2008-04-04
3.7
In a little house all for herself, an elderly woman moves through her day. While she tends to every chore on the docket, we learn some things about her. She has a green thumb, she speaks Polish while on the phone, she likes to nap. A prayer sounds. They are words from her mother-in-law, Polish poet Zofia Bohdanowiczowa, who was also displaced from her native Poland. Three generations meet, one by writing, one by living, and the third by the very making of this film, a composition of her ancestors through sound and image.
As the heir and current marketing director for one of the nation's biggest gun manufacturers, Liberty Wallace is indifferent to the atrocities made possible through her business and her CEO husband, Victor. On her way to see her actor lover, Liberty ends up chained to a food cart full of explosives -- all at the insistence of "Joe", a sniper whose young daughter was a victim of gun violence, and who now has Liberty in his sights.
Marion and Jack try to rekindle their relationship with a visit to Paris, home of Marion's parents — and several of her ex-boyfriends.
The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.
Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Louise, who has just written a novel, comes to Paris to meet with a potential publisher. While in the city, she stays with her older sister, Martine, who in many ways is the exact opposite of Louise: she lives in a fashionable neighborhood, is cold to others, and has snobby friends, while Louise lives in a small town and is thoroughly unpretentious. Louise's apparent happiness -- and similarities to their mother -- gradually gets on Martine's nerves.
Inspired by the O. Henry short story "Gift of the Magi", Gift for the Living is a story about a grandmother and her granddaughter who, without the other's knowledge, sell their most treasured possession in order to buy the other a birthday gift. In the granddaughter's quest for the perfect gift, she discovers her grandmother's rich and unique history, a history her grandmother never spoke of. Gift for the Living is a story about love, friendship, loss and sacrifice.
An unmarried aristocrat (Jacqueline Bisset) resists the advances of the adventurous man (Peter Weller) whom she actually desires, causing him to turn his attentions to her new ward (Amy Locane) and a young maid (Karen Dwyer).
The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".
A young woman working at a retirement home takes an elderly man living there on an excursion into the countryside, but the two wind up stranded in the titular forest.
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Lucille and Joe have moved to Gozo, a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Malta. They have a nice car, a steady income, a beautiful farmhouse with breathtaking views and a swimming pool. They seem to have it all. But when a young tourist goes missing on the island, Joe's disquieted conscience begins to get the better of him. As the buried horrors of Lucille and Joe's past resurface, the cracks begin to show in their homespun paradise.
Set in early-2000s SoCal, Smoking Tigers follows a Korean American girl as she navigates derision and growing tensions while balancing the duality of her low-income family and wealthy, elite high school environment.
Norwegian children's film about football girl Anja who become seriously ill.
The famous businessman Fahri and his family are kidnapped by Somali pirates. The pirates demand a large ransom from Turkey for the release of the businessman and his family. The Turkish government decides to form an illegal team for this task. Colonel Mehmet, who has been imprisoned for a long time, is offered this mission in exchange for his release. Mehmet, along with six people selected from the prisoners, will try to rescue Fahri and his family.
After the death of their abusive father, two estranged twin brothers must reunite and sell off his property.
After blowing his professional ballet career, John's only way to redeem himself is to concoct the demise of his former partner, Leah, who he blames for his downfall; he rehearses his salvation in his mind in the way that he rehearses a dance, but being able to break from the routine will be the key to his success.
When the mayor's 17 year old daughter gets pregnant, Dr. Jacob is called to abort the child. But, anti-abortionist Reverend Thomas will not allow the murder of this unborn child who has been fathered by his own nephew - and will go to any extent to save the life of this baby, even if the mayor sets it up as a federal case.
A big city food critic finds herself stuck in a small town for Christmas where she discovers a life-changing hot chocolate recipe.
Canadian Pacific I is made up of a series of slowly dissolved shots done from the same framing over several months. The camera frames a window with a railway yard in the foreground, a bay in the space behind it, and misty mountains in the extreme distance. Trains occasionally pass by in the foreground. Huge ships move across the bay. Blue mists hover over the mountain heads.
After an expose on NFL players causes a series of lawsuits, a reporter gets fired. A loyal editor nonetheless gives him a freelance story to work on. It seems that an athletic 19-year-old actor had been preparing to star in a low-budget gridiron movie when a mysterious assailant attacked him and destroyed his appearance. He was, of course, dismissed from the film. The reporter is to find out the true story of what happened. His investigation finds a history of beating his wife and a complete disinterest from the movie crew's producer.
In a basement, somewhere in war torn Baghdad, hostage Adam Smith is waiting to die. With no time, no chance, and no hope, he must look into the abyss of his own personal hell and it is here, 'in the valley of the shadow of death' that something divine is awaiting him.
In the heart of central Europe are some of the world’s most impenetrable military strongholds. In France, 160 megastructure fortresses still line the country’s borders 3 centuries after they were constructed. As solid as ever, how did they withstand attack after attack? Was the secret in their materials? Their shape? In fact, the strength and resilience of these megastructures is due to the genius of one man: Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban.
Both in 2006 and 2007, the Gay Pride Parade attempts in Moscow are violently beaten down. For many observers, the attitude towards the sexual minorities seems to be the litmus test of the state of democracy in Russia. In January 2007, for the first time in Russian history, a Russian leader, president Vladimir Putin mentions the situation of the LGBT community: He won't criticize the politics of Moscow mayor Yuri Lushkov, who forbid the event, but he is concerned about the demographic future of the country. And Putins opinion seems to be repeated by the right wing contra demonstrators on the streets. The film shows both the organizers of the Pride events and also the survival strategies of the majority Russian lesbians and gays, to whom the fight for democracy on the streets doesn't seem to be an attractive alternative.
Another parade film from the Lumiere company.
Two African-American teenage boys are suddenly and mysteriously abandoned by their parents. The two have to learn how to survive on their own. From this desertion, comes an experience of beauty, meaning and enduring love.
After giving up on making it in the Chicago improv scene, a young comedian fatefully reconnects with the former love of his life one fall night while working at a coffee shop in his hometown. Afraid of growing old and alone like his divorced father, Warren must choose between winning her back or finding the courage to go after his dreams a second time.