Wagner de AssisLife after death is the main theme in this drama about the process of transformation of a man during his surprising and enlightening experiences in the spiritual dimension. With magnificent art direction and special effects that have never been seen before in a Brazilian production, the film brings to the screen the most important work by Brazilian medium Chico Xavier who, through the account of the spirit of doctor André Luiz, describes in great detail what life is like at “ASTRAL CITY: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY”.
Sebastián del AmoIn CANTINFLAS, the true story of Mexico's greatest and most beloved comedy film star is told for the first time. From his humble origins on the small stage to the bright lights of Hollywood, Cantinflas became famous around the world - one joke at a time. Relive the laughter that has charmed generations.
Eric LavaineIsabelle (Valérie Lemercier), head of HR for Costa Cruises, has made the cardinal error of having an affair with her boss (Lionnel Astier). But before the inaugural cruise of the company’s flagship vessel, he decides to throw her out of his life and out of her job! Some women seek vengeance with poison, others with firearms or scandal. Isabelle opts for Rémy (Frank Dubosc), a flamboyant loser who has screwed up everything on land, and who thinks that maybe he’ll do better at sea. She signs him up as on-board entertainer. At first, he proves to be the worst nightmare for the Chairman and Cruise Director (Gérard Darmon). But gradually, Rémy finds his way on this floating palace, and with it, love and success. He changes his own destiny and that of all those who sail with him.
Aku LouhimiesBased on the classic novel, UNKOWN SOLDIER follows the story of Rokka, Kariluoto, Koskela, Hietanen, and their brothers-in-arms. It shows how friendship, humour, and the will to live unite these men on their way there and back. The war changes the lives of each of the soldiers as well as the lives of those on the home front, and also leaves its mark on the entire nation.
Hari Sama1986. Mexico City. Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art.
Lukas FeigelfeldIn 15th century Austria, goatherd Albrun begins to gradually discover an ancient and malevolent presence deep within the remote Austrian Alps after the mysterious and horrifying demise of her mother. At a time when pagan beliefs about witchcraft and feminine wickedness spread fear into the minds of rural folk, the traumatized Albrun's reality evolves into a waking nightmare when she becomes a mother herself. Haunting and stylishly directed by debut filmmaker Lukas Feigelfeld, with an unsettling and immersive industrial score by MMMD, Hagazussa is a dark tale of a woman's struggle with evil and her own sanity that explores the thin line between ancient beliefs, black magic, and delusional psychosis.
Hany Abu-AssadOmar, a young baker turned freedom fighter, is accustomed to dodging surveillance bullets to cross the separation wall to visit his secret love Nadia. But occupied Palestine knows neither simple love nor clear-cut war. When Omar is captured after a deadly act of resistance, he falls into a cat-and-mouse game with the military police. As suspicion and betrayal jeopardize his longtime trust with accomplices and childhood friends, Omar must face painful choices about life, manhood and love.
Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc DardenneFor the first time, Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne team up with a major international star, Marion Cotillard, to create a universal story about working-class people living on the edges of society. Sandra (Cotillard) has just returned to work after recovering from a serious bout with depression. Realizing that the company can operate with one fewer employee, management tells Sandra she is to be let go. After learning that her co-workers will vote to decide her fate on Monday morning, Sandra races against time over the course of the weekend, often with the help of her husband, to convince each of her fellow employees to sacrifice their much-needed bonuses so she can keep her job. With each encounter, Sandra is brought into a different world with unexpected results in this powerful statement on community solidarity.
Frédéric SchoendoerfferSophie Malaterre, a 25-year old fashion illustrator living in Montreal, has steeled herself for a lonely summer in the city. She has no plans, no close friends around and no boyfriend. In desperate need of a change of scenery she hears about an apartment-swapping site: switch.com. As luck would have it, she finds an apartment in Paris, complete with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
Paris is everything she has ever dreamed of and her first day there is idyllic. But the next morning she meets with a rude awakening as the police burst through the apartment door. Sophie discovers she has been sharing her apartment with a headless corpse. Caught in the chaos Sophie has no way of proving that she is not the owner of the premises, a woman she has never met called Bénédicte. Sophie's fingerprints are on the murder weapon, Bénédicte's passport has Sophie's photo in it. Nothing adds up. As the walls close in Sophie realizes she hasn't just switched flats... She's somehow switched identities..
Felix HerngrenAfter a long and explosive life in munitions, involving a number of the seminal moments and phenomena of the 20th century, including the Spanish Civil War, the Atomic Bomb, and Cold War espionage, Allan Karlsson finds himself - on his 100th birthday - stuck in a tranquil Swedish nursing home. Determined to escape the monotony, he hops out a window and kicks off a hilarious and unexpected comic-adventure by way of a stolen briefcase, a roughneck biker gang, and an escaped circus elephant named Sonya. Adapted from the runaway international best-seller, THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED is a charming, globe-trotting riff on world history and the highest-grossing Swedish film of all-time.
Arnaud des PallièresAdapted from Heinrich von Kleist's classic novella, Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas is an epic tale of revenge set against a backdrop of declining feudalism in 16th century France. Mads Mikkelsen (A Royal Affair, Valhalla Rising, Hannibal) stars as Michael Kohlhaas, a devout and prosperous horse merchant who resorts to violent extremes to obtain justice after being wronged by a callous baron.
Andrucha WaddingtonIn this sweetly humorous tale, a spirited woman by the name Darlene finds herself married to three men simultaneously, each of which fulfill her in a separate way. Gruff Osias provides strength, sensitive Zezhino provides understanding, and young Ciro provides passion and vitality. Together, they live in Osias' home in seemingly perfect harmony.
Mischa KampIn this beautiful and uplifting gay romance, two teen track stars discover first love as they train for the biggest relay race of their young lives. Dutch phenom Gijs Blom stars as Sieger, a thoughtful 15-year-old who grapples mightily with his emerging sexuality. Ko Zandvliet co-stars as his love interest, the spirited, outgoing, and popular Marc. In their boyish summer courtship the pair swim, bike, and run — they also share ice creams and kisses as they gradually find the courage to be vulnerable with one another. The romance between them unfolds with a palpable sense of longing, and an aching sequence of heartache as Sieger tries to fight the inevitable outcome. With its authentic and perfectly poignant tone, plus an irresistible pop soundtrack, Mischa Kamp’s Boys ranks as one of the most wholesomely romantic gay teen films ever.
