Recently widowed American opera diva Caterina takes her teenaged son Joe with her on a long singing tour to Italy. Absorbed in her hectic work in various Verdi operas around Rome, Caterina is soon shocked to discover that her troubled and lonely son has become a heroin addict. Her desperate attempts to wean the youth off the drug result in an incestuous relationship, but also in a possibility to reunite Joe–maybe even herself–with his real father, whose existence she has kept a secret from him.
Read More »
Monthly Archives: August 2015
La venexiana / The Venetian Woman (1986) Mauro Bolognini, Laura Antonelli, Monica Guerritore, Jason Connery
Venice, sixteenth century. Giulio, a foreign gentleman spends a memorable night in the city where he meets and beds two beautiful women. They are Angela, a widowed lady, and Valeria, whose husband has left for Florence.
Read More »
Flickan / The Girl (2009) Fredrik Edfeldt, Blanca Engström, Shanti Roney, Annika Hallin
Story of a nine-and-a-half year old girl left alone in Sweden while her family is in Africa during the summer of 1981.
Read More »
Lianna (1983) John Sayles, Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon DeVries
Lianna and her husband Dick have been married for a few years but the marriage isn’t a happy one, since Dick treats her with arrogance. One day Lianna falls in love – with Ruth, a teacher. The people who know them act different: her husband with feelings of sexual betrayal, her children with curiosity and Lianna’s friends with ambivalence.
Read More »
La menace / The Threat (1977) Alain Corneau, Yves Montand, Carole Laure, Marie Dubois
Henri Savin has managed a trucking company for his lover, Dominique Montlaur, for many years. Now he is planning to leave her for Julie Manet, the woman he has made pregnant, and Dominique is hysterical. She first threatens suicide, then shows up at a meeting of Savin and Julie. Dominique tries everything she can think of to break Savin and Julie apart, to no avail. Frustrated in her efforts, she jumps off a cliff and dies. Savin insists that he and Julie lie to the police about the encounter, although Dominique’s death was a suicide and therefore they had no direct hand in it. Detective Waldeck investigates Dominique’s death.
Read More »
The Man from Planet X (1951) Edgar G. Ulmer, Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond
To study a rogue planet heading for a near-miss with Earth, Prof. Elliot sets up an observatory on the foggy moors of a remote Scottish island, with his pretty daughter and Dr. Mears, a former student with a shady past. Soon after arrival of reporter John Lawrence, a ship from Planet X just happens to land near the observatory. Is the visitor (who actually looks alien) benevolent? What are Mears’ real motives for trying to communicate with it?
Read More »
The Fearmakers (1958) Jacques Tourneur, Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, Marilee Earle
A Korean War veteran discovers his Washington-based PR firm has been taken over by Communist infiltrators.
Read More »
One on One (1977) Lamont Johnson, Robby Benson, Annette O’Toole, G.D. Spradlin
Henry Steele is a basketball phenom at his small town high school, but when he matriculates to a big city university on a scholarship, soon realizes that he has few skills outside the sport. Expected by his coach to contribute significantly to the team, Henry is overwhelmed by the demands on his time, the “big business” aspect of college sports, and the fact that he never fully learned to read. Things look bleak for Henry when Janet Hays, a pretty graduate student, is assigned as Henry’s tutor. Her intellect and strength lift Henry out of his doldrums just in time to battle the coach, who attempts to rescind Henry’s scholarship.
Read More »
The Black Windmill (1974) Don Siegel, Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig
A British agent’s son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can’t even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.
Read More »
Taste of Excitement (1970) Don Sharp, Eva Renzi, David Buck, Peter Vaughan
A man has been killed on the Dover/Boulogne car ferry. What is the connection between him and the attempts being made to kill Jane Kerrell, a young girl in her early twenties? As she speeds through the French countryside to the South of France, several attempts are made on her life as she is deliberately forced off the road by another car. But when she reports these attempts, the local Cap Ferrat Police Inspector and the sinister psychiatrist, Dr. Forla believe these attempts are in her imagination and Dr Forla, concludes that Jane is mentally disturbed. At her wits end Jane finds an ally in the young English painter, Paul Hedley who finally believes her life is in danger following an attempt to murder him. When Inspector Malling of Scotland Yard and Mr. Breese arrive in Cap Ferrat trying to uncover the connection between Jane and the murdered man on the ferry, this thrilling puzzle of international intrigue begins to unravel against the backdrop of the French Riviera.
Read More »
Fixer Dugan (1939) Lew Landers, Lee Tracy, Virginia Weidler, Peggy Shannon
A young girl is orphaned when her mother, a circus aerialist, is killed in a fall. A rival circus informs the sheriff that the girl is an orphan, and she is subsequently placed in an orphanage. The circus’ manager, known as “The Fixer”, determines to help out the girl and punish the rival circus owner.
Read More »
Wish You Were Here (1987) David Leland, Emily Lloyd, Trudi Cavanagh, Clare Clifford
In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex. She eventually becomes pregnant by an acquaintance of her father.
Read More »
Nihon kuroshakai / Ley Lines (1999) Takashi Miike, Shô Aikawa, Samuel Pop Aning, Takeshi Caesar
A group of Chinese youths living in Japan struggle to make their way in life and eventually find trouble with the local crime syndicate.
Read More »
Funny Face (1957) Stanley Donen, Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Kay Thompson
Fashion photographer Dick Avery, in search for an intellectual backdrop for an air-headed model, expropriates a Greenwich Village bookstore. When the photo session is over the store is left in a shambles, much to salesgirl Jo Stockton’s dismay. Avery stays behind to help her clean up. Later, he examines the photos taken there and sees Jo in the background of one shot. He is intrigued by her unique appearance, as is Maggie Prescott, the editor of a leading fashion magazine. They offer Jo a modeling contract, which she reluctantly accepts only because it includes a trip to Paris. Eventually, her snobbish attitude toward the job softens, and Jo begins to enjoy the work and the company of her handsome photographer.
Read More »
Les tontons flingueurs / Monsieur Gangster (1963) Georges Lautner, Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier, Francis Blanche
Ex-gangster Fernand (Lino Ventura) receives a call from a dying friend, a mob boss nicknamed “The Mexican”. The doomed mobster talks Fernand into taking care of some criminal business and looking after his soon-to-be-married daughter. When a longtime mobster heavy, Volfoni takes exception to Fernand for being an outsider, they come after Fernand who is equal to the task. He defends himself in a series of comical killings from the onslaught of the mob.
Read More »