1980s

imdb:
A children’s film with music and puppet animals that participate in the lives of villagers in rural Iran. The film centres on the idyllic life of Golnar, a young girl who lives with her grandparents, and their daily routines and lifestyle. One day, Golnar becomes lost in an ominous forest when she loses her missing mother’s hankerchief, her pride and joy. Like Goldilocks, she finds shelter in a hut that accommodates a pair of bears. The adventure begins when the bears notice the young intruder. A charming tale for all ages.Read More »

Documentary shot during the Lebanese Civil War, a prequel to Alaouié’s Letter From a Time of Exile (1989).Read More »

While draining a small lake to make room for a new housing development, a crew finds the wreckage of an old missing Cold War-era British Air Force bomber, with the remains of the pilot at the controls. An investigator assigned by British Military Intelligence to find out what happened soon discovers that there’s more to the incident than there appears to be, and it involves smuggling, the black market, the Russian KGB, the Nazi SS and a series of murders.Read More »

To the priest in a small Italian town, the Splendor cinema (now sold for redevelopment) is a ‘dark grotto of sin’; to owner Jordan (Mastroianni), it’s a shrine. But writer/director Scola is more concerned with the grey areas between such views: the patrons who desert cinema in droves when TV offers cheap, undemanding entertainment. Using flashback and clips, he conveys something of the medium’s superiority over the box, at the same time beautifully unravelling a tale of life-long devotion and hard graft from Jordan, his long-term lover/usherette (Vlady), and the projectionist (Troisi). Their temperamental relationships over two decades are conveyed with great affection by the accomplished cast; and the film is full of wonderful moments – such as the homage to Capra at the climax – which manage to be both magical and unsentimental.Read More »

In the middle of the Spanish Golden Age, a Castilian convent is about to be closed and the nuns residing there dispersed. Then, one of the sisters comes up with a saving idea that could restore well-being to the community: to pretend that she has stigmata on her hands.Read More »

Aboard a ship late in the 19th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian. In a series of flashbacks filmed almost entirely in creams, whites, and ochers, the clownish and superfluous Romano Patroni leaves his wife’s opulent home to visit a spa where he falls in love with a Russian woman whose marriage is a horror. He pursues her into the Russian heartland and returns to Italy resolved to leave his wife and marry his love.Read More »

Barbara Carey flies to Italy to visit her blind sister Mary Ann, who is studying in a music academy. Once in Rome Barbara discovers her sister has disappeared and, according to the Italian police, she may have been murdered by a maniac who is obsessed with young sightless women. With the help of Martin Foster, from the British Embassy, Barbara starts trying to find out what happened to Mary Ann. She even pretends to be blind herself in an attempt to attract the killer, and finally the clues lead her to Seagull Island, privately owned by a mysterious British citizen named David Malcolm. Barbara must then find the answers to several questions: was Mary Ann really kidnapped? What happened to David’s wife and son in the island? And why is David’s relative Carol so unhappy to see a woman with him?Read More »

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Meet plain but privileged multi-millionairess Stephanie Harper, whose sole mistake is to fall for handsome young sporting hero Greg Marsden. Stephanie’s dreams of bliss end before her honeymoon at the hands of her new husband, her traitorous best friend Jilly and the jaws of a convenient reptile. But wait! Undead, unhappy and hideously scarred, Stephanie crawls back to settle the score with the aid of gentle plastic surgeon, Doctor Dan Marshall. He watches her re-emerge as superstar model Tara Welles — but can true love and bitter vengeance coexist in the heady world of fashion? Return to Eden is a breathless trip from the mansions of Sydney Harbour to the deadly rivers of the Australian tropics, from the swaying palms of the Great Barrier Reef to the catwalks of the glitterati and a bloody climax in the ghostly outback estate of Eden.Read More »

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Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film The Killing Fields. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set.Read More »