Lovely by Surprise follows the journey of novelist Marian Walker as she attempts to finish her first novel. Facing the age-old problem of writer’s block, Marian seeks advice from a mentor and ex-lover. His seemingly innocent advice to kill the book’s protagonist unleashes chaos in her life as a willful protagonist escapes from her novel and appears in the unresolved corners of her past.
Lovely by Surprise follows the journey of novelist Marian Walker as she attempts to finish her first novel. Facing the age-old problem of writer’s block, Marian seeks advice from a mentor and ex-lover. His seemingly innocent advice to kill the book’s protagonist unleashes chaos in her life as a willful protagonist escapes from her novel and appears in the unresolved corners of her past.
2007-01-01
6
Delves deep into the anxiety, thrill and uncertainty of six aspiring animation artists as they are plunged into the twelve-week trial-by-fire that is the NFB's Hothouse for animation filmmakers.
10.0Enjoy a beautiful sunset from Sai Kaew Beach in Thailand as you listen to relaxing music and the gentle sounds of waves rolling into shore.
A woman and her child are kidnapped by her lover and plans revenge on him.
7.5Almost as soon as Jake and Cassie decide to get married on Christmas Eve, complications arise.
7.2Young art student Hideo paints an unnerving portrait of Tomie, who whispers that she loves him. Inexplicably, he reacts by stabbing her to death with a painting trowel. Two friends, Takumi and Shunichi, arrive on the scene and help him dispose of the body. To cheer him up, the boys take the unwitting murderer to the nearest bar for a party... but a mysterious girl named Tomie shows up, bearing a few odd physical resemblances to the dead girl in the ground.
7.1In 1666, a colonial town is gripped by a hysterical witch-hunt that has deadly consequences for centuries to come, and it's up to teenagers in 1994 to finally put an end to their town's curse, before it's too late.
7.9Jerzy and Artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. The more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes.
6.1When the dinosaur families get trapped in a valley by an ice storm, one family of "spike tail" dinosaurs volunteers to leave since they consume more food than the others. Meanwhile, the young dinos and a new adult dinosaur named Mr. Thicknose, head out to bring back their friend Spike, who has left his friends to be with members of his own species.
7.4Middleton prepares for its bicentennial, and Grey House is to be the party venue. Good witch Cassie is remodeling it as B&B. her first and only guest, Nick Chasen, claims to be a distant relative. He produces papers to prove he's the heir of the builder, colonial era captain Hamblin, while the Grey lady was his mistress and stole it. Police chief and lover Jake Russell goes all the way to motivate her to fight and disprove the claim before she's effectively disowned. Brandon is dared to pass a rascals-initiation by local brat Steve and Duke. George's gardening skills lead to romance.
4.8Vampire fledgling Michelle Morgan has escaped the grasp of her master Radu Vladislas. Found by a woman named Ana, she is taken to a hospital where a doctor claims to be able to cure her vampirism. Radu, recovering from the near-death delivered by Michelle and her friends, travels to Bucharest to follow his fledgling. He visits the vampire Ash's stronghold. Ash and his protege Serena plot to destroy Radu and employ the help of the humans, Ana and the Doctor.
6.6Fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, envy, shame. Adaś Miauczyński goes back to his childhood days when, like most of us, he used to find it problematic to name the emotions that accompanied him. To improve the quality of his adult life, he decides to return to that time – which proves not so carefree after all – to learn how to experience the seven basic emotions. This extremely unpredictable journey into the past features an abundance of hilarious, even comical, situations but is also filled with lots of touching moments and food for thought.
7.2Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.
5.2Ae-rang is a celebrated gisaeng who has the ability to knock out any man in the world with the flick of her hand or skirt and in the blink of an eye. She's got the men eating out of her hands with bedtime techniques that no one else knows about. One day, an impregnable man who won't date anyone is assigned to her village. The magistrate and Ae-rang secretly bet that she will or won't be able to have him begging for her.
8.5REDISCOVER the best moments of: Bob Binette, Jacques Chevalier Longueuil, Raymond Beaudoin, Ginet Robidoux, Dave Ash, Ludger, Corporal St-Gelais, Chose, Yasser Arafat (Québec version). LES BLEU POUDRE on Taquinons la planète was: disobedience (they got kicked in the balls), indecency (they walked around naked), recklessness (they went to chat with the Mohawks), and mischievousness (they loved new rhymes). LES BLEU POUDRE was also politically very incorrect — and damn, it felt good. ENJOY IT WHILE IT NO LONGER EXISTS.
