Romance

Ebert’s plot description:
“A sometime rock singer and a middle-aged Greek-American businessman who meet through a videotape computer dating service…
The movie’s mostly about the perfect couple of the title, a matching of Second City veteran Paul Dooley and Broadway actress Marta Heflin. He’s part of a genuinely bizarre family presided over by a ruthless Greek father who requires compulsory attendance at such family rituals as concerts and dinners. She plays a somewhat forlorn member of a music group, ‘Keepin’ em Off the Streets,’ which is part rock band, part extended communal family.”Read More »

A Witch in Love; ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ at Fine Arts, Odeon

THE magic in “Bell, Book and Candle,” which opened at the Fine Arts and Odeon Theatres on Christmas, is not so much black as chromatic. It’s the color that’s bewitching in this film.

Actually, its story of a young lady who possesses some supernatural power, which she uses to inveigle a gentleman into falling in love with her, is neither as novel nor engaging as you might expect it to be. Pretty young ladies in movies are bewitching gaga fellows all the time with enticements and devices that are magic, so fas as the audience can tell. So the gimmick of John van Druten’s stage play, which has been used as the basis for this film — the gimmick of a woman endowed with witchcraft—is really rather silly and banal.Read More »

kinoglaz.fr:
Nadya (Nina Ruslanova) is a young woman who loves the geologist Maxim (Vladimir Vysotsky). She takes a job as a housemaid before discovering Maxim is romantically involved with town official Valentina Ivanovna (Kira Muratova). The heartbroken Nadya goes away before Maxim can return, leaving him and Valentina to pursue their romance.

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imdb:
Nadja, a country girl moves to the city and becomes Valya’s maid. Valya, a member of the District Soviet, does not know that Nadja fell in love with Valya’s currently absent husband, a geologist, when he was at her village on a recent expedition. Written by Erik Gregersen {[email protected]}Read More »

Áurea, a solitary teacher, starts a singular relationship with a young man with whom she has a chance encounter. A sensitive soul, she finds herself attracted to his moving beauty which compels her to lose herself. In the days following their first conversation, Áurea displays her feelings during the private classes she’s giving him. This will lead to the revelation of an unusual story from the past that will transform the present.Read More »

from AMG
After laboring in obscurity for several years, French filmmaker Claude Sautet finally struck a responsive chord with moviegoers in Les Choses de la Vie. The plot isn’t much: the hero, businessman Michel Piccoli, must choose between his wife and his mistress, two women whom he loves with equal fervor. It is what Sautet does with the material that lifts the film above the ordinary. The director puts the central character’s plight in context with his ongoing concerns over his job, his income, and his relationship with his family. In Choses de la Vie Sautet has nothing but the warmest feelings for his characters, which results in more three-dimensionality that might normally be expected in so banal a plotline.Read More »

The Milky Way is an interesting film from Brazil. Heitor, a literature professor, meets and falls in love with Julia, a young actress. During the course of the movie we see scenes from their relationship where they both love and fight each other. Through the film Heitor is driving around the busy streets of Sao Paulo trying to reach and reconcile once more with Julia. This provides an opportunity for the director to interject characters from Sao Paulo’s street environment in to the picture, from child beggars to crazy men with guns. The chaotic nature of life in Sao Paulo is contrasted with serene shots of Brazilian country side to further reinforce the impact of environment on personal relationships. The first encounter between Heitor & Julis takes place at a show by an experimental theatre company. In its way, The Milky Way can also be called an experimental and non conventional movie for those who are looking for something a little off the mainstream track of films. Read More »

Everything happens during the course of a day. A toddler looks for his lost toy, some people look for their happiness, circling around in some kind of a lost kaleidoscope; they love and hate, suffer and enjoy, being that honest or fake, joyful or saddening. In the end, the boy finds his kaleidoscope, but the question remains if grownups have found their dreams, or at least their traces.Read More »

Synopsis:
Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, is exiled to a small island for political reasons. On the island, the unemployed son of a poor fisherman is hired as an extra postman due to the huge increase in mail that this causes. Il Postino is to hand-deliver the celebrity’s mail to him. Though poorly educated, the postman learns to love poetry and eventually befriends Neruda. Struggling to grow and express himself more fully, he suddenly falls in love and needs Neruda’s help and guidance more than ever.Read More »

Plot: Joel and Priscilla have been in love since they were children. Mark announces his engagement to her without obtaining her permission. While Joel and Mark are at sea Mark is abandoned in Singapore by the Ship’s Mate Finch who, upon their return, convinces the townspeople that Joel abandoned his brother. Joel escapes jail, takes the ship to Singapore, finds his brother insane with drink and returns him to the ship. There is a mutiny.Read More »