Brief Descriptions and/or Reviews of Some Foreign Films
These descriptions and reviews came from various places. When known, credit is given.
* An asterisk denotes films owned by our department.
** Two denote a film owned by the UTC library.
A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U V W
- *The Accompanist
- 1993 - French w/English Subtitles - 101 minutes
Claude Miller's (The Little Thief) haunting tale of the love-hate relationship between a shy, unsophisticated pianist and the charismatic singer she idolizes is set against the backdrop of WWII France and features great performances from Richard Bohringer, Elena Safonova and Romane Bohringer. French with English subtitles. - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
- (1954) - color - 92 minutes - French
Starring: Fernandel, Samia Gamal, Henri Vilbert
A film by Jacques Becker
Shot entirely on location in Morocco using a cast of thousands, this charming film was one of Fernandel's most popular. Great pains were taken to accurately recreate the epoch of "A Thousand and One Nights." It is the classic story of how Ali Baba, a servant, accidentally discovers the magic cave where Abdul and his band of 40 thieves hide their stolen treasure. He takes enough money to buy a slave girl from his master, Cassim, to be his wife. But Cassim and Abdul have plans for Ali on his wedding night... - AMNESIA
- Director/Writer: Gonzalo Justiniano
Starring: Julio Jung, Pedro Vicuna
In contemporary Chile, three middle-aged men -- former army Private Ramirez, former Sergeant Zuniga, and former prisoner Carrasco -- look back at their time of duress in the remote desert in the 1970s, during Pinochet's cruel military regime.? Ramirez walks around Valparaiso in a daze, hauntedby memories of the injustices to which Zuniga subjected him and the even greater injustices he was forced to carry out on innocent prisoners. The reptilian Sergeant Zuniga, knowing he can be punished by the current democratic government, has taken a new identity in the slums of the city and advocates selective amnesia as a way to live with the past. Carrasco, the lone survivor of a massacre, works as a bus driver and cannot forget what he suffered and what he saw. The film intercuts the brutal past with the present time meeting of the three men, this time with Ramirez and Carrasco in control. Will they kill Zuniga? Would killing him give them peace and the chance to obliterate their pain? This powerful film examines human cruelty, responsibility, and the morality of vengeance. - AMONG REDS
- Director/Writer: Azucena Rodriguez
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Cristina Marcos, Maria Pujalte, Miriam de Maeztu
Among Reds , based on the experience of writer-director Azucena Rodriguez, is set in Madrid in 1974 during the final moments of General Francisco Franco's repressive regime, when membership in the Communist Party was a crime punishable by jail. Well-to-do, non- political ballet student Lucia is arbitrarily condemned to ten years in jail because her boyfriend is a party member. Her dreams of ballet success suffocated, Lucia is desperate to escape -- in ten years her chances to dance professionally will be nil. Lucia makes friends with the rojas (Communist women) of the title and gains political consciousness. The jail is less violent than the women's prisons made famous in "B" movies of the 1950s, but an atmosphere of blind injustice hangs over the prison. Women inmates celebrate birthdays, talk raunchily of sex, establish friendships and sexual dalliances among themselves, exchange coded messages with the Party leadership, and even dance in a scene reminiscent of Jailhouse Rock. Adjusting to this whole new scene, Lucia finally takes bold action that makes her a heroine to her comrades. - L'Annee Sainte
- (1976) - color, 90 minutes
Starring: Jean Gabin, Jean-Claude Brialy, Danielle Darrieux, Nicolette Machiavelli, Paolo Gusti
A film by Jean Girault
Jean Gabin was a leading star for over 40 years. In France he is considered a national institution. This was his last film, made shortly before his death in 1978. He plays a gangster from the old school who escapes from jail with his cell-mate to recover his hidden loot in Rome. The last thing he expected was to have his plane highjacked by a group of international terrorists. - Antigone
- 1962 - B/W - 88 minutes
Starring:? Irene Papas
Internationally acclaimed Irene Papas plays out the classic story of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus.? In his madness Oedipus had torn out his eyes and Antigone alone shared his wanderings and remained with him until his death.? She was a bright and shining example of filial and sisterly fidelity but doomed to the destruction of unrelenting fate. - ** Ashes and Diamonds
- Poland - 1958?105?? mins.
Andrzej Wajda
A brilliant statement from Andrzej Wajda, Ashes and Diamonds illustrates the conflict of idealism and instinct in this story of a young resistance fighter who assassinates the wrong man at the close of World War II. With Zbigniew Cybulski. Polish with English subtitles. - Les Aventuriers
- (1967) - color - 115 minutes
Alain Delon and Lino Ventura are two of France's best known actors. Here they are two friends tricked in an insurance scam that almost costs them their lives. They track down the man responsible who lets them in on a secret... the location of a plane crash containing a fabulous treasure. The two men set off for the coast of Africa, only to find more than they bargained for. - BANDITS
- GERMANY, 1997, 107 MIN
Directed by Katja von Garnier
In German w/ English subtitles
Four women prisoners form a hard-driving rock band called "The Bandits." Booked to play at the annual Policeman's Ball, they instead hijack a van and escape, heading for South America. As the chase ensues, their faces are plastered everywhere, but they turn into outlaw heroes only when their songs begin to get radio play. Sneaking into club gigs and backed by big record company promotion, they develop a huge following-eventually playing a rooftop concert (sound familiar?) and using it to make their last run to freedom.
