Drama

  • Ettore Scola – Romanzo di un giovane povero (1995)

    1991-2000DramaEttore ScolaItaly

    Two neighbors, young Vincenzo and old Mr. Bartoloni, are utterly unhappy. On the one hand Vincenzo must lead a miserable and frustrating life as he cannot find any regular job, despite his Arts degree. On the other hand, Mr. Bartoloni is fed up with his despotic wife: the woman who used to be a beautiful artist is now a fat and shabby drunkard. The two men meet on a particularly sad night and, during an outburst Mr. Bartoloni asks Vincenzo to help him to get rid of his wife by simulating an accident with the promise of a considerable amount of money. Read More »

  • Claudio Guerín – La casa de las palomas AKA The House of the Doves (1972)

    Drama1971-1980Claudio GuerínSpain

    Synopsis:
    ‘This Spanish/Italian melodrama concerns the rivalry between a mother and her daughter for the affections of a rakish drifter. The mother has known his affection before, but on this particular journey through their town, he is drawn to the girl instead. He takes her to his favorite assignation place, a nearby whorehouse, and they begin to see one another regularly, until one day the mother takes her place. The girl’s response to this is somewhat drastic.’
    – Clarke FountainRead More »

  • Etienne Périer – Bridge to the Sun (1961)

    1961-1970DramaEtienne PérierRomanceUSA


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    Review Summary

    This combination romance and wartime drama by Etienne Perier was unusual at the time it was released because it portrayed World War II in the Pacific from the perspective of Gwen Terasaki, a woman from the Southern U.S., married to a Japanese diplomat. Based on her autobiography, the interesting story relates how the couple left for Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and remained in Japan throughout the duration of the war. Their experiences and hardships during the war are detailed, as well as the tragedy that separated them once the war was over. Since the suffering of the ordinary Japanese citizen at this time and the racial undercurrents connected to the Pacific war are brought forward, the film stirred some controversy when it was released. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Raoul Ruiz – Nucingen Haus AKA Nucingen House (2008)

    2001-2010DramaFranceRaoul Ruiz

    Plot: The story takes place in the 1920s. William, a young aristocrat, has just won a property in Chili, near Santiago, in a poker game. He takes his wife Anne-Marie there so that she can rest. Right from the moment they arrive, they are welcomed by strange and intrusive characters bound together by an oppressive and poetical figure, the ghost of Léonor, who died accidentally. The house, with its suffocating presence, becomes the theater of an incredible substitution linked to the anxieties and desires of an unsatisfied man. (uniFrance)Read More »

  • Tomás Gutiérrez Alea – Historias de la revolución aka Stories of the Revolution (1960)

    1951-1960CubaDramaPoliticsTomás Gutiérrez Alea

    A look at the cuban revolution told from three different perspectives in
    italian neo- realist style, the first film of legendary cuban film auteur Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.

    Quote:
    Three vignettes about war in Cuba feature a wounded fighter, guerrilla bombardment and a funeral cortege.Read More »

  • Isshin Inudô – Joze to tora to sakana tachi AKA Josee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003)

    2001-2010DramaIsshin InudôJapanRomance

    Synopsis:
    Tsuneo is a university student working part-time in a mah-jong parlour. Lately the customers have been talking about an old lady who pushes a baby carriage through the streets. They say she is carrying something for a crime syndicate, and they wonder what it is she has in the carriage. Money? Drugs? One day, the owner of the mah-jong parlour sends Tsuneo out to walk his dog. A baby carriage comes rolling down a hill and crashes into a guard rail. The old lady asks him to look into the carriage, where he finds a young woman clutching a knife. This is how Tsuneo first meets the girl who calls herself Josée.Read More »

  • Claude Lelouch – Toute une vie AKA And Now My Love (1974)

    1971-1980Claude LelouchDramaFranceRomance

    A Parisian experimenter with Lumiere’s Kinematograph (Charles Denner) dies in WW1, and his son (Charles Denner) grows to be a man who barely survives WW2 in a concentration camp. He marries another refugee (Marthe Keller) who dies in childbirth, leaving him a daugher, Sarah, who at age 16 (Marthe Keller) is a spoiled debutante hopelessly in love with pop singer Gilbert Bécaud (Gilbert Bécaud) she goes through the 60s trying every fad while her father wishes she’d settle down. Meanwhile, sneak thief Simon Duroc (André Dussollier) winds up in prison, where he slowly turns his devious energies to their least-antisocial use: filmmaking.Read More »

  • Evald Schorm – Návrat ztraceného syna AKA The Return of the Prodigal Son (1967)

    1961-1970ArthouseCzech RepublicDramaEvald Schorm

    Quote:
    Though he was very much a member of the community of filmmakers who graduated from FAMU and went on to shake things up during the sixties, Evald Schorm also stood apart from the rest. Like his fellow directors, he was using the medium to get at the absurdity of life in Communist Czechoslovakia, but Schorm was dedicated to a more direct, realistic type of filmmaking than his friends Věra Chytilová, Jan Němec, and Jiří Menzel, who readily turned to whimsy, fantasy, and comedy. Referred to as both the philosopher and the conscience of the New Wave, Schorm, whose relatively sober style has been called documentary-like (his focus at FAMU was nonfiction filmmaking) and received comparisons to that of Antonioni, explored themes of morality and the malaise of the socialist middle class (such income-based social strata did exist in Czechoslovakia), and preferred psychological portraiture.Read More »

  • Jean-Pierre Melville – Le deuxième souffle (1966)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaFranceJean-Pierre Melville

    Veteran gangster Gustave (Lino Ventura) escapes from prison to find his sister is being blackmailed by some petty thugs in this crime thriller. He plans one last caper to steal enough money in hopes of retiring to a tropical paradise. He and his gang are sought by a detective (Paul Meurisse), the cop who plays by the book and avoids the sadistic torture practiced by his less-honorable cohorts. Soon Gustave is caught between the police and the double-crossing gangsters and discovers too late that there is no honor among thieves.Read More »

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