Author Archives: rarefilm

L’Uomo, l’Orgoglio, la Vendetta / L’Homme, l’Orgueil et la Vengeance (1968) Luigi Bazzoni, Franco Nero, Tina Aumont, Klaus Kinski, Action, Drama, Romance

L'Uomo, l'Orgoglio, la Vendetta
The film tells the story of a Spanish soldier, who falls in love with a gypsy only to end up deserting the army and being chased into the border lands, where he joins the gypsy smugglers to rob money for a journey to America. But it turns out his love has a husband and is only using him again and again….
Read More »

Majka asfalta / Mother of Asphalt (2010) Dalibor Matanic, Marija Skaricic, Janko Popovic Volaric, Kresimir Mikic, Drama

Majka asfalta AKA Mother of Asphalt (2010)
The final straw in a marriage already on the rocks is when Janko hits Mare because she would not sleep with him. Although it is late at night Mare decides to leave her home with their 7 year-old son, and thus begins her search for a new beginning… Powerfully acted by actress Marija Škari?i? who has already won several awards for this role, the film follows her through increasingly challenging situations, which she desperately tries to present to her son as a game they’re playing. In stark contrast to the surrounding Christmas-time consumer bonanza, the young woman is left without money, friends, or even compassion. The only help she and her son are offered comes from the lonely nighttime security guard at the glitzy mall, Krešo.
Read More »

Farewell My Concubine (1993) Kaige Chen, Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Li Gong, Drama, Romance, Music

Farewell My Concubine (1993)
In 1924, young Cheng Dieyi (Leslie Cheung) begins training at the Beijing Opera House at the same time as Duan Xiaolou (Fengyi Zhang). Cheng specializes in playing female parts, often against Duan’s commanding male leads. While pretending to be in love with Duan onstage, Cheng begins to develop actual romantic feelings for his co-star, which are not reciprocated. Over the next 50 years, the two men maintain a complicated friendship as China undergoes turbulent changes.
Read More »

Uma Abelha na Chuva / A Bee in the Rain (1972) Fernando Lopes, Laura Soveral, João Guedes, Zita Duarte, Drama

Uma Abelha na Chuva AKA A Bee in the Rain (1972)
This Portuguese drama examines the daily life minutiae and intrigues of two scions of society in the rural village where they live. One is a wealthy landowner, the other a widowed aristocrat who lives in a world of her own. “Starting off from a fine novel by Carlos de Oliveira, Fernando Lopes doesn’t so mush reconstitute a story, but rather defines an atmosphere parallel to that which exists in the literary work. The erosion of time, the crumbling of an epoch, the decline of a stately home, the disintegration of emotions: the film version of A Bee in the Rain talks about all these things, using a language that is sparse and unpolished, fascinating and at the same time repulsive in its disturbing silence” (Lauro Antonio).
Read More »

Entre os Dedos / Noise (2008) Tiago Guedes, Frederico Serra, Isabel Abreu, Ivo Alexandre, Filipe Duarte, Drama

Entre os Dedos AKA Noise (2008)
After the structural collapse at a construction site, Paulo loses his job because he denounces the situation to the authorities. His relationship with his wife deteriorates more every day. Anabela, Paulo’s sister, lives with their father, who suffers from post-war syndrome from his involvement in the Colonial Wars. Bela is his nurse, and the only comfort for a terminally ill patient.
Read More »

Sen-hime to Hideyori / Lady Sen and Hideyori (1962) Masahiro Makino, Hibari Misora, Kinnosuke Nakamura, Ken Takakura, Drama, History

Sen-hime to Hideyori AKA Lady Sen and Hideyori (1962)
An all-star cast led by Hibari Misora and Kinnosuke Nakamura bring this stunning historical drama to life. From the late 1500’s through the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate many battles were fought as the great warlords vied for power over the nation. Princess Sen, a daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, is caught amidst the family feud between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi families. When her father Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu attacks her husband Toyotomi Hideyori’s castle, her life takes a sudden turn for the worse. Will she ever find peace in her life again? One of Hibari Misora’s most memorable performances, a movie you will never forget!
Read More »