Reminiscent of Richard Lester's Help!, Bandits is a witty, thrilling , and tuneful combination of the "escape from prison" genre and the "rise of a rock band"genre. Throw in a little "Thelma and Louise" doomed female friendship, double it with two pairs of opposites on the run (young and sexy, older and world-weary), and spin it all through the idiom of music videos. The end result is this deliriously genre and gender-bending first feature from Germany's Katja von Garnier which courageously re-energizes the movie musical. - BETWEEN PANCHO VILLA AND A NAKED WOMAN
- Directors: Sabina Berman and Isabelle Tardan. Cast:? Diana Bracho, Arturo Rios
What Gina and Adrian share is simple lust. But it's good lust. Both lovers are addicted to their dramatic sexual encounters. This modern screwball comedy is a wacky, comic battle of the sexes (and of social classes), in which both sides are equally equipped veterans of the gender wars. Adrian, a Pancho Villa scholar, dislikes Gina's capitalist business and Gina dislikes Adrian's macho aloofness. He disappears for weeks, an international lecturer on Mexican history. She confides her longings to her business partners, a handsome young man, who wants to help Gina himself, and a woman her own age, skeptical about Gina's obsession with an unavailable man. In their struggles, Gina learns to ask for what she wants, while Adrian overcomes his machismo by getting rid of his alter-ego, a fantasy Pancho Villa who whispers sexist advice in Adrian's ear. - BEYOND SILENCE
- GERMANY, 1997, 110 MIN
Directed by Caroline Link
In German with English subtitles
This memorable film was an Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. Eight year old Lara is the daughter of deaf parents and forms their only link with ??the outside world. One day Lara is given a clarinet by her aunt Clarissa, an attractive woman full of zest for life.? This opens her mind to the wondrous world of music ? and ??begins the slow process of leaving family life and childhood behind. While the explicitly dependent relationship between Lara and her parents adds a fascinating dimension to the storyline, Beyond Silence is refreshingly far from being earnest and sentimental. Director Caroline Link (who also wrote the script) has a lightness of touch which ensures that this is a lively family melodrama with universal themes about growing up, family secrets and rivalries, and the tricky interrelationship between love and responsibility. A strong cast, including deaf actors Howie Seago and Emmanuelle Larborit, bring sensitivity and verve to their performances, with Tatjana Trieb outstanding as the young Lara. - *BITTER SUGAR,
- Azucar Amarga
A visceral, energizing look at contemporary Cuba, BITTER SUGAR is an impassioned love story set against the political and economic tensions of Havana.? Gustavo, an idealistic young Communist with a glorified vision of Castro's regime, falls in love with Yolanda, a disenchanted dancer who longs to escape to Miami.? However, Gustavo learns that love alone cannot sustain them in a city about to erupt and slowly awakens to the devastation around him.? His rebellious musician brother injects himself with the AIDS virus in civil protest; his father realizes that he will earn more money as a bar-room pianist in a tourist hotel than as a doctor.? 102 minutes.? Black and white. - **Blood of a Poet
- 1930 - French w/English Subtitles - 54 minutes
The first work of the significant poet, playwright and surrealist Jean Cocteau is one of the most important contributions to early avant-garde cinema - a stunning, primal and powerful work that uses jagged, poetic, harsh and highly personal images, dreams and symbols to reflect an artist's inner life. The work is composed in four illogical, timeless sequences. - *Blood Wedding
- 1981 - Spanish w/English Subtitles - 71 minutes
A flamenco ballet version of Federico Garcia Lorca's classic, from the director of "Carmen".? The climax of this dramatic story is a duel to the death between the bridegroom and the bride's former lover. - **The Blue Angel
- 1930 - German w/English Subtitles - 108 minutes
Josef von Sternberg's adaptation of Heinrich Mann's novel about a repressed school teacher who is seduced and destroyed by his demonic obsession for nightclub singer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich).? "The film is striking for its creative use of sound and its impressive recreation of the sleazy atmosphere of cabaret life"? (David Cook, The History of Narrative Film. - BLUE ORANGE
- Short Film
(Venezuela 1996: 8 minutes) by Ximena Pereyra.
In the split seconds of a dive into a swimming pool, a woman makes a decision. - THE BORDER
- Director: Ricardo Larrain
Screenplay: Jorge Goldemberg, Ricardo Larrain
Cast: Patricio Contreras Gloria Laso, Hector Noguera, Alonso Venegas
In the 1980s, Ramiro Orellanos, a math professor, is banished to a remote area of Chile for signing a public letter denouncing the abduction of a colleague. Placed in the hands of a regional authority whose minions are as ridiculous as they are terrifying, Orellanos finds himself exiled to "la frontera," a territory once belonging to the Mapuche Indians. Forcibly removed from his old life, Orellanos has no choice but to forge a new one. The one he shapes is formed as much by the harsh political and physical realities surrounding him as by the poetic symbolism he finds on this borderland between cultures. Periodic tidal waves inundate the area, triggering cycles of destruction and rebirth. An old man daily sits on a dock, suitcase in hand, mentally returning to the Spain of the 1930's, where he fought Franco. A native healer cures Orellanos of a wound whose significance she intuits. A woman teaches him to understand that love and loss coexist. A diver searches for the plug he believes is buried in the ocean's floor. Orellanos gradually comes to understand -- and embrace -- his role as an exile from the governing Chilean regime. Winner of the Silver Bear Award at the 1992 Berlin Film Festival. - ** Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
-
Jean Meyer, France, 1958, 97 mins.
Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, presented by the Comedie Francaise in the tradition of Commedia Dell'Arte. Music by Jean Baptiste Lully, a contemporary of Moliere's. Lavish costumes, ballets and dances. ?French with English subtitles. - **Breathless
- 1959 - French w/English Subtitles - 89 minutes
The landmark French New Wave film by Godard features Jean-Paul Belmondo as a small-time hood on the run from the law, having an affair with an American girl in Paris (Jean Seberg).? A film which owes much to American film noir and yet revolutionized the world of film.? Remastered. - **Boudu Saved From Drowning
- 1932 - French w/English Subtitles - 87 minutes
A light comedy as well as a satire on bourgeois lifestyle in France.? Michel Simon is Boudu, a scruffy tramp who is saved from his suicide attempt by a bookseller.? Boudu insists his rescuer is now responsible for him, and creates chaos in his new home. - BURNT BY THE SUN
- (Russia) 1995, Nikita Mikhalkov, 134 min.?
This film won an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Film.? The story revolves around the activities that take place during one summer day in 1936, just before the beginning of Stalin's Terror, in the lives of the family members of revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov. ?This film is a nostalgic reverie of what Russia was like before Stalinism engulfed
the Soviet Union.? RATED PG 13 - *Camille Claudel
- 1990 - French w/English Subtitles - 149 minutes
Intense performances by Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu add fire to this adaptation of the family "authorized" biography of overlooked sculptress Camille Claudel.? After years of living with master sculptor Auguste Rodin (Depardieu) as pupil and lover, Claudel fell into a paranoid depression when he left her.? Her disapproving family had her committed to a mental institution, where she wasted away for the remaining 30 years of her life.? Adjani won a Cesar for her performance in this tragic story. - ** Carnival in Flanders
- Jacques Feyder, France, 1935, 95 mins.
In 1616, in a small town in Spanish-occupied Flanders, the city fathers find out that a detachment of Spaniards is arriving and the men leave town. The women, however, join together to seduce and entertain the soldiers. With a script by Charles Spaak and magnificent sets by Lazare Meerson, Carnival in Flanders is not only an enjoyable farce, but a rare example of the work of Feyder, a key filmmaker. French with English ?subtitles. - *La Caza
- 1965 - Spanish w/English Subtitles - B/W - 87 minutes
The edgy thriller follows several veterans of Franco's Repubican forces out for an afternoon's hunt.? Ostensibly out to shoot rabbits, it is soon all too clear that these men were used to hunting down men during Spain's bloody civil war - and they preferred it.? As the afternoon's sweltering heat builds and tempers flare La Caza inexorably builds to its shattering climax. - The Charterhouse of Parma
- (1948) - B&W -? 165 minutes
Starring:? Gerard Philipe, Rene Faure, Maria Casares, Louis Salou, Coedel
A film by Christian Jaque
Stendhal wrote two major works, The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma. In the screen adaptations, young Archbishop who falls in love and wishes to break his vows to the church. His aunt, secretly in love with her nephew, will stop at nothing to further his religious career. The film paints a wonderful portrait of Italian court life during the early 1800's. It was a time of intrigue, ambition, duels and passionate crimes; an era of romantic love where honor and virtue were worth dying for. - ** Chocolat
- Claire Denis, France, 1988, 105 mins.
