Drama

  • Nicolás Pereda – Fauna (2020)

    2011-2020DramaNicolás PeredaUSA

    Quote:
    In a run-down Mexican mining town, Luisa brings her boyfriend Paco home to meet her family. They’re both actors, and the visit grows increasingly (and hilariously) awkward as Luisa’s father becomes fascinated by Paco’s minor role in a television phenomenon. Fauna’s exploration of performance deepens as the film reinvents itself halfway through, reconfiguring its characters into a mystery plot set at a nearby hotel. Scenes and characters begin to repeat and revise each other’s earlier incarnations, creating a deadpan mindbender that grows more entrancing with each beguiling detour, and invites a parallel universe of interpretations. (MK)Read More »

  • Lav Diaz – Ang babaeng humayo AKA The Woman Who Left (2016)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaLav DiazPhilippines

    Quote:
    After spending the last 30 years in prison, Horacia is immediately released when someone else confessed to the crime. Still overwhelmed by her new freedom, she comes to the painful realization that her aristocratic former lover had set her up. As kidnappings targeting the wealthy begin to proliferate, Horacia sees the opportunity to plot her revenge.Read More »

  • George Ovashvili – Khibula (2017)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaGeorge OvashviliGeorgia

    Quote:
    After being deposed in coup, the president of a newly independent country flees to mountains with a group of supporters sure that he will regain the power to lead his people.Read More »

  • Charles Taze Russell – Photo-Drama of Creation (1914)

    1911-1920Charles Taze RussellClassicsDramaUSA

    The Photo-Drama of Creation, or Creation-Drama, was a four-part Christian film (eight hours in total) produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania under the direction of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Bible Student movement. The film presented Russell’s beliefs about God’s plan from the creation of the earth through to the end of the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

    Production began in 1912, and the presentation was introduced to audiences in 1914. It was the first major screenplay to incorporate synchronized sound, moving film, and color slides. Russell also published an accompanying book, Scenario of the Photo-Drama of Creation, in various languages.Read More »

  • Ingmar Bergman – Backanterna aka Bacchae (1993)

    1991-2000DramaIngmar BergmanPerformanceSweden

    Backanterna is a recording of Bergman’s production of the staged opera Bacchae, a transposition of Euripides’ classical drama written for an amphitheater into a performance designed for the most intimate of stages, the TV screen, with music by Daniel Bortz. The original Euripedes text was re-worked for Bergman’s production, and the bacchae themselves became the focus of the action. Instead of an anonymous group, Bergman turned the women into individuals who each behave and perform in an individual way. In other words, the group was an individualized collective, portrayed by carefully selected soloists. Bergman also made an addition, creating a 14th baccha, Talatta, a non-speaking dance role that functioned as the dynamic doppelganger for Dionysus. Bergman used a minimalist stage which was made to look like a black box with a simple grey platform serving as acting space, placing focus on the vocal and stylized movement of the actors.Read More »

  • Claude Chabrol – Merci pour le chocolat AKA Nightcap (2000)

    1991-2000Claude ChabrolCrimeDramaFrance

    Quote:
    When the young Jeanne finds out that she could have mistakenly been exchanged from her cradle with another newborn (the son of a famous piano player), she decides to contact this family. All this will lead to the discovery of dark family secrets and the unveiling of the misdeeds and the hypocrisy of the French upper class members.Read More »

  • Patrice Leconte – Tango (1993)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaFrancePatrice Leconte

    Synopsis (possible spoilers):
    ‘Vincent, a stunt pilot, is acquitted of murdering his wife and her lover. However, a few years later, L’Elegant, the Judge in the case, comes to blackmail him. The Judge’s nephew, Paul, is having trouble with his wife and they demand that Vincent kill her. The Judge, a confirmed bachelor, takes Paul and Vincent on the road to search for Paul’s wife Marie. The three men get on well together, and spend their time discussing their relationship with women.’
    – Will Gilbert (IMDb)Read More »

  • Jean Negulesco – Humoresque [+Extras] (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaJean NegulescoUSA

    A moment of personal tragedy prompts concert violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield) to re-evaluate his life. He recalls happier times when, as a small boy, his mother gave him a violin for his birthday. After years of dedicated study, Paul becomes an accomplished violinist, but he finds it impossible to work so he can pay his way. One day, his pianist friend Sid Jeffers (Oscar Levant) takes him along to a party hosted by the wealthy socialite Helen Wright (Joan Crawford). The latter is trapped in a loveless marriage with an older man and finds the headstrong young violin player a tempting proposition. She decides to act as Paul’s patron, financing his debut concert and providing him with a manager. Through Helen’s money and contacts, Paul soon becomes an established musician, and he shows his gratitutde in just the way Helen hoped he might. But just when Helen thinks she has won her man, she realizes that she will never be able to compete with his one true love: his music…Read More »

  • Jacques Doillon – Ponette (1996)

    1991-2000DramaFranceJacques Doillon

    Les Inrockuptibles wrote:
    A 4-year-old child loses her mother. From this violent and irremediable situation, Jacques Doillon builds with Ponette a relentless film on pain and confinement. Contrary to the usual creamy imagery, he recreates with force and truth the magical and cruel world of childhood, a secret universe where adults have no place.Read More »

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