All Recommendations
The Piggy Bank
A musical screen comedy based on the French play La Cagnotte (The Piggy Bank in English) by Eugène Marin Labiche. A group of provincial Bourgeois decide to spend savings they accumulated for a year of playing cards together on a memorable deed. After humorous strategizing and alliance forming, Leonida, the unmarried sister and Blanche, the engaged daughter, of Monsieur Champbourcy, entice the group to spend the money on what they imagine a luxurious journey to a capital city. A very memorable event indeed it was.
The Minx
A businessman hosts a hunting party at a remote lodge, and hires three prostitutes to take care of his clients. However, the girls have their own plans and secretly install cameras in the bedrooms to record the activities for future use.
Living on the River Agano
In 1964, a chemical factory in Niigata Prefecture dumped mercury into the Agano River, the beginning of a manmade tragedy that would affect locals for years to come. Mercury poisoning led to high occurrences of Minamata disease, a neurological syndrome that causes severe physical and psychological ailments and death. Sato Makoto and his crew of seven spent three years in Niigata documenting the life and thoughts of locals.
Mr Harvey Lights a Candle
A teacher comes to terms with his past during a school trip to Salisbury Cathedral.
A Vacation in Hell
A dream vacation at a posh tropical resort turns into a nightmare for four women and a man who wander off into the jungle on a remote part of the island and wage a desperate fight for survival.
Gall Force 3: Stardust War
The remaining forces of the Solnoid and the Paranoid races now head toward Sigma Narse, a forgotten star system with a dying red giant for their final confrontation. The crew of five Solnoids who survived the battle at the ninth star system are sent to meet Capt. Nebulart, head of Intelligence, for what appears to be the last hope for both races.
American Experience: Reagan: Part II
Part II of PBS' American Experience: Reagan
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
In the war-zones of Liberia and Congo, four volunteers with Doctors Without Borders struggle to provide emergency medical care under extreme conditions. With different levels of experience, each volunteer must find their own way to face the challenges, the tough choices, and the limits of their idealism. "Living in Emergency" is a window into the seldom portrayed and less-than glamorous side of humanitarian aid work. It explores a world that is challenging, complex, and fraught with dilemmas - the struggles, both internal and external, that aid workers face when working in war zones and other difficult contexts.
A Midwinter Night's Dream
The Yew Tree is ancient, it is mystical, magical and poisonous. What has it witnessed in it's long life and what does it know?
Ganapa
Ganapa is based on an incident in Bengaluru's underworld. The film takes a realistic approach, not on rowdyism, but on people affected by it.
The Tony Longo Trilogy
Although he has been limited to bit parts, the actor Tony Longo is an axiom of American action cinema: the giant who is too soft-hearted for the job. Composed of three short movies, Hey, Asshole!, Adam Kesher and You Fucking Dickhead!, The Tony Longo Trilogy brings together all of the actor’s scenes in three of his most memorable films: The Takeover (Troy Cook, 1995), Living in Peril (Jack Ersgard, 1997) and Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001).
The E-Flat Man
Elmer attempts to elope with his fiancée, but they escape her parents by driving off in a car that's actually owned by a wanted gangster. When they hear on the radio that the police are looking for them, they dump the car and hide out near a farmhouse. But the farmer's radio also broadcasts the couple's description, so they run away and start hitchhiking, only to be picked up by two policemen. They manage to flee into a railroad yard and hop a train that turns out to be refrigerated. Finally they decide to turn themselves in -- just as they learn that the real crooks have been apprehended.
"daddy's gone a'hunting"
A grim animated short showing animals being hunted.
Rapture
The installation features two black-and-white projections. One depicts a group of men dressed in Western suits and the other captures a group of women veiled in chador. In the work, Neshat takes on entrenched gender stereotypes by placing the men in a structured, architectural fortress and the women in a wild, natural desert. The viewer is positioned between these dichotomies, with the videos displayed on opposite walls, and is forced to shift attention from one to the other. The installation shows how established beliefs and presumptions can flourish in social and religious systems, emphasizing that these deep-rooted dynamics profoundly impact all people, indiscriminate of gender.
The Unlimited Dream Company
An experimental documentary portrait of author J.G. Ballard. Ballard speaks about his life and work, and submits to a lengthy personality questionnaire; these sections are intercut with surrealist scenes inspired by Ballard's fiction, centering on a downed pilot wandering through various landscapes.
La maschera e il volto
What can we expect from a great comedy? Here’s a suggestion: to have all the problems of the world thrown at us, yet to walk out of the theatre in a better mood. If we can agree on this, then La maschera e il volto is indeed a great comedy.
Verdi Nabucco
NABUCCO may be Verdi's first masterpiece, and not just because of that amazing Chorus of Hebrews which is justly beloved by everyone who hears it. Dramatically, this opera is tightly constructed, with believable characters in an intense conflict over values and beliefs. And Verdi's music, however early in his career, however distant from triumphs like LA FORSA DEL DESTINO or AIDA, is highly animated, revealing inner turmoil and outer passions with beauty and economy. The ensembles are especially impressive, building to satisfying heights of emotional release for the singers and the audience. And Placido Domingo is a wonder to behold and hear. Even though his original voice was baritone, which he managed to transform into a tenor voice, he doesn't SOUND like a baritone to me. B-U-T his performance is so committed, so deeply interfused with Verdi's music, so generously integrated to the younger singers around him, that the waters part.
The Way of All Flesh
The story takes place in Milwaukee during the early 1900s with a bank clerk named August Schiller who is happy with both his job and his family. He is tasked with transporting $1,000 in securities to Chicago. On the train he meets a blond seductress who convinces him to buy her a bottle of champagne, and takes him to a saloon. The next morning he awakes alone in a dilapidated bedroom and without the securities.