Monthly Archives: November 2015

King Lear (1987) Jean-Luc Godard, Woody Allen, Freddy Buache, Leos Carax, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi

King Lear (1987)
Everything returns to normal after Chernobyl. That is, everything but art. Most of the great works are lost, and it is up to people like William Shakespear Junior the Fifth to restore the lost artwork of the human race. He finds strange goings-on at a resort enough to remind him of all the lines of the play, dealing with mob boss Don Learo and his daughter Cordelia, a strange professor named Jean Luc-Godard (sic), who repeatedly xeroxes his hand for no particular reason. He is followed by four humanoid goblins that keep tormenting Cordelia. There is also the gentleman whose girlfriend, Valerie, isn’t always visible. Then the film is sent off to New York for Mr. Alien to edit.
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Here’s to the Future! (2014) Gina Telaroli, John Budge, Begonia Colomar, Daniel Kasman, Documentary

Here's to the Future! (2014)
On a late-summer Sunday in 2011, a female director gathers a team of filmmakers, writers, musicians, artists, critics, and friends in an apartment to recreate a scene from Michael Curtiz’s Depression-era drama The Cabin in the Cotton. Over plates of pasta and glasses of red wine, a round robin of non-professional actors take turns performing the same scene, again and again, In different permutations. With a freedom Influenced by pre–Code Hollywood, cameras, phones, and laptops are scattered around & set at almost every possible angle, documenting the action both in front of and behind the camera as it unfolds, from rehearsals to equipment adjustments to the banter between takes. An intimate. playful, and spontaneous look Into the collaborative cinematic process emerges. a snapshot of the filmmaker’s perennial struggle to capture fleeting moments before the day (and light) slip away.
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The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980) Piers Haggard, Richard Quine, Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson, Comedy

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980)
Fu Manchu’s 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills Fu’s age-regressing elixir vitae. Fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, starting with the Star of Leningrad diamond, nabbed from a Soviet exhibition in Washington. The FBI sends agents Capone and Williams to England to confer with Nayland Smith, an expert on Fu. Nayland suspects Fu will kidnap the king and queen and demand the George V diamond as ransom. Scotland Yard recruits Alice Rage to stand-in for the queen. Fu nabs the “fake” queen; Rage becomes enamored of Fu and aids him in his quest for the George V diamond.
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The Goddess of 1967 (2000) Clara Law, Rose Byrne, Rikiya Kurokawa, Nicholas Hope, Comedy, Drama, Romance

The Goddess of 1967 (2000)
“Goddess” stands for French “Déesse”, the nickname of Citroën DS, the name of a famous car designed in the fifties. A young and well-situated Japanese man is dreaming of such a car, and one fine day he finds an offering on the net. He calls the seller (a man living in Australia), they agree upon the price and so he travels to Australia in order to buy the car. But when he reaches his destination, there’s chaos all around: The seller as well as his wife lay dead in their house and a 17 year old girl lets him in and offers him something to eat. He walks out with horror but then comes back because he forgot to ask about the car… The girl lets him see the car, and then they start a 5 day trip through the outback, and, at the same time, a trip back in time into the early youth of the girl and into her family’s chronicle.
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The Acid House (1998) Paul McGuigan, Stephen McCole, Maurice Roëves, Garry Sweeney, Comedy, Drama

The Acid House (1998)
Three twisted tales from the seamy side of Scotland and the mind of Irvine Welsh. The Granton Star Cause: in the same day a young Leith lad is dumped by his football team, his girlfriend and his parents, arrested and beaten up by the police and turned into a fly by God, whom he meets in a pub. The Soft Touch: a man is too soft to do anything when his wife moves in with the thug upstairs. The Acid House: while tripping on acid, Coco Bryce is struck by lightning, causing him to switch bodies with a newborn baby.
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The Thirteenth Chair (1929) Tod Browning, Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Margaret Wycherly, Drama, Mystery

The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
Although his murdered friend was by all accounts a scoundrel a true “bounder” Edward Wales is determined to trap his killer by staging a seance using a famous medium. Many of the 13 seance participants had a reason and a means to kill, and one of them uses the cover of darkness to kill again. When someone close to the medium is suspected she turns detective, in the hope of uncovering the true murderer.
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A Stranger in My Arms (1959) Helmut Käutner, June Allyson, Jeff Chandler, Sandra Dee, Drama

A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
Air Force test pilot Pike Yarnell reluctantly attends the memorial service for long-dead Donald Beasley, his navigator during the Korean War; recalling, in flashbacks, their painful days together on a life raft. In Beasley’s home town, Pike is repelled at Donald’s wealthy mother’s enshrinement of her dead son; bemused at his frankly amorous pursuit by Donald’s younger sister Pat; and increasingly charmed by his attractive widow Christina. What will the final flashback reveal?
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Cielo sulla palude / Heaven Over the Marshes (1949) Augusto Genina, Rubi D’Alma, Michele Malaspina, Domenico Viglione Borghese, Drama

Cielo sulla palude (1949)
The scene is the Pontine Marshes, a disease-ridden region. The year is 1902. Maria Goretti, a twelve-year-old girl, lives with her parents, poor farm hands, in the house of Serenelli, a heavy drinker who has offered them board and lodging. The farmer has a son, Alessandro, aged eighteen, who is sexually attracted to the pious girl. Maria resists his advances. One day the young man can’t help it anymore: he rapes Maria before murdering her. Before she dies, Maria forgives her assailant. After her death she is canonized as a saint.
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Cent mille dollars au soleil / Greed in the Sun (1964) Henri Verneuil, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lino Ventura, Reginald Kernan, Action, Adventure, Comedy

Cent mille dollars au soleil (1964)
Rocco and his female accomplice, Angèle hijack a truck from a trucking company in the Saharan desert. The head of the trucking company, Castigliano hires Rocco’s friend, Hervé and a newly employed German, Hans to go after him and bring back the valuable goods. After the two run into some trouble Castigliano sends a second truck driven by Mitch and Khenouche.
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Crime of Passion (1957) Gerd Oswald, Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Crime of Passion (1957)
Kathy is a smart and tough 1950’s advice columnist at a San Francisco newspaper, with her name plastered on billboards all over the city. One day, Bill Doyle, a Los Angeles detective, walks into her office – it is instant attraction. After marrying Bill, Kathy gives up her career and becomes a homemaker. However, she is not your typical 1950’s homemaker. After hosting several cocktail parties in their San Fernando Valley home, she realizes that Bill is content with his position, and shows no ambition in furthering himself. Kathy will not sit idly by while everyone around her is “moving up in the world”. She personally takes upon herself the task of pushing Bill’s career along, even if it comes down to murder.
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The Big Heat (1953) Fritz Lang, Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Jocelyn Brando, Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller

The Big Heat (1953)
Dave Bannion is an upright cop on the trail of a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force. Bannion is tipped off after a colleague’s suicide and his fellow officers’ suspicious silence lead him to believe that they are on the gangsters’ payroll. When a bomb meant for him kills his wife instead, Bannion becomes a furious force of vengeance and justice, aided along the way by the gangster’s spurned girlfriend Debbie. As Bannion and Debbie fall further and further into the Gangland’s insidious and brutal trap, they must use any means necessary (including murder) to get to the truth.
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