• Grzegorz Królikiewicz – Tanczacy jastrzab AKA Dancing Hawk (1978)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaGrzegorz KrólikiewiczPoland

    “The Dancing Hawk” refers to the son of a peasant who senses he can climb to the job in troubled times by playing his cards right. His slavery to work match his ambitions, and gradually he reaches the social position he desires. But the costs have included a dehumanized soul and a loss of a moral conscience. People have had to pay for his advancement, including those nearest to him. The downfall is equally painful: either imprisonment or the easy wasy out are offered as the alternatives.Read More »

  • Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Actually… (2022)

    2021-2030JapanKiyoshi KurosawaShort Film

    Quote:
    Nakanishi Aruno is disliked and bullied by other Nogizaka46 members because she’s different from them. After one of them lock Aruno and tell her to not come back, she decides to come back definitely.Read More »

  • Vladimir Khotinenko – Dostoevskiy (2011)

    Drama2011-2020RussiaTVVladimir Khotinenko

    Dostoevsky seen through the prism of his relationships, and his struggles with poverty, trial, exile and imprisonment in Omsk, Siberia, writings, gambling.Read More »

  • Alex de Renzy – Pretty Peaches (1978)

    Erotica1971-1980Alex de RenzyUSA

    Storyline
    After attending her father’s wedding, innocent Peaches crashes her jeep in the forest only to awake with complete amnesia. She is quickly rescued by two manipulative men who hope to sell her back to her family for a hefty ransom. Their adventures introduce Peaches to a crazy doctor with very unusual treatment methods, a sleazy show promoter and more, but nothing helps. Poor Peaches doesn’t know what to do…until she remembers Daddy!Read More »

  • Ishmael Bernal – Nunal sa tubig AKA A Speck in the Water (1976)

    Drama1971-1980Ishmael BernalPhilippines

    Ishmael Bernal’s opus recreates the quality and slow pace of life in a dying village surrounded by the sea as it is caught in the eternal cycle of love and hate, of fertility and pollution, of birth and death. A bold and successful attempt to depart from the usual commercial fare, it cryptically paints a large, bleak canvas showing rural fold and how their chances at redemption and happiness are irreversibly decimated by poverty, ignorance, neglect and the dark side of big business.
    The only existing 35mm copy (with Japanese subtitles) of the film was found in Fukuoka City Public Library Archive, thus the Japanese hardcoded subs.Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Kontrobersyal (1981)

    1981-1990DramaLino BrockaPhilippines

    KONTROBERSYAL is one of the classic masterpieces of acclaimed stage and film director, Lino Brocka, in the historical period of the 80’s. A story set in the glitter and glamour of showbiz world. Behind the bright lights, fabulous costumes and larger-than-life sets, real lives are broken and shattered for the hunger for fame and the thirst for money. Karina Daluz (played by Gina Alajar) was blinded by the ill promise of success offered by her producer Mers Madsen (played by Charo Santos). Her walk toward the path to stardom entailed her sanity and corrupted her soul. Her innocence was replaced by wickedness and her once good-natured self, has become the demon that she feared. No love that is forever, no hope to discover for all the people living in KONTROBERSYAL.Read More »

  • D.W. Griffith – Isn’t Life Wonderful (1924)

    Drama1921-1930D.W. GriffithSilentUSA

    Producer/director D.W. Griffith’s feature is a fairly realistic study of the deprivations visited on the German people after their defeat in World War I. In her best-ever performance, Griffith protégée Carol Dempster plays Inga, who does her best to hold her family together and keep food on the table despite grinding poverty, debilitating illness and out-of-control inflation. The most memorable scene finds Inga desperately trying to maneuver a basketful of near-worthless Deutschmarks to a market before the prices rise again and she is unable to buy meat. Aware that anti-German sentiment still prevailed in the US, Griffith cannily inserted an opening title which noted that the main characters were Polish.Read More »

  • Eddie Romero – Faces of Love (2007)

    2001-2010DramaEddie RomeroPhilippines

    from Mubi:
    After receiving anonymous love letters for the past 10 years, widower Arcadio decides to find out who the mysterious author is. His brother Mariano thinks the search is ridiculous, but Arcadio’s niece Skip is willing to help.Read More »

  • Seiichiro Yamaguchi – Kitamura Toukoku: Waga fuyu no uta AKA Tokoku Kitamura: My Winter Song (1977)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaJapanSeiichiro Yamaguchi

    Tokoku Kitamura (1868-1894) is a Romantic poet and an advocate of liberalism in the Meiji era. This biopic is centered on New Year’s Day of 1894, when Kitamura is recovering from a suicide attempt. Japan is then under the spell of fervent patriotism because the government wants to build up public support for a war with China. Kitamura’s literary friends and militant comrades come to visit. They wonder why Kitamura wants to kill himself. Kitamura at first refuses to receive them, then he sits down with them and looks back on his days as a civil rights militant, his stormy love life and his ardent but destructive desire to live literature to the full.Read More »

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