Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...
Tongue-in-cheek look at the French Riviera, especially in summer when it overflows with tourists. Reviews its history and famous visitors; displays its faux-exotic buildings, its crowded beaches, its trees and monuments; and, pokes fun at the colors women wear and the vagaries of fashion. The film celebrates the use of "Eden" as a place name, suggesting that paradise comes to the coast after all are gone, perhaps only on a remote island beach.
In the later part of his oeuvre, the famous Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu looks at the society of post-war Japan through family stories from the lower middle class. Arte has compiled a decalogy of 10 films from this period from the director's creative work. This short documentary film, created in this context, explains the film works using fragments of Ozu's notes, which he wrote between 1933 and 1963, elegant drawings and film clips. A fine insight into the themes and aesthetics of this moving cinema about intimacy and the passage of time and a fascinating journey into the moving final part of the Japanese master's work.
An abandoned seaside resort. The shooting for a fantasy film about the end of an era wraps up. Two women, both members of the film crew, one an actrice, the other a director, Apocalypse and Joy, are on the verge of concluding their love affair.
While inspecting a wharf, young Amano, president of an urban planning company, meets beautiful laborer Takako and falls in love at first sight. However, she does not return his affections, so he steals her ID card and goes on the run from the infuriated Takako.
When David is left by his fiancé just days before the wedding, his relentlessly upbeat best man, Flula, insists that the pair go on David's previously planned honeymoon: a seven-day backpacking trip through the breathtaking mountains of Oregon. Their adventures are bookended with passages from William Clark's diary describing his friendship with Meriwether Lewis and the terrain they crossed during their expedition.
A man sits down to watch a football match, which seems to consist of the players being violently mutilated in various inventive ways. The players then leave the football pitch and invade the spectator's flat.
William Peters follows up on the 1970 TV documentary Eye of the Storm about Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color. The episode intercuts footage from Eye of the Storm with new footage of the students, who are now adults. The film takes us through the journey of a young class learning the unfairness of racism. Elliot teaches the lesson through eye color and different treatment. All of the students admit that this is wrong. In footage of the students as adults, we are able to see how this shaped the experiment changed their lives.
The true story of General Smyslovsky and the anti-Communist 1st Russian National Army receiving shelter in Liechtenstein in 1945 and successfully resisting Soviet pressure to be returned for execution in the USSR.
In a traditional tribal society in the South Pacific, a young girl, Wawa, falls in love with her chief’s grandson, Dain. When an inter-tribal war escalates, Wawa is unknowingly betrothed as part of a peace deal. The young lovers run away, refusing her arranged fate. They must choose between their hearts and the future of the tribe, while the villagers must wrestle with preserving their traditional culture and adapting it to the increasing outside demands for individual freedom.
Doress, a Japanese "black projects" organization, has been gathering psionics and making biological weapons to "make Japan superior". When one of the biological experiments, BAOH, escapes with a young girl, Doress will do anything to get the boy and girl back. For BAOH is a parasite living in its host's brain, altering the host into a living death machine in order to keep it alive. When Doress sends assassins after the boy and girl, BAOH "awakens" to its "Armed Defense Phenomenons", giving the boy acid-tipped claws, bio-regeneration, and super-strength. But Doress takes the girl, and BAOH must fight an army of commandos and a psionic to get her back
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.
Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.
The story of how a mysterious suitcase brings together, and changes, the lives of a divorced dad, an unhappy housewife, two hitmen, a pair of street thugs, two love struck teens, two FBI men and a psychedelic toad. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry's best-selling first novel, "Big Trouble."
An uncompromising look into urban life from the eyes of a voyeuristic photographer, a rebellious teenager, and a married couple teetering on the edge of adultery.
Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.
The mind of Pierre Bérard, a successful middle-aged architect, is torn between his unstable present with Hélène, his younger lover, and his happy memories of the past with Catherine, his ex-wife; but his true destiny awaits him at a crossroads on his way to Rennes…
Two young boys, Valerio and Christian, form a powerful friendship over the summer.
A depiction of the life of an impoverished early twentieth century rural Bengali family.
A young medical student travels to Berlin to investigate the apparent death of his brother and discovers a secret life of espionage, betrayal and murder at the highest levels.
Joey, the church boy, drops out of school to follow Bill into a ‘cooler’ lifestyle, until he mixes with the wrong people, and commits the worst sin of all...
After her daughter is kidnapped, a mother discovers that there can be something even worse after "the worst."
Stéphane Blanchon lives a quiet life in Switzerland with his wife, Christine, until a young American boarder named Belle, who was living with them, is found murdered. Despite Stéphane's innocence, the evidence points to him, and he learns that Belle harbored romantic feelings for him. Suspicions mount against him; even Christine thinks he is the culprit. Stéphane's sanity begins to crumble, and he lashes out in unprecedented ways.
Jan and Maria meet at a party and are immediately drawn to each other. Their difficult financial situation and the scorn of society inflicted on them push them to a breaking point, culminating in a string of murders.
Two deadbeat photocopier technicians discuss their recently deceased boss, who has been found dead the morning of. The conversation turns sour and some sinister and bizarre truths are revealed.
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.
In order to foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity of a criminal mastermind. The plan turns sour when the criminal wakes up prematurely and seeks revenge.
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.
A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.
The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.
Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock hires Marlowe to find an old rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that belonged in her deceased husband's collection. Marlowe begins investigating, but quickly finds himself entangled in a series of unexplained murders.
Mysterious Orfamay Quest hires Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe to find her missing brother. Though the job seems simple enough, it leads Marlowe into the underbelly of the city, turning up leads who are murdered with ice picks, exotic dancers, blackmailed television stars and self-preserving gangsters. Soon, Marlowe's life is on the line right along with his case.
In 1970s Hollywood, Detective Philip Marlowe tries to help a friend who is accused of murdering his wife.
Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.
Set in New Jersey in 1938, "Drop Dead, Gorgeous" follows the stories of high-society woman Irene Moretti and private investigator Miles Marshall. After Irene's husband, mob boss Luca Moretti, is murdered, Irene hires Marshall to help her flee the country. Meanwhile, her husband's mob connections double-hire Marshall to track down the killer, creating problems for themselves, Irene, and ultimately for Marshall himself. This twenty-minute short film takes inspiration from the classic noir tradition.