1980s

Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) has worked hard all his life to achieve a certain standing and success as a lawyer in Rome. He is pleased to be able to offer the fruits of his success to his son Michele (Massimo Troisi), and is perplexed and distressed that his unambitious son has no interest in any of these things. Michele is serving a term in the Italian military in the port town of Civitavecchia, and Marcello is visiting him there. Here he meets Michele’s salty girlfriend Loredana (Anne Parillaud). The father and son share some meals and explore their differences.Read More »

Quote:
This is an excellent piece of cinema, about life of yakuza (gangster) and his family. Ryuji tries to quit yakuza and spend a decent life with his wife Mariko and daughter Aya…but as he’s used to getting easy money, it’d become hard for him to work hard and get little. Eventually he’s back to where he belongs.Read More »

Silip (1985)

Synopsis:
Bloodshed and bouncing bosoms abound in this wretchedly violent and nearly pornographic horror film from the Phillipines. The story is set within a tiny village located near an idyllic nude beach where beautiful young women play. Poor local boy Joseph is terribly aroused and becomes obsessed with having his teacher, a virgin. This does not set well with Joseph’s lover, an older widow. Joseph meets his end after he is blamed for butchering a classmate. Joseph’s teacher and one of her friends are in turn blamed for cutting off the lad’s head and burned alive.Read More »

Sokol ga nije volio (1988)

Storyline:
The story begins in a small rural village in Slavonia, Ladimirevci in 1943, where a land owner Shima is helping the Partisan Movement and the official Ustasha regime in order to save the life of his son Benosh, who is enlisted in the German army. Shima doesn’t want to let his son fight for the wrong side any more, and doesn’t want to give him to the Partisans either, so he hides him in his attic for the time being. The story is interwoven with episodes of Shima trying to muster a beautiful stallion – Sokol – who only answers to his son Benosh and clearly doesn’t like his old man… Written by Kristijan StakorRead More »

Arvottomat (1982)

A criminal, his friend and his former girlfriend find their lives intertwining with each other.Read More »

Quote:
Two mismatched farming couples experience both sexual and social change in 1980s China. Husband-swapping and entrepreneurial zeal fuse in this superbly shot, wittily realised take on a country where rambunctious capitalism and desiring bodies are two sides of the same coin.
NY : ‘Hard life in country’ indeed – the country being rural China, the time being some unspecified point in the mid-70s. Plausible in both details and atmosphere, the film is more concerned with character-development than plot – and topical/political references, though scattered throughout (“the government wants us to make money now”… “Not the police has changed, it’s a good chance for us all”), aren’t delivered in too heavy-handed a fashion.Read More »

Kuca na pijesku (1985)

Plot:
An archaeologist returns from an assignment in Catalonia to his home in Split. Soon after, he commits suicide. His friend, the judge, finds an audio tape and tries to figure out the reasons behind the archaeologist’s suicide…Read More »

Caprice (1986)

Quote:
A girl finds herself inside a fashion magazine – Joanna Hogg’s graduation piece at the National Film and Television School starring a then unknown Tilda Swinton.Read More »

Susan Traherne (Meryl Streep) is a young woman who, during World War II, joins the provincial French Resistance as an undercover British agent. The highlight of her time in France is a night of passion with another agent, codenamed Lazar (Sam Neill), who briefly passes through her sector.

As she struggles to adjust to life in Britain after the war and a series of unsatisfying conventional jobs, Susan looks back with growing nostalgia to her wartime experiences. Her behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and self-destructive, and even the support of her diplomat husband (Charles Dance) and a close friend (Tracey Ullman) fail to prevent her slow unravelling.Read More »