Anna Neagle, Sylvia Syms. Poor Anna just can’t seem to ‘straighten out’ her delinquent daughter. Her path eventually leads to crime, rebellion, death, and redemption. Her sleazy boryfriend leads her down a path of moral ineptitude. Good performance by Syms.
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Author Archives: rarefilm
The Bugle Sounds (1942) S. Sylvan Simon, Richard Thorpe, Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, Drama, War
Sergeant “Hap” Doan, heartbroken that the Nineteenth Cavalry, in which he has served for so many years, is to be mechanized and replenished with twenty recent draftees, goes on a drinking spree. He rails about leaving the Army, but is there when the draftees arrive, ready to make good soldiers out of them. When his horse, Cantigny, is killed by the explosion of a tank that had been sabotaged by Nazi-agents, he goes AWOL, and is court-martialed upon his return and given a dishonorable discharge. But he is under secret orders from his Commanding Officer to join the gang of German spies, who have every reason to believe they can trust the disgruntled ex-sergeant..
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Dead Men Are Dangerous (1939) Harold French, Robert Newton, Betty Lynne, Peter Gawthorne, Crime, Drama
A down-and-out writer being hounded by collectors stumbles upon dead man lying under a fallen tree limb. Little did he know the man had been murdered, and he concocts a scheme of exchanging clothes and identifications in hopes of making a clean slate of things. Coincidental happenings lead the police to his new alias. A secret diary and a murder weapon hold the truth to his innocence while Scotland Yard is now the hound on his trail. The true killers are eventually exposed to him and his sweetheart. Then the truth is exposed. A somewhat frustrating story as the viewer watches errors in judgement from all angles. But a good ending for all except the murderers.
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Gazon Maudit (1995) Josiane Balasko, Victoria Abril, Alain Chabat, Comedy
Laurent and Loli are a thirty-ish married couple living in southern France with their young children. He is an estate agent; she is a housewife. Laurent has extramarital affairs. Loli is unaware that her husband is unfaithful. Then one day, a campervan breaks down in front of their house. The driver is Marijo, a 40s-ish butch lesbian who works as a DJ…
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Quem És Tu? / Who Are You? (2001) João Botelho, Patrícia Guerreiro, Suzana Borges, Rui Morisson, Drama, History
Aged 13, Maria Noronha is an estremely pale and fragil girl, sick with tubercolosis. In order to alleviate her suffering, she gathers poppies from her garden, and at night puts them on the pillows on her bed. But the poppies have a devastating effect. Her deep sleep is disturbed by terrible ghosts and hallucinations: about the decadence of the Portuguese XVII century, the Jesuits’s power and the terrible Inquisition.
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Cheob-sok / The Contact (1997) Yun-hyeon Jang, Suk-kyu Han, Do-yeon Jeon, Sang-mi Choo, Romance
The male radio presenter Donghyun and the female TV home shopping phone operator Soohyun are both lonely. While Donghyun is focused on getting back to his ex-girl-friend Younghae who has sent him a special LP, Soohyun is crazy for her friend’s boy-friend. Via Internet and music Soohyun and Donghyun get together in a special way.
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Un été à la Goulette (1996) Férid Boughedir, Sonia Mankaï, Ava Cohen-Jonathan, Sarah Pariente, Comedy, Drama
In La Goulette, a small harbour town in the Tunis suburbs, Youssef, the Muslim, Jojo, the Tunisian Jew, and Giuseppe, the Sicilian Catholic, are as inseparable as their three 16-year-old daughters, Meriem, Gigi and Tina. In a fit of provocation the three girls all swear that they’ll lose their virginity on the day of the feast of the Madonna, each with a boy from a religion different to hers !…
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Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) Jim Jarmusch, Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, Comedy, Drama, Music
Eleven separate vignettes are presented. In each, celebrities, playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves (with the exception of the characters of various wait staff, and one actor playing a lookalike cousin of herself), meet in a food service establishment with coffee/tea and cigarettes involved. Beyond the topic of discussion that brought them together, they often talk directly about coffee and cigarettes, more often that coffee and cigarettes, and by association caffeine and nicotine, are not healthy, especially if they are the only things constituting lunch. Other recurring themes include the Lee family, cousinhood, celebrity worship, the connection between the medical and musical careers, and Nikola Tesla’s belief that the Earth is a conductor of acoustic resonance. In all cases, the coming together for coffee/tea and smokes acts as a bridge to overcome disagreements, and/or makes uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.
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Muertos de risa / Dying of Laughter (1999) Álex de la Iglesia, Santiago Segura, El Gran Wyoming, Álex Angulo, Comedy, Drama
Nino and Bruno are two comedians who reach the heights of success with their duo act, turning them into huge TV celebrities. However, the hate between them grows as fast, and as much, as their fame.
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The Breaking Point (1950) Michael Curtiz, John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Fishing boat captain Harry Morgan charters his boat. Due to strained finances, he is none too careful as to whom he does business with. Real trouble erupts when Harry hires out his boat to transport four men who turn out to be criminals on the lam from a racetrack heist.
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All Ladies Do It / Così fan tutte (1992) Tinto Brass, Claudia Koll, Paolo Lanza, Franco Branciaroli, Comedy, Drama, Erotic
Diana is happily married to Paolo but due to her wild passion for sex, she regularly winds up in short lived erotic adventures, which she doesn’t keep hidden from Paolo. On the contrary: by telling him, their sexual relationship is fueled with fresh impulses. When Diana experiences a stormy affair with the poet Alphonse, Paolo gets jealous after all and rejects Diana, who then goes head first in to a wild orgy of sexual excess with her sister and some friends.
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Merry-Go-Round (1981) Jacques Rivette, Maria Schneider, Joe Dallesandro, Danièle Gégauff, Crime, Drama
Elizabeth sends telegrams to her old boyfriend Ben in NYC and to her younger sister Leo in Rome to join her in Paris, where she is selling her dead father’s estate. When Ben and Leo arrive, a mysterious adventure begins.
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Oldeuboi / Oldboy (2003) Chan-wook Park, Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-jeong Kang, Mystery, Thriller
Oldboy is the revenge drama from Director Park Chan-wook. Based on a Manga comic it depicts the suffering path of a man who must deal with the never ending torment of having unknowingly made someone his enemy.
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The Swan (1956) Charles Vidor, Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis Jourdan, Comedy, Romance, Drama
Princess Beatrice’s days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace. Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he’s bored by the whole courtship routine. He is more interested in the estate’s dairy than Alexandra’s rose garden. And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra’s brothers. Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.
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Mamma mia, che impressione! (1951) Roberto Savarese, Alberto Sordi, Giovanna Pala, Carlo Giustini, Comedy
Timido, goffo e petulante, Alberto cerca in ogni modo di fare colpo su Margherita. Con la speranza di vincere il primo premio, partecipa a una corsa. Da un soggetto di Sordi sceneggiato dall’attore con Cesare Zavattini e Vittorio De Sica (che si dice abbia diretto gran parte del film), un filmetto un po’ melenso ma interessante come specchio della Roma postbellica. Nel suo primo film da protagonista Sordi ha voluto portare sullo schermo i temi, i modi e l’umorismo di un suo popolare programma radiofonico.
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