Chantal AkermanA singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow, whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or as one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.
Didier Le PêcheurWhen Jocelyne, a seamstress in the northern French town of Arras, finds out she’s won €18 million on the lottery and that she can now have anything she wants, she only has one fear: losing her modest way of life made up of simple pleasures that she cherishes more than anything. But fate can be obstinate, and by renouncing this fortune for too long, she triggers a hurricane that changes everything. Everything except her.
Pernille Fischer ChristensenThe poignant true story of future Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren, BECOMING ASTRID follows teenaged Astrid (Alba August) as she confronts a restrictive society and an unexpected pregnancy. A budding storyteller eager to break free from her loving but strict religious family in rural Sweden, Astrid takes a job at a local newspaper where she begins to find her voice and quickly attracts the attention of its married editor. When she becomes pregnant, Astrid embarks for Denmark to give birth to a son, whom she heartrendingly entrusts to a foster mother, Marie (Trine Dyrholm). When Marie falls ill, Astrid takes custody of the boy, using her vibrant imagination and storytelling flair to be the mother her child needs and become the author who would be a spiritual mother to generations of children.
Je-gyu KangTwo rival marathon runners find their dreams of competing in the Tokyo Olympics fading after World War II breaks out and they are forced to serve their country. Jun-shik works on a farm owned by Tatsuo's grandfather. An aspiring Olympian, Jun-shik dreams of the day he will win the gold as a marathon runner. But Tatsuo also wants to be an Olympic runner, and he's determined to be the best. When the bombs start to fall and both men are drafted into service, Tatsuo becomes the leader of Jun-shik's unit and hatches an ambitious plan to get the upper hand over their enemies. Unfortunately his plot fails, and both men are taken prisoner by the Soviets. Subsequently escaping but torn apart by fate, Tatsuo and Jun-shik later cross paths on the beaches of Normandy, just as the Allies prepare to execute Operation Overlord. My Way was the “Audience Award Winner” and the 2012 Dallas International Film Festival and directed by Je-gyu Kang of Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War.
Philippe FauconFatima lives with her two teenage daughters and works cleaning jobs to pay their way through school. Inspired by a true story and the poetry of the North African writer Fatima Elayoubi, who immigrated knowing very little French and slowly taught herself the language. A patient, reflective study of a woman pressured by her children and her neighbors alike to assimilate into a culture of which she's wary. Despite the display of everyday racism, both veiled and overt; internal domestic disputes and external gestures of inhospitality, Fatima offers an uplifting experience and one of recent French cinema's most trenchant and moving portraits of immigrant experience.
Pascal Plisson2014 César winner for Best Documentary, On the Way to School interweaves the stories of four children from around the world whose desire to learn and better their lives through education forces them to contend with arduous, often perilous journeys every day on their way to the classroom.
Xavier BeauvoisFrance, 1915. With the men of the family away fighting the Great War on the front lines, life for the women at home on the Paridier farm gains a new resonance as they take the reins of the family property in the absence of their husbands and sons. Family matriarch Hortense Sandrail (Nathalie Baye) and her daughter Solange (Laura Smet) have deftly taken over the day-to-day operations of the farm, but with harvest time coming it is clear they will need more help to handle the workload. Finding themselves too late in the season to hire an experienced male farmhand, the Sandrails reluctantly take on an outsider, hard-luck teenaged orphan Francine Riant (newcomer Iris Bry). Francine immediately proves herself to be a hard-worker up to any task, becoming invaluable to the Sandrails as the trio of women make technical innovations and explore newfound independence on the homestead. But when Hortense's son Georges returns home on leave, a burgeoning
Jafar PanahiThis internationally award-winning film casually and sometimes caustically uncovers what binds us - and blinds us - to the differences between our ways of life in the West with modern day Iran. Fascinating, funny and tragic, it's 'a gem of comic action' that explores the ambiguity between the sexes" (The Hollywood Reporter). The Tehran soccer stadium roars with 100,000 cheering men - and only men. According to Islamic custom, women are not allowed, and the ambitious girls who manage to sneak in are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes the young men and women adversaries, but duty can't overcome their shared dreams, their mutual attraction, and ultimately their overriding sense of national pride and humanity.
Oswaldo de OliveiraIn a women's penitentiary where brutal beatings, steamy showers, and full cavity searches are the order of the day, the cons are turning into pros - and the cemetery is running out of room! To stay out of the torture chamber, the inmates can barter their bodies in the wicked warden's white slave trade, or submit to the nympho nurse's peculiar brand of medical malpractice. But when these lawless lovelies go on the lam to wreak vengeance on straight society, no one will be safe!
Erik PoppeTHE KING’S CHOICE is based on the true the story about three dramatic days in April 1940, where the King of Norway is presented with an unimaginable ultimatum from the German armed forces: surrender or die. With Nazi soldiers hunting after them, the Royal Family is forced to flee the capital. In the best interest of the family, the Crown Princess Märtha leaves Norway with the children to seek refuge in Sweden, whilst King Haakon and the Crown Prince Olav flee to a small farming area just outside Elverum and meet the Germans head on. After three days of desperately trying to evade the Germans, King Haakon makes his final decision. He refuses to capitulate, even if it may cost him, his family and many Norwegians their lives.
Claude PinoteauSophie Marceau's first screen performance as the fourteen year old school girl Vic won her international acclaim. Vic lives with her parents but she gets along much better with Poupette, her great-grandmother. Vic confides in the energetic old lady and shares all her joys and feelings with the very open-minded dowager while her parents muddle through the cross-purposes of their love life.
