woe, Pascal offers to help Didier in any way he can. Didier suggests that they go back to his house to pick up some money. As he enters the house, Pascal unwittingly falls into a carefully laid trap. Alerted by Catherine, the police suddenly turn up and find the body of a dead man in the house. Read More »

Criterion wrote:
With this blisteringly funny, unapologetically confrontational satire, writer-director Spike Lee examined the past, present, and future of racism in American popular culture, issuing a daring provocation to creators and consumers alike. Under pressure to help revive his network’s low ratings, television writer Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) hits on an explosively offensive idea: bringing back blackface with The New Millennium Minstrel Show. The white network executives love it, and so do audiences, forcing Pierre and his collaborators to confront their public’s insatiable appetite for dehumanizing stereotypes. Shot primarily on unvarnished digital video and boasting spot-on performances from Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, Mos Def, and Paul Mooney, Bamboozled is a stinging indictment of mass entertainment at the turn of the twenty-first century that looks more damning with each passing year.Read More »

Quote:
The story is set in a leafy village of Peloponnese, on the fabled hillsides of mount Helmos, around places that inspired a German poet to write: “Everything changed in Greece / Time changed everything / Not only did it change/ flock and shepherd.” Here lies the property of Kyr-Mitros, a rich peasant who lives with his son, Thymios, and his adopted daughter, Astero. The two kids grow up together, supporting each other and becoming good friends. Overtime, their friendship evolves into something deeper and more intimate. However, their dreams and wishes come to an end by tough Kyr-Mitros’ master-plan. When Stamos, a prosperous herder, comes to town, he falls in love with Astero and takes her with him. Will there be a twist of fate? Driven by guilt and watching his son withering, Kyr-Mitros reveals an important secret… This pastoral romance mesmerized audiences of the time. The screenplay is based on a literary piece by Pavlos Nirvanas, published under the title Ramona.Read More »

Letterboxd wrote:
A university student comes to stay with a bedridden woman and her four children. Helping out around the house, she soon grows fond of the mother and children. An attorney falls for the student, but the couple experiences problems when she declines to leave what he refers to as “that lunatic asylum.”Read More »

The international breakthrough of acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis, Chocolat is set in a remote town in Cameroon during the last days of France’s colonies in Africa.

Claire Denis’s award-winning autobiographical film traces a young white woman’s return to her youth in pre-independence French Cameroon, haunted by strong memories of black African Protee, the family’s “houseboy” and a man of great nobility, intelligence and beauty. Chocolat is a stirring & subtle examination of intricate relationships in a racist society and the human damage exacted on both the colonized and colonizer.Read More »