Claire Denis takes the viewer on an emotional and strikingly visual?? memory trip back to the colonial Africa of her youth. In her directorial ???debut, she spins an engaging tale of a small white girl growing up in ???Cameroon on the isolated compound of her French official father and her lonely gorgeous mother. With Guilia Boschi, Issach de Bankole, Francois Cluzet and Cecile Ducasse. French with English subtitles. - **Cleo From 5 to 7
- 1961 - French w/English Subtitles - 90 minutes
Ninety minutes, exactly, in the life of the singer Corinne Marchand, as she waits for the results of a medical test for cancer, and meets a young soldier about to leave for the Algerian war.? Because of the anticipation, every trivial incident takes on a new significance.? "Produed mainly in the streets of Paris, this is a moving poem of love and death" (Georges Sadoul). - *Colonel Chabert
- French w/English subtitles - 111 minutes
Depardieu's blockbuster brings Balzac's novel to life.? When a proud French colonel returns from the Napoleonic wars, he discovers that someone has taken his identity.? Perfectly appropriate for classroom use,this film transports your students to 19th century France. - *CRIA!
- 1976 - Color - 97 minutes - English Subtitles-
Starring:? Geraldine Chaplin, Ana Torrent
Chaplin and Torrent star in this award-winning story of a nine-year-old girl and her struggle for maturity in a hostile world of adults.? "Cria!" is a black comedy based on the famous Spanish proverb about ungrateful offspring:? "Raise ravens and they'll tear your eyes out!"? Within its veiled political statements about the Spanish Civil War, and the spectre of Franco, Chaplin appears in the duel role of both mother and grown-up daughter, becoming a ray of feminist hope in an otherwise oppressive society. - CROWS
- (Poland) 1996, Dorota Kedzierzawska, 66 min.
A short, bittersweet film about an alienated and adventurous nine-year-old girl living in a seaside city of cobbled streets and deserted beaches.? Neglected by her overworked, single mother, this unnamed young heroine escapes into her own world of adventures and offers the viewer a bold and imaginative look into the inner world of childhood. ?RATED PG 13 - The Cyclist
- 1989 - Farsi w/English Subtitles - 75 minutes
A visually sophisticated film which deals with the themes of man's exploitation of man and the inequities between rich and poor.? The cyclist is Nassim, an Afghan refugee in need of money to pay his wife's medical expenses.? With work difficult to come by, a sleazy promoter suggests he undertake a bicycle marathon.? Touting him as athe Afghani superman, the huckster wagers that Nassim will circle a small area on the outskirts of town, day and night, for a week.? Gamblers, bookies and food vendors gather to watch the desperate cyclist from the sidelines, turning his suffering to their own profit.? Winner of the Best Film at the Riminicinema Film Festival. - *DANZON
- Starring:? Maria Rojo
Directed by:? Maria Novaro
A film festival winner and critical favorite, DANZON is a surprising love story about a woman who finally discovers the passion that has been missing from her life.? Maria Rojo, in a award-winning performance, stars as Julia, a Mexico City telephone operator whose tame, predictable life is enliveed only by the ballrooom dancing she enjoys each week.? When her dance partner, Carmelo, suddenly disappears, Julia stuns her friends by impulsively following his trail to Veracruz.? Carmelo, about whom she knows little, comes to symbolize all that is mising in Julia's life:? passion, romance, mystery.? And her search for him holds all that and more, as this enchanting journey shakes Julia's ideas about life and offers a new definition of love.? 103 minutes.? RATED PG 13 - Dear Detective
- (1977) - color, 105 minutes
Starring: Annie Girardot, Philippe Noiret, Catherine Alric, Guy Marchand, Georges Wilson
A film by Philippe de Broca
A charming comedy/adventure film. Annie Girardot stars as woman cop who becomes involved with old flame (pompous professor Noiret) as she hunts a killer. - *Demons in the Garden
- 1982 - color - Spanish w/English Subtitles - 100 min.
Angela Molina, Ana Belen.
This engrossing tale of post-Civil War Spain is told from the perspective of a young boy who is raised by his mother, his aunt (who also was his father's lover) and his grandmother.? As he grows up in a? world of family betrayal and political strife, director Manuel Gutierrez Aragon exposes the realities of Spanish life during a difficult era. - **Diabolique
- 1955 - French w/English Subtitles - 116 minutes
The sadistic headmaster of a boys school is murdered by his tremulous wife and vengeful mistress in this classic French thriller.? They dump the body, but suddenly the deceased appears in a recent school photograph.? The suspense builds to an explosive climax. - **La Dolce Vita
- 1961 - Italian w/English subtitles - 174 minutes
Banned by the Church in many countries, the sensationalism of the film often obscured its serious intent.? La Dolce Vita follows a society journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) through a nightmarish world in which emotions have been destroyed by surface realities, moral conventins and unresolved guilt. - *Elisa Vida Mia
- 1977 - Spanish w/English Subtitles - Color - 125 minutes
Fernando Rey was named Best Actor at Cannes for his role in theis poignant Saura drama about an estranged daughter (Geraldine Chaplin) who returns home to her ailing father (Rey) who is writing his biography - from her point of view.? Ironically as she experiences "her" recollections, she arrives at a deeper understanding of her father enabling the two to reunite.? Saura's richly textured story subtly plays with memory and perspective gradually drawing us into the emotional repprochement achieved by the characters in the film. - *El Norte
- 1984, Color, 141 min., Rating: R
Two young Indians, a brother and sister, travel from their remote Guatemalan village to the 'promised land' of the north - Los Angeles. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Original) Screenplay. - Eva Peron: The True Story
- Starring: Esther Goris, Victor Laplace, Leandro Regunaga, Carlos Roffe
Directed by: Juan Carlos Desanzo
Screenplay: Juan Pablo Feinmann
Executive Producer: Maria de la Paz Marino
At last, an accurate, well-researched Argentine production of the story of Eva Peron!
Filmed entirely on location in Buenos Aires and using actual sites where historical events took place, the story focuses on Evita's 1951 run for the Vice Presidency, during what turned out to be the last months before her death from cancer at the age of 33. Already an effectual yet unofficial political figure and leader, adored by the working masses whom she dubbed los descamisados (the shirtless ones), Eva Peron tried to win an election on a Peron-Peron ticket which would give her official endorsement by the people. The film reveals the forces undermining Evita's political clout, but also recreates the passionate and open debates between Evita and union leaders, which resulted in the unions' overwhelming political support for Per?n.? Esther Goris delivers an electrifying performance as Evita, allowing the essence of both the woman and the myth that she created to shine through. Most importantly, the film offers an unbiased portrait of a legend who was neither a saint nor a demon, only a human being. - Extenuating Circumstances
- (1936) - B&W - 90 minutes
Starring:? Michel Simon, Arletty, Dorville, Andrex, Robert Ozanne, Georges Lannes
A film by Jean Boyer
A delightful "oldie but goodie," this is the story of a retired judge (Michel Simon) and his wife who are stranded in a seedy auberge on the outskirts of Paris. Face to face with the locals, they hide their true identities and quickly become accepted as members of the gang. Surrounded by the people he has spent his life condemning, the judge tries to convert his new acquaintances into law-abiding citizens, but the arrival of an ex-con he once sentenced upsets everything... - FIREWORKS
- (Japan) 1997, Takeshi Kitano.?