Pedro AlmodóvarOnce-great Spanish matador Nacho Martinez has been reduced to starring in gruesome "snuff" films. Martinez is idolized by Antonio Banderas, who has no notion of his idol's current illegal profession. Terrified at the thought of drawing blood in the bullring, Banderas nevertheless seeks out Martinez' assistance in preparing for a bullfighting career. To prove his "machismo", Banderas rapes Martinez' lady-friend Eva Cobo. No one will believe Banderas' confession of the rape, so he decides to attach more importance to his crime by confessing to a recent rash of serial killings (actually perpetrated by Martinez and his cohorts). Bandera's case is taken by feminist attorney Assumpta Serna, who unwittingly--but not unwillingly--sets herself up as Martinez' next "conquest."
Roberto AndòIn this elegant and chilling story about world politics, the great Toni Servillo ( THE GREAT BEAUTY) defies expectations playing two roles, imbuing each character with brilliant nuance and astonishing attention to detail. In the first, he personifies political failure in the role of the disgraced ideologue and party leader, Enrico Oliveri. In the second, he embodies the shrewd genius of a madman as Oliveri’s unhinged twin brother who seizes control of the nation amidst the void of his brother’s disappearance.
Hiroshi TeshigaharaOne of the sixties' great international art-house sensations, Woman in the Dunes was for many the grand unveiling of the surreal, idiosyncratic worldview of Hiroshi Teshigahara. Eija Okada plays an amateur entomologist who has left Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert; when he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded to spend the night in the home of a young widow (Kiyoko Kishida) who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. What results is one of cinema’s most bristling, unnerving, and palpably erotic battles of the sexes, as well as a nightmarish depiction of everyday Sisyphean struggle, for which Teshigahara received an Academy Award nomination for best director.
Béla TarrOn January 3, 1889 in Turin, Italy, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, a cab driver is having trouble with a stubborn horse. The horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and takes his whip to it. Nietzsche puts an end to the brutal scene, throwing his arms around the horse’s neck, sobbing. After this, he lies motionless and silent for two days on a divan, until he loses consciousness and his mind. Somewhere in the countryside, the driver of the cab lives with his daughter and the horse. Outside, a windstorm rages. Immaculately photographed in Tarr’s renowned long takes, The Turin Horse is the final statement from a master filmmaker.
Jean-Paul SaloméMay 1944. A five-woman commando unit parachutes into occupied France on a daring and dangerous mission to protect the secret of the D-Day Landings and eliminate Colonel Heindrich, the head of German counter-intelligence.
UnknownPierre has been married for 15 years and has two kids. He still loves his wife and is fulfilled in his role as father. Overall, he’s a contented man. Until one evening, he meets Elsa. They chat, laugh, and joke around in a way that doesn’t happen every day. Two weeks later, they run into each other again by chance. The same easy mutual attraction they felt for one another is just as strong, and they tell each other as much. As line has been crossed. But Elsa has a golden rule never to get involved with married men, and Pierre wants to remain faithful. They go their separate ways without swapping phone numbers, preferring to let life take its own course. As the line blurs between how they imagine their relationship and what has actually happened, their fantasies start to mingle with reality.
Robert BressonIn his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Transposing a Tolstoy novella to contemporary Paris, L’argent follows a counterfeit bill as it originates as a prop in a schoolboy prank, then circulates like a virus among the corrupt and the virtuous alike before landing with a young truck driver and leading him to incarceration and violence. With brutal economy, Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendence.
Benedikt ErlingssonAn inventive and audacious exploration of the symbiotic relationship between man and animal, OF HORSES AND MEN is a darkly comic collection of vignettes set in a provincial Icelandic village. Against a breathtaking seaside landscape, a cast of hot-blooded characters struggle to connect with nature and each other. Among them, a pair of wistful human lovers are thwarted by equine libidos, sparking their tentative courtship into action; a determined alcoholic gets his last ride at sea from a surprisingly seaworthy companion; and an adventurous tourist sets off for a leisurely ride on horseback that spirals into a quest for survival. The lines between species blur seamlessly throughout these memorable tales, reflecting love, death and the quirks of human and beast alike. An ode the majestic beauty of horses, director Benedikt Erlingsson’s debut film captures the passions and idiosyncrasies of a close-knit community and the primal desires within all of us.
Cédric KlapischThree siblings reunite to save the family vineyard in picturesque Burgundy in this tender tale of a new generation finding its own unique vintage. When Jean (Pio Marmaï), the black sheep of the family, unexpectedly returns from abroad to visit his ailing father, he reconnects with his strong-willed sister, Juliette (Ana Girardot), now running the family wine business, and youngest brother Jeremie (Francois Civil), recently married into a prestigious local wine family. As four seasons and two harvests go by the siblings must navigate their inheritance and find their trust in one other as they work to preserve the land that ties them together in this finely-textured saga from acclaimed director Cédric Klapisch (L’Auberge Espagnole).
Aparna SenA delicate – and improbable -- love story about three gentle and shy souls. Snehamoy, a school teacher in the beautiful Sunderbans, writes letters to Miyage, a sweet, shy Japanese girl in Yokohama. Over these letters, they fall in love and get married, despite having never met. Sandhya, a widow, takes refuge in Snehamoy’s home and is soon always by Snehamoy’s side, bringing a piquant twist to this home in the Sundarbans and the love between Snehamoy and Miyage. Will Sandhya find her solace with Snehamoy? Or will life finally unite Snehamoy & Miyage.
Felix van GroeningenA tattoo artist and a musician fall in love at first sight in this intensely romantic portrait of a relationship from beginning to end, set to an electrifying bluegrass score.
Dany BoonPhilippe Abrams is the director of the Salon-de-Provence post office. He's married to Julie, whose depressed state makes life impossible. To make her happy, Philippe plots to get transferred to the Côte d’Azur. But it backfires, and he is transferred to Bergues, a small town in northern France, instead.
