Romance

no info to be found anywhere about this one. It’s a little, simple, gentle story about first love, with a bit too much of a melodramatic overtone if you ask me. Nice however if you are curious about Romanian film in the 50s.Read More »

The film follows Ben, who is traveling from Israel to New York to marry his girlfriend but misses his connection in Prague. There he meets Emma, an attractive free spirited girl. During the next 24 hours a friendship develops between the two and they find themselves reconsidering their original travel plans and re-evaluating their lives and relationships.Read More »

Plot / Synopsis
Two close friends, Aris and Stelios, have their minds on a mutual goal; they “immigrate” to the south of Greece and together they begin a banana greenhouse business in Crete. There they live secluded in a house by the countryside, with a magnificent view of the Libyan Sea having as their sole amusement Angeliki’s nearby tavern. This is a place where mostly foreign tourists arrive; drown like magnets by the magic of the unknown, red African horizon. Determined to keep women out of their lives, they, and mostly Aris, are unfriendly towards the newly arrived Cordoba, a friend of Aris’ sister who lives and works in Germany. Stelios, after going on a casual stroll with her in the island’s market, will end up going to bed with her. In a mood of recklessness that “suits” summer affairs. But this “one night stand” will develop into a relationship and lead to Cordoba moving in the house the two friends share. Feeling antagonistic, mostly towards Stelios, Aris finds himself flirting with Cordoba. In his own way, being quite the opposite of Stelios’s, he fascinates her and finally wins her erotic interest as Cordoba finds in each one of them elements she is looking for in a man’s personality.Read More »

ferdyonfilms.com wrote:
CIFF 2010: The Happy Housewife (De gelukkige huisvrouw, 2010)

Director: Antoinette Beumer

2010 Chicago International Film Festival

By Marilyn Ferdinand

“I hate actors,” the cinephile said to me after a screening of a personal essay film that had no actors in it at all. I vaguely understood what he was saying, that actors are tricksters whose presence can take away from the sincerity of a film. As someone who treasures the films of Robert Bresson, the Neorealists, the Nouvelle Vague directors, as well as a slew of more contemporary films that use nonprofessionals, I find the unstudied spontaneity of the performances helps me appreciate the film as a whole rather than focusing on the accomplishments of a single performer.Read More »

Description: On December 14, 1825 the military units of the Russian army were supposed to swear their allegiance to the new czar, Nicholas I. But the young officers, the most liberal-minded people of their time, who abhorred the terrors of serfdom, decided to raise their regiments against the autocracy and bring democracy to the country. That was a great heroic feat of the best sons of Russia. However, the revolt had been brutally crushed. Some of its inspirators were executed, many sent to hard labor in Siberia. Following the convicted officers to Siberia were their wives who had left their aristocratic families and comfortable lifestyles. The film is dedicated to those remarkable Russian women.Read More »

IMDb user comments:
75 years after the release of EROTIKON, I had a chance to see it in a modern cinema in Wroclaw (Poland). The wonderful experience was intensified by the live background music played by the members of Prague Archa theater. It was a lovely return to the end of silent era, the year 1929. The film EROTIKON, made by Gustav Machaty, caused controversy among the audiences of that time. What particularly shocked them was the way the director showed love scenes. Some admired it, some condemned it and, as a result, it was underrated and lost for years. Fortunately, the copy was found in the 1980s and restored for today’s audience who can admire the genius of Machaty.Read More »

Synopsis:
Set in 1854 in the Sicilian town of Catania, the story follows beautiful young Maria who is freed from a convent when the town is evacuated after 12 years of forced seclusion by her evil stepmother. She finds love in the form of Nino, a family friend, but eventually she must return to the convent…Read More »

If postmodern marriage is between equals, Francesco (Alessandro Gassman) and Marta (Francesca d’Aloja) have been computer selected. He is slim, tall, charmless, cold. She is slim, tall, charmless, cold. He is irritable and insensitive to other people’s feelings. She is angry and sensitive to her own feelings. They bicker and fight and work for a design company (their own) in Rome. They fit neatly into the high-stress, workaholic, image-conscious lifestyle, in which eating and talking and loving is snatched between phone calls and client consultations.Read More »

Plot:
Four sisters in New Zealand fall for four U.S. soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII Written by johnno.Read More »