Drama

  • Yoshishige Yoshida – Onna no mizuumi aka Woman of the Lake (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaJapanYoshishige Yoshida

    Quote:
    Eight years into her marriage, Miyako Mizuki (Mariko Okada) looks happy on the outside, but in fact she is not satisfied with her husband, Yuzo (Shinsuke Ashida), who cares about nothing but his career. Miyako has been having an affair with a young interior designer named Kitano (Tamotsu Hayakawa), who in turn has a fiancée named Machie (Keiko Natsu). One night in a hotel, Miyako lets Kitano takes some nude photos of her. On her way back, she is followed by a stranger (Shigeru Tsuyuguchi), and loses her handbag with the film negatives inside while trying to escape. Later at home, Miyako receives a call from the stranger. He uses the negatives to threaten her to follow his instructions and take a train to the north. The stranger is named Ginpei. He was a teacher in a girls’ school, but was expelled because of a scandal with one of his students. As Miyako meets up with Ginpei, she develops a strange attraction towards him.
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  • W.S. Van Dyke – Eskimo (1933)

    1931-1940AdventureDramaUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Plot Synopsis
    The remarkable location-filmed Eskimo was adapted from two books: Die Flucht Ins Wiesse Land and Der Eskimo, both written by naturalist Peter Freuchen. Director Woody Van Dyke, in the tradition of his White Shadows on the South Seas and Trader Horn, took his cast and crew on location to the Arctic, arriving by whaling schooner at the topmost settlement in Alaska with author Freuchen as his guide. Van Dyke, Freuchen, and cinematographer Ray Wise also played prominent on-screen roles in the film. Eskimo Ray Mala (billed only by his last name) essays the title role, speaking in the tongue of his ancestors (even though his English was excellent).Read More »

  • Gyula Nemes – Papagáj AKA Parrot (1999)

    1991-2000DramaGyula NemesHungaryShort Film

    Surrealist short feature about common tricks of uncle Pepin and the young Bohumil Hrabal. The harum-scarum young man pays his looney uncle a visit and his life changes at once. We can find out, where the snowmen lives in summer, what Franz Joe’s favorite food was, how to sell one half of a pair of shoes and fly in a cage.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – His Brother’s Wife (1936)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaUSAW.S. Van Dyke


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    Rita Wilson meets epidemiologist Chris Claybourne and they fall in love with each other. When Claybourne leaves for the tropics to find a cure against a disease, Wilson gets her revenge by marrying Claybourne’s brother although she still loves him. Written by Mattias ThuressonRead More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – I Live My Life (1935)

    1931-1940ComedyDramaUSAW.S. Van Dyke

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    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

    A brisk romantic/comedy Joan Crawford vehicle capably directed by W.S. Van Dyke and gamely written but not one of the better scripts by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It’s from the short story “Claustrophobia” by A. Carter Goodloe. It’s the usual class warfare Joan Crawford film of that era with the good looking actress dressed chic and defending her free-spirited upper-class superficial lifestyle in her argumentative romance with the commoner Brian Aherne, who thinks the high society crowd are idlers and lightweights.

    Bored heiress Kay Bentley (Joan Crawford) travelling with her dad (Frank Morgan) on his yacht meets on the Greek island of Naxos handsome Irish archaeologist Terry O’Neill (Brian Aherne), who’s on an archaeological dig for the Pygmalion statue. Learning that he thinks very little of the society jet set Kay tells Terry she’s Ann Morrison, the secretary of Mr. Bentley. They kiss and he falls madly in love, surpisingly following the attractive secretary to New York where he hopes to marry her. Learning the truth, the two have a spat but nevertheless grow fonder of each other.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – Rage in Heaven (1941)

    1941-1950DramaThrillerUSAW.S. Van Dyke


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    Old friends Ward and Phillip both become smitten with Phillip’s mother’s attractive young secretary Stella. But Stella marries Phillip and stands by him as his behavior becomes more and more erratic and his jealousy of Ward increases.Read More »

  • Harvey Hart – Street Killing (1976)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaHarvey HartUSA


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    Plot
    In this detective drama, a prosecutor investigates a murder and finds that it is connected to a recent mugging. In the end, he is led to convict a high-ranking crime lord.Read More »

  • Emanuele Crialese – Terraferma (2011)

    2011-2020DramaEmanuele CrialeseItaly


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    Two women, an Island dweller and a foreigner: one dramatically influences the life of the other. But they both share the same desire for a different future, a better life for their children and the dream of the mainland. Terraferma is the desired destination of those travelling by sea, but it may also turn out to be an island with its deep-rooted traditions.
    The Pucillo family has to come to terms with immobility: Ernesto is 70 years old and he’d do anything to avoid having to scrap his fishing boat. His grandson Filippo is 20. His father was lost at sea and he finds himself caught up “in time“ between his grandfather Ernest and his uncle Nino, who gave up fishing in favour of “baiting“ tourists. His young, widowed mother, Giulietta, senses that this island’s frozen, immutable time has turned them all into strangers and that there is no future for her nor for her son Filippo. For there to be a future they must have the courage to leave.Read More »

  • Chantal Akerman – Nuit et jour aka Night and Day (1991)

    1991-2000ArthouseChantal AkermanDramaFrance


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    Synopsis
    Jack and Julie live in a bare flat in Paris. At night, Jack drives a taxi while Julie wanders around the city, and in the day they make love. One day Julie meets Joseph, the daytime driver of the taxi, and soon Julie is spending her nights with Joseph and her days with Jack..Read More »

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