Excellent new horror movie, 27 November 2008
10/10
Author: Rocket-Pictures from United Kingdom

Saw a preview of this. Was worried that it would be a bit cheesy but it had me and my girlfriend on the edge of our seats. Really gripping and uses psychological rather than gore to scare. Very good for a British horror and has a kind of style and gloss that you usually associate with American films. Lead girl (the one from Hollyoaks) is fantastic and very cute and there are good turns from some excellent upcoming British actors. Jeremy Sheffield (the handsome one from Holby City) is excellent I’m surprised he has not been a leading man before. Story pitch is about a couple of middle class families with issues who meet up for Chistmas together. One of the kids seems to have a virus and over the holiday gradually the behaviour of the children starts to change as they become wild and feral and turn on their over anxious parents. For people with kids it’s pretty uncomfortable and creepy, but if you’ve ever got fed up of those overly protective middle class parents who let their kids do whatever they want and can’t control them, then this is good fun. I notice it’s from the same director as WAZ, which was also a good film so it seems like he knows what he is doing and is one to watch in future.Read More »

A young German engineer photographs a beautiful Turkish woman without her permission. Her husband finds out and starts a fight. In the midst of the argument the German engineer accidentally kills the husband. With his burdened conscience, he goes out to Berlin’s Turkish district to find the woman. He is spotted by her relatives, and while escaping, by strange coincidence he ends up hiding in the man’s home whom he has killed. According to Turkish customs, a guest in one’s household must be treated with dignity and respect even if he is the enemy. Thus, the tension and difficulties among the Turkish family and the German engineer begin. As long as he stays he will survive, but how long can he live in the home of a man he murdered? (IMDb)Read More »

The last person to die on New Year’s Eve before the clock strikes twelve is doomed to take the reins of Death’s chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year. So says the legend that drives The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen), directed by the father of Swedish cinema, Victor Sjöström. The story, based on a novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf, concerns an alcoholic, abusive ne’er-do-well (Sjöström himself) who is shown the error of his ways, and the pure-of-heart Salvation Army sister who believes in his redemption. This extraordinarily rich and innovative silent classic (which inspired Ingmar Bergman to make movies) is a Dickensian ghost story and a deeply moving morality tale, as well as a showcase for groundbreaking special effects. (-Criterion)Read More »

Plot Synopsis from AMG

It was “The Night HE Came Home,” warned the posters for John Carpenter’s career-making horror smash. In Haddonfield, Ilinois, on Halloween night 1963, 6-year-old Michael Myers inexplicably slaughters his teenage sister. His psychiatrist Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) can’t penetrate Michael’s psyche after years of institutionalization, but he knows that, when Myers escapes before Halloween in 1978, there is going to be hell to pay in Haddonfield. While Loomis heads to Haddonfield to alert police, Myers spots bookish teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and follows her, constantly appearing and vanishing as Laurie and her looser friends Lynda (P.J. Soles) and Annie (Nancy Loomis) make their Halloween plans. By nightfall, the responsible Laurie is doing her own and Annie’s babysitting jobs, while Annie and Lynda frolic in the parent-free house across the street. But Annie and Lynda are not answering the phone, and suspicious Laurie heads across the street to the darkened house to see what is going on .
Lucia BozzolaRead More »

Synopsis
Gérard has been a loyal supporter of communism for all his adult life, serving in the French Resistance during the Second World War and supporting the civil war in Spain. Now, in 1951, he is the deputy minister for foreign affairs in Czechoslovakia. One day, he discovers that he is being followed, and, shortly after he is arrested and taken away to a makeshift prison. Without knowing why he has been arrested or who his captors are, Gérard is ordered to confess to his crimes against the State…Read More »

The story unfolds of a young man living in Paris. He wants more from life than the glib, superficial truths and material things that are on offer to him. He reaches out to his family and friends and psychiatrist to provide him with the great answers in life. But his spiritual deliverance remains beyond his grasp until he reaches a bizarre arrangement with a fellow hippie.

Robert Bresson is one of France’s most distinguished and influential film makers. His works include ‘Lancelot Du Lac’ and ‘L’Argent’ and he has won major prizes and unrestrained critical acclaim. Many distinguished critics regard THE DEVIL PROBABLY as a masterpiece, and one of Bresson’s greatest films. Artificial EyeRead More »

Sandra Brennan at allmovie.com wrote:
This compelling and exceptionally well-executed silent drama, from new MGM studio executives Irving Thalburg and producer Louis B. Mayer is based on a highly-regarded Russian play and features the studio’s biggest stars, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert and Norma Shearer. Directed by noted Swedish filmmmaker Victor Sjostrom, it is the story of a scientific genius who is humiliated by his philandering wife and a major career set-back. To express his pain, bitterness and anger he becomes a circus clown who seems to enjoy the frequently cruel slapstick antics of his new colleagues. While in the circus, he finds a chance at renewal when he falls for a lovely bareback rider. But will he at last find happiness? Or will tragedy continue to be his closest companion?Read More »

How do we learn to live with others and their wishes? Director Nicolas Philibert poses this question in a village schoolhouse in Auvergne, where Georges Lopez teaches 13 children, ages ranging from about four to 12. Against a landscape of mountains and farmland, from driving snow to rain to sun, the children gather in Lopez’s warm and colorful classroom, to read, write dictation, cook, and sort things out. At home, the older ones do homework with parents after their chores. At year’s end, they look ahead to the next, visiting the middle school and meeting the little ones coming in the fall. As they learn sums and adjectives, with Lopez’s help, they also learn to live side by side -IMDbRead More »

Jerzy is a writer and a chronic alcoholic. We meet him at the point when he believes that he can beat his addiction. Him and her in bed. Somebody says “I love you”. It seems that there is a reason and someone to live for… But when once she’s gone and he’s alone in a taxi, Jerzy can’t stop himself any longer. He has a quick one at The Mighty Angel and then goes to an all-night shop and starts drinking heavily. And then foam, convulsions, vomiting. Jerzy ends up in intensive care. We meet the hospital staff and other alcoholics in the isolated ward. Part of the treatment is reading previously written stories from the times when the patients were drinking. There’s an array of characters here: a lorry driver, a director, a pharmacist, some dossers too, a student and a policeman… there are no exceptions because anyone can be trapped in addiction. There are many amusing and authentic life stories (who has never laughed at a drunkard?) but there are also some terrifying ones… Read More »