When an African dictator jails her husband, Shandurai goes into exile in Italy, studying medicine and keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an eccentric English pianist and composer. She lives in one room of his Roman palazzo. He besieges her with flowers, gifts, and music, declaring passionately that he loves her, would go to Africa with her, would do anything for her. “What do you know of Africa?,” she asks, then, in anguish, shouts, “Get my husband out of jail!” The rest of the film plays out the implications of this scene and leaves Shandurai with a choice.
Read More »
Monthly Archives: March 2015
The Comedians (1967) Peter Glenville, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness
Set in the Haiti of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, The Comedians tells the story of a sardonic Welsh hotel owner and his encroaching fatalism as he watches Haiti sink into barbarism and poverty. Complications include his inability to sell the hotel so he can leave, a friendship with a rebel leader, some politically “charged” hotel guests, an affair with the German-born wife of a South American ambassador, and the manipulations of a British arms dealer who’s in over his head.
Read More »
Hin helgu vé / Pojkdrömmar / The Sacred Mound (1993) Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, Steinþór Rafn Matthíasson, Alda Sigurðardóttir, Helgi Skúlason
On a small island in the west of Island, Gestur, only seven years old, falls in love with 20 years old Helga. When she introduces him her fiancée one day, he decides to fight the competitor with traditional Wicking weapons.
Read More »
Hakai / Apostasy (1948) Keisuke Kinoshita, Ryô Ikebe, Yôko Katsuragi, Osamu Takizawa
Segawa, a teacher in a small village, decides to break with his cowardice after discovering their pariah origin.
Read More »
Born Romantic (2000) David Kane, Craig Ferguson, Ian Hart, Jane Horrocks
Centered around a salsa club, three men pursue three women across London. Fergus is trying to find his ex-girlfriend, the elderly charmer Frankie the beautiful Eleanor and the robber Eddie is trying to find one of his victims, cemetery worker Jocelyn.
Read More »
Le roman de Werther (1938) Max Ophüls, Pierre Richard-Willm, Annie Vernay, Jean Galland
Adaptation of “Werther”, a novel by Goethe. A young poet falls passionately in love a girl and when lost, desperately trying to recover.
Read More »
Árido Movie (2005) Lírio Ferreira, Guilherme Weber, Giulia Gam, José Dumont
Weatherman from a TV network goes back to his hometown, Vale da Rocha, a place in Northeast Brazil, devastated by the drought. He is forced to face the geographic elements and his own memories.
Read More »
Rapado (1992) Martín Rejtman, Ezequiel Cavia, Damián Dreizik, Mirta Busnelli
After his bike and money gets stolen from him, Lucio struggles to find his place in the surrounding reality of Argentina in the years following the military dictatorship. A slowly told story of adolescence of an outcast and a tribute to the neorealistic classics of the 1950s.
Read More »
Lo svitato (1956) Carlo Lizzani, Dario Fo, Franca Rame, Giorgia Moll
Achille is the errand boy in a newspaper of Milan, who wants to become a famous journalist.
Read More »
Two Way Stretch (1960) Robert Day, Peter Sellers, David Lodge, Bernard Cribbins
Dodger Lane (Peter Sellers) has planned the perfect robbery while in prison. He intends to break out of prison, steal a fortune in diamonds, and break back into prison before anyone notices. With only a few days’ sentence left, and the perfect alibi, what could possibly go wrong?
Read More »
La porta del cielo (1945) Vittorio De Sica, Marina Berti, Elettra Druscovich, Massimo Girotti
Story about the pilgrimage to Loreto train a group of sick and maimed.
Read More »
Une femme à sa fenêtre (1976) Granier-Deferre, Romy Schneider, Philippe Noiret, Victor Lanoux
On August 4, 1936, General Metaxas declared martial law in Greece. A union leader using the name Boutros is sought in Athens by Primoukis, a ruthless police leader. Boutros narrowly escapes and, early the next morning, jumps through the window of Marchese Margot Santorini, the wealthy Austrian-born wife of Rico, a penniless Italian diplomat and playboy. Margot is bored and without purpose: aiding Boutros’s escape invigorates her, and soon she is in love. The film briefly jumps to 1945 when Rico and Raoul (who assisted her out of love) meet in France to talk about her fate, and then jumps 30 years to Margot’s daughter’s visit to Greece to find out about her father.
Read More »
Rancho Notorious (1952) Fritz Lang, Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer
A western based on the story “Gunsight Whitman” by Silvia Richards. Vern Haskell, a nice rancher, seeks out to avenge his fiancé’s death when she is killed during a robbery. His revenge leads him to Chuck-a-luck, Altar Keane’s ranch set up to hide criminals, and he finds more than he bargains for.
Read More »
Rogues March (1953) Allan Davis, Peter Lawford, Richard Greene, Janice Rule
It is indeed an unsung classic tale of The Great Game. Peter Lawford stars as a young Captain of the Royal Midland Fusiliers whose life and career are turned upside down as he is framed for treason. He makes his way to the Northwest Frontier to ultimately set things right.
Read More »