Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
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Tag Archives: 2000s
Omaret yakobean / The Yacoubian Building (2006) Marwan Hamed, Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif, Youssra, Drama
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor’s son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika’s factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone’s lips, and corruption is in their hearts. European values, both refined and worldly, provide a subtext.
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O Fascínio / The Fascination (2003) José Fonseca e Costa, Vítor Norte, Sylvie Rocha, José Fidalgo, Drama
A businessman on the verge of bankruptcy receives an unexpected inheritance: a large farm in Portugal’s southern province of Alentejo. But what seems to be his salvation turns out to be his doom. Fascinated by the story of violence committed by his ancestors, the previous owners of the estate, he becomes wrapped up in a hurricane of situations and sensations previously unknown to him.
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Much Loved (2015) Nabil Ayouch, Loubna Abidar, Asmaa Lazrak, Halima Karaouane, Drama
A social drama about four marginalized prostitutes in Marrakech and their complex relations with their families and society at large.
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Le Chien / Wild (2007) Christian Monnier, Florian Frin, Marie Le Cam, Jean-Marc Lebars, Drama
Kevin is an odd young man whose behaviour is sometimes dangerous. He lives with Jean-Claude on a remote farm in the midst of beautiful natural surroundings. The two men live together in disturbing silence. When Michèle meets Jean-Claude, she sees him as a casual lover. But when Kévin appears, Michèle sees this as an opportunity to give meaning to her own life…
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Segreti di stato / Secrets of the State (2003) Paolo Benvenuti, Antonio Catania, David Coco, Sergio Graziani, Drama
On the first of May 1947, the bandit Salvatore Giuliano conducted a raid to the mountain pass Portella della Ginestra, with a view to capturing Sicily’s most prominent communist, Giacomo Licausi. What actually happened was a regular massacre, leaving fourteen people dead and more than thirty wounded. In 1951, about a year after Giulano’s violent death, his men are tried in Viterbo. Unconvinced by the official version, Gaspare Pasciotta’s lawyer, decides to travel to Sicily and starts investigating the facts.
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Cool! (2004) Theo van Gogh, Fouad Mourigh, Farhane El Hamchaoui, Jones Kruijne, Crime, Drama
Five friends take their hours with petty crimes. Are persuaded by a tough gangster and his seductive girlfriend to rob a bank. When they are caught, they are condemned to spend a year and a half in Glen Mills, an experimental reformatory.
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Johan (2005) Nicole van Kilsdonk, Michiel Huisman, Caro Lenssen, Johnny de Mol, Drama, Romance
Johan Dros is born as eleventh consecutive son of soccer-obsessed pa Rinus, who raises his boys mainly as the small island Texel’s team. Johan’s rare reprieves from training for a sport he doesn’t care for cease when ma dies. After captain brother Johhny sort of steals his local girl-friend Evy, Johan leaves for Amsterdam, where he becomes a hairdresser and would-be singer. Soccer, a vocal TV talent-hunt and Evy will bring them all together again, but also raise unprecedented strife in the Dros family.
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Self and Others (2001) Makoto Satô, Shigeo Gocho, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Documentary
In 1983, photographer Gocho Shigeo met an early death at the young age of 36. The view we see reflected in Gocho’s photographic images has become more profound over time since his death and has struck a chord in people’s hearts. While focusing on Gocho’s collection of photographs Self and Others, the film also visits places associated with him, creating a collage with the manuscripts, letters, photographs and voice recordings remaining in an attempt to capture “one more gesture”—a theme pursued by Gocho through photographic expression. This film is neither a critical biography nor a monograph on the photographer. Rather, we are offered a new perception. As if mesmerized, the photographs Gocho left behind captivate us in their gaze.
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Busty Cops and the Jewel of Denial (2010) Jim Wynorski, Kaylani Lei, Amy Ried, Tanya James, Comedy, Erotic
The Busty Cops are back in action. This time they have to help the quaint, humble island natives who are in danger of losing their sacred statue of perpetual orgasms. They fly to Hawaii so that they can have as much sex as possible before solving the case.
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The Mosquito Net / La mosquitera (2010) Agustí Vila, Emma Suárez, Eduard Fernández, Martina García, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Maria suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Luis, Maria’s fifteen-year-old grandson, doesn’t say very much either; he shuts himself off in his own silent world to escape his parent’s marital crisis, spending time instead picking up stray cats and dogs off the street. His father, Miguel, wants to put a stop to this eccentric behavior, but his protective mother Alice indulges him. Nevertheless, the animals begin to appear at home in increasing numbers, making life complicated for the family in their flat.
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Night Calls: The Movie, Part 2 (2000) Moctezuma Lobato, Doria Rone, Juli Ashton, Alan Stemm, Comedy, Erotic
Playboy Channel alums Juli Ashton and Doria Rone round up an ensemble cast of voluptuous playmates for Night Calls: The Movie, Part 2 – an even racier exercise in softcore splendor than their previous excursion. The flimsy and largely unnecessary plot finds the sex-starved vixens on the hunt for a buried treasure at a secluded mountainside resort.
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L’adversaire / The Adversary (2002) Nicole Garcia, Daniel Auteuil, Géraldine Pailhas, François Cluzet, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, it is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. L’Adversaire’s protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based on Romand’s life and Carrère’s book than was Laurent Cantet’s 2001 film L’Emploi du Temps. The film was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
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Villa paranoia (2004) Erik Clausen, Sonja Richter, Frits Helmuth, Art-house, Drama
A satire, psychological drama and comedy rolled into one, director Erik Clausen’s Villa Paranoia adeptly draws upon rich characters, who demonstrate the values and strength of the human heart, to create a portrait of Denmark today.
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Synth Britannia (2009) Benjamin Whalley, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Richard H. Kirk, Documentary, Music
Following a generation of post-punk musicians who went to form successful electronic bands in the 70s and 80s and had a profound impact on present day music.
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