The seventh film by Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, Fireworks is a stylish, very violent and moving detective story reminiscent of Pulp Fiction and The Wild Bunch? This film, a combination of action and sentimentality, won the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and was a big hit at the Toronto, New York and Vancouver film festivals. RATED R (EXTREME, GRAPHIC VIOLENCE) - ** The 400 Blows
- Francois Truffaut, France, 1959, 97 mins.
One of the landmarks of cinema, which introduced the character of Antoine Doinel, played by Jean-Pierre Leaud, to the world, as the 12-year-old boy left to his own devices in an indifferent adult world. An uncompromising film, winner of innumerable awards. French with English subtitles. - Four Ways to Cover a Hole
- Short Film, (Mexico, 1995, 8 mins) by Guillermo Rendon
This playful and poetic animation film explores what to do with a hole: wait, fill it, eliminate it, or simply cover it? - French Fried Vacation
- (1978) - color, 90 minutes.
Starring:Josiane Belasko, Michel Blanc, Thierry Lhermitte, Marie-Anne Chazel, Christian Clavier
A film by Patrice Leconte A sexy romp that pokes major fun at the "Club-Med" scene of the 1970s. This comedy launched many of France's best comic actors of the 80s and 90s. The story takes place at an African resort, a vacation haven for unattached, consenting adults. These characters turn sleeping around into a major sporting event. You know you are far from the land of Political Correctness when Lhermitte's character tracks his conquests by the kilo! - Le Gendarme a New-York
- (1965) - Color -? 100 minutes.
Starring: Louis de Fun*s, Michel Galabru, Jean Lefebvre, Genevi*ve Grad.
A film by Jean Girault.
The second film in the famous Gendarme series. The police squad of St. Tropez is chosen to represent France at a convention in New York. But the sergeant's daughter follows them to the city and turns the trip into an unforgettable nightmare for her father. A parody of the USA in the 1960's as seen through the eyes of the French! - Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez
- (1967) - color - 95 minutes
A film by Jean Girault
This was the first in a highly popular series of films. Louis de Funes is the gendarme Ludovic Cruchot, an ambitious officer working his way up through the ranks. When he is ransferred to the laid back post of Saint-Tropez, he interprets the move as an ideal opportunity to advance his career. Everything goes as planned until his daughter has a little too much fun on the beach. - Girl With A Suitcase
- 1961 - B/W - 111 minutes
Starring: Claudia Cardinale, Jaques Perrin
Cardinale plays a girl with nothing in her bag of tricks except good looks. She finds herself at the mercy of one man after another until finally jilted by a rich young scoundrel. She's about to be cast adrift in a turbulent sea of corruption, but finds her protector in the person of her betrayer's sixteen-year old kid brother. "Girl with a Suitcase" examines that fine line between purity and vice. This impressive Italian film stars a very young, very beautiful, and very innocent Claudia Cardinale, and it launched her international career. - La Grande Vadrouille
- (1966) - color - 122 minutes
Starring: Louis de Funes, Bourvil, Terry Thomas, Claudio Brock
A film by Gerard Oury
Directed by Gerard Oury, this film has remained France's number one box office hit for almost 30 years. It is the story of three Allied parachutists who land unexpectedly in the middle of German occupied Paris. They disrupt the lives of Stanislas (Louis de Funes), a conductor for the Paris Opera and Augustan (Bourvil), a house painter. The only way for the two men to get rid of their unwanted guests is to lead them to the free zone... - **Grand Illusion
- 1937 - French w/English Subtitles - 111 minutes
A beautifully mastered version of Jean Renoir's great masterpiece, a classic comment on war's fading glory.? Set in WWI the film tells of two French officers captured by German forces.? Interred in a prison camp, the two officers encounter Von Rauffenstein, an aristocratic career officer played by von Stroheim.? With Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay and von Stroheim. - GUELWAAR
- (Senegal) 1993, Ousmane Sembene, 115 min.?
After the mysterious death of Pierre Henri Thioune (called "Guelwaar", the Nobel One) a political activist and pillar of the Christian community, family and friends are shocked and outraged to discover that Thioune's body has been misidentified and buried in a Muslim cemetery.? Ousmane Sembene's dark comedy and social satire is an indictment of homegrown African corruption and neocolonial Western aid.? RATED R - Guts and Heart
- (Mexico, 1995, 18 minutes) by Antonio Urrutia
A young man is frustrated and confused by his awakening sexual desires, the cruel taunting of his peers, and his lust for a beautiful and kind prostitute. - The Hero
-
(Mexico, 1993, 5 minutes) by Carlos Carrera
In this beautifully animated film, an ordinary man rises above the insensitive, uncaring crowd in a subway when he attempts to save the life of a young girl he is sure is about to commit suicide. - **Hiroshima, Mon Amour
- 1959 - French w/English Subtitles - 91 minutes
From the beginning, in which the love-making of a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) and a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) is intercut with newsreel footage of Hiroshima's atomic holocaust and its aftermath, to the couple's painful walk through the reconstructed city, Resnais' film recaptures both the pain and the richness of the war. - I Love You Rosa
- 1973 - Dubbed in English. - 90 minutes
Jerusalem: 1887. Rosa is a widow at 20, forced to work in a bath house ?and sew to earn a living. Her husband's only brother is 11-year-old Nessim. The local law demands that a widow marry her late husband's?brother, but it will be seven long years before Nessim is a man. Rosa is left to decide whether she will wait or break with tradition and marry a local man instead. An insightful look at the clash of values, feminism, wisdom and tradition. The ending will likely please some and anger others. Nominated for a Best Foreign Film Academy Award in 1973. - IS THAT YOU?
