Epic

Eastman Museum writes:
An epic romance of doomed love, Doctor Zhivago is set amidst the tumultuous years encompassing World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) is a married physician and poet who falls madly in love with Lara (Julie Christie), a nurse who is also married. The tangled epic of love and war “did nothing less than re-create Moscow and its countryside,” according to Roger Ebert. “Doctor Zhivago,” Ebert continues, “believes that history should have a lot of room for personal feelings . . . the individual over the state, the heart over the mind.” Banned in the Soviet Union for decades, Doctor Zhivago won five of the ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated and has continued to garner acclaim ever since.Read More »

Synopsis:
Epic film of the legendary Spanish hero, Rodrigo Diaz (“El Cid” to his followers), who, without compromising his strict sense of honour, still succeeds in taking the initiative and driving the Moors from Spain.Read More »

In this Japanese samurai adventure, a brave, highly principled warrior resigns his post as a body guard to the head of a powerful clan after he learns that his employers have been smuggling arms to the enemy. The remaining samurai try in vain to coerce him back, but their efforts are thwarted by crooked warriors who launch an attack.
The sword fights are especially exciting.Read More »

Synopsis:
In 48 B.C., Caesar pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Ptolemy, now supreme ruler after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra, attempts to gain favor with Caesar by presenting the conquerer with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinos and Achillas. To win Caesar’s support from her brother, Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which Apollodorus, her servant, presents to Caesar. The Roman is immediately infatuated; banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt’s sole ruler and takes her as his mistress. A son, Caesarion, is born of their union. Caesar, however, must return to Italy. Although he is briefly reunited with Cleopatra during a magnificent reception for the queen in Rome, Caesar is assassinated shortly thereafter, and Cleopatra returns to Egypt.Read More »

Quote:
The 7th century is the time of the Great Migration of the Peoples. Under the pressure of the invaders the proto-Bulgarian tribes of Khan Kubrat are forced to split in four parts in the hope that one would survive. For twenty long years Kubrat’s youngest son Khan Asparoukh led his people across many foreign lands to find eventually a new homeland on the Balkan Peninsula and this time forever. The story is told by Byzantine Velisarius, a hostage with the Bulgarian who witnesses the whole of their difficult march. He sees the suffering of the people whom he already feels close to his heart and the personal drama of their Khan Asparoukh. In 681, in alliance with the local Slav tribes, the proto-Bulgarian deal a decisive blow on numerous Byzantine army, thus 13 centuries ago the foundations of the Bulgarian state and nation were laid down. -imdb summaryRead More »

Quote:
The 7th century is the time of the Great Migration of the Peoples. Under the pressure of the invaders the proto-Bulgarian tribes of Khan Kubrat are forced to split in four parts in the hope that one would survive. For twenty long years Kubrat’s youngest son Khan Asparoukh led his people across many foreign lands to find eventually a new homeland on the Balkan Peninsula and this time forever. The story is told by Byzantine Velisarius, a hostage with the Bulgarian who witnesses the whole of their difficult march. He sees the suffering of the people whom he already feels close to his heart and the personal drama of their Khan Asparoukh. In 681, in alliance with the local Slav tribes, the proto-Bulgarian deal a decisive blow on numerous Byzantine army, thus 13 centuries ago the foundations of the Bulgarian state and nation were laid down. -imdb summaryRead More »

Quote:
The 7th century is the time of the Great Migration of the Peoples. Under the pressure of the invaders the proto-Bulgarian tribes of Khan Kubrat are forced to split in four parts in the hope that one would survive. For twenty long years Kubrat’s youngest son Khan Asparoukh led his people across many foreign lands to find eventually a new homeland on the Balkan Peninsula and this time forever. The story is told by Byzantine Velisarius, a hostage with the Bulgarian who witnesses the whole of their difficult march. He sees the suffering of the people whom he already feels close to his heart and the personal drama of their Khan Asparoukh. In 681, in alliance with the local Slav tribes, the proto-Bulgarian deal a decisive blow on numerous Byzantine army, thus 13 centuries ago the foundations of the Bulgarian state and nation were laid down. -imdb summaryRead More »

Summary:
1668. The jihad is in its heat in the Southeastern Europe. A corps of janissaries is commissioned to the Rhodope Mountains under the command of Karaibrahim. At the time, he was, as all the janissaries were, kidnapped from his Bulgarian family, raised as a Muslim, trained to be a ferocious warrior and convert infidels to Islam in a most brutal way. His cruelty stuns even local Ottoman ruler. He stops at nothing but the resistance of some of the locals is invincible. The struggle is half a success, there are many converts, the death toll is heavy, but all the Bulgarian keep their language and traditions on.Read More »

In this testament to the special bond between a mother and her son adapted from French author Romain Gary’s loosely autobiographical novel of the same name, Charlotte Gainsbourg turns in an exuberant performance as Nina, Gary’s overbearing single mother, while Pierre Niney plays Gary as an adult. Hounding the boy at every turn – from his difficult childhood in Poland, to his adolescence in the South of France, to his World War II adventures as a Free French bombardier – Nina makes it clear that she expects her son to become a great writer, a war hero, a French ambassador, and a Knight of the Legion of Honour. Despite bursts of resistance and the obstacles imposed by anti-Semitism in both Poland and France, Gary is determined to realise his mother’s monumental aspirations…Read More »