In the summer of 1914, thirteen-year-old Oda von Siering (Paula Beer) leaves Berlin to join her family and an assortment of German and Russian aristocrats on an estate in Estonia. The von Siering family home is a character in its own right, a hulking, neoclassical manor that hovers on stilts above the sea. Oda arrives there bearing her mother’s coffin and a gift requested by her surgeon father: a jarred, two-headed fetus to add to his laboratory of gruesome curiosities. Ebbo von Siering (Edgar Selge) sees himself in his daughter when she calmly and expertly learns to suture the corpse of a cat. What he fails to recognize – and what Oda luckily understands – is that their interest in science is their only similarity. His dedication to experimentation is linked to an appalling obsession with power and destruction, while Oda is genuinely curious about life. Her quick, quiet intelligence complements her humanity and her lucid understanding of right and wrong. When she strays from a family…
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The Trouble with Angels (1966) Ida Lupino, Rosalind Russell, Hayley Mills, Binnie Barnes
Coming of age story for two girls, Mary Clancy and Rachel Devery, who find themselves as students at the St. Francis Academy, a catholic boarding school for girls. The story spans three years and follows the girls and their many pranks including setting off fire alarms, smoking cigars in the basement and putting bubble baths in the nuns’ sugar bowls. As the girls mature, they gain a greater respect for their teachers and the commitment and devotion required to be a nun, leading one of them to make a life changing decision.
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War Paint (1953) Lesley Selander, Robert Stack, Joan Taylor, Charles McGraw
Lieut. Billings and his army patrol are ordered to deliver a new peace treaty to the Indian Commissioner, who is missing. They have nine days to get the treaty to Chief Gray Cloud or there will be war. Chief’s son Taslik offers to guide them. But as their water runs low and conflicts escalate, they can’t help wondering why Taslik is wearing war paint.
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Yoen dokufuden: Hitokiri okatsu (1969) Nobuo Nakagawa, Junko Miyazono, Reiko Ônobuta, Kô Nishimura
Okatsu, the daughter of a katana instructor must avenge a judge who rapes and kills his father. Next to the wild Rui, will conduct a bloody persecution.
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Run for the Sun (1956) Roy Boulting, Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard, Jane Greer
Mike, a Hemingway-esque adventure novelist, is spending his days in a self-imposed exile somewhere in Central America. A reporter for Sight Magazine, Katie, has tracked him down in the hope of getting the biggest scoop of her career. Mike falls for Katie. On a flight to Mexico City, their plane crashes near a remote hideaway of Nazi war criminals in hiding. The Nazis want to stay hidden and plan to dispose of their new guests.
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L’assedio / Besieged (1998) Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria, Bernardo Bertolucci
When an African dictator jails her husband, Shandurai goes into exile in Italy, studying medicine and keeping house for Mr. Kinsky, an eccentric English pianist and composer. She lives in one room of his Roman palazzo. He besieges her with flowers, gifts, and music, declaring passionately that he loves her, would go to Africa with her, would do anything for her. “What do you know of Africa?,” she asks, then, in anguish, shouts, “Get my husband out of jail!” The rest of the film plays out the implications of this scene and leaves Shandurai with a choice.
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The Comedians (1967) Peter Glenville, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness
Set in the Haiti of “Papa Doc” Duvalier, The Comedians tells the story of a sardonic Welsh hotel owner and his encroaching fatalism as he watches Haiti sink into barbarism and poverty. Complications include his inability to sell the hotel so he can leave, a friendship with a rebel leader, some politically “charged” hotel guests, an affair with the German-born wife of a South American ambassador, and the manipulations of a British arms dealer who’s in over his head.
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Hin helgu vé / Pojkdrömmar / The Sacred Mound (1993) Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, Steinþór Rafn Matthíasson, Alda Sigurðardóttir, Helgi Skúlason
On a small island in the west of Island, Gestur, only seven years old, falls in love with 20 years old Helga. When she introduces him her fiancée one day, he decides to fight the competitor with traditional Wicking weapons.
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Born Romantic (2000) David Kane, Craig Ferguson, Ian Hart, Jane Horrocks
Centered around a salsa club, three men pursue three women across London. Fergus is trying to find his ex-girlfriend, the elderly charmer Frankie the beautiful Eleanor and the robber Eddie is trying to find one of his victims, cemetery worker Jocelyn.
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Le roman de Werther (1938) Max Ophüls, Pierre Richard-Willm, Annie Vernay, Jean Galland
Adaptation of “Werther”, a novel by Goethe. A young poet falls passionately in love a girl and when lost, desperately trying to recover.
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