Steve Cochran plays the slick, debonair owner of a notorious gossip magazine who is anxious to break a big scandal to reverse a recent decline in sales. He zeroes in on children’s entertainer Van Johnson, a decent, stand-up guy who nonetheless has a secret in his past which would most likely end his suddenly flourishing television career if found out. Johnson can save himself and his wife Ann Blyth and son from disrepute if he “trades” Cochran damaging information he has about a popular movie actress he knew while growing up in a tough neighborhood years ago. Does he save himself and let her career be sacrificed? His decision leads to tragedy.Read More »

Quote:
This Manipuri drama opens as a happy young couple are preparing for an ear-piercing ceremony for their first child, a daughter. This is an important custom in their region of India, signifying the beginning of a responsible stage in life. Things go awry when the wife begins talking to flowers, singing odd songs, and having fits. In fact, the fits get so violent that she has to be physically restrained and tied down to prevent her from hurting herself. It eventually emerges that she has been chosen by a spirit which is special to a particular religious cult, the Meibis. Things proceed swiftly with her new, unsought, allegiance as she makes contact with the cult and its leader and prepares to leave her heartsick husband and child behind.Read More »

The story of a group of young people who organise their own travelling symphony orchestra to provide music for people living in remote villages shortly after the war.Read More »

Quote:
8mm footage of dancers each performing a single movement was projected onto a ground glass screen and refilmed on 16mm to create layered new sequences.Read More »

The turmoil that has overtaken Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has spawned a new generation of young, passionately committed activist filmmakers; they want to tell Hong Kong’s story with Hong Kong voices. And the best indie documentary to have emerged so far from the HKSAR is this year’s Yellowing, by Chan Tze Woon, a 29-year-old with degrees in policy studies and film production. Hong Kong’s fraught, tense relationship with its mainland Chinese overseers came to a head with the Umbrella Movement of 2014. A crowd of protesters stormed Civic Square on September 27. The next day police shocked most residents of the HKSAR by attacking the growing crowds with volleys of tear gas, whereupon a wide cross section of Hong Kongers occupied the streets in several areas and stayed for almost 6 weeks.Read More »

In 1914, explorer Ernest Shackleton set out to become the first man to cross the frozen wastes of the Antarctic continent on foot; however, a combination of treacherous conditions, unexpected changes in weather, and simple bad luck left Shackleton and his crew of 28 men stranded in one of the world’s most unforgiving environments for nearly two years. Miraculously, Shackleton and his men not only survived, but brought back remarkable footage of their ordeal, thanks to cameraman Frank Hurley, who traveled with Shackleton to record the adventure on film. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, adapted from the book by Caroline Alexander, combines Hurley’s material with newly shot footage tracing the path of Shackleton’s journey, presenting a remarkable true-life tale of courage and human survival against grim odds. Liam Neeson narrates.Read More »

In the rural outskirts of Gaza City a small community of farmers, the Samouni extended family, is about to celebrate a wedding. It’s going to be the first celebration since the latest war. Amal, Fuad, their brothers and cousins have lost their parents, their houses and their olive trees. The neighborhood where they live is being rebuilt. As they replant trees and plow fields, they face their most difficult task: piecing together their own memory. Through these young survivors’ recollections, Samouni Road conveys a deep, multifaceted portrait of a family before, during and after the tragic event that changed its life forever.Read More »

Quote:
A charismatic lieutenant newly assigned to a remote fort is captured by a group of mountain bandits, thus setting in motion a madcap farce that is Lubitsch at his most unrestrained.Read More »

Lena is in love with her brother Noah. In the desperate attempt to conquer her feelings, she retreats into a world of her own.

Quote:
The juxtaposition between reality and onirism, the lawful and the illicit, dominates Imbach’s entire film. An intentional ambiguity that destabilises and intrigues.
Muriel Del Don, CineuropaRead More »