Drama

  • Georges Lacombe – Martin Roumagnac (1946)

    1941-1950DramaFranceGeorges LacombeRomance

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis
    In a small provincial town, Blanche Ferrand and her uncle own a shop which sells seed and birds. Blanche resents her drab milieu but has no difficulty attracting male suitors who might offer her an escape. One of these is Martin Roumagnac, a building contractor who falls passionately in love with Blanche as soon as he sees her. Blanche appears to reciprocate Martin’s love but, without his knowing, she allows herself to be courted by a wealthy consul, whose wife is grievously ill. The consul proposes that after his wife’s death Blanche should marry him. When Martin learns of this he is thrown into a murderous frenzy…
    Read More »

  • Ali Reza Amini & Mehrdad Nosrati – Danehaye rize barf AKA Tiny Snowflakes (2003)

    2001-2010Ali Reza AminiDramaIran

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Loneliness and isolation are a part of life for two mine keepers in a remote mountain town. Their only light of hope comes in the form of a small dog they find and an unknown woman they see walking in the distance. People enter and exit their lives, including a group of mine workers—but it is the very world they have created for themselves to deal with their loneliness that keeps others out. Nevertheless, they still ultimately find pleasure in the subtle and simple things of life.
    Read More »

  • Kinuyo Tanaka – Koibumi AKA Love Letter (1953)

    1951-1960AsianDramaJapanJapanese Female DirectorsKinuyo Tanaka

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    This is a rare chance to see a film by Kinuyo Tanaka as director. Tanaka was an actress known through her starring roles in many, many Japanese films in the pre-war and post-war golden ages – films like Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu (1952) – through to her tremendous and award winning performance in Kei Kumai’s Sandakan 8 (1974). Although not the first woman to direct a film in Japan Tanaka was able to produce a handful of films in the 50s that are very competently made and much better and more interesting than many in their treatment of women in society. Although it was said that her relationship with Mizoguchi was the reason she was able or allowed to direct it is clear that she had talent that was all her own and that she was able to work with the cream of Japan’s studio talent (the script writer is Keisuke Kinoshita). Koibumi was her first film as director.
    Read More »

  • Jill Sprecher – Clockwatchers (1997)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaJill SprecherUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:

    ‘Iris can best be described as a wallflower. She begins her first day as a temp for the nondescript Global Credit Association by waiting in a chair for two hours. This sets the scene for her (mis)adventures with the other “corporate orphans”, Margaret, Paula and Jane. Led by Margaret, they find subtle ways to lessen the ennui of corporate oppression. The tension escalates when the new permanent hire, Cleo, enters the picture.’
    – Vanessa Exum (IMDb)
    Read More »

  • Paolo Virzì – Il capitale umano AKA Human Capital (2013)

    2011-2020DramaItalyPaolo Virzì

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis
    The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
    IMDb.comRead More »

  • Vittorio De Sica – I girasoli AKA Sunflower (1970)

    1961-1970DramaItalyRomanceVittorio De Sica

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Sunflower, or as it is known in Italian I Girasoli, is a movie about how time continues to march on after war whether or not a person’s life does. Casualties on the battlefield is one way in which we discuss how brutal and total a war’s destruction was, but Sunflower offers another way to look at things: the collateral damage, which pertains not just to those civilians who are accidentally killed but to those whose lives are shattered by being in the general area. It makes the horrors of World War II in Italy accessible to us by focusing on how time marches on and leaves behind the broken emotional pieces of a man and a woman.

    Vittorio de Sica, the maestro behind such classics as Marriage Italian Style and Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, directs this Italian film with his two favorite stars, Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, in a story that blends harsh neo-realist imagery with sentiment, touches of comedy and melodrama. Admittedly, the film could easily come across as overtly melodramatic, even sophomoric. And I could see where others might view the film as such. But de Sica was a wonderful director, and combing these kinds of tones and dealing with these storylines was his bread and butter. For me, the melodrama and sentiment is part of the specific Italian flavor in his films. It is also of historical note to point out that Sunflower was the first Western film to be shot in the Soviet Union.Read More »

  • Yinan Diao – Ye che aka Night Train (2007)

    2001-2010AsianChinaDramaYinan Diao

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    From DVD distributor trigon-film:

    Wu Hongyan, woman executioner in her thirties, works at the court in the province of Shaanxi in China, where she executes women condemned to death only. In spite of her macabre job, Wu Hongyan travels every weekend to a town nearby to join parties organized by a marriage bureau. The result of her dating is mediocre, until she meets the mysterious Li Jun. But she is thousands of miles away of imagining that Li Jun’s wife is the last of the women she executed. Electrifying!Read More »

  • Philippe Garrel – La jalousie (2013)

    2011-2020ArthouseDramaFrancePhilippe Garrel

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    An impoverished actor tries to make his girl-friend a big star. But in spite of all his efforts he cannot get her proper roles. Eventually she falls in love with another man and cheats on him.Read More »

  • Klaus Härö – Äideistä parhain AKA Mother of Mine (2005)

    2001-2010DramaFinlandKlaus Härö

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    The film highlights a significant event in Finnish history — that during WWII, around 70,000 Finnish children were sent to Sweden among other countries to be temporarily hosted as their real parents stayed in Finland to continue in the war. The story is made accessible and immediate by taking us through the experiences of one child — Eero (Topi Majaniemi) — who as a 9-year old boy is dealing with language differences, a desire to return home, and a host family that can provide materially, but maybe not in the non-material ways that Eero really needs.
    Read More »

Back to top button