Richard Glatzer & Wash WestmorelandAs Magdalena's (Emily Rios) 15th birthday approaches, her working class family prepares for the all-important QUINCEAÑERA - a lavish coming-of-age celebration. To help with expenses, Magdalena is forced to wear a hand-me-down party dress and abandon her dream of arriving in a Hummer limousine. But when her father discovers she's pregnant and refuses to believe the incredible truth - she's actually still a virgin - Magdalena moves in with her elderly Uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and black sheep cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). Her newfound family is soon put to the test, however, when an unexpected crisis threatens to tear them apart, and Magdalena learns what it truly means to come of age.
Marie-Castille Mention-SchaarThe story takes place in Carhaix, in the heart of Brittany. In the local cottage hospital, the peaceful maternity unit has few births to deal with. Mathilde, a midwife, Firmine, a pediatric nurse, and Louise, owner of the Carhaix bowling alley, all live in the town, three friends enjoying life. Along comes Catherine, a HR director sent in to restructure the hospital - a task which involves closing down the loss making maternity unit. These four women of different ages, backgrounds and convictions will nonetheless form a quartet united by their humanity and humor to defend the maternity unit.
Lina WertmüllerSet against the backdrop of the beautiful Mediterranean, Swept Away is Lina Wertmuller's most famous and controversial film about sex, love and politics. On an elegant yacht cruising off the coast of Sardinia, Raffaella (Mariangela Melato), a rich and stunning capitalist, enjoys tormenting Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini), a Communist sailor. Fate weaves a different scenario and roles become reversed when the two find themselves stranded together on a deserted island. Raffaella must submit to Gennarino in order to survive, which culminates in a dramatic climax when they are rescued. They must determine if their love can survive the harsh realities of civilization.
Pedro Almodóvar"The Flower of My Secret" is the new film from Pedro Almodovar, Spanish director of such avant garde hits as "Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and High Heels. Leo (Marisa Paredes) is a bestselling author of romantic fiction, but has been writing under a pseudonym name for years. Now in the middle of her life, Leo has reached a creative and emotional crisis. Tired of producing popular fiction when her heart yearns to write truly great literature, her very success has become a burden to her; unable to accept that her marriage to Paco (Imanol Arias) is rapidly disintegrating, Leo finds herself at a crossroads in her life. Even Leo's mother and sister can offer no consolation as they constantly bicker with one another. The one ray of hope in Leo's life comes from Angel (Juan Echanove), the editor of the newspaper El Pais, who offers her a job as a critic for a national arts supplement. Leo's first assignment brings her face to face with her alter-ego causing an examination of her
Naomi KawaseSentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayakis - pastries filled with sweet red bean paste (“an”). When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. But Tokue proves to have magic in her hands when it comes to making “an”. Thanks to her secret recipe, the little business soon flourishes…And with time, Sentaro and Tokue will open their hearts to reveal old wound
Anne FontainePoland, December 1945: World War II is finally over and Red Cross nurse Mathilde is treating the last of the French survivors of the German camps. When a panicked nun appears at the clinic begging Mathilde to follow her back to the convent, the scene she finds is shocking: a holy sister about to give birth, with several more in advanced stages of pregnancy. A non-believer, Mathilde enters the sisters’ fiercely private world, dictated by the rituals of their order and the strict Rev. Mother (Agata Kulesza, Ida). Facing an unprecedented crisis of faith, the nuns increasingly turn to Mathilde as their belief and traditions clash with harsh realities.
Matthieu Delaporte & Alexandre De La PatelliereVincent (Patrick Bruel), a successful forty-something, is about to become a father for the first time. He is invited to dinner at the charming apartment of his sister, Elisabeth (Valérie Benguigui), and brother-in-law, Pierre (Charles Berling), where he catches up with his childhood friend, Claude (Guillaume de Tonquédec). Whilst waiting for Anna (Judith El Zein), his younger spouse who is always running late, his fellow guests happily bombard him with questions on his fast approaching fatherhood... But when his hosts ask Vincent what name he has chosen for his future offspring, his response plunges the family into chaos.
Eric RochantAt 18, Ariel Brenner leaves Paris and his family to live in Israel. He secretly joins the Mossad, the Isreali secret service. After years of training, his first mission is in Paris to steal secrets from Remy Prieur, a French atomic scientist... We will assist to the methods, the manipulations, the abuses, the machiavellism, the doubts of secret agents.
Hou Hsiao-HsienWorking as a hostess in a trendy bar, a young beauty finds herself mercilessly torn between two men; Hao-hao, her neurotic and jealous live-in boyfriend and Jack, the mysterious and enterprising gangster who may be her undoing. Set against the intoxicating and decadent background of modern day Hong Kong, Millennium Mambo chronicles the fleeting, finite blooming of a young woman. Featuring a radiant performance from Hong Kong starlet Shu Qi (So Close, The Transporter), and photographed with playful luminescence by Mark Lee Ping-bing (In The Mood For Love, Springtime In A Small Town). From the master filmmaker Hou Hsiao Hsien (Flight Of The Red Balloon, Flowers Of Shanghai).
Liam DaleWith the atmospheric and sometimes haunting melodies of traditional Irish music compiled and performed by Wylde Green, one of the most popular contemporary Irish bands of the 21st Century, this program imparts the true flavor of Ireland and the myths and legends so beloved of this wonderful nation of storytellers. When it comes to a good story the Irish certainly know how to tell a fine tale and with their rich heritage of myths and legends, that are so much a part of Irelandʼs colorful history, any visitor to the Emerald Isle will be certain to enjoy a great wealth of tradition and culture. “Irish Myths and Legends” brings together a selection of the best-loved stories of Ireland, travelling to the amazing, legendary places that have both inspired and thrilled in equal measure. From the beautiful, peaceful waters of the rippling Loughs where Fairy Folk live beneath the depths in coastline and green rolling hills where Leprechauns hide and the giants of old fought for their very e
Benjamin NaishtatSet in Argentina during the mid-1970s, this hypnotic drama follows a successful lawyer whose picture-perfect life begins to unravel when a private detective comes to his seemingly quiet small town and starts asking questions. Official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tomàs Gutiérrez AleaThis film by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea is the most widely renowned work in the history of Cuban cinema. After his wife and family flee in the wake of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the bourgeois intellectual Sergio (Sergio Corrieri) passes his days wandering Havana in idle reflection, his amorous entanglements and political ambivalence gradually giving way to a mounting sense of alienation. With this adaptation of an innovative novel by Edmundo Desnoes, Gutiérrez Alea developed a cinematic style as radical as the times he was chronicling, creating a collage of vivid impressions through the use of experimental editing techniques, archival material, and spontaneously shot street scenes. Intimate and densely layered, Memories of Underdevelopment provides a biting indictment of its protagonist’s disengagement and an extraordinary glimpse of life in postrevolutionary Cuba.
