• Fernando Pérez – La vida es silbar AKA Life is to Whistle (1998)

    Drama1991-2000ArthouseCubaFernando Pérez

    The film tells the stories of three end-of-the millennium Cubans, whose lives intersect on the Day of Santa Barbara (the African Saint Chango, ruler of destinies). Mariana, a ballerina, ponders breaking chastity vows she made to land the coveted role of Giselle; Julia has fainting spells each time she hears the word “sex,” and Elpidio, a musician, seduces a gringa tourist while Bebe, the narrator, takes us for a taxi ride along the streets of Havana. In Life Is to Whistle, Fernando Perez displays the same cinematographic lyricism that won his first film, Madagascar, the Special Recognition in Latin American Cinema award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Read More »

  • Franklin Adreon – No Man’s Woman (1955)

    1951-1960CrimeFilm NoirFranklin AdreonUSA

    Quote:
    Carolyn Ellenson double-crosses five people who cross her path and is murdered by one of them. After marrying Harlow Grant for his money, she leaves him but carries on her infidelities so cleverly he can not divorce her. When Grant falls in love with Louise Nelson, art-studio employee, Carolyn demands a prohibitive cash settlement and large alimony payments. Then tiring of her art-critic lover, Wayne Vincent, who has jeopardized his own career touting her art-studio business, Carolyn leaves him to pursue Dick Sawyer and break-up his engagement to Betty Allen. All of these five people have motives for murdering Carolyn and the police choose Grant as the logical suspect. But another person comes forward to confess to the killing for personal reasons, but he didn’t do it. The real killer feels secure but must remove the murder-weapon from the studio before the police discover it.Read More »

  • Youssef Chahine – Siraa Fil-Wadi AKA Struggle In the Valley (1954)

    1951-1960DramaEgyptRomanceYoussef Chahine

    I have watched this movie maybe 20 times till now ,and every time i got out with the feeling that this movie is great , it gives you a great picture about Egypt before 1952 , The land owner that control the farmers (Basha) and treat them like salves , the killing circle (Al-Tar) that is well known in upper Egypt , and the love story that will never change with time , and the evil and greedy people that never get enough , it is all in this movies. The uncountable number of stars with a very talented director gave us this state of art movie. (islamx – IMDB).Read More »

  • Kun-jae Jang – Han yeo-reum-ui pan-ta-ji-a AKA A Midsummer’s Fantasia (2014)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaKun-jae JangSouth Korea

    Split into two parts, shot in black and white, the opening chapter First Love, Yoshiko follows a Korean director (Lim Hyung-kook) who is scouting for locations for his next film in the Japanese rural town of Gojo, and is joined by his assistant director Mijung (Kim Sae-byuk) who interprets for him. There he meets the locals including an elderly lady and a civil servant (Ryo Iwase) who helps him tour the area. The second part, Well of Sakura, captured in colour, is inspired by a story told in the opening chapter of a romance between a Korean woman and a local man. Mijung is now an actress while the civil servant is a persimmon farmer as they walk around the town and learn about each other.Read More »

  • Yannick Bellon – L’amour nu (1981)

    Drama1981-1990FranceYannick Bellon

    Quote:
    Claire (Marlene Jobert), a bilingual UNESCO interpreter meets Simon (Jean-Michele Folon), an oceanographer at an international conference she is assigned to work (UNESCO’s international headquarters are in Paris). The two are drawn to each other, and romance blossoms. Just as they begin to establish a stable relationship, she discovers that she has breast cancer, and after a few trips to the doctor, she finds out that she needs a mastectomy. Unable to face her new boyfriend with the truth, she breaks off their relationship. As one might expect, no oceanographer worth his salt is going to leave his true love for just any shallow reason.Read More »

  • Lars von Trier – Manderlay (2005)

    Drama2001-2010DenmarkLars Von Trier

    Summary: “The politics of slavery and the follies of nation-building highlight Danish director Lars von Trier’s thought-provoking follow-up to the director’s 2003 drama Dogville, featuring The Village’s Bryce Dallas Howard in the role originally played by Nicole Kidman, and shot in the same stage-bound style as its predecessor. Shortly after leaving Dogville, Grace (Howard) and her father (Willem Dafoe) wander into a gated Alabama community still operating under the tenants of slavery. Appalled to stumble across a brutal scene in which a white master is viciously lashing his slave (Isaach de Bankolé), Grace hastily intercedes and pleads with the abusive man to treat his workers with respect and dignity. When merciless matriarchal plantation owner Mam (Lauren Bacall) dies shortly thereafter, the remaining slaves, who have never tasted freedom and only known life under “Mam’s Law,” implore the sympathetic Grace to help ease their turbulent transition toward democratic rule, with disastrous results.” (All Movie Guide)Read More »

  • Souleymane Cissé – Waati AKA Time (1995)

    1991-2000African CinemaDramaMaliSouleymane Cissé

    Quote:
    Beginning in South Africa under the apartheid regime, the film follows a young girl who flees the country after a violent confrontation with a local white landowner in which her father is killed. She settles in Abidjan, where, ten years later, she has become a university student. As part of her studies, she visits the Taureg tribe on the edge of the Sahara before at last returning to post-Apartheid South Africa.Read More »

  • Kenji Mizoguchi – Tojin Okichi aka Mistress of a Foreigner (1930)

    1921-1930JapanKenji MizoguchiShort FilmSilent

    this is a fragment of the original 115 minute film.Read More »

  • Georges Lautner – Le professionnel AKA The Professional (1981)

    1981-1990ActionFranceGeorges LautnerThriller

    Synopsis:
    French secret agent Joss Baumont is sent to one of the African countries to kill their president Njala. However, at the last moment the political situation changes and the French secret service turns him in to the African authorities, and he is sentenced to a long-term imprisonment. After the daring escape he returns to France and deliberately informs his former chiefs of his presence promising them to kill Njala who has just arrived to the country with the official visit.Read More »

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