- JAPAN, 1997, 103 MIN
Directed by Genji Nakamura
In Japanese with English subtitles
Is That You? is a touching story about loss and renewal. The beautiful widow Mayumi spends her days as a hairdresser at her senile mother-in-law's beauty parlor. As a working mother, she finds it hard to be there for her 10-year-old son Kai, but tries. In addition to her problems, she must tolerate her malicious sister-in-law and constant attempts at matchmaking by her customers.While all the ingredients for melodrama exist in this story, veteran director Genji Nakamura deftly paints with humor and a light touch. Mayumi has more anxiety when her son talks to an invisible friend, who turns out to be his father's ghost. Is That You? features a strong ensemble cast. Written by Akiko Kawase, herself a wife and mother, and starring Miyuki Matsuda as Mayumi, a widow and mother like the heroine, this is one from the heart. ?Masato Uchiyama as Kai is a real find, and Eriko Watanabe (Shall We Dance?) has a cameo as a wise fortune teller. A wonderful little gem of a ghost story, Japanese style. - Jasmine in Flower,
- (Mexico, 1996, 13 minutes) by Daniel Grubner
A black comedy in which two men, each intent on taking his life on the same rooftop, meet, bond, and find new reasons to live, but Fate intervenes. - *Jean de Florette
- French w/English Subtitles - 122 minutes
Gerard Depardieu stars in this wonderful flim set in the rugged hills of France.? A principled man inherits a farm and hopes to become a gentleman farmer, but his wily neighbor plots to steal the land.? Teachers report that their students are entranced by this masterpiece. Prequel to "Manon of the Spring" - **La Jetee
- 1962 - French w/English subtitles - 29 minutes
Chris Marker's landmark film is set in postnuclear Paris.? The story concerns an astronaut who travels back through time to realize a brief affair with a woman he once glimpsed.? With the exception of a haunting shot of the woman blinking, the entire film is composed with still photographs and isolated shots. - **Le Joli Mai
- 1962 - French w/English Subtitles - 180 minutes
Chris Marker's great cinema-verite study of Paris in May 1962, the month the Algerian War came to an end and France was at peace for the first time since 1939.? The first part, "Prayer from the Top of the Eiffel Tower," is about personal happiness and ambition; the second, "The Return of Fantomas," concerned with social and political issues and the relationships of people to each other.? A very moving, "personal, and ironic film aided by Pierre Lhomee's superb handling of the 'living camera'" (Georges Sadoul). - JONAH AND THE PINK WHALE
- Cast: Dino Garcia, Maria Renee Prudencio, Julieta Egurrola, Guillermo Gil, Claudia Lobo, Milton Cortez.?
Director and Writer: Juan Carlos Valdivia
Jonah and the Pink Whale lushly paints the story of star-crossed lovers whose fates are sealed by their passion, their family, and their country. The year is 1984, and Bolivia is in the midst of a national crisis fueled by drug trafficking and inflation. The frantic urban atmosphere produces chaos, passion, and obsessions which change the rules of all the games.? Jonah is a young? schoolteacher about to be swallowed by his wife's family: Ira, his mother-in-law, wants him to quit teaching and make better use of his law school diploma; and Petroclo, his father-in-law wants Jonah to oversee the construction of a family mausoleum -- the first pyramid to be built in the Christian world, a place safe from druglords. Jonah escapes to the basement, where he builds a darkroom amid old furniture and dripping gutters. Here an innocent flirtation with Julia, his sister-in-law, builds into a dangerous passion. - **Last Year at Marienbad
- 1961 - French w/English Subtitles - 90 minutes
The strange geometry of a romantic triangle marks the beginning of this elegant, labyrinthe puzzle.? Written by French New Wave novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet and from the director of Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad is a film classic, the subject of myriad inerpretations. - *Like Water for Chocolate
- 1992 - Spanish w/English Subtitles - 105 minutes
Immensely popular, magical story of a young girl whose cooking is infused with her emotions as she prepares her meals.? Unrequited passions, changing political situations and madness emerge in this highly entertaining, sensual and funny story.? Written by Laura Esquivel and directed by her husband. - *The Lover
- 1992 - Color - 111 minutes - Unrated
From the novel of the same name - which has sold over one million copies in 43 languages - this "sophisticated adaptation of Marguerite Duras' best-selling memoirs" (Daily Variety) smolders on the screen.? Blending "cliff-hanging drama" (Time) with extraordinary insight and sensitivity, film director Jean-Jacques Annaud has created an original and compelling cinematic masterpiece.? Now, with this uncensored and unrated international version, you can experience The Lover exactly as the director intended. Jane March is mesmerizing in the role of a? poor French teenager who engages in an illicit affair with a ?wealthy Chinese heir (Tony Leung) in 1920's Saigon.? For the first time in her young life she has control, and she wields it deftly over her besotted lover throughout a series of clandestine meetings and torrid encounters.? But though the lovers are able to transcend their differences in age, race and class...theirs is a future that French colonial Vietnamese society will never allow.? The Lover brilliantly captures the essence of sexual awakening and forbidden desire like no other film has done before - or since. - *Madame Bovary
- French w/English Subtitles - 130 minutes - PG-13
When Emma reads romantic novels, she wishes her life were less boring.? She tries to change it, but her ventures lead to her doom.? Renowned actress sabelle Huppert stars in this masterful modern interpretation of the great Flaubert novel. - **M
- 1931 - German w/English Subtitles - 95 minutes
A series of schoolgirls are murdered by a psychopath who terrorizes a large city and is hunted by the police through a network of beggars.? Inspired by the real-life "vampire of Dusseldorf," Fritz Lang's great film is one of the key films of German Expresionism.? Peter Lorr's performance as the Murderer is one of the great screen performances of all time. - **A Man Escaped
- 1956 - French w/English subtitles - 102 minutes
A perfect film, based on the true story of a French Resistance fighter's escape from a Gestapo prison.? In Bresson's hands, the narrative of the prison escape just hours before he is executed becomes a transcendental meditation on the meaning of freedom and existence told in light and shadows.? "I would like to show this miracle:? an invisible hand over the prison, directing what happens...the film is a mystery...The Spirit breathes where it will," said Bresson. - *Manon of the Spring
- French w/English Subtitle - 113 minutes
In the touching sequel to "Jean de Florette," Jean's clever daughter Manon becomes a teenager and unravels the mystery of her father's struggles.? She stands up to an entire village in a unique display of courage!? See why "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources" together were nominated for eight Cesar Awards (French "Oscars"). - MARIUS AND JEANNETTE
- (France) 1997, Robert Guediguian, 102 min.?
MARIUS AND JEANNETTE is a romantic comedy chronicling the ups and downs in a relationship between two lonely, middle-aged people, Marius, a guard at a cement factory, and Jeannette, a strong-willed and opinionated supermarket cashier.? Set in a working class section of the French port city of Marseilles, director Robert Guediguian tells this engaging story of an unlikely couple in a funny and sympathetic manner.? This film was an unofficial selection at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.? Ariane Ascaride, who portrays Jeannette, won the Cesar (the French equivalent of an Oscar) for Best Actress and the film was nominated for seven Cesars, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.? RATED PG 13 - *Maria de Mi Corazon, (Mary My Dearest)
- 1983 - color - Spanish w/English subtitles - 100 minutes
Maria Rojo, Hector Bonilla.
A petty thief returns from his nocturnal rounds to find a former flame who jilted him waiting in his apartment, wearing a wedding dress.? She fascinates him with magic tricks, persuading him to abandon his life of crime and marry her, forming a vaudeville team whose sexual magnetism is more magical than their threadbare illusions.? Then one day Maria's car breaks down and she knocks on the nearest door to ask to use the phone:? but it is an insane asylum and no one believes her story, triggering a hellishly absurd nightmare of entrapment and madness.? Based on a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. - **Mayerling
- 1936 - French w/English Subtitles - 91 minutes
The romantic, sumptuous film that established Charles Boyer as a screen idol.? Set in Vienna in 1883, Boyer plays the Archduke Rudolf, who is madly in love with Maria Vetsera, played by Danielle Darrieux.? An opulent romance with a sharp portrait of the Hapsburg court. - MEN WITH GUNS
- (Mexico/USA) 1997, John Sayles, 128 min.?
American director John Sayles wrote, directed and edited this visually stunning movie.?
