
A shy, budding young writer attempts to shake off the torment of lost love while taking an assignment profiling an alluring club promoter, who reigns over a world of music, lights, and drag queens.
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Author Archives: rarefilm
Gentleman’s Fate (1931) Mervyn LeRoy, John Gilbert, Louis Wolheim, Leila Hyams, Drama

Jack lives the high life and wants to make Marjorie his one and only. He then learns that his deceased father is alive but dying of lead poisoning. His father sent him away, twenty years before, to keep him out of the rackets. But now that he is dying, he wants to split the business between Giacomo (Jack) and Frank, his other son. The business includes running booze down from Canada.
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Crimson Bat, the Blind Swordswoman / Mekura no oichi monogatari: Makkana nagaradori (1969) Sadatsugu Matsuda, Yôko Matsuyama, Chizuko Arai, Jun Tatara, Action, Adventure, Drama

A young blind girl is abandoned by her mother. When her guardian is killed, she learns to wield a sword from a traveling “Ronin”. She travels to seek her mother and her revenge.
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Count the Hours (1953) Don Siegel, Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Dolores Moran, Drama, Crime

The midnight murder of a rancher and his wife leaves circumstantial evidence pointing the finger of guilt toward a married couple, George Braden and his wife Ellen, who live and work on the ranch. George confesses to the killings in order to free his wife from hours of grilling by the police. Despite the best efforts of his defense attorney, Doug Madison , George gets the death penalty. Sunsequent events and his sympathy for Ellen convince Doug that George is innocent but he must find the real murderer to prove it. His man-hunt leads to a former hired hand, Max Verne. With the help of the latter’s greedy girl friend, Gracie Sanger, Max is found and admits to the killings. But when a hearing is held, a psychiatrist pronounces him unsound of mind but harmless and the judge sets him free.
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Qin Xianglian / Ping Opera (1955) Suling Xu, Li Zai Wen, Wei Rong Yuan, Chen Shao Fang, Drama

Qing (i.e. Qin) Xianglian was the wife of a man named Chen Shimei, who won the first title of national examination and awarded as husband of the emperor’s daughter. Then Qing (i. e. Qin) sues Chen as a murderer who plans to kill his wife and son. In spite of the royal power, gownsman Bao Zhen settles the lawsuit and sentences Chen to serve his head.
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Four Lovers / Happy Few (2010) Antony Cordier, Marina Foïs, Élodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Romance

In this sexy, French romantic drama, two couples decide to explore the boundaries of their relationships by swapping partners. What starts as a fun, free-spirited ménage-a-4 experimentation full of sleepovers, shared vacations, and dinner parties soon turns into a hotbed of desire, anger, and confusion. As their arrangement leads them down an increasingly surprising and provocative path, the lovers begin to question their personal choices and lifestyles, leading to consequences none of them could foresee.
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Der Henker von London / The Mad Executioners (1963) Edwin Zbonek, Hansjörg Felmy, Maria Perschy, Dieter Borsche, Crime, Horror

A band of hooded men have formed a court and they are exacting justice upon the criminals who have escaped the reach of the law. The sentence they exact is death by hanging. Using the hangman’s rope from the Scotland Yard Museum they leave their victims hanging from various locations with a file detailing the case against them pinned to the body. Scotland Yard is stumped and have assigned their best man to break the case. Meanwhile another fiend is on the loose, one who is neatly severing the heads of young women. The bodies are found the heads are not.
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Un homme et une femme / A Man and a Woman (1966) Claude Lelouch, Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Barouh

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens’ boarding school. Read More »
The Phantom of Paris (1931) John S. Robertson, John Gilbert, Leila Hyams, Lewis Stone, Drama, Thriller

Bibi is a world class escape artist, but he cannot escape the false murder charge that is placed on him. Max has killed Bourrelier before he was removed from the will so that he will be rich when he marries Cecile. Together with Vera, they put the blame on Bibi, who is a romantic rival to Max, and he is sentenced to death. But Bibi escapes before his execution and hides in Herman’s secret cellar. When he learns that Max is dying, Bibi goes to his house for his confession, but Max dies before it is told to anyone else. So Bibi, has just one chance, and he goes to Dr. Gorin who will make him look like Max so that he can clear his name and put the blame where it belongs – on Max, even in death.
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Of Time and the City (2008) Terence Davies, Documentary, Biography

Terence Davies (1945- ), filmmaker and writer, takes us, sometimes obliquely, to his childhood and youth in Liverpool. He’s born Catholic and poor; later he rejects religion. He discovers homo-eroticism, and it’s tinged with Catholic guilt. Enjoying pop music gives way to a teenage love of Mahler and Wagner. Using archival footage, we take a ferry to a day on the beach. Postwar prosperity brings some positive change, but its concrete architecture is dispiriting. Contemporary colors and sights of children playing may balance out the presence of unemployment and persistent poverty. Davies’ narration is a mix of his own reflections and the poems and prose of others.
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