History

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) Ken Loach, Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Drama, History, War

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)
In 1920, rural Ireland is the vicious battlefield of republican rebels against the British security forces and Irish Unionist population who oppose them, a recipe for mutual cruelty. Medical graduate Damien O’Donovan always gave priority to his socialist ideals and simply helping people in need. Just when he’s leaving Ireland to work in a highly reputed London hospital, witnessing gross abuse of commoners changes his mind. He returns and joins the local IRA brigade, commanded by his brother Teddy, and adopts the merciless logic of civil war, while Teddy mellows by experiencing first-hand endless suffering. When IRA leaders negotiate an autonomous Free State under the British crown, Teddy defends the pragmatic best possible deal at this stage. Damien however joins the large seceding faction which holds nothing less than a socialist republic will do. The result is another civil war, bloodily opposing former Irish comrades in arms, even the brothers.
Read More »

Laissez-passer / Safe Conduct (2002) Bertrand Tavernier, Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydès, Charlotte Kady, Biography, Drama, History

Laissez-passer (2002)
In occupied France, German-run Continental Films calls the shots in the movie business. Assistant director and Resistance activist Jean Devaivre works for Continental, where he can get “in between the wolf’s teeth and avoid being chewed up”. Fast-living screenwriter Jean Aurenche uses every possible argument to avoid working for the enemy. For both, wartime is a battle for survival.
Read More »

La faute à Fidel! / Blame it on Fidel (2006) Julie Gavras, Nina Kervel-Bey, Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi, Drama, History

La faute a Fidel! (2006)
Hello, my name is Anna and I am nine years old. I wish you had known me before – I mean before my aunt Marga and my cousin Pilar came to my parents’house -, I was such a happy little girl. Before their coming life was a bed of roses. Of course my little brother could be a pain in the neck – little brothers always are, aren’t they? – but there was that wonderful big house, there was my Cuban-born nanny who cooked so well, there was the bath before dinner, not to mention this wonderful catechism class at the catholic school. But they did come, those Spanish intruders. And now never heard before names like “Franco”, “Allende”, “Women’s Lib”, “abortion”, the lot, have got into my life. Daddy and Mummy have suddenly become “communists”, although this a term that Bon Papa and Bonne Maman (my grandparents from Bordeaux, in fact) just hate. Because of the intruders not only did we move to a tiny apartment but the place is invaded day and night by “barbudos” (bearded men). No more bath before …
Read More »

Lloyd’s of London (1936) Henry King, Tyrone Power, Madeleine Carroll, Freddie Bartholomew, Drama, History, Romance

lloyds-of-london-1936
Lloyds of London traces the rise to prominence of the venerable British insurance company, as seen through the eyes of fictional 19th-century Londoner Jonathan Blake (Tyrone Power, in his first starring role). A lifelong friend of naval hero Lord Nelson, Blake puts his job (and the future existence of Lloyds) on the line when he announces Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar – before it takes place.
Read More »

Martin Luther (1953) Irving Pichel, Niall MacGinnis, John Ruddock, Pierre Lefevre, Biography, Drama, History

martin-luther-1953
This biographical account of Martin Luther’s actions that eventually created the Protestant and Lutheran religions was filmed in conjunction with the Lutheran Church. Niall MacGinnis portrays the monk who’s nailing of his list of 95 theses to the church door in Worms created a stir so large that it shook the very foundations of the Catholic Church. This film shows the struggle between Luther and the organized church and how the Catholic Church was not fully explaining things he questioned, which led him to be labeled a heretic.
Read More »

Caligula (1979) Tinto Brass, Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Helen Mirren, Drama, History, Erotic

caligula
The rise and fall of the notorious Roman Emperor Caligula, showing the violent methods that he employs to gain the throne, and the subsequent insanity of his reign – he gives his horse political office and humiliates and executes anyone who even slightly displeases him. He also sleeps with his sister, organises elaborate orgies and embarks on a fruitless invasion of England before meeting an appropriate end.
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 »

