Synopsis:
Based on the classic novel by Murasaki Shikibu, written over 1000 years ago. Genji, the son of the emperor, has gained renown among the nobility of Kyoto for his charm and good looks, yet he cannot stop himself from pursuing the one object of desire he must never obtain: his father’s young and beautiful bride. Following the tragic consequences of his obsession, Genji wanders from one affair to another, always seeking some sort of resolution to his life.
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Hail to The King, a quietly shocking slice of Southern Gothic from British director James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip) and scribe Milo Addica (Monster’s Ball, Birth). Mexican heartthrob Gael García Bernal chills the blood as Elvis, a devil in disguise who infiltrates the family of long-lost dad William Hurt, a pastor with a past. Far from being as overheated as it sounds, this is a muted, menacing slow-burner. Lend it your patience, and you’ll be royally rewarded.Read More »
Quote:
An elderly comedian is buried up to his neck in the Mexican desert. A bitter young woman threatens to pulp his head with a nail bat; the only thing that can stall her are his stories of a mythical threshold behind which lies the absolute truth. Is she in his dream or he in hers? Or were they once the Bonnie-and-Clyde-like couple we keep seeing, exacting their revenge on the world? In this dystopian frame story, nothing is what it seems. “Some stories have no clear beginning or end,” says the old man and his tales of love, fear of death and love’s vulnerability intertwine. Nihilistic, yet wonderfully shot, this narrative offers no solution, but does provide escape routes for a doomed world. Director Gutiérrez calls this, his debut film, his opera prima.
“This bizarre situation detonates a monologue about solitude, emptiness, love, absurdity, fear of death, and the fragility of human passions.”
— FilmAffinityRead More »
The story of a soldier looking after a broken plane in a remote Soviet village. Meanwhile, the German-Soviet war breaks out, but he carries on guarding it, protecting it even against the NKVD and Red Army, brought there on the information of his conscientious fellow-citizens. Based on a book by Russian writer Vladimir Voynovich, published in 1975 in Paris; Voynovich himself emigrated in 1980 following persecution by the regime. The film uses almost exclusively non-professional actors, and its tone captures the atmosphere of the start of the war and also of coloured film.Read More »
Synopsis:
Lord Windermere appears to all -including to his young wife Margaret – as the perfect husband. But their happy marriage is placed at risk when Lord Windermere starts spending his afternoons with an adventuress who is working her way through London’s high society, Mrs. Erlynne. Worse, Windermere gives her big sums of money. To crown it all he asks his wife to invite the detestable woman to her own birthday party. Upset and outraged, the puritan Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband and goes to Lord Robert Darlington, who has been courting her for some time. Unfortunately she leaves her fan -the one Robert offered her for her birthday – in Robert’s house…Read More »
Plot: In this war drama, set during the Korean War, an Air Force nurse gets involved in a love triangle on the front lines. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
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A routine film on the surface, Flight Nurse is quite original in showing war from the point of view of a nurse who is as comely as as she is generous. Far from hiding her charms under the uniform, she emphasizes the to assert the right to life and beauty. Dwan thus makes a kind of erotic ritual of her applying make-up, particularly lipstick: Joan Leslie, in sympathy with her wounded patients, knows that her sex appeal provides far more comfort to them thah her medical attentions. In desiring her, they commune with their wives or girlfriends. When it comes to healing, desire is granted the same power as prayer. Michael Henry Wilson, Allan Dwan’s Moral Tales At the Edge of Paradise, in Allan Dwan The Name beneath the Title (2001)Read More »
AMG: How does one start anew after a checkered personal history threatens to extinguish all hope and the possibility of redemption? Such is the question that lies at the heart of De Usynlige, Norwegian director Erik Poppe’s earnest psychological drama of second chances. Pal Sverre Hagen stars as Jan Thomas, a young man fresh from an eight-year prison sentence. The catalyst for his incarceration may have been an accident and may have been a premeditated murder, but regardless, the event still hangs over Jan like a dark shroud, tempering his memories and his actions. Upon release, Jan – a talented organist – lands a job in the local church as an organ player, and begins to develop feelings for Anna (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), a female priest who also happens to be a single mother. To avoid complications and protect the sanctity of the new relationship, Jan silently vows to withhold information about his troubled past from Anna, but the past catches up with him in the form of Agnes, a schoolteacher who visits the church and recognizes Jan – as the man responsible for her young son’s death.Read More »
Synopsis
In the early fifties Ingmar Bergman got himself a cine-camera, a 9.5 mm Bell & Howell, which he often used both privately and in his work. “Bilder från lekstugan” (“Images from the Playground”) embark on these films, giving a diverse representation of one of the greatest artists in cinema.Read More »
Turkish short film director and documentarian Kazim Oz presents his first hour-long narrative feature, The Photograph. Opening in Istanbul, a bus travels on its way to eastern Turkey. Relaxed Ali (Nazmi Kirik) and wound-up Faruk (Feyyaz Duman) sit next to each other on the bus and strike up a friendship, both claiming they are visiting relatives. After a 24-hour journey, the men cordially say goodbye without ever realizing the truth: that one is joining the Turkish military and the other is joining the Kurdish guerrillas. The conclusion finds them reuniting under different circumstances. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, RoviRead More »