Filmed entirely in Mexico, MEN WITH GUNS is about an aging medical school professor who sets off on an odyssey across a fictional Latin American country in search of his former students who are practicing medicine in poor, remote villages.? The professor, blind to the repression that has taken place in his country, discovers that all but one of his former students have been killed over the years and he must finally come to terms with the fact that his country is a violent and oppressive state. RATED R - **Miss Julie
- 1950 - Swedish w/English Subtitles - 90 minutes
The definitive version of August Strindberg's riveting play concerning social and sexual domination.? Miss Julie is a noblewoman who allows her butler to seduce her after her engagement is broken.? With Anita Bjork and Anders Henrikson. - *Moderato Cantabile
- 1959 - B/W - 90 minutes - French w/English Subtitles
Anne Desbardes is the bored young wife of a wealthy industrial baron. ?The only light in her life is her young son Pierre. ?During one of Pierre's piano lessons "in town" a violent crime is committed in a neighboring cafe.? Curious, Anne later goes to the cafe and strikes up a conversation with an employee of her husband, Chauvin.? The acquaintance soon becomes an obsession for her, as she equates herself with the victim of the the passionate crime she almost witnessed.? A film full of beautiful images and superb lighting, Jeanne Moreau obtained the CANNES FILM FESTIVAL AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS in 1960 for her performance. - A MONGOLIAN TALE
- (China) 1997, Xie Fei, 103 min.?
A young boy is sent to live with a foster grandmother and an orphaned girl in the high country of the Mongolian grasslands.? The children, who have been raised as brother and sister in Edenic intimacy, fear that they will be separated when they ?become adults, so they are willingly betrothed to one another by their grandmother.? When the prospective bride becomes impregnated by a local rake, the immature and disillusioned young hero leaves his home, only to return 12 years later to find that the world he left behind has changed irretrievably.? RATED R - **Mouchette
- 1966, B&W, 90 min.-French w/English Subtitles- Not Rated
The story of a young girl living in an isolated rural community who is abandoned by her incompetent parents and left to fend for herself. Bathetic fare from New Wave moralist Bresson. - *NANA
- 1957 - 100 minutes - French w/English Subtitles
Directed by:?? Christian Jacque
Starring:?? Charles Boyer
A beautiful actress tries her hand at being a kept woman. - ** Night Is My Future
-
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1947, 87 mins.
A moving drama of a musician blinded in an accident, and forced to adjust to a world of darkness. Driven to despair, the musician regains his faith in life by studying to become a church organist and finding the love of a simple woman. Swedish with English subtitles. - OEDIPUS, THE MAYOR
- Director: Jorge Ali Triana
Screenplay: Stella Malagon, Orlando Senna and Gabriel Garcia Marquez,
based on the play by Sophocles
Cast: Jorge Perugorria, Angela Molina, Francisco Rabal, Jairo Camargo
There is more to Oedipus, the Mayor than meets the eye. On the surface, it is a contemporary version of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. A closer look reveals a
bold attempt to give political context to the violence that has plagued Colombia since the 19th Century, drawing a parallel to the pestilence which afflicted Thebes in the Greek story. The story is set in a small town, where Oedipus is sent to be Mayor and promote peace among the warring factions. On his way to fulfill his moral obligation, Oedipus and his military escort are detained on a bridge by another car. Shots are fired, and Oedipus is forced to shoot back. He later learns of the kidnapping and death of Layo, a popular politcal leader. While investigating the murder, Oedipus meets and falls in love with Layo's wife. The scenes that follow portray a man who discovers his own guilty destiny -- to become his father's killer, his mother's husband, and to father his brother. Also revealed is the stark reality of society's inability to embrace peace and reconciliation. What else would you expect from Gabriel Garcia Marquez? His preoccupation with Sophocles' tragedy resulted in the script for Oedipus, the Mayor. - OUT IN THE OPEN
- Starring: Roy Dupuis, Christian Vadim, Carlos Cruz, Dora Mazonne
Director: Luis Armando Roche
Screenplay: Jacques Espagne and Luis Armondo Roche
At the end of the 18th century, two young European naturalists set out through the Venezuelan jungle in search of the mythical Casiquiare River. Both are brilliant scientists, considered forerunners of modern ecology. They are also very different -- Alexander von Humboldt is a homosexual and Aime
Bonpland loves women passionately. The odyssey they live uncovers a labyrinth of similarities and differences between the two friends. Accompanied by a Venezuelan professor, they head out through what they consider to be a "Wonderland." ?However, a sometimes magnificent but brutal reality will soon change the men's lives forever. ?We learn of the splendor of this jungle paradise, as well as its horror, as told by Humboldt nearly 60 years later. Inspired by an actual trip to Venezuela made by Humboldt and Bonpland, the film is a fictional account based on real history. - Parallel Lives
- (USA, 1994, 10 minutes) by John C. Aliano
This abstract film explores the art of the Dutch painter Vermeer by using Vermeer's techniques cinematographically. - *Peppermint Soda
- 1977 - French w/English Subtitles - 97 minutes
Diane Kurys' autobiographical first feature charts the adventures of two carefree sisters, Anne, a shy misfit, and Frederique, a free-spirited extrovert, during the socially turbulent Paris of the early '60's.? Living with their divorced Jewish mother, the girls shuttle between a rigid, claustrophobic school and awkward holidays with their father.? "The film is a harsh, unsentimental look at adolescence, with the '60s setting serving primarily to define the social and political context of the girls' rites of passage"? (Time Out). - **Persona
- English , 1966, B&W, 83 min. Not Rated
When a mentally disturbed actress convalesces in an isolated seaside cottage with her chatty young nurse, the two women's identities begin to converge. A dreamlike meditation on personality and memory. Winner of the Best Picture Award from the National Society of Film Critics. Persona is one of Bergman's better known films and is still considered by international critics as one of the best films every made. This film definitly marks the high time of Bergman's filmaking for not only has Bergman honed his talents by the time this film was made, but he has begun to take bolder steps. Persona is very simple, like many of Bergman's films, but there hardly a moment lightly passes. This is a good first film for someone who has never seen a Bergman. - **Rashomon
- Japanese, 1951, B&W, 83 min., Not Rated, Subtitled Four witnesses to a rape and murder provide strikingly disparate accounts of the event. This haunting film, set in medieval Japan, is nothing short of a masterpiece. Academy Awards: Best (Black-and-White) Art Direction--Set Decoration.
- REBELLIOUS WOMEN
- Director/Writer: Alberto Isaac
Starring: Patricia Reyes Spindola, Regina Orozco, Lourdes Elizarraras, Jose Alonso, Juana Ruiz, Juan Claudio Retes, Margarita Isabel.
