Monthly Archives: April 2016

The Seduction of Angela / Dolce pelle di Angela (1986) Andrea Bianchi, Michela Miti, Carlo Mucari, Piero Gerlini, Adventure, Romance, Erotic

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Naive, orphaned maiden Angela leaves her small town for 19th- century London, where she quickly learns the ways of the world. She begins work at a brothel, where she gets a quick education in life. On her first “job,” she is rescued by Rocco, a traveling thief who happens to be going from room to room, robbing the patrons. Rocco and Angela fall in love, but Rocco must flee the inn at which they have taken residence, when the police arrive at the door…
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Zorn (1994) Gunnar Hellström, Linda Kozlowski, Liv Ullmann, Biography, Drama

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Swedish painter Anders Zorn gained notoriety for his nudes. His works are currently worth millions. The film is set in the time when Zorn, already respected for his art, was commissioned to paint a portrait of the Swedish king. Though an excellent painter, Zorn’s personal life is dreadful. A boozer and a womanizer who frequently cheats on his wife, Zorn constantly seeks approval for his art. When he travels to the U.S. for a tour he meets Emilie Bartlett the wife of sculptor Paul W. Bartlett with whom he begins a sporadic affair. After Paul commits suicide, Zorn and Emilie move to Sweden. Zorn disregards his wife’s feelings and openly displays his affections for Emilie.
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The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) John Huston, Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Mystery

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Messenger asks a friend to check into a list of names before leaving on a trip. When his plane is blown out of the sky, the matter becomes more serious. As his friend checks into the list, each seems to have died in mysterious circumstances. As he goes down the list, the deaths become more recent and a race to find the remaining survivors and what put each of them on this list ensues.
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Appleseed Alpha (2014) Shinji Aramaki, Yuka Komatsu, Jun’ichi Suwabe, Aoi Yuki, Animation, Action, Sci-fi

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From the creator of Ghost in the Shell and the director of Appleseed comes the intense post-apocalyptic prequel, Appleseed: Alpha. Left to survive in a post-World War society, two mercenary soldiers – Deunan and her cyborg partner Briareos – are sent on a mission on the outskirts of their war-torn city. During the operation, they run into Iris and Olson, two citizens from the utopian city of Olympus, who might have a way to save the world but the ruthless Talos and the scheming warlord Two Horns have their own plans. It’s up to Deunan and Briareos to safeguard their newfound contacts and help save humanity’s last hope.
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Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina / Appurushido: Ekusu makina (2007) Shinji Aramaki, Ai Kobayashi, Kôichi Yamadera, Yûji Kishi, Animation, Action, Sci-fi

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When a paramilitary task force called E.S.W.A.T. and its operations in the year 2133 Olympus, a futuristic utopia where humans, cyborgs, and bio-engineered human beings called “Bioroids” are attempting to live in perfect harmony. However, a series of random terrorist attacks perpetrated by cyborgs and humans alike threaten to throw Olympus into total chaos. As it turns out, these humans and machines have come under the influence of an unknown electronic signal that hacks into their nervous systems and they then become the unwilling servants of a malevolent computerized entity. Thrown into the action is the plucky female E.S.W.A.T. warrior Deunan Knute and her cyborg lover/partner Briareos as they investigate these bizarre occurrences with the other members of their unit. Things become complicated when a bioroid named Tereus, who resembles Briareous in his human form, joins their unit and threatens to come between their relationship. But these three must put aside their differences to face an even greater threat that promises world destruction in its wake.
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Two Mothers / Zwei Mütter (2013) Anne Zohra Berrached, Karina Plachetka, Sabine Wolf, Florian Weber, Drama

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Katja and Isabella decide to have a child. However, like many lesbian couples they soon discover that this is much more difficult than they first imagined. Citing legal reasons, most of the sperm banks and fertility clinics refuse to treat them. Fortunately, they are able to find one doctor willing to help – for a large sum. After a while, Katja decides she wants to call a halt to their ‘project’ on account of the toll it is taking on their relationship, not to mention their beleaguered bank balance. But Isabella refuses to give up. She finds a dealer who sells them a kit allowing them to perform the insemination in the comfort of their own home. There are plenty of men on his website willing to sell their sperm for various sums and sometimes one or two additional conditions. And so they begin ‘casting’ for a potential donor – a process that drags on for several difficult weeks. This fictional story is part experiment and part salutary tale. Containing all manner of sensitive material such as research, statistics, facts, prognoses, dreams and realities, this exciting work charts the vibrant terrain between fiction and reality.
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12 O’Clock Boys (2013) Lotfy Nathan, Coco, Pug, Steven, Documentary, Biography, Crime

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Pug, a wisecracking 13 year old living on a dangerous Westside block, has one goal in mind: to join The Twelve O’Clock Boys; the notorious urban dirt-bike gang of Baltimore. Converging from all parts of the inner city, they invade the streets and clash with police, who are forbidden to chase the bikes for fear of endangering the public. When Pug’s older brother dies suddenly, he looks to the pack for mentorship, spurred by their dangerous lifestyle. Pug’s story is coupled with unprecedented, action-packed coverage of the riders in their element. The film presents the pivotal years of change in a boy’s life growing up in one of the most dangerous and economically depressed cities in the US.
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Yasha / Demon (1985) Yasuo Furuhata, Ken Takakura, Ayumi Ishida, Hisamitsu Nakamura, Drama, Crime

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Retired yakuza gangster Shuji (Ken Takakura) moves back from Osaka to a remote coastal village to start a new life as a fisherman with his family, his arrival from the city coinciding with that of the beautiful bar hostess Keiko (Yuko Tanaka, who provided the voice of Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke). Keiko’s new bar, as its name Hotaru (‘firefly’) suggests is soon acting as a magnet for all the local fishermen, much to the chagrin of their wives. Not soon after the arrival of Keiko’s roguish lover Yajima (Kitano), also an ex-mobster, the locals are drawn into a host of collective vices including gambling and all-night drinking sessions. After a truly stand-out scene in which Yajima runs rampage through the village on a heroin-induced spree with a carving knife, he is run out of town by Shuji, but not before slashing Shuji’s shirt open during the fracas to reveal the tattoo of a woman’s face upon his back. With Shuji’s gangster past now revealed he finds himself ostracised by the local community and drawn towards the sympathetic character of the bar hostess with whom he shares a common past. When Yajima rears his ugly head one more time in order to borrow money from Keiko to pay off a debt to the yakuza, it is to Shuji that she turns for help, threatening to upset his domestic apple cart and pitch him back towards his old life.
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No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) Jack Smight, Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, George Segal, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

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Christopher Gill is a psychotic killer who uses various disguises to trick and strangle his victims. Moe Brummel is a single and harassed New York City police detective who starts to get phone calls from the strangler and builds a strange alliance as a result. Kate Palmer is a swinging, hip tour guide who witnesses the strangler leaving her dead neighbor’s apartment and sets her sights on the detective. Moe’s live-in mother wishes her son would be a successful Jewish doctor like his big brother.
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