Monthly Archives: November 2015

La vérité / The Truth (1960) Henri-Georges Clouzot, Brigitte Bardot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Drama

La verite (1960)
Dominique Marceau is on trial for the murder of Gilbert Tellier. The counsels duel relentlessly, elaborating explanations for why the pretty, idle and fickle girl killed the talented and ambitious conductor freshly graduated from the conservatory. Was it passion, vengeance, desperation, an accident? The acquaintances of Gilbert testify, as well as Dominique’s former lovers, and her sister, Annie, the studious violin player engaged to Gilbert. The evidence they give progressively paints a more finely-shaded picture of the personalities of Dominique and Gilbert, and of their relationship, than the eloquent and convincing justifications of the counsels.
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La chambre des morts / Room of Death (2007) Alfred Lot, Mélanie Laurent, Éric Caravaca, Gilles Lellouche, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

La chambre des morts (2007)
Two unemployed computer technicians discover 2 million euros next to a dead body in a field of windmills. The money that they find deepens their pre-existing dominator-dominated relationship. The next day, a young blind girl is found dead near the site of the dicovery and it seems that the stolen money had been intended to pay her ransom. Another child is then kidnapped and the police carry out an investigation, in particular a young sergeant who is fascinated by the tragic event.
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Die Unberührbare / No Place to Go (2000) Oskar Roehler, Hannelore Elsner, Vadim Glowna, Jasmin Tabatabai, Drama

Die Unberuhrbare (2000)
Flanders, a famous female author, travels 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall into the German capitol. She is deeply depressed of the events because she saw the communistic states as a very good thing that has now ended. In the joy of these days she finds no person to understand her, so she has to travel back to Munich. After meeting several people, known and unknown, it seems as if there will be no way to go.
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Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952) Douglas Sirk, Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson, Charles Coburn, Comedy

Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952)
Wealthy Samuel Fulton is getting older and has no family of his own. He decides to leave his estate to the family of his first love, who turned down his marriage proposal years ago because he was poor. But he wants to test the family before leaving his money to them. He takes a room in their home and a job in the father’s shop. He anonymously grants them $100,000. Harriet Blaisdell moves the family into a mansion and makes plans to marry her daughter Millicent off to a socialite rather than her soda jerk boyfriend Dan. The money goes to their heads, and they soon find themselves broke, back in their old house, and back to their old lives. Father back in his shop, Millicent engaged to Dan, and everyone seemingly much happier. Hoping they learned their lesson, Fulton takes his leave of the family.
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The Detective / Father Brown (1954) Robert Hamer, Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Peter Finch, Comedy, Crime, Drama

The Detective (1954)
Amateur detective Father Ignatius Brown defies his Bishop and decides to transport to Rome a holy relic from his church – a cross that once belonged to St. Augustin – rather than allow the more elaborate plans to proceed. On the channel crossing he becomes suspicious of a fellow traveler, a Mr Dobson, whom Brown quickly determines is not the automobile salesman he claims to be. He does befriend another priest whom he takes into his confidence but soon realizes that his suspicions should have been reversed. The fake priest is in fact Gustave Flambeau a professional art thief and an expert at disguise. After he gets away with the cross, Brown refuses to work with the police, insisting that he wants to save the man’s soul, not put him in prison. With the assistance of his friend Lady Warren, Father Brown sets a trap for Flambeau but Brown realizes that his work is only just beginning.
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Freakonomics (2010) Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, James Ransone, Tempestt Bledsoe, Bill Gates, Documentary

Freakonomics (2010)
The field of economics can study more than the workings of economies or businesses, it can also help explore human behavior in how it reacts to incentives. Economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner host an anthology of documentaries that examines how people react to opportunities to gain, wittingly or otherwise. The subjects include the possible role a person’s name has for their success in life, why there is so much cheating in an honor bound sport like sumo wrestling, what helped reduce crime in the USA in the 1990s onward and we follow an school experiment to see if cash prizes can encourage struggling students to improve academically.
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Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) Edgar G. Ulmer, Robert Clarke, Darlene Tompkins, Arianne Ulmer, Romance, Sci-Fi

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
A pilot testing an experimental new rocket powered craft manages to fly into the future and land at the now deserted airbase he left. He ends up in a city with people who are suspicious he is a spy and who want to keep him to procreate with the rulers daughter because the majority of the inhabitants are sterile. He manages to escape and return to his own time but ages dramatically.
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La femme du Vème / The Woman in the Fifth (2011) Pawel Pawlikowski, Ethan Hawke, Kristin Scott Thomas, Joanna Kulig, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

La femme du Veme (2011)
American writer Tom Ricks comes to Paris desperate to put his life together again and win back the love of his estranged wife and daughter. When things don’t go according to plan, he ends up in a shady hotel in the suburbs, having to work as a night guard to make ends meet. Then Margit, a beautiful, mysterious stranger walks into his life and things start looking up. Their passionate and intense relationship triggers a string of inexplicable events… as if an obscure power was taking control of his life.
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Lustful Mind / Lussuria (1986) Joe D’Amato, Lilli Carati, Noemie Chelkoff, Al Cliver, Drama, Erotic

Lustful Mind 1986
Alessio, a young man from a well to do family, has been mute since the death of his mother two years ago. His father, who has subsequently remarried, sends him to his sister-in-law’s house in the country to recuperate. While staying there Alessio has erotic fantasies concerning his stepmother, his aunt and a young art restorer working on the estate, all of whom his father is sexually involved with.
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L’amant / The Lover (1992) Jean-Jacques Annaud, Jane March, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Frédérique Meininger, Biography, Drama, Romance, Erotic

L'amant (1992)
It is French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A young French girl from a family that is having some monetary difficulties is returning to boarding school. She is alone on public transportation when she catches the eye of a wealthy Chinese businessman. He offers her a ride into town in the back of his chauffeured sedan, and sparks fly. Can the torrid affair that ensues between them overcome the class restrictions and social mores of that time? Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras.
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Messer im Kopf / Knife in the Head (1979) Reinhard Hauff, Bruno Ganz, Angela Winkler, Hans Christian Blech, Drama

Messer im Kopf (1979)
One night when seeking his estranged wife, Hoffmann goes to the youth center where she works. The police are there rounding up radicals who frequent the center – Hoffmann runs into the building and ends up being shot in the head. He awakens with brain trauma, partially paralyzed and unable to speak. The police accuse him of stabbing an officer; the radicals herald him as an innocent victim of police brutality. During his slow recovery at the hospital, Hoffmann must piece together his life and struggle to remember the events of that night.
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Afterglow (1997) Alan Rudolph, Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Afterglow (1997)
Two families are unhappy with their respective relationships: first of ambitious businessman Jeffrey Byron and sexually frustrated Marianne and second of repair contractor Lucky Mann and former B-movie actress Phyllis. When Lucky arrives to Byron’s apartment to make some minor repair and Marianne becomes obsessed with him, the everyday balance breaks.
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