On August 4, 1936, General Metaxas declared martial law in Greece. A union leader using the name Boutros is sought in Athens by Primoukis, a ruthless police leader. Boutros narrowly escapes and, early the next morning, jumps through the window of Marchese Margot Santorini, the wealthy Austrian-born wife of Rico, a penniless Italian diplomat and playboy. Margot is bored and without purpose: aiding Boutros’s escape invigorates her, and soon she is in love. The film briefly jumps to 1945 when Rico and Raoul (who assisted her out of love) meet in France to talk about her fate, and then jumps 30 years to Margot’s daughter’s visit to Greece to find out about her father.
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Drama
Vulcano / Volcano (1950) William Dieterle, Anna Magnani, Rossano Brazzi, Geraldine Brooks
While awaiting Production Code seal approval in the USA this Italian-made production went through three American distributors in three years; first Motion Picture Sales Corporation that passed it off to Eagle Lion and finally to United Artits when they acquired Eagle Lion properties. Anna Magnani, a prostitute, is banished from Naples and returns to her home, a volcanic island off of southern Italy. There, she is accepted only by her younger sister and younger brother, and takes whatever job she can to get by.
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Strangers All (1935) Charles Vidor, May Robson, Preston Foster, Florine McKinney
This drama chronicles the emotionally distant relationship between a mother and her four grown children. Though they live in the same house they could not be more different. One of her sons is a conscientious provider who keeps them afloat. A different brother believes himself the greatest thespian since Barrymore. The third brother is a budding revolutionary determined to overthrow the capitalist empire. Meanwhile, the mother’s daughter goes to college and returns a married woman.
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Beyond the Curtain (1960) Compton Bennett, Richard Greene, Eva Bartok, Marius Goring
East German refugee Karen finds herself back at home in Dresden when the flight she is stewardess on between Berlin and the West is forced down. She is then used by the State police to find her wanted brother, so when colleague – and fiancé – Jim arrives to get her back to the western sector of Berlin he has to watch his back.
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Anche libero va bene / Libero (2006) Kim Rossi Stuart, Alessandro Morace, Barbora Bobulova
Tommi (11) and his slightly older sister Viola live in the city with their father. They cope with being a single parent family until their mother shows up, having disappeared without trace – not for the first time, we soon learn. These are the four protagonists in a bittersweet portrait of their ongoing struggle with love, friendship, puberty and life in general.
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À ma soeur! / Fat Girl (2001) Catherine Breillat, Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo
A Ma Soeur! is a provocative and shocking drama about sibling rivalry, family discord and relationships. Elena is 15, beautiful and flirtatious. Her less confident sister, Anais, is 12, and constantly eats. On holiday, Elena meets a young Italian student who is determined to seduce her. Anais is forced to watch in silence, conspiring with the lovers, but harbouring jealousy and similar desires. Their actions, however, have unforeseen tragic consequences for the whole family.
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Babylon (1981) Franco Rosso, David N. Haynes, Trevor Laird, Victor Romero Evans
Babylon follows the story of David, a working class musician and black man in South East London. By day he works as a mechanic, at night David is a Mic controller at a local dance hall. The film centers around the racial divide of London in the 80’s, the lack of opportunities available to black people and poverty. David loses his job, gets beaten up and charged by the police, forcing him to go on the run. Then breaking up with his girlfriend, all of his frustrations culminate in the stabbing of a racist neighbour.
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Band of Angels (1957) Raoul Walsh, Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo, Sidney Poitier
Living in Kentucky prior to the Civil War, Amantha Starr is a privileged young woman. Her widower father, a wealthy plantation owner, dotes on her and he sends her to the best schools. When he dies suddenly however, Amantha’s world is turned upside down. She learns that her father had been living on borrowed money and that her mother was actually a slave and her father’s mistress. The plantation is to be sold to pay off her father’s debts and as the daughter of slave, Amantha is also to be sold as property. She is bought by a Louisiana plantation owner, Hamish Bond and over time she grows to love him until she learns he was a slave-trader. She tries again to become part of white society but realizes that her future lies elsewhere.
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Anna Christie (1930) Clarence Brown, Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion
In New York, the alcoholic skipper of a coal barge Chris Christofferson receives a letter from his estranged twenty year old daughter Anna “Christie” Christofferson telling that she will leave Minnesota to stay with him. Chris left Anna fifteen years ago to the countryside to be raised by relatives in a farm in St. Paul and he has never visited his daughter. Anna Christie arrives and she is a wounded woman with a hidden dishonorable past since she had worked for two years in a brothel to survive. She moves to the barge to live with her father and one night, Chris rescues the sailor Matt and two other fainted sailors from the sea. Soon Anna and Matt fall in love with each other and Anna has the best days of her life. But when Matt proposes to marry her, she is reluctant and also haunted by her past. Matt insists and Anna opens her heart to Matt and to her father disclosing the darks secrets of her past.
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Abrir puertas y ventanas / Open Doors, Open Windows (2011) Milagros Mumenthaler, María Canale, Martina Juncadella, Ailín Salas
Buenos Aires at the end of summer. Marina, Sofia and Violeta are alone in the family home after their grandmother, who had brought them up, has died. They have to come to terms with her death, each in her own way. Marina concentrates on her studies while looking after the household, whereas Sofia becomes obsessed by her appearance and goes out with friends. As for Violeta, she wanders around between bedroom and sitting room where, from time to time, she receives an older man. Discord, laughter, meanness, gestures of affection determine the rhythm of this period of uncertainty, until one day in autumn Violeta disappears without warning…
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Back Street (1932) John M. Stahl, Irene Dunne, John Boles, June Clyde
A woman’s love for and devotion to a married man results in her being relegated to the “back streets” of his life.
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Akarui mirai / Bright Future (2003) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joe Odagiri, Tadanobu Asano, Tatsuya Fuji
Two young guys work in a plant that manufactures oshibori (those moist hand-towels found in some Japanese restaurants). Read More »
Air Doll / Kûki ningyô (2009) Hirokazu Koreeda, Doona Bae, Arata Iura, Itsuji Itao
Middle-aged Hideo lives alone with an inflatable doll he calls Nozomi. The doll is his closest companion. He dresses it up, talks to it over dinner, and has sexual intercourse with it. However, unbeknown to Hideo, Nozomi was created with a heart…
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Tots volem el millor per a ella / Puzzlement (2013) Mar Coll, Nora Navas, Valeria Bertuccelli, Pau Durà
One year after suffering a horrible traffic accident, Geni is ready to resume her life… or at least that’s what her family wants to see. The truth is that despite trying to please everyone, Geni feels unable to live up to expectations: her life before the accident no longer interests her. Why resume it then? The confusion that this creates causes her behavior to become increasingly more erratic and leads to a single idea that begins to grow within her: escape.
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Alemaya (2004) Ilias Giannakakis, Ivonni Maltezou, Dimitris Katalifos, Ekavi Douma
In the Greek community of Ethiopia in the 1960s, a rich Greek disrupts the relationship between his well-bred daughter and a young man. Three decades later they meet again…
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