Monthly Archives: July 2016

Heathers (1988) Michael Lehmann, Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Comedy, Crime, Drama

Heathers (1988)
A regular girl, Veronica, tries to survive the social jungle of high school by sticking with the three most popular girls at school who are all called Heather. As she meets a sociopath named JD, her life spirals into a continuous cycle of hate, unintentional murder and indifference, as she exacts revenge on her enemies, also known as her best friends.
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Revenge of the Nerds (1984) Jeff Kanew, Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield, Comedy

Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
When lovable nerds Gilbert and Lewis embark on their freshman year at Adams College, little do they realize the perils that await them. They’re beset by taunting from the jocks of Alpha Beta fraternity, which only worsens when the jocks accidentally burn down their house and toss the freshmen out of the freshmen dorm. To make matters more problematic Lewis develops a crush on pretty Betty Childs, popular sorority sister and quarterback’s girlfriend. Joined by the aptly named Booger and the violin-playing Pointdexter, the nerds soon realize they must form their own fraternity in self-defence. Soon the tables are turned as the nerds employ high-tech warfare against the jocks…. but can they really win and make a difference?
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The Omega Man (1971) Boris Sagal, Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Action, Sci-Fi

The Omega Man (1971)
Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. The plague caused by the war has killed everyone else except for a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people calling themselves “The Family”. The plague has caused them to become sensitive to light, as well as homicidally psychotic. They believe science and technology to be the cause of the war and their punishment, and Neville, as the last symbol of science, the old world, and a “user of the wheel”, must die. Neville, using electricity, machinery, and science attempts to hold them at bay.
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Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock, Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Psycho (1960)
Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.
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Notorious (1946) Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Film-Noir, Romance, Drama

Notorious (1946)
In order to help bring Nazis to justice, U.S. government agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) recruits Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the American daughter of a convicted German war criminal, as a spy. As they begin to fall for one another, Alicia is instructed to win the affections of Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains), a Nazi hiding out in Brazil. When Sebastian becomes serious about his relationship with Alicia, the stakes get higher, and Devlin must watch her slip further undercover.
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Kuroi jûnin no onna / Ten Women in Black (1961) Kon Ichikawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Keiko Kishi, Tamao Nakamura, Drama

Ten Women in Black (1961)
Weary of their lot, ten women – all mistresses of the same philandering businessman – join forces to wreak revenge upon him. A comedy of reversed expectations, gleefully upending traditional onscreen representations of gender (the women here act and talk like men, while the men are weak, confused or ineffectual), it’s shot in an exaggerated noir-ish manner – complete with multiple flashbacks and highly stylised visuals – that serves highlight the artificiality of its conceit.
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Le bonheur / Happiness (1935) Marcel L’Herbier, Gaby Morlay, Charles Boyer, Paulette Dubost, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Le bonheur AKA Happiness (1935)
Released in English-speaking countries as Happiness, Le Bonheur was based on a play by Henry Bernstein. Charles Boyer stars as a fervent anarchist who vows to kill anyone who represents “the establishment.” As a result, he ends up shooting idolized music-hall singer Gaby Morlay in full view of her audience. After this unpromising start, Boyer and Morlay get to know each other, eventually falling in love. At his attempted-murder trial, Morlay offers to testify on Boyer’s behalf – but he refuses, determined to become a martyr to his cause. Things work out in a most unexpected fashion in this offbeat romance, released in the U.S. in 1935 to capitalize on Boyer’s burgeoning American popularity.
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In Gay Madrid (1930) Robert Z. Leonard, Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, Lottice Howell, Drama, Musical, Romance

In Gay Madrid (1930)
Ricardo, a young law student in his home town of Madrid, is a carefree playboy who loves nightclubs and courting pretty girls. His father hopes to instill a more serious attitude in his son by transferring him to a school in the rural town of Santiago. At Santiago, his father’s old friend is to be his guardian. When Ricardo arrives at Santiago he joins a fraternity, and continues his carefree lifestyle while serenading and courting his guardian’s daughter, Carmina. But when Ricardo’s former girlfriend Goyita arrives for a visit, events take a serious turn …
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Down in the Valley (2005) David Jacobson, Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, Drama, Romance, Thriller

