Drama

Dogfight (1991) Nancy Savoca, River Phoenix, Lili Taylor, Richard Panebianco

Dogfight (1991)
1963, the night before the 18 years old “Birdlace” Eddie and his friends are shipped to Vietnam. They play a dirty game called ‘Dogfight’: all of them seek a woman for a party, and who finds the most ugly one, wins a prize. Eddie finds the lonesome pacifist Rose working in a coffee shop. She’s happy to accompany him – but then she sees through the game. However by this time he already learned to like her, so he follows her home. Will he manage to win her heart despite their differences?
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Nóz w wodzie / The Knife in the Water (1962) Roman Polanski, Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz

Noz W. Wodzie (1962)
Well off Andrzej and Krystyna’s marriage is at a stage where familiarity breeds contempt, that contempt which is outwardly shown only behind closed doors and only when an incident of some sort sets off one or the other. While driving through the countryside on a Sunday on their way to the lake to embark on an overnight sailing excursion, they almost run over a young male hitchhiker. Despite the antagonism between Andrzej and the hitchhiker, Andrzej offers him a ride as far as the marina. By the time they reach the lake, their antagonism has dissipated enough that Andrzej asks if he would like to join them on their sailing trip. The hitchhiker accepts despite knowing nothing about sailing. As the sailing trip progresses, the antagonism between the two men begins to increase again, fueled on both sides as each strives to be the alpha male. Andrzej needs to show his superiority, while the hitchhiker needs to show that his young age and inexperience, not only with sailing but with life in…
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La sfida / The Challenge (1958) Francesco Rosi, Rosanna Schiaffino, José Suárez, Nino Vingelli

La sfida (1957)
Vito Polara is a young ambitious man from the slums of Naples, who wants to get as much power and money as possible. He decides to quit smuggling cigarettes and tries to take over the local fruit and vegetable distribution, which is considered more profitable. After challenging the rural crime boss of the local Camorra, Vito becomes part of his gang and soon his life changes. He moves to a new luxurious seaside apartment and plans to start a family with the beautiful Assunta. At their wedding party, however, and later on, he’s about to see who the real boss is.
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Goto, l’île d’amour / Goto, Island of Love (1969) Walerian Borowczyk

Goto, l'ile d'amour (1969)
Walerian Borowczyk’s second feature was just as original as his first. Almost entirely live action this time, it is situated on the archipelago of Goto, which has been cut off from the rest of human civilisation by a massive earthquake and has consequently developed its own arcane rules. Melancholic dictator Goto III (Pierre Brasseur) is married to the beautiful Glossia (Ligia Branice), who in turn is lusted after by the petty thief Gozo (Guy Saint-Jean) as he works his way up the hierarchy.
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Deep Waters (1948) Henry King, Dana Andrews, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero

Deep Waters 1948
A Maine lobster fisherman, trained as an architect, prefers to be a fisherman over the objections of his fiancée. The latter, a welfare worker for the state, finds a home for a 12-year-old orphan who loves the sea. He and the fisherman become friends but the fiancée, fearful of the dangers of sea life, forces the fisherman to restrict the boy from his boat. Denied the life he loves, the boy, in retribution, steals a camera and is sent to reform school. The couple marries and succeeds in getting a judge to grant a petition allowing them to adopt the boy.
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Tous peuvent me tuer / Everybody Wants to Kill Me (1957) Henri Decoin, François Périer, Peter van Eyck, Anouk Aimée

Tous peuvent me tuer (1957)
The holdup of the bank is a success. All happened according to plan. Now, Cyril Gad and his four accomplices must secure an alibi. What better place than a prison cell? As a result the five gangsters have themselves arrested on minor charges and start waiting until they are released. Unfortunately three of them die mysteriously, another one is openly murdered. The only man still alive, Tony, is scared.
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Max (2002) Menno Meyjes, John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski

Max (2002)
Munich, 1918. German-Jew Max Rothman has returned to much of his pre-war life which includes to his wife Nina and their two children, to his mistress Liselore von Peltz, and to his work as an art dealer. He has however not returned to being an aspiring painter as he lost his dominant right arm during the war. He is approached by an aspiring painter, a thirty-year old Austrian war veteran named Adolf Hitler, who wants him to show his works. Although he doesn’t think the paintings are all that original and he doesn’t really like Hitler as a person, Rothman takes Hitler under his wings if only because of their camaraderie of being war veterans, and knowing that Hitler had nothing and no one to come back to after the war unlike himself. Rothman believes that Hitler has promise if only he can find his original artistic point of view. In part out of need for money, Hitler, on the urging of Captain Karl Mayr, agrees to work for the army as a political spokesman in anti-Semitic propaganda.
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Buongiorno, notte / Good Morning, Night (2003) Marco Bellocchio, Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio, Roberto Herlitzka

Buongiorno, notte (2003)
The movie is based on a true story. On 16 March 1978 Aldo Moro, the former Italian Prime Minister was kidnapped in Via Fani by the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), a militant Communist Italian group. He was the main supporter of the Compromesso Storico (Hystorical Compromise), which had to lead to the first Italian government supported by both the Christian Democrats and the Communists, in a period of social, economic and political crises. During the attack his five escort agents were all killed. Moro’s corpse was found on 9 May 1978 in a car parked in a street between the headquarters of the Christian Democrat Party and the Communist Party. This movie is inspired by this tragic event which traumatize the whole nation. It focuses mainly on the relationship between the prisoner and his guards through the eyes of Chiara, the young woman whose role is to guard the prisoner. The movie portraits Chiara’s life (her job as a librarian, the ordinary household) on one side and the political …
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As You Desire Me (1932) George Fitzmaurice, Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Erich von Stroheim

As You Desire Me (1932)
Budapest bar entertainer Zara is a discontented alcoholic who is pursued by many men but lives with novelist Carl Salter. A strange man (Tony) shows up on Salter’s estate claiming that Zara is actually Maria, the wife of his close friend Bruno. Maria, Tony claims, had her memory destroyed during a World War I invasion ten years ago. Zara doesn’t remember but leaves with Tony to Salter’s dismay. Bruno, now an officer in the Italian army, tries to coax Maria’s memory back on his large estate. No one is really sure if Zara is Maria, and when Salter shows up with a mental case that he claims is the real Maria, everyone on Bruno’s estate is desperately searching for the truth.
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Divá Bára (1949) Vladimír Cech, Vlasta Fialová, Jana Dítetová, Marie Brozová

Diva Bara (1949)
Tale Bozena Nemcova served as a template for a romantic story about a courageous, self-made girl scorned daughter of a shepherd, who is not afraid of anything – neither night nor swim. But the superstitious villagers about her telling all sorts of strange things, even seeking union with the powers of hell. Bold and courageous Bara stupid prejudices of their fellow men almost suffer. Energetic girl brings her pieces to boil the whole village.
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