A Cara que Mereces / The Face You Deserve (2004) Miguel Gomes, José Airosa, Gracinda Nave, Sara Graça, Comedy, Fantasy

A Cara que Mereces AKA The Face You Deserve (2004)
Until you turn 30, you have the face God gave you. After that, you have the face you deserve.” The estranged musical comedy that is Gomes’ first feature film seeks to convince its protagonist, Francisco, of that saying/dogma; precisely, during his thirtieth birthday. Or maybe it’s the complete opposite, and that Francisco who dresses up as a cowboy for the school play at the school where he teaches the children he detests, seeks to convince A cara que mereces of the fatality of the little phrase. But Francisco is a trick: he knows he deserves his face and his body because of him being intolerable. And A cara que mereces, hunted hunter, becomes a claustrophobic film that seeks to run away from Francisco using cinephilia as a way of escape; boarding, as Mark Peranson has observed, to the heart of Rivette, to the train (of dreams) of the recent Godard and, finally, to an impossible (but well-deserved) version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
Read More »

Kyua / Cure (1997) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Masato Hagiwara, Kôji Yakusho, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Crime, Horror, Mystery

Kyua AKA Cure (1997)
A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere. An odd young man is arrested near the scene of the latest murder, who has a strange effect on everyone who comes into contact with him. Detective Takabe starts a series of interrogations to determine the man’s connection with the killings.
Read More »

Os Imortais / The Imortals (2003) António-Pedro Vasconcelos, Joaquim de Almeida, Emmanuelle Seigner, Nicolau Breyner, Action, Crime, Drama

Os Imortais AKA The Imortals (2003)
Every year, four ex-soldiers who call themselves “Os Imortais” (“The Immortals”), get together with four women to celebrate their war deeds and remember the old days, back in the war. On the summer of 1985, tired of their monotonous lives, they decide to rob a bank. Joaquim Malarranha, a chief inspector from the local police force who is about to retire, crosses their path and chooses to spend his last days of duty trying to solve the robbery. But as he carries on with his investigation, he discovers more than he could have ever imagined…
Read More »

Spider Baby (1967) Jack Hill, Lon Chaney Jr., Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Spider Baby (1967)
In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home…
Read More »

Man Hunt / Chasse à l’Homme (1941) Fritz Lang, Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Drama, Thriller, War

Man Hunt
On July 29, 1939, renowned British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) slips through the forest undetected near the Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s residence near Berchtesgaden. Getting the dictator in his telescopic sight, he pulls the trigger on his unloaded rifle and gives a wave. He ponders a moment, then loads a live round, but is discovered at the last second by a guard, and the shot goes wild…
Read More »

Cheut ai kup gei / Exodus (2007) Ho-Cheung Pang, Simon Yam, Annie Liu, Nick Cheung, Comedy, Crime, Drama

Cheut ai kup gei AKA Exodus (2007)
A low-ranking cop often relegated to desk duty, middle-aged Tsim Kin Yip (Simon Yam) lives a stable, mundane life with his young yoga instructor wife Ann (Annie Liu). The monotony is broken one day when he interrogates Kwan Ping Man (Nick Cheung), a nervous, profanity-spouting man caught spying in the women’s bathroom. Kwan, who seems to have more than a few screws loose, confides to Tsim a shocking secret: a ring of women conspiring to murder men. Everyday, plans are whispered in restrooms and deaths are carefully engineered, so that men die unnoticeably from “accidents” that are anything but. Tsim initially dismisses Kwan’s conspiracy theory, but then clues crop up suggesting there is something fishy at work. Both his marriage and life could be at stake as Tsim becomes increasingly obsessed with cracking the case.
Read More »