“This, the Thai candidate for the Foreign Academy Award, has more mood changes than the life story of Elizabeth Taylor. It is almost as if each chapter of the protagonist’s life is played out in a different genre – musical, comedy, crime, prison, romance and melodrama. It can take a bit of time to adjust to these swiftly changing moods, but the ultimate picture that emerges is one of how life so rarely follows the dreams of your youth and how sad and painful it can become. In a very loose and much less heroic manner, the film is a poor man’s tale of Ulysses. A young man leaves his pregnant wife for the army and then has a series of misadventures before finally finding his way back to her. All the way it seems as if the Gods are laughing at this fellow and playing games with him. Phaen is a simple country boy who has a talent for singing and he is in a small band that plays fairs and events.Read More »

Synopsis
Colonel Chabert is mistaken for dead during the Napoleonic war with Russia. When he returns to Paris some years later, he finds that his wife, Anne, has married the Count Ferraud, and is using Chabert’s wealth to finance Ferraud’s social advancement. When his wife refuses to recognise him, Chabert approaches a lawyer, Derville, to reinstate his honour and his wealth. Unfortunately, Anne Ferraud realises that she risks losing everything if she acknowledges Chabert as her husband, and intends to fight her former husband every inch of the way…Read More »

imdb:
When Kaoru’s sister-in-law Miyoko arrives at the family home, tender feelings start to grow between the two. However, the initial happiness that Kaoru finds in the company of her beautiful sister-in-law is frustrated by her brother Mitsuo, Miyoko’s husband, who intervenes in their budding passion. Full of unspoken words, deeply suggestive mise-en-scène, and forbidden glances, Fukujuso is a compelling melodrama that surprises us with its potent homoeroticism, especially considering its year of production.Read More »

Synopsis:
Making a rare visit to Canada, Claude Chabrol cowrote and directed the low-pressure psychological melodrama Blood Relatives (Les Liens de sang). Donald Sutherland and Donald Pleasence head the cast in this story of the aftermath of a brutal murder. The victim, a 17-year-old girl, was apparently raped before she died, leading Carella (Sutherland) to believe that she was killed by a sex maniac. Pedophile Doniac (Pleasence) tops the suspect list, but don’t be too sure. The truth is much “closer to home” than anyone realizes at first. Lisa Langlois, who made something of a career of Canadian scare flicks, makes her screen debut in Blood Relatives; also appearing, is Chabrol’s wife Stephane Audran. Blood Relatives was based on a novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter), of 87th Precinct fame; the film was released in the US in 1981, three years after its completion.Synopsis:

Making a rare visit to Canada, Claude Chabrol cowrote and directed the low-pressure psychological melodrama Blood Relatives (Les Liens de sang). Donald Sutherland and Donald Pleasence head the cast in this story of the aftermath of a brutal murder. The victim, a 17-year-old girl, was apparently raped before she died, leading Carella (Sutherland) to believe that she was killed by a sex maniac. Pedophile Doniac (Pleasence) tops the suspect list, but don’t be too sure. The truth is much “closer to home” than anyone realizes at first. Lisa Langlois, who made something of a career of Canadian scare flicks, makes her screen debut in Blood Relatives; also appearing, is Chabrol’s wife Stephane Audran. Blood Relatives was based on a novel by Ed McBain (aka Evan Hunter), of 87th Precinct fame; the film was released in the US in 1981, three years after its completion.Read More »

Evan wrote:
It is for Zou monogatari AKA Elephant Story (1980) directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, his brother Koretsugu Kurahara & Hino Narimichi. The soundtrack was composed by Ryudo Uzaki & Makoto Kawaguchi (Uzaki wrote the songs, Kawaguchi composed the score). It also features Naomi Chiaki on vocals for two songs. This film is also unavailable online it seems. Hopefully it will be found someday, as it completes Kurahara’s “nature trilogy” which includes The Glacier Fox & Antarctica.Read More »

Synopsis

Pianist Catherine Miller, married and mother of a little boy, leads a hectic and exhausting life. At the end of the concert, she meets television journalist Gilles Bollème with whom she spends a pleasant late evening.

Later that night, she receives a phone call asking her to replace one of her colleagues at the last minute and perform Ravel’s third concerto. Catherine revolts and thinks it is a joke, since Ravel has only written two concertos. But everyone tells her that she is wrong and she feels she is slipping gradually into madness.

In the morning, Catherine realises that it was all just a dream and she meets Gilles who has to take her to the airport.

Back in his television office, Gilles learns that the plane Catherine was in has just exploded on takeoff.Read More »

Quote:
A youthful and exciting version of Shinji Fujiwara’s original work of the same name, drawn by popular stars of the time. One day, thugs Ginnosuke (Kojiro Hongo), Matsu (Jun Fujimaki), and Yutaka (Jotaro Chinaba), who live hand-to-mouth, move into the Nakamura-za troupe, whose leader has died, in order to make money by selling it. The newly formed Nakamura-za, with Ginnosuke as its chairman, begins its activities, but the three members put aside their initial plans to make money and focus solely on acting.Read More »

On 22 June 1941, Germany and Romania attack Soviet Russia. Several days later, Curzio Malaparte, the Italian writer who would one day pen the novel « Kaputt », a war correspondent for « Corriere de la Sera », arrives in Iasi, in the north of Moldova, on his way to the front, which is nearby. He is incapacitated by a severe allergy and his only chance of recovery is to find a Jewish doctor, an allergologist who had studied in Florence, called Josef Gruber. All his attempts to find him are unsuccessful. While looking for him, Curzio discovers that in Iasi, several days prior to his arrival, a violent anti-Semitic pogrom took place and that a large number of the Jewish citizens of Iasi were deported by train and that Dr Gruber may be among them. In order to find him, Curzio, aided by Guido Sartori, the Italian consul in Iasi, tries to obtain an official warrant to bring Josef Gruber back. Read More »

In her debut feature, which has drawn comparisons to late French masters Rohmer and Rouch, Letourneur insightfully and humorously portrays the seemingly quite happy daily life of a small group of bohemian girls living together on the left bank in what they call their “Ranch.” A tight-knit circle of 20-somethings, Lola, Pam, Manon, Chloé and Jude—all played by non professionals, and all friends in real life—are smart, somewhat naïve, and often temperamental, spending their days drinking, smoking, laughing, dancing, gossiping, and discussing their love lives, until each realizes they must break from the group to pursue their own lives.Read More »