Laurent TirardA top model with the IQ of Einstein, an illiterate soccer player, an aging and waning pop star... The best celebrity autobiographies are sure to have been ghost-written by Raphaël. He has a peerless talent for telling the story of people's lives, except his own. As he reluctantly gets to work on a new book by a soccer superstar, Raphaël discovers that his first love, Claire, is the player's latest girlfriend. Caught between the woman he loves and the one he loved - and all the hassle that involves - Raphaël flies into some pretty serious turbulence. A rip-roaring script and an infectiously joyous performance from Edouard Baer as Raphaël the charming and witty ghost-writer.
胡金銓“Visionary” barely begins to describe this masterpiece of Chinese cinema and martial arts moviemaking. A Touch of Zen by King Hu depicts the journey of Yang (Hsu Feng), a fugitive noblewoman who seeks refuge in a remote, and allegedly haunted, village. The sanctuary she finds with a shy scholar and two aides in disguise is shattered when a nefarious swordsman uncovers her identity, pitting the four against legions of blade-wielding opponents. At once a wuxia film, the tale of a spiritual quest, and a study in human nature, A Touch of Zen is an unparalleled work in Hu’s formidable career and an epic of the highest order, characterized by breathtaking action choreography, stunning widescreen landscapes, and innovative editing.
François OzonIn a small German town in the immediate aftermath of WWI, Anna (Paula Beer) grieves for her late fiancé, Frantz. When she encounters a mysterious young Frenchman (Pierre Niney) laying flowers at Frantz's grave, Anna welcomes him into her life and their shared connection to Frantz propels a haunting and romantic tale of guilt and forgiveness in the shadow of war. Directed by acclaimed French filmmaker François Ozon and shot in gorgeous black and white with revelatory moments of color, FRANTZ is a poignant reflection on national identity and alternative truths that turns "a beautiful period piece into something urgent and contemporary." (The Hollywood Reporter)
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane SatrapiThe coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution. We meet nine-year-old Marjane when the fundamentalists first take power, forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. The story then follows her as she cleverly outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of government persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. Then Marjane's journey moves on to Austria where, as a teenager, her parents send her to school in fear for her safety and she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Marjane eventually gains acceptance in Europe, but finds herself alone and horribly homesick, and returns to Iran to be with her family, though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, continuing to speak out against the hypocri
Eric RochantIn the high stakes world of espionage, Russian FSB operative Grégory Lioubov will do whatever it takes to crack an international money laundering operation and American banker, Alice, is the key. The only problem is that Lioubov isn't the only one after Alice. Now Lioubov must find out whom he can trust and use everything he knows in order to get to the truth, and bring down a powerful Russian oligarch.
Yorgos LanthimosGraceful, enigmatic, and often frightening, DOGTOOTH is an ingenious dark comedy that won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, propelling Yorgos Lanthimos to the forefront of contemporary cinema's most ambitious young filmmakers. In an effort to protect their three children from the corrupting influence of the outside world, a Greek couple transforms their home into a gated compound of cultural deprivation and strict rules of behavior. But children cannot remain innocent forever. When the father brings home a young woman to satisfy his son's sexual urges, the family's engineered "reality" begins to crumble, with devastating consequences. Like the haunting, dystopic visions of Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noé, DOGTOOTH punctuates its compelling drama with moments of shocking violence, creating a biting social satire that is as profound as it is provocative.
Andrei TarkovskyAs a wealthy Swedish family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch Alexander (Erland Josephson, Cries and Whispers), news of the outbreak of World War III reaches their remote Baltic island — and the happy mood turns to horror. The family descends into a state of psychological devastation, brilliantly evoked by Tarkovsky's arresting palette of luminous greys washing over the bleak landscape around their home. (The film's masterful cinematography is by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's longtime collaborator).
Danièle ThompsonBrothers Zef and Roni could not be more different; different career paths, different taste in women, one all religious austerity, the other enjoying the high-life. All they have in common is their ageing and addle brained father, and their daughters who are best friends. So when the funeral of Zef’s wife falls on the day of Roni’s daughter’s wedding this stroke of unfortunate timing that brings to a head the simmering antagonism between the two brothers. From London to Paris, Saint-Tropez and New York, a string of misunderstandings and betrayals blow apart any semblance of family harmony. But thanks to all the arguments and clumsy reconciliations, a great love story is born… and perhaps even two.
A delightfully effervescent intergenerational comedy, starring the legendary Monica Bellucci, comedy hero Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) and directed by the veteran Danielle Thompson (La Boum).
François OzonFrançois Ozon's gripping drama follows three men who band together to dismantle the code of silence that continues to protect a priest who abused them decades ago. Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing the conduct of Father Bernard Preynat, BY THE GRACE OF GOD compassionately illustrates the varying effects of trauma on survivors and their families in this urgent portrait of resistance, the power of mobilization, and the challenges of maintaining faith.
Jess FrancoWhen a brazen diamond heist on a Chinese junk ends in a bloody double-cross, the traitor escapes only to be mysteriously murdered by his mistress. The vicious vixen is locked away in a tropical prison where, to keep the hidden jewels for herself, she'll have to resist the charms of the warden's Sapphic spies; withstand whips, chains, and high-voltage electrodes in his dungeon; and, if she breaks free, she must pass through the gauntlet of greedy gangsters woking on both sides of the law. Are her mind and body strong enough to survive the agonies and ecstasies of life in the big doll house?
