A young writer anguished because he finds nothing interesting to write about, strolls through the streets of Izmir. He comes across a series of posters of Sevim Suna, a local singer. She intrigues him and he stops to wonder who she is. At that point a man comes up to him and says that her name is “Vasfiye”. The stranger begins to tell her story. As the young writer listens he finds himself transported into different versions of Vasfiye’s life.Read More »
‘7 UP’/’28,’ BRITISH DOCUMENTARIES
THE twin documentaries ”7 Up” and ”28 Up,” which were shown last night at the New York Film Festival (and which open at the Film Forum 1 on Oct. 16), constitute as fascinating a work of popular sociology as you may ever see. ”7 Up,” which was first shown on British television in 1963, collected a group of 7-year-olds from different class strata and let them describe their values, their prejudices and their hopes for the future. The same project takes on tremendous poignancy and a great deal more breadth in ”28 Up,” a follow-up study consisting of much longer profiles of the same people, revealing how their dreams and aspirations have changed with time.Read More »
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, two young clerks at the stuffy Foreign Office in Whitehall display little interest in the decline of the British Empire. To their eyes, it can hardly compete with girls, rock music (including “Lay Down Your Arms”), and the intrigue of romantic entanglements.Read More »
Plot summary [wikipedia.org]
The narrative opens in the decade before World War I. We are introduced to the central protagonist of the story, Hans Castorp, a young German. We encounter him when he is in his early 20s, about to take up a shipbuilding career in Hamburg, his home town. Just before beginning this professional career he undertakes a journey to visit his tubercular cousin, Joachim Ziemssen, who is seeking a cure in a sanatorium in Davos, high up in the Swiss Alps. In the opening chapter, Hans is symbolically transported away from the familiar life and mundane obligations he has known, in what he later learns to call the flatlands , to the rarefied mountain air and introspective little world of the sanatorium.Read More »
Background/Synopsis wrote:
This is the story of a young black man who is verbally harassed by an older woman on a streetcar while the other passengers remain silent. But the schwarzfahrer shall eventually have his revenge.Read More »
The Exorcist in the 21st Century takes the viewer into the unknown and sinister world of exorcism in the Catholic Church. We meet one of the few exorcists in Europe, the Vatican approved Jos? Antonio Fortea. He travels around the world on a mission to enlighten the masses about demonic possession. Constanza, a Colombian woman, is desperately looking for Fr. Forteas help. She claims to have been possessed by demons for nearly 15 years and she goes through a ritual of exorcism before she sees the Spanish exorcist as a last hope for spiritual liberation. The film follows both their journeys and gives a unique insight into one of the world most secret and mystical rites – the catholic ritual of exorcism.Read More »
The indignados movement, known also as 15M, represents a unique phenomenon for our times: a transversal, transnational, transhistorical. It has brought back concepts and ideas that seemed to have been forgotten. This film is a journalistic period piece updated on the years of the international crisis, through the protesters’ voices, slogans, chants, where the only solution to the crumbling Spanish economy seems to be class warfare. – Festival ScopeRead More »
The film opens idyllically when a Chinese man, Jun (Ignacio Huang), takes his girlfriend on a boat trip on a picturesque lake to propose to her. This image is quickly shattered when a cow falls from the sky, killing Jun’s girlfriend. The shattering of Jun’s happiness and the serene scene becomes a precedent for the rest of the film. It is this event which will ultimately change the life of bad tempered iron monger Roberto (Darín). Read More »
Quote:
A crowd forms in front of a government employment agency, as it does every day, waiting – often in vain – for job announcements. Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), one of the unemployed laborers who participates in this daily ritual, is selected to hang posters in the city, a job requiring a bicycle, which he has long sold in order to sustain his family’s meager existence for a few more days. He and his wife, Maria (Lianella Carell), return to the pawn shop with a few remaining possessions, their matrimonial linen, in order to redeem the bicycle. During his first day at his new work, his bicycle is stolen. He combs the city with his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola), in search of the elusive bicycle.Read More »