Four women belonging to the same sewing group in a provincial Mexican town make a pact to help each other out of domestic lives which ignore their needs, abuse their safety, and stifle their talents. Although their individual situations differ, they suffer from essentially the same thing-- bad marriages. They leave their husbands and families behind and set out together in an attempt to better their lives. Escape to the big city of Guadalajara --without children, and above all, without men -- takes them on a difficult journey that teaches them individual strength and the power gained from friendship among women. At times both funny and touching, their journey also contains elements of mystery and danger.? Ultimately, the positive outlook of the film shows that while it may be necessary to take dramatic steps in order to affect one's future, there is also hope for making amends with the past, especially when people change. - *The Red Balloon
- 34 minutes
The most famous French short film of all time is now available on video to delight your students.? A lonely French boy discovers a magic balloon that follows him through the streets of Paris.? Extraordinary sights and sounds of Paris replace words in this class masterpiece. - *The Red Squirrel (La Ardilla Roja)
- 1993 - color - Spanish w/English Subtitles - 95 minutes
Emma Suarez, Nancho Novo.
This Hitchcockian thriller is the story of a man who witnesses a woman's motorcycle crash and pretends to be her boyfriend.? After he discovers that she has amnesia, twists and turns unfold as he devises a complicated plot to make her believe he's part of her life. - *REED: Insurgent Mexico
- 1973 - Spanish w/English Subtitles - B/W - 104 minutes
A dramatization on John Reed's newspaper accounts of the mexican Revolution.? Reed:? Insurgent Mexico explores the young journalist's adventures with Pancho Villa's army in 1913 - 1914.? Through encounters with Generals Villa (Eraclio Zepeda) and Urbina (Eduardo Lopez Rojas) as well as ordinary soldiers, Reed (Claudio Obregon) sheds his journalistic impartiality and becomes a potent advocate of the revolution. - Remote
- (Venezuela, 1993, 11 minutes) by Carlos Villegas
Diego fantasizes a world in which he can control the complexities and disappointments of life and love in the same way he controls his TV -- by use of his remote control buttons. - Ruy Blas
-
(1948) - B&W - 90 minutes
Starring: Jean Marais, Danielle Darrieux, Gabrielle Dorziat, Alexandre Rignault
A film by Marcel Herrand
Spain, end of the 17th century, the court of Charles II. A story of mistaken identity, revenge and romantic love revolving around the Queen of Spain (Daneille Darrieux) and the minister of police bent on revenge. Adapted by Jean Cocteau from the novel by Victor Hugo with Jean Marais in the dual roles of Ruy Blas and Don Cesar de Bazan. - SANTERA
- Starring: Laura del Sol, Hirma Salcedo, Victor Cuica, Gledys Ibarra and Nazareth Gil
Director: Solveig Hoogesteijn
Screenplay:Solveig Hoogesteign and Senel Paz
Paula, a Spanish doctor working for Amnesty International, is sent to investigate abuses in the Venezuelan penitentiary system. In one of the women's prisons she meets Soledad, a Shaman-healer unjustly arrested for killing her brother-in-law by casting a spell on him. Skeptical, yet intrigued, especially when Soledad seems to know about Paula's inner struggles over the lover she has left behind, Paula is transformed by her relationship with Soledad. She uncovers Soledad's secret past, her occult powers, ancestral myths, and passionate temptations--all of which challenge Paula's rationality. Santera allows us to witness the beliefs and rituals of African-Santeria culture in Venezuela, as its philosphy clears the fog of Paula's busy urban life. An intriguing story about the meeting of two completely different worlds and beauty found in both. - LE SECRET DE POLICHINELLE
- (HEADLESS CHICKEN), FRANCE, 1997, 93 MIN
Directed by Franck Landron
In French w/English subtitles
One of the freshest films to come out of France in many years, this ensemble comedy of manners has been described by critics as a cross between Truffaut and Cassavetes. ?Six weeks after a wild New Year's Eve, Rebecca is ??mysteriously pregnant. Her recollection of the evening is very hazy and signs point to a number of suspects among her group of dysfunctional male ??friends. Her girlfriends decide to take matters into their own hands and begin their own investigation. ?Among the film's chief pleasures are its inspired ensemble cast of 30-something actors and its decidedly unromantic view of the real neighborhoods that tourists do not visit but where the real Parisians live, work, and love. The film was made outside the usual ??government subsidy system and is part of a "new wave" of French independent cinema, which draws it inspiration from both classic French cinema and American independents. - *A Shadow You Soon Will Be
- 1994 - Argentina - Spanish w/English subtitles - 105 mins.
Based on the novel by Osvaldo Soriano and directed by Hector Olivera , this road movie about a group of wandering misfits on their way to nowhere is an allegory of contemporary Argentine society.? "A modern-day Don Quixote as imagined by Luis Bunuel" (Stephen Holden, "The New York Times") - **The Shame
- 1968/95 - Swedish w/English Subtitles - 103 minutes
A brilliant young couple, both musicians, attempt to evade a long-raging civil war and retreat to an island off the coast. A visually spare, emotionally powerful work about hopelessness, betrayal and human weakness. With Liv Ullmann, Max Von Sydow and Gunnar Bjornstrand. - **The Shop on Main Street
- Jan Kadar, Czechoslovakia, 1965, 128 mins.
A haunting work about the intersecting of the political and personal, developed through the strange yet touching relationship of an elderly Jewish shop owner and a passive carpenter whom the Nazis appoint as her "Aryan controller." Winner of the 1965 Best Foreign Film. With Ida Kaminska and Josef Kroner. "It manages to translate the apocalyptic tragedy of our century into human terms and to do so with laughter and tears, with scorn and passion" (Judith Crist). Slovak with English subtitles. - *The Silence of Neto
- This is the first internationally acclaimed, award winning film produced entirely in Guatemala.? It tells the politically-charged story of a young boy striving to follow his dreams while his country struggles to preserve democracy amidst CIA cold-war propaganda.? Through the eyes of young Neto, we are given an authentic insider's look at the diverse people of Guatemala and the historical events.
- SONATINE
- Starring: Beat Takeshi Kitano
Rated R, 94 Minutes
Japanese with Yellow English Subtitles,
This acclaimed, first-rate crime story packs gritty action and humor with an edgy Pulp Fiction attitude! International action star "Beat" Takeshi Kitano plays a seasoned mobster who goes to the island of Okinawa on a "peacekeeping" mission, even though he suspects that his boss is secretly trying to eliminate him! Determined to not go down without a fight, he and his gang know exactly what they have to do... and just want to avoid getting killed doing it! If you like action, that's smart, edgy and fresh, don't miss this hard-hitting mob thriller! - Special Police
- (1984) - color, 92 minutes - French
A film by Michel Vianey
A thriller with political overtones. A disillusioned police inspector (Richard Berry) finds himself protecting the sister of an old friend (Carole Bouquet) after she accidentally witnesses the murder of her brother and sister-in-law. The situation becomes complicated when he realizes that the assassins were looking for incriminating evidence of an underground political movement involving important politicians. - ** Spices
- Ketan Mehta, India, 1986, 98 mins.
Spices is a spirited, feminist fable from India, where women have few rights and little power. This story of oppression and rebellion was shot in rural Gujarat with both actual villagers and India's top name stars. It explores a community's reaction to a woman's plight as an impoverished beauty named Sonbai spurns the amorous advances of a local tax collector (called sudebars) and takes refuge in a pepper factory. Few of the villagers have the courage to defend her, least of all its men, who are blind to injustice against women. Sonbai's eventual victory is not simply over the villainous sudebar, but over tyranny itself and the subservience that sustains it. The fiery Sonbai was Smita Patil's (two-time winner of India's National Best Actress Award) last role. Originally titled Mirch Masala. Hindi with English subtitles. - **La Strada
- Federico Fellini, Italy, 1954, 107 mins.