Emir KusturicaThe third film from the Yugoslavian director of the acclaimed When Father Was Away On Business was inspired by a newspaper article on the inter-European trade in young Gypsy children. The result is an extraordinary epic that employs an elliptical, fantastic style influenced by Latin American magic realism.
Luc BessonThe year is 1912. A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg, housed on a shelf in the Natural History Museum, has mysteriously hatched, unleashing a prehistoric monster onto the Parisian streets. But nothing fazes Adèle, when she finds a connection with the ancient bird and reveals many more extraordinary surprises. . .
Lucía PuenzoPatagonia, 1960. A German doctor (Alex Brendemühl) meets an Argentinean family and follows them on a long desert road to a small town where the family will be starting a new life. Eva (Natalia Oreiro), Enzo (Diego Peretti) and their three children welcome the doctor into their home and entrust their young daughter, Lilith (Florencia Bado), to his care, not knowing that they are harboring one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. At the same time, Israeli agents are desperately looking to bring the German doctor to justice. Based on filmmaker Lucía Puenzo’s (XXY) fifth novel, the story follows Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death,” a German SS officer and a physician at the Auschwitz concentration camp, in the years he spent “hiding,” along with many other Nazi’s, in South America following his escape from Germany. Mengele was considered to be one of WWII’s most heinous Nazi war criminals.
Nuri Bilge CeylanWinner of the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is the new film from the celebrated director of Distant and Climates. In the dead of night, a group of men – among them, a police commissioner, a prosecutor, a doctor and a murder suspect – drive through the Anatolian countryside, the serpentine roads and rolling hills lit only by the headlights of their cars. They are searching for a corpse, the victim of a brutal murder. The suspect, who claims he was drunk, can’t remember where he buried the body. As night wears on, details about the murder emerge and the investigators’ own hidden secrets come to light. In the Anatolian steppes, nothing is what it seems; and when the body is found, the real questions begin.
Guido van Driel & Lennert HillegeMarie, once successful graphic novelist, lives in the Amsterdam red-light district. She drinks too much and gets into one conflict after another. A horrific incident in the house next door forces her to take action and get her life back on course.
Gérard OuryDon Salluste, a petty tyrant in his own home and minister of the King of Spain, falls from grace. Wanting revenge, he tries to compromize the Queen with his valet Blaze, introduced as his cousin. But poor Blaze gets stuck with a rather repulsive duenna, who is madly in love with him and very keen on getting her way. This wild comedy takes off at a dashing pace set by the De Funès, Montand and Sapritch trio.
Shusuke KanekoFifty years ago, the Japanese Defense Forces killed Godzilla or so they thought. When a series of terrifying natural disasters begin to plague Japan, including the inexplicable offshore sinking of a U.S. submarine, a mystic old man warns his nation that Godzilla has come back to destroy Japan as revenge for all the souls lost in the Pacific War. When mere military might can not squash the monster, the mystic man awakens the Holy Beasts of Yamato - King Ghidorah, Mothra and Baragon, sleeping giants that protected Japan in ancient times. These untamed mammoth beasts take on Godzilla with frightening supernatural brute power that has been 2,000 years in the making. Tradition and technology collide in this chilling high-tech, cutting-edge fable.
Bernardo BertolucciIn Mussolini’s Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode – and murder – joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he flashes back to a dance party for the blind; an insane asylum in a stadium’ and wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working class hall. But those are only a few of this political thriller’s anthology pieces, others including Trintignant’s honeymoon coupling with Sandrelli in a train compartment as the sun sets outside their window; a bimbo lolling on the desk of a fascist functionary, glimpsed in the recesses of his cavernous office; a murder victim’s hands leaving bloody streaks on a limousine parked in a wintry forest. Bernardo Bertolucci’s masterpiece, adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel, boasts an authentic Art Deco look created by production des
Michael RoweLaura, a young journalist living an isolated life in a cramped Mexico City flat, is not lucky in love. The banality of her daily life stands in stark contrast to her nightly pursuit of sex and love. These short-lived affairs barely take the edge off her isolation, but then she meets the brooding, would-be actor Arturo. Their chemistry ignites feelings in Laura that leave her deeply troubled. The two embark on an increasingly dangerous sadomasochistic relationship in which pleasure, pain and love merge. Their physical relationship seems headed for a very dark place as her secret past resurfaces, pushing Arturo to the limit in this intense, powerful and at times deeply unsettling movie.
Lucas BelvauxNominated for four Cesar Awards (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor), Lucas Belvaux's edge-of-your-seat thriller -- inspired by the 1978 kidnapping of French industrialist Edouard-Jean Empain -- features a career-defining performance by Yvan Attal (Munich, My Wife Is an Actress) as a millionaire playboy who is abducted and held for ransom for 60 days.
Philippe FalardeauNominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, MONSIEUR LAZHAR tells the poignant story of a Montreal middle school class shaken by the death of their well-liked teacher. Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, offers the school his services as a substitute teacher and is quickly hired. As he helps the children heal, he also learns to accept his own painful past. This moving film features exquisite performances by Fellag and a stunning ensemble of child actors.
Cate ShortlandAfter being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents' actions and the reality of the new world in which they find themselves. When the group encounters the mysterious Thomas, a Jewish refugee, Lore finds herself torn by conflicting emotions - her innate contempt for his kind and her burgeoning sexual desire. Lyrical, haunting, and unforgettable, Lore is a strikingly unique coming-of-age tale and an unforgettable look at the human legacy of the holocaust.
Baran bo OdarA young girl is brutally murdered in a wheat field on a hot summer day in 1986. The killer is never found. 23 years later, a 13-year-old girl disappears in similar circumstances, leading the police to suspect the same killer may be at work. As the retired investigator of the earlier case joins a widowed young detective to delve into the mystery of the parallel crimes, the parents of the missing girl, the mother of the original victim, and an accomplice to the 1986 killing all have their worlds begin to crumble as they are drawn deeper into a web of guilt, despair and uncertainty. Luminously shot and commandingly directed by Baran bo Odar, The Silence is a startling, cinematic and utterly mesmerizing thriller.
