Romance

Raúl Ruiz is one of the great cinematic self-perpetuators, like Louis Feuillade and Jacques Rivette—a film like this gathers a motion and a rhythm that makes it feel like it could on and on, self-generating new stories and new characters ad infinitum. Based on the novel by Camilo Castelo Branco (whose writing has been the source for Oliveira’s similarly fatalistic romance, Doomed Love), Mysteries of Lisbon is, to paraphrase a line from one of its many characters used to describe a disastrous relationship he had, a game that turns into a bourgeois romantic drama, to which I would add, that turns into a game. It starts—as all stories must?—with an orphaned boy questioning his parentage and falling into a fever, and out of that starting point the film evolves less as a story than a cartography of characters crossing points in space and time.Read More »

Erotic diary of a young bridegroom who, just out of church, swears eternal love to his wife (A. Lualdi), naive, but not too much. Meanwhile, we go through his previous experiences: adulterous wife (D. Darrieux), luxury cocotte (Carol M.), widowed millionaire (E. Feuillère).
Written by Charles Spaak and Jacques Companeez, it is a libel against women in form of hilarious, smiling and amiable comedy, but imbued with poisons. An episodic film cleverly disguised. The underlying cynicism melts in foam of champagne.
(Morandini)Read More »

Quote:
Clifford Groves, toy manufacturer, is in full charge at the factory but feels left out and taken for granted by his wife and children at home. Alone and depressed, he meets old flame Norma, and one thing leads to another. While their relationship is still fairly innocent, his son Vinnie sees them together and suspects the worst. It’s time for tortured souls behind rain-streaming windows…Read More »

Review Summary

This combination romance and wartime drama by Etienne Perier was unusual at the time it was released because it portrayed World War II in the Pacific from the perspective of Gwen Terasaki, a woman from the Southern U.S., married to a Japanese diplomat. Based on her autobiography, the interesting story relates how the couple left for Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and remained in Japan throughout the duration of the war. Their experiences and hardships during the war are detailed, as well as the tragedy that separated them once the war was over. Since the suffering of the ordinary Japanese citizen at this time and the racial undercurrents connected to the Pacific war are brought forward, the film stirred some controversy when it was released. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

Synopsis:
Tsuneo is a university student working part-time in a mah-jong parlour. Lately the customers have been talking about an old lady who pushes a baby carriage through the streets. They say she is carrying something for a crime syndicate, and they wonder what it is she has in the carriage. Money? Drugs? One day, the owner of the mah-jong parlour sends Tsuneo out to walk his dog. A baby carriage comes rolling down a hill and crashes into a guard rail. The old lady asks him to look into the carriage, where he finds a young woman clutching a knife. This is how Tsuneo first meets the girl who calls herself Josée.Read More »

London-based Millionairess Epifania (Sophia Loren) is attracted to Dr. Kabir (MD from Delhi and PhD from Calcutta), who is more intent on treating patients. When she persists, he confides in her that he had made a commitment to his late widowed seamstress mother that he will wed any woman who will manage to survive on just Rs.500/-, for 90 days. She finds out that this sum is equivalent to just 35 shillings but readily accepts this challenge. She also informs him that her late father had also imposed a condition that she must wed a male who will turn £500 into £15000 within the same period. Epifania then finds employment with an Italian firm, ends up re-organizing, and turning up the firm’s profits. At the end of 90 days, she goes to meet Kabir and discovers that he has not only given all the money away but also has no interest whatsoever in marrying her.Read More »

A Parisian experimenter with Lumiere’s Kinematograph (Charles Denner) dies in WW1, and his son (Charles Denner) grows to be a man who barely survives WW2 in a concentration camp. He marries another refugee (Marthe Keller) who dies in childbirth, leaving him a daugher, Sarah, who at age 16 (Marthe Keller) is a spoiled debutante hopelessly in love with pop singer Gilbert Bécaud (Gilbert Bécaud) she goes through the 60s trying every fad while her father wishes she’d settle down. Meanwhile, sneak thief Simon Duroc (André Dussollier) winds up in prison, where he slowly turns his devious energies to their least-antisocial use: filmmaking.Read More »

In 1979, Carole and Jerome arrive in Odessa posing as a couple to contact other Jews and help them sneak out of the country.Read More »

From Senses of Cinema:
Istoriya Asi Klyachinoy, kotoraya lyubila, da ne vyshla zamuzh (Asya’s Happiness) is a seminal film, a film that suffered numerous title changes and edits by edict. It is a rediscovered classic that was shelved for 20 years and now stands as a testament to the paranoid absurdity of Soviet censorship. It is a film that provided a powerful start for some careers and stunted others. With its natural lightness and exploration of femininity it broke the genre of the collective farm-worker movie and introduced a deeply Russian neo-realism that celebrated the rural, spiritual environment through stunning black-and-white cinematography and breathtakingly authentic performances by non-professional actors that captured the sounds, stories and pace of life in the village of Bezvodnoye. Read More »