The Money Programme's Fiona Bruce gains exclusive access to Bill Gates as he prepares to step down from full-time involvement with Microsoft, the company he helped found. Gates's company has changed the world, but he's a controversial figure, with his ruthless business leadership contributing to Microsoft being sued by the US government. In a special one-hour edition of the Money Programme, Fiona Bruce presents the definitive profile of Bill Gates as he embarks on his latest challenge: giving away the billions he's amassed. She examines the fortunes of Microsoft as it faces up to competition from internet-based companies, and the programme asks an array of well-known friends, colleagues and rivals what the future holds for the company in a post-Gates world.
7.1Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.
7.0A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
6.0Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.
7.4A drama about a Maori family living in Auckland, New Zealand. Lee Tamahori tells the story of Beth Heke’s strong will to keep her family together during times of unemployment and abuse from her violent and alcoholic husband.
6.7Two Bulgarian intelligence agents arrive in Warsaw on a secret mission. Their task is to recover a microfilm containing compromising material on the Bulgarian intelligence service. They must face the ambassador's Siamese twin, who is a traitor. Danger lurks at every turn.
4.8In this thriller, Jamie Sanford is murdered by a group of counterfeiters when he attempts to expose them in order to secure an early parole. However, when aspiring writer Clark learns of his brothers death, he sets out to exact revenge and bring the guilty to justice while being framed for his brothers murder.
7.3In vivid images, the documentary-like story of a drover and his family in the northern badlands of Brazil during the drought. A family in the search of new hope and destiny.
4.7"Rigoletto" retold at Christmas time in Manhattan's corporate world. Rick, an executive at Image, is a jerk to a woman applying for a job. That evening, he's out for drinks with his much younger boss, Duke, and the same women is their waitress. Rick's continued rudeness leads to her getting fired. She puts a curse on him. A potential rift with Duke quickly surfaces; Rick is approached by the hail-
5.5An enterprising lawyer, acting on a report that a female colleague is up to make partner, plays up the established rumor that he's gay in order to better his chances at edging out his competition.
2.8A woman is tortured by the sudden disappearance of her only child years before. Obsessed with having another baby, she is devastated and driven to emotional crisis when discovering her new husband is infertile. Gripped by despair, the woman begins to resign herself to the bitter likelihood of never having another child. Striking up a friendship with two discarded young laborers hired to re-paint her son's now silent room, the three lost souls form a disturbing bond as the boys are led deeper into the woman's tormented world. Her family's suspicions of this unsettling new friendship sets off an irreversible series of events, leading to madness and murder as the horrors of the past collide with the sins of the present, ending in tragedy and terror.
1.8"Living the Dream" is a docudrama about two friends who after being bullied as children become corrupt when growing up because they have been conditioned to believe that they need to achieve materialistic success to be 'accepted' and liked by others, in a society where the end justifies the means.
4.3A bookkeeper who thinks she killed three mobsters is subsequently promoted by her boss to be a hitman.
5.0The hot-tempered, unruly players of this pub league soccer team are in dire straits after having lost everything -- their drive, their skills and soon, their playing field. When mysterious Walter Keegan shows up offering to be their coach, captain Bubbles and the rest of his loopy, obnoxious teammates are so desperate to succeed, they agree to give him the job. Drilled into the ground with a fierce discipline they have never known, the team pushes beyond their aches and pains to gain not only redemption on the field, but more importantly, their self-respect.
4.5A high school baseball coach and a down-on-his-luck private investigator form a bond as they scour New York City for the coach's wife, who's run away with a second-rate rock star.
5.1A despondent gay man throws his life and relationships into turmoil when he volunteers for a controversial pharmaceutical study for a drug designed to make gay men straight.
5.4Angela is a French art student living in Germany who loves to draw comics and creates elaborate tales drawn in a soft and romantic style. One night, Angela meets Yamamoto, a club DJ from Japan, who invites her to come to Tokyo with him. Infatuated with Yamamoto, Angela impulsively agrees, and is soon sharing an apartment with a handful of Western expatriates who work at a nightclub where Japanese businessmen drink, sing karaoke, and date the "hostesses" for a fee.
5.5A production company begins casting for its next feature, and an up-and-coming actress named Rose tries to manipulate her filmmaker boyfriend, Alex, into giving her a screen test. Alex's wife, Emma, knows about the affair and is considering divorce, while Rose's girlfriend secretly spies on her and attempts to sabotage the relationship. The four storylines in the film were each shot in one take and are shown simultaneously, each taking up a quarter of the screen.
5.7A recovering gambling addict attempts to reconcile with his family and friends but finds trouble and temptation when caught between feelings for his ex-wife and her dangerous hoodlum boyfriend.
7.3Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.