Pedro AlmodóvarPedro Almodovar is at the top of his game with "All About My Mother," a poignant, at times comedic examination of women in intimate relationships. "All About My Mother" visits themes of female vulnerability and solidarity, but in a new and profoundly mature way. Cecilia Roth plays strong-willed hospital worker Manuela, whose 18-year-old son's accidental death transforms her life. Reading her son's journals, grief-stricken Manuela realizes that he longed to hear about the father he never knew. Forsaking Madrid for Barcelona, she embarks on a search for the man she left almost 20 years before.
Pawel PawlikowskiACADEMY AWARD® WINNER FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Poland, 1962. On the eve of her vows, 18-year-old novice Anna meets her estranged aunt Wanda, a cynical Communist judge who shocks the naïve Anna with a stunning revelation: Anna is Jewish and her real name is Ida. Tasked with this new identity, Ida and Wanda embark on a revelatory journey to their old family home to discover the fate of Ida’s birth parents and unearth dark secrets dating back to the Nazi occupation. Masterfully directed by Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love) and photographed in stunning black and white (in the classic 1.37:1 Academy ratio), IDA is a vital and cinematic evocation of postwar Poland and an intensely personal tale of moral and spiritual awakening.
Chen KaigeFrom the acclaimed director of Farewell, My Concubine comes The Emperor and the Assassin a visually stunning epic, exploring the devastating price one country pays for peace and one man pays for power. Ying Zheng, the King of Qin, has one driving ambition: to unify China's seven kingdoms into one magnificent empire. Impressed by her lover's convictions, Lady Zhao (Gong Li) helps Ying Zheng concoct an assassination plot that would justify the conquest of Qin's most powerful enemy. When Ying Zheng's peaceful mission explodes into a brutal holocaust, a disillusioned Lady Zhao is forced to question her loyalty and her lover's destiny.
Anne FontaineThis is the story of Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, who begins her life as a headstrong orphan, and through an extraordinary journey becomes the legendary couturier who embodied the modern woman and became a timeless symbol of success, freedom and style.
Pema TsedenThis is a story of revenge and redemption. On an isolated road passing through the vast barren plains of Tibet, a truck driver chances upon a young man who is hitching a ride. As they drive and chat, the truck driver notices that his new friend has a silver dagger strapped to his leg. He comes to understand that this man is out to kill someone who wronged him earlier in life. As he drops the hitchhiker off at a fork in the road, little does the truck driver realize that their short time together has changed everything, and that their destinies are inexorably intertwined.
François MargolinThis new drama from renowned French director François Margolin (The Flight of the Red Balloon) follows a Jewish woman who embarks on a journey to recover family paintings stolen by the Nazis; and discovers some family secrets are best kept hidden. Anna Sigalevitch, best known for her work in The Piano Teacher, Flight of the Red Balloon and Belle Epíne, gives another captivating performance as a woman desperately searching for truth in a past shrouded in mystery. Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (Father of My Children, 2009) and Michel Bouquet (Renoir, 2012) round out this stellar French cast.
Jerôme SalleSummer, 1946. The Cousteau family, Jacques, his wife Simone and their two children Philippe and Jean-Michel, live in their beautiful house by the Mediterranean Sea. By day they dive, by night they watch the stars. It's paradise on earth. But Jacques is never content. He hungers for the adventure of the undersea world, and believes in the virtues of progress. With his invention, the aqualung, his recently acquired vessel, the Calypso, and a crew of free-spirited adventurers led by his wife, Simone, Jacques is ready to cross the world's oceans. Ten years later, back from the boarding school, Philippe finds his father greatly altered as an international celebrity. Jacques cannot see it yet, but Philippe already understands that progress and pollution have begun to lay waste to the submarine world. Yet father and son’s voyage to Antarctica may be their greatest adventure yet.
Jean-Luc GodardWinner of the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Goodbye to Language is a triumphant masterpiece from Jean-Luc Godard. The film follows a couple whose relationship breaks down along with the images, which in its second half takes a dog’s-eye view ofthe world. It is a meditation on history and illusion, figures merging and weaving across the screen along with the film’s ideas about romantic love and being-in-the-world. It has the feeling of a final statement, but knowing Godard’s penchant for re-invention, hopefully it is yet another beginning to an extraordinary career.
Seijun SuzukiIn this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Phoenix Tetsu’s attempt to go straight is squashed when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. This onslaught of stylized violence and trippy colors got director Seijun Suzuki in trouble with Nikkatsu studio heads, who were put off by his anything-goes, in-your-face aesthetic, equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima. Tokyo Drifter is a delirious highlight of the brilliantly excessive Japanese cinema of the sixties.
Papu CurottoPapu Curotto's poetic debut feature focuses on Matias and Jeronimo, who spend childhood summers together in the Argentine wetlands of Esteros until Matias' father moves his family to Brazil to take on a new job. The friends are reunited by chance as adults when Matias returns to his hometown to celebrate the graduation of his girlfriend's cousin and Jeronimo is recommended as a makeup artist to help with preparations for a costume party. As the two men tentatively reconnect, the unresolved tensions of their youth rise to the surface, which is shown through vivid flashbacks to a particularly formative summer. On pilgrimage to Esteros so that Jeronimo can deliver some items to his parents and Matias can reconnect with the landscape he has held so dear, the friends are compelled to confront their past and face the uncertainty that results.
Christian Merret-PalmairWilly Vanderbrook, a brilliant French Belgian who has become a citizen of the world, is approached about the job of concierge at one of Paris's great 5-star hotels. Willy's application, rejected because he's too Belgian, forces him to carrying out a ridiculous and royally vengeful deception. By pretending to be heir to the Belgian throne, Willy and his gang set off a series of joyful events in the Parisian 5-star establishment.
Hideaki AnnoWhen a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep, a rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster’s weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side.
Carlos MorenoBased on a true story, this story chronicles the life of Andres Lopez aka "Florecita" who after the killing of Pablo Escobar finds himself in the impossible position of having to go undercover for the DEA or go to the very prison where his mortal enemies wait to kill him. Turning states evidence, Florecita, quickly rising through the ranks of the Colombian Cartel finds himself working both sides of the most dangerous battle known to man.