Fellini's masterpiece. Giulietta Masina plays Gelsomina, a tragic waif sold to play clown to travelling show strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn). "Simplicity itself, La Strada is a magical tale and an unbearably painful account of loneliness which will always be associated with the sublimely Chaplinesque Masina...but Quinn, too, is superb, particularly in the final revelation of his own heartbreak and isolation." With Richard Basehart and Aldo Silvani. Italian with English subtitles. - The Sucker
- (1965) - color - 90 minutes
A film by Gerard Oury
The day of his departure on vacation, the old jalopy of Antoine Marechal (Bourvil) falls to pieces in an accident with a certain businessman, Saroyan (Louis de Funes). To make amends, Saroyan gives Antoine a Cadillac to drive to Italy, turning the unwitting Antoine into a smuggler of drugs and gold for the Mafia. But it turns out that Antoine is not quite as na?ve they think... - *La Symphonie Pastorale
- 1946 - B/W - 105 minutes - French w/English Subtitles
This sensitive adaptation of Andre Gide's introspective novel is precisely constructed, brilliantly acted, and beautifully photographed.? Set in a mountain village, the emotionally complex story follows the spiritual growth and decline of its two lead characters, a well-meaning pastor and the blind orphan he takes into his home.? Initially, the minister is guided by Christian principles to raise the orphan, Gertrude, with fatherly love, but as she grows into a beautiful woman, he is driven by a passion that destroys the happiness of his wife and son.? Pierre Blanchar delivers a compassionate portrayal of the self-deluded pastor.? Michele Morgan's critically acclaimed performance brings a spiritual as well as physical beauty to the role of Gertrude.? Filming in the Swiss Alps, Delannoy and cinematographer Armand Thirard create a serene atmosphere that offers a stunning contrast to the story's volatile emotions. - ** Tannhauser
- 1982, 176 mins. 2 cassettes.
Eva Marton is Elisabeth, Tatiana Troyanos is Venus and Richard Cassily is Tannhauser in Richard Wagner's great opera. German with English subtitles. - ** The Tin Drum
- Volker Schlondorff, W. Germany, 1979, 142 min.
The 1979 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film. The Tin Drum is a masterpiece of dazzling exuberance and originality adapted from the novel by Gunter Grass. The film is a stunning parable of modern society in violent transition narrated by a unique hero for our times--Oskar, a boy who decides at three not to grow any older. VHS letterboxed. German with English subtitles. - ** Touki Bouki
- Djibril Diop Mambety, Senegal, 1973, 85 mins.
Mory and his girlfriend Anta imagine an escape from the difficult life they share in Dakar. Paris is their destination, and like the heroes of French New Wave films, they are utterly alienated from their surroundings. A series of adventures ensues as they plot ways to raise money for their trip, but only one can face up to the reality that awaits them. Wolof with English subtitles. - **Triumph of the Will
- 1936 - German w/English Subtitles - 80 minutes
Enormously controversial filmrecord of a Nazi party solidarity rally at Nuremberg in 1934, crafted by Riefenstahl in her second directorial assignment.? A fascinating lesson in the methods used by the Nazis to inspire national support. - Twilight of a Middle Class Marriage
- (Mexico, 1995, 3 minutes) by Fernando J. Leon
A moment in the life of a couple who have learned--not very well-- to live in the same space. - TWO FRIENDS
- (Australia) 1986, Jane Campion, 76 min.? This is the first feature-length
film by the Academy Award-winning director of The Piano.? This is the story of two teenage girlfriends, Louise, a serious student struggling with her love-hate relationship with her divorced mother, and Kelly, a wild bleached blond punk-rocker who lives with friends at the beach and experiments with drugs and casual relations.? With humor, honesty and great insight, this film explores the dynamics of the friendship between the two girls who were once inseparable, but have grown apart due to a series of subtle changes that have taken place in their lives.? RATED R - *The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- French w/English subtitles - 90 minutes
Set against the historicbackground of the French-Algerian War, this musical masterpiece tells the story of two young people forced to be apart.? Can their love survive?? This is a splendid, classroom-appropriate, romantic film. - **La Vie Est Belle (Life is Rosy)
- 1987 - French w/English Subtitles - 85 minutes
A farce infused with the Zairian sense of belief in System-D or debrouillardise (the art of hustling for survival), this film explres the rich musical world of Kinshasha.? It follows a young man who uses wit and guile to trick his greedy boss, attain the woman he loves, and sing his favorite song ("La Vie Est Belle") on national television. - **Viridiana
- 1961 - Spanish w/English subtitles - 90 minutes
Bunuel's outrageous and devastating attack on religion and society.? Viridiana, about to take her vows as a nun, takes to the pure Christian life by organizing a haven for a blind man, leper, cripple and beggar.? Full of Freudian symbolism, the film ends in a famous orgy of destrucction, containing Bunuel's blasphemous scene of the Last Supper.? The film that got Bunuel kicked out of Spain. - ** Weekend
- Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1967, 105 mins.
"End of Cinema, end of world," read the titles at the conclusion of Godard's 1967 apocalyptic film Weekend. Godard himself described the work as both "a film found on the junk heap," and "a film lost in the cosmos." Presenting a dark, comic vision of the end of capitalist society, Weekend reflects the turmoil and chaos of the late sixties better than any Hollywood film from that era. It also stands as the climax to the first phase ???of Godard's filmmaking career, before he turned to the making of more experimental Marxist films after the social upheavals of 1968. With Mirielle Darc and Jean-Pierre Leaud. French with English subtitles. - ** The Wild Child
- Francois Truffaut, France, 1970, 85 mins.
The Wild Child is based on a remarkable journal, the 1806 memoirs of a French physician, a certain Jean Itard. The record begins in 1798, when a child is found living in the forest like an animal. Dr. Itard sets for himself the task of educating this child who is totally alien to civilization. Shot in austere black and white, the film achieves a depth of vision treating anew love, freedom, the nature of childhood and childhood's end. French with English subtitles. - WINGS OF DESIRE
- (Germany/France) 1987, Wim Wenders, 130 min.?
One of the best films made during the 1980s, Wim Wender's Wings of Desire is a supernatural love story about an angel, portrayed by German actor Bruno Ganz, who decides to enter the world of mortals after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist. RATED PG-13 - **Woman in the Dunes
- 1964 - Japanee w/English Subtitles - 123 minutes
A woman, confined to a deep pit in the sand dunes, where she is fed by neighbors and forced to clear her house of the threatening sands, is joined by a passing photographer whom the villagers have trapped into sharing her work and bed - forever.? This is the situation of Teshigahara's great symbolic and sensual adaptation of Kobo Abe's novel, in which he "builds up the erotic tension...with extreme close-ups that transform the human body into landscape..." (Oxford Companion to Film).
A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T U V W
