Director Henri Decoin and actress Danielle Darrieux made many fine films together (Le Domino vert, Abus de confiance, La Vérité sur Bébé Donge), but few are as charming and funny as the romantic comedy Battement de coeur. Thanks to its prestigious cast, witty dialogue and abundance of comic situations, this fifth Decoin-Darrieux offering is a delight. It was also the last film they made together before their divorce the following year, although they remained friends afterwards and worked together on four subsequent films.Read More »

At the height of World War II in fascist Italy, spoiled young Carlo Caremoli enjoys a beach vacation with his friends, oblivious to world events due to the protection provided by his father, Ettore. When Carlo meets older widow and mother Roberta Parmesan, he is smitten despite her reluctance to get involved. Carlo persists, and just as he and Roberta find happiness, the brutal reality of the war crashes in upon them.Read More »

Jewel thief Rochard is savagely murdered while traveling across country on a train, but his murderer fails to find the diamonds Rochard has stolen. Cut to Paris, where Rochard’s daughter, Nicole, is being interrogated by the police. She insists she knows nothing about her father’s nocturnal affairs, but that doesn’t stop the killer, who believes she knows where the diamonds are, from leaving her threatening phone messages or breaking into her apartment to terrorize her. The killer sports bright blue eyes and a voice altered by an electrolarynx (a device used to help throat-cancer patients speak again). Read More »

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Set in the 1960s, Cooley High is a slice-of-life tale of high school students coping with the challenges of every day life growing up in the Chicago housing projects. “Preach” (Glynn Turman) and “Cochise” (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs) are two black high school students, and best friends, who see their lives irrevocably changed by circumstances in the dramatic-comedy Cooley High.Read More »

After indulging in hallucinogenic drugs as part of an experiment at the behest of her boyfriend, Valentina imagines a terrifying murder committed with a spiked metal glove. Soon the incident becomes the basis of a news story, and it’s discovered that, a few months earlier, a woman really had been viciously murdered in the same apartment and her murderer never caught. Before long, Valentina comes to believe that she, too, is being stalked by the killer, but no one will believe her, including her traitorous boyfriend.Read More »

In this monumental work, Thomas Heise draws on letters and other documents to trace the story of his family over four generations. Word and image merge into a piercing, deeply moving portrait of a family, a country and a century.Read More »

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A samurai is ordered by his lord to go to Edo and investigate the truth behind the rumor of a rebellion against him. After collecting enough information to prove a conspiracy, the samurai needs to devise some way of leaving Edo without creating suspicion and comes up with a cockeyed plan. Based on the short story by Shiga Naoya.Read More »

A Jewish child deported to Kazakhstan is saved and adopted by Kasym, an old Kazakh railway-man. Kasym gives him a Kazakh name, Sabyr, that in Kazakh language means humble. The child grows up in the small Kazakh village along with other deportees Vera, a traitor’s wife, and Ezhik a Polish doctor. The Soviet militia harasses the poor peasants and Vera suffered the harassment of a bully cop: Bulgabi. Finally Vera accepts the marriage proposal of Ezhik but the jealous Bulgabi tries to prevent the marriage. The result is a fight in which Ezhik shoots himself accidentally. The old Kasym decides that Sabyr is now old enough to go to seek his real parents. At the end Sabyr, now an adult, decides to return to the village, but the village no longer exists because it was destroyed by a Soviet nuclear test.Read More »

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The film is an excellent showcase for the talented and gorgeous Claudia Cardinale. She is the very soul of this movie and if you are a fan of hers you’ll not be disappointed. The movie was directed by Luigi Comencini, generally associated with the comedy Italian style. In this case, a post war romantic drama, he was successful in capturing the mood of that time and the poignant sentimental conflict in the soul of her leading lady Claudia Cardinale.Read More »