Oskar RoehlerBerlin, 1939. Ferdinand Marian is an actor, one of the best of his generation. Marian is married to a beautiful Jewish woman whom he deeply loves. One day, he’s offered the starring role in the new Nazi party’s anti-Semitic production, a film based on the novel Jud Süss. The part would make him a star. Marian turns it down but finally gives in to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ unrelenting pressure and even worse, his charm. The actor unwittingly plays into the Nazis’ plans and his attempt to give the film’s Jewish protagonist a human touch makes the film the most successful propaganda film ever made...
Jean RenoirDuring the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.
Kim Ki-dukFrom acclaimed Korean writer/director Kim Ki-Duk comes this exquisitely beautiful and award-winning human drama set on a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft. Under the vigilant eye of Old Monk (Yeong-su Oh), Child Monk learns a hard lesson about the nature of sorrow when some of his childish games turn cruel. In the intensity and lushness of summer, the monk, now a young man (Young-min Kim), experiences the power of lust, a desire that will ultimately lead him to dark deeds. With winter, the man atones for his past actions, and spring starts the cycle anew. With an extraordinary attention to visual detail, Kim has crafted an original yet universal story about the human spirit, moving from innocence, through love and evil, to enlightenment and finally rebirth.
André TéchinéBEING 17 is a moving exploration of adolescent sexual awakening from renowned French director André Téchiné (“Wild Reeds”) with a script he co-wrote with director Céline Sciamma (“Girlhood”). Damien and Thomas are French teenagers from very different upbringings who go to the same high school but can’t stand each other. When circumstances bring Damien’s mother Marianne (played by Sandrine Kiberlain) to invite Thomas to live with them, the young men are forced to coexist and work through their emerging attraction and complicated desires.
Jeremy SimsRex is a cab driver who has never left the mining town of Broken Hill in his life. When he discovers he doesn’t have long to live, he decides to drive through the heart of the country to Darwin, where he?s heard he will be able to die on his own terms; but along the way he discovers that before you can end your life you’ve got to live it, and to live it you’ve got to learn to share it...
Jacques TatiJacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
Laïla MarrakchiSummer in Tangiers. A family comes together for three days in their home following the death of the father to share their memories and to grieve his loss, according to Muslim tradition. They have left the beach behind and swapped swimsuits for djellabas as everyone gathers in a show of mourning. The emotions are further heightened since this man left behind him an entirely female immediate family. Sparks start to fly when Sofia jets in from New York after several years away. The youngest daughter, she made a new life for herself as an actress in America, but she only ever gets roles as the terrorist in US series. Her return provides the opportunity to settle some scores with her sisters, as the order once maintained by the patriarch breaks down. Between laughter and tears, a collective hysteria leads each of the women to face up to some home truths.
Martin DeusLorenzo, a quiet teenager lives in a small town at the edge of the world in beautiful Patagonia. He’s a good student and a curious and smart person, more skilled in music and literature than sports. Lorenzo’s father decides to host Caito, the son of a friend from Buenos Aires who had to go to hospital for a long stay. Caito has obviously a different family background and seems to be a tough kid. Lorenzo finds Caito very intriguing in many ways as they start spending a lot of time together… While their friendship is evolving towards perhaps deeper feelings, Caito reveals a secret…what will be the outcome?
Hong Sang-sooAn aging poet, Younghwan, summons his two estranged sons to a solitary hotel beside the Han River because he feels his death is near. While waiting for them to arrive, he meets two out walking in the new-fallen snow and is struck by their angelic beauty. But the women have come to the hotel to do some healing of their own. As Younghwan moves between the women and his bickering sons, he also moves between his two minds one that walks on the street and the other that communes with the eternal.
Oswaldo de OliveiraDeep in the Amazon jungle, a group of nubile naifs are trapped in a primitive prison by whip-cracking white slavers who aren't above sampling the merchandise themselves. But these hothouse flowers aren't about to be plucked, and the girls go native - only to fall into the hands of a perverted priest whose followers just love a woman in war paint! Caught between brutal bounty hunters and the holy man's horny henchmen, it's a battle of wits, weapons, and feminine wiles as the desperate damsels trade it all to escape this poison paradise alive!
Julio MedemAvailable online for the first time, SEX AND LUCIA is a visually stunning and thematically adventurous look at passion, elusive relationships and deep bonds between people who thought they were strangers. Lucía is a young waitress in Madrid, who seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island after the loss of her longtime boyfriend. Amidst the fresh air, dazzling sun, and glistening deep blue water, Lucía begins to piece together the dark corners of her past relationship. Enthralling on every level, SEX AND LUCIA is a stirring love story that dazzles with its labyrinthine plot, breathtaking cinematography and erotic passion.
Alfonso CuarónWinner of the Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and named the same by the National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics’ Circle, LA Film Critics’ Association and such groups in Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Florida, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Santa Fe. In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other. The eroticism in Cuaron's road movie (which broke all box-office records in Mexico) is the real deal: tactile, sexy, psychologically charged. It's not there to shock or provoke giggles--this is no Hollywood teen comedy--but to illuminate these complex, poignant and lost characters… The movie has an emotional kick that lingers like a primal memory. When the year is over, Cuaron's film will be remembered as one of 2002's finest.
Pedro AlmodóvarFrom Pedro Almodóvar, the director of the Academy-Award(r) winning All About My Mother (Best Foreign Language Film, 2000), comes his most acclaimed film yet. TALK TO HER is the surprising, altogether original and quietly moving story of the spoken and unspoken bonds that unite the lives and loves of two couples. Two men (Benigno and Marco) almost meet while watching a dance performance, but their lives are irrevocably entwined by fate. They meet later at a private clinic where Benigno is the caregiver for Alicia, a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma. Marco is there to visit his girlfriend, Lydia, a famous matador, also rendered motionless. As the men wage vigil over the women they love, the story unfolds in flashback and flashforward as the lives of the four are further entwined and their relationships move toward a surprising conclusion.
