Tag Archives: UK

Max (2002) Menno Meyjes, John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski

Max (2002)
Munich, 1918. German-Jew Max Rothman has returned to much of his pre-war life which includes to his wife Nina and their two children, to his mistress Liselore von Peltz, and to his work as an art dealer. He has however not returned to being an aspiring painter as he lost his dominant right arm during the war. He is approached by an aspiring painter, a thirty-year old Austrian war veteran named Adolf Hitler, who wants him to show his works. Although he doesn’t think the paintings are all that original and he doesn’t really like Hitler as a person, Rothman takes Hitler under his wings if only because of their camaraderie of being war veterans, and knowing that Hitler had nothing and no one to come back to after the war unlike himself. Rothman believes that Hitler has promise if only he can find his original artistic point of view. In part out of need for money, Hitler, on the urging of Captain Karl Mayr, agrees to work for the army as a political spokesman in anti-Semitic propaganda.
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Sons and Lovers (1960) Jack Cardiff, Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller

Sons and Lovers (1960)
Jack Cardiff received a 1960 Oscar Nomination as Best Director for this lush, engaging film starring Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell and Donald Pleasence, which was adapted from D.H. Lawrence’s classic novel. A young man with artistic talent who lives in a close-knit, English coal-mining town during the early 20th Century finds himself inhibited by his emotionally manipulative, domineering mother.
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The Sea Wolves (1980) Andrew V. McLaglen, Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, David Niven

The Sea Wolves (1980)
In March 1943, in the World War II, the Germans use the neutral harbor of the Portuguese colony of Mormugoa to transmit information to a U-Boat about the allied ships to sink them in international waters. In Calcutta, the British Intelligence assigns Colonel Lewis Pugh and Captain Gavin Stewart to spy in Goa and they discover that there are three German vessels anchored in the area and the famous spy Trompeta is based in Goa. They kidnap Trompeta to interrogate him but Lewis accidentally kills the spy after fighting with him in the runaway car. Meanwhile Gavin has one night stand with the gorgeous and elegant Mrs. Cromwell, who is the partner of Trompeta. They fail in their mission, but Lewis and Gavin convince their chief to use the veterans from Calcutta Light Horse led by the retired Colonel W.H. Grice to travel to Goa on board of the old ship Phoebe, pretending to be drunken businessmen on holiday.
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My Family and Other Animals (2005) Sheree Folkson, Eugene Simon, Imelda Staunton, Chris Langham

My Family and Other Animals (2005)
Feeling the depressing effects of a gloomy English summer, the Durrell family decides to pack up and move to the Greek island of Corfu in 1935. Lead by their widowed mother, 13-year old future naturalist Gerald Durrell, his two older brothers and older sister move into a series of villas. Gerald indulges his passion for nature by filling his room with local fauna, while his brothers fill their time with writing or hunting and his sister sunbathes and flirts.
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L’assedio / Besieged (1998) Thandie Newton, David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria, Bernardo Bertolucci

Besieged (1998)
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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