Synopsis:
Lash of the Czar was one of several English-language titles for the Russian film Belyi Orel. The film was based on The Governor, a play by Leonid Andreyev. V.I. Kachalov plays the governor of a small Russian province who tries to treat the people under his authority with kindness and equanimity. But when a local factory goes on strike, the governor buckles under to pressure from the Czar and orders the wholesale slaughter of the strikers. He pays for this betrayal of his trust with his life — at the hands of a courageous Bolshevik spy. Anna Sten, who in 1934 was brought to the U.S. as Sam Goldwyn’s “answer” to Greta Garbo, appears as the governor’s wife. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRead More »

A German Jewish engineer is the only survivor of a concentration camp where he would work in a counterfeiting unit.Read More »

Five men rob a train in Utah of 10 million dollars in gold and head to Los Angeles in 3 trucks hoping to meet up with their beautiful accomplice, and leave the country.Read More »

Lara has just turned sixty; it’s a very special day that will culminate in a career-defining piano concert given by her son. Viktor remains elusive, however, and his mother’s repeated attempts to get through to him come to nothing. German acting legend Corinna Harfouch stars in this precisely crafted psychological study by one of the most successful German filmmakers of his generation, Jan-Ole Gerster, who here takes up the thread of his critically acclaimed debut Oh Boy.Read More »

In 1966, Mikio Naruse made two films that featured elements of the suspense/thriller genre. According to IMDb, The Stranger Within a Woman came first in January. Then in April, this film was released

Here’s Michael Kerpan’s review of the film:
In Naruse’s next to last film, he returned to cinemascope format, but stayed with black and white film. This is once again, in terms of plot, a bit of a shocker. Soon after we meet Kuniko (a young widow, played by Hideko Takamine) and her much-beloved young only son, the boy is run over by Kinuko (played by Yoko Tsukasa the rich spoiled wife of an automobile executive). Kinuko, it turns out, was distracted at the time of the accident because her companion in the car, a hunkish younger man who is her lover, had just told her of his plan to soon begin a far-away job. Kinuko tells her husband of the accident (but not the precipitating cause), and he orders the corporate chauffeur (Yutaka Sada, who was also the unfortunate chauffeur in “High and Low”). Luckily for him, he gets off with a small fine and a suspended sentence.Read More »

Quote:
One of the best films of 2005. — Paolo Bertolin

In the extraordinary film “IDOL”, all aspirations are stunted and all beyonds are ludicrous. The brilliant farce that is “IDOL” is so profoundly pathetic, it is hilarious. Indeed it is so unusual, provocative and at times shattering that a new aesthetic category might be required here. In “IDOL”, Khavn has hit upon a method adequate to the full-of-shitness of the world and a new modality for realism. — Jonathan BellerRead More »

Two Kyushu based yakuza groups are desperate for domination of the area. When more powerful yakuza groups get involved in their power struggle, a group of childhood friends, belonging to different yakuza families, are caught in the middle. Lies, deceit, and backstabbing are in play resulting in a bloodbath and a quest for revenge…

Cast: MATSUKATA Hiroki, NEZU Jinpachi, UZAKI Ryudo, MATSUZAKI Shigeru, NARITA MikioRead More »

Quote:
Bonaventure (Pierre Richard) is a semi-competent travel agent. One day, he teases his girlfriend’s jealousy by making a false mistress with a name which happens to be belong to a real girl… Having to make this lie true, his false mistress becomes also a true one and this is how adventure begins…Read More »

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.Read More »