Scipione detto anche l’africano / Scipio the African (1971) Luigi Magni, Marcello Mastroianni, Silvana Mangano, Vittorio Gassman, Comedy, History

Scipione detto anche l'africano aka Scipio the African (1971)
During the Second Punic War, the commander Scipio Africanus (Marcello Mastroianni) is in a crisis because the Roman army can not defeat the many Carthaginian legions of Hannibal Barca. Teaming with his brother Scipio Asiaticus (Ruggero Mastroianni), Africanus manages to destroy the troops of Hannibal at Zama and to win the war. When he returns triumphant to Rome, he realizes that he has been manipulated like a puppet by the consul Marcus Porcius Cato, called “the Censor” (Vittorio Gassman). Scipio, disgusted by the poor Roman politics, withdraws from his rank of general, while Cato plans to destroy with a third war the cursed city of Carthage.
Read More »

Quem És Tu? / Who Are You? (2001) João Botelho, Patrícia Guerreiro, Suzana Borges, Rui Morisson, Drama, History

Who Are You (2001)
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.
Read More »

Nouvelle-France / Battle of the Brave (2004) Jean Beaudin, Noémie Godin-Vigneau, David La Haye, Juliette Gosselin, Drama, History, Romance

Nouvelle-France (2004)
Prejudice, perfidy, love, and bravery in Québec. In 1779, a priest on his deathbed receives a young woman. Flash back 20 years: Marie-Loup, an herb-dispensing peasant, falls for François, a man of property. The priest’s perfidy and the treachery of a soldier separate the lovers and set in motion a chain of events leading to a death, a trial, and an execution. The action unfolds against a backdrop of England’s take-over of French-Canada, the Church’s manipulations to maintain spiritual hegemony, and the limited rights of woman and indigenous peoples. Watching it all is Marie-Loup’s daughter, named France, who, when grown, is the dying priest’s visitor in prelude and coda.
Read More »

The Devil’s Saddle Legion (1937) Bobby Connolly, Dick Foran, Anne Nagel, Smoke, History, Music, Romance, Western

The Devil's Saddle Legion (1937)
Tal is in a lot of trouble. Seems that his father has been murdered while he was in Montana and they put the blame on him. Also, he has been framed and sentenced to 10 years hard labor for another murder which he did not do. The crooks need convict labor to build the dam so they convict innocent people for a pool of cheap labor. But Karan believes that Tal, using the name Smith J. Brown, could not be a killer. Unknown to her, her step brother, Hub, is part of the gang.
Read More »

Infanzia, vocazione e prime esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano / Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence (1969) Luigi Comencini, Leonard Whiting, Maria Grazia Buccella, Lionel Stander, Drama, Romance, History

Giacomo Casanova Childhood and Adolescence (1969)
Through the childhood and the adolescence of Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people live in the Venice of the 18th century: customs, habits, medicine, religion and most of all – the omnipresence of hypocrisy.
Read More »

Coroana de foc / The Crown of Fire (1990) Sergiu Nicolaescu, George Alexandru, Vladimir Gaitan, Adventure, History, War

Coroana de foc (1990)
In medieval Wallachia,during the Crusades,the King’s brother hires mercenary Crusader armies to help him kill his brother in order to usurp the throne.The usurper brother is disgusted by King’s policy of paying a tribute to the Byzantine Empire.The Crusader army besieges the King’s fortress but the Captain of the guards,Gorun,and his soldiers manage to defend it.The usurper brother sneaks into the fortress and assassinates the King substituting himself for the King,due to their resemblance.When the Queen gives birth to twin boys their usurper uncle orders Captain Gorun to kill one and only save the other to prevent succession wars.However,Captain Gorun saves him and raises him into a strong warrior.Meanwhile,his twin brother is raised by their usurper uncle and becomes a lazy,greedy and cruel Crown Prince.With a new Crusader army making its way toward Wallachia and Byzantium the two twin Princes finally compete against each other for the throne of the realm.
Read More »