Down in the Valley (2005)
Tobe is a teenage girl in a dysfunctional American family, but one that appears both realistically normal and deeply embedded in suburbia. This is the landscape of Spielberg, but the family, inadequate father, rebellious daughter and quasi-autistic stepson, seems alienated and distant from the world around it. Into this milieu drifts Harlan, a young man whose roots are at least partially fantasised, part cowboy part movie cliche, and whose reality remains unclear. The pair embark on a romance that threatens her father, captivates her little brother and is destructive to them all. The sparse writing avoids cliche in this subtle, ethereal, independent film that is thought provoking in its mock simplicity.
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Aldeia da Roupa Branca / The Village of White Clothes (1939) Chianca de Garcia, Beatriz Costa, Manuel Santos Carvalho, José Amaro, Comedy

Aldeia da Roupa Branca AKA The Village of White Clothes (1939)
Gracinda, a young laundry washer, lives with her godfather, “Uncle” Jacinto, and together they run a family business, doing the laundry for residents of Lisbon in their small village in the outskirts of that city (Canecas). Unfortunately, the business is not going very well, but that changes when Gracinda decides to go to the city to try to convince Chico, “Uncle” Jacinto’s son, with whom she is in love, to return to the village and give new life to the business. The village is preparing for the annual festivities and a dispute erupts between “Uncle” Jacinto and his business rival , the widow Quiteria, when each of them invites different bands to play at the same time during the party and dances.
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Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky / A Trick of the Light (1995) Wim Wenders, Stefan Barber, Wiebke Bayer, Nadine Büttner, Biography, Drama, Documentary

A Trick of the Light (1995)
A rare gem of cinematic storytelling that weaves docudrama, fictional reenactment, and experimental photography into a powerful, reflective work on the early days of German cinema. The film tells the story of the Skladanowsky Brothers, the German-born duo responsible for inventing the “bioskop”, an early version of the film projector.
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Overboard (1987) Garry Marshall, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Edward Herrmann, Comedy, Romance

Overboard (1987)
Snobbish and wealthy Joanna Stayton (Goldie Hawn) is living a life of leisure with her husband, Grant (Edward Herrmann), when she falls off their yacht and suffers amnesia. Grant takes the opportunity to rid himself of the demanding Joanna – but Dean (Kurt Russell), a widowed carpenter with four kids who once worked for Joanna, arrives and claims she’s his wife. Joanna can’t remember her past identity, but has trouble believing that she was ever meant to be a working-class mother of four.
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Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) Edward D. Wood Jr., Gregory Walcott, Tom Keene, Mona McKinnon, Horror, Sci-Fi

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
In California, an old man (Bela Lugosi) grieves the loss of his wife (Vampira) and on the next day he also dies. However, the space soldier Eros and her mate Tanna use an electric device to resurrect them both and the strong Inspector Clay (Tor Johnson) that was murdered by the couple. Their intention is not to conquer Earth but to stop mankind from developing the powerful bomb “Solobonite” that would threaten the universe. When the population of Hollywood and Washington DC sees flying saucers on the sky, a colonel, a police lieutenant, a commercial pilot, his wife and a policeman try to stop the aliens.
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Xiao cheng zhi chun / Spring in a Small Town (1948) Mu Fei, Chaoming Cui, Wei Li, Yu Shi, Drama, Romance

Xiao cheng zhi chun AKA Spring in a Small Town (1948)
Following WWII and with China brought to it’s knees by the actions of the Japanese, prior to the rise of the Communists, led by Chairman Mao. This is the time during which Fei Mu’s film takes place. Wei Wei plays a woman who lives a lonely life, shackled by her care for her gentle, but ill husband (Shi Yu)- that is until her first love reappears into her life. This is Fei’s penultimate film as director, but is still enjoyed by many today as one of his best works. It has now been a firm favorite of many since it was restored in the 80’s by the China Film Archive and some rate it as one of the greatest Chinese movies in history.
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