Film Reviews
Il... Belpaese |
Dopo otto anni trascorsi su una piattaforma petrolifera Guido Berardinelli (Paolo Villaggio) torna in Italia, trovandola immersa nel caos dei terribili anni di piombo. Con i suoi risparmi apre un negozio di orologi che non ha però il successo sperato. Inoltre è spesso bersaglio di furti e attacchi malavitosi. È proprio durante una di queste occasioni che incontra una giovane contestatrice di cui si innamora. Iniziano ad incontrarsi sporadicamente fino al giorno in cui lei decide di avere un figlio da lui. Quando Guido è sull'orlo del fallimento e sembra che il destino abbia deciso che il suo futuro sia nuovamente su una piattaforma nel Golfo Persico, l'amore per il nascituro e, in fondo, per la sua ingrata Italia gli faranno cambiare idea. |
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A Walk on the Moon |
The world of a young housewife is turned upside down when she has an affair with a free-spirited blouse salesman. |
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My Brother the Devil |
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage. |
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Three Orphan Kittens |
Three orphan kittens are entering a society house in winter and ruin the furniture. But when they're caught by the maid, the young daughter of the house "rescues" them from the cold out outside. |
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Jane Austen's Mafia! |
Takeoff on the Godfather with the son of a mafia king taking over for his dying father. |
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Moonrise Kingdom |
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle. |
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The Cavern |
Adventure drama during WW2 in Italy where a mixed group of people get trapped inside a cave after a bomb raid. But can they co-operate? And will they survive? |
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Gangs of Wasseypur |
Shahid Khan is exiled after impersonating the legendary Sultana Daku in order to rob British trains. Now outcast, Shahid becomes a worker at Ramadhir Singh's colliery, only to spur a revenge battle that passes on to generations. At the turn of the decade, Shahid's son, the philandering Sardar Khan vows to get his father's honor back, becoming the most feared man of Wasseypur. |
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The Secret |
Husband, wife, and daughter have moved from Boston to Williamstown. At 16, Samantha treats her mother shabbily, but when the two of them are in a horrific car crash, the mother wills Sam to live, somehow losing her own life while her spirit enters Sam. |
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What War May Bring |
A theater projectionist's daughter is involved in the Resistance in WWII, but she doesn’t share his political involvement & only believes in passion. She follows the men she loves unconditionally, suffering betrayal and hardship. |
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Adventures of William Tell |
The scene opens in an artist's studio where the unfinished statue of William Tell stands upon a pedestal. A clown appears and sticks a clay arm and clay head on the statue, thus completing it. He places a large brick on top of the head to make it stick. When he turns his back the statue turns into a living representation of William Tell. (Edison Catalog) |
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My Class |
The ostensibly simple story of a sympathetic veteran teacher giving Italian lessons to a weekly class of diverse immigrants is given infinitely more depth and complexity by the manner in which director Daniele Gaglianone renders his story. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and artifice, and between documentary and drama, Gaglianone has created a film within a film. You see the apparent artifice of Gaglianone’s crew using professionals, including the noted film actor Valerio Mastandrea as the teacher, interlinked with ‘real’ immigrant protagonists, studying the language to improve their chances of employment and of gaining a permanent residence permit. Thus in the course of the lessons there is simultaneously the painful and upsetting relation of the students’ personal stories but also humour, as they interact and share their humanity, bridging cultural differences, united in their striving to make a better life for themselves. (Source: LFF programme) |
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The Encounter |
When five strangers with nothing in common come together at a remote roadside eatery, they place their orders with the diner's omniscient owner, who seems to know everything about them ... and is eerily reminiscent of Jesus Christ. |
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The Cross and The Flame |
Set in early 16th century Finland, a knight Olavi Gideoninpoika meets Mirjam Raakelintytär and falls in love. Mirjami hides in a monastery disguised as a choir boy, but is revealed by a monk Rasmus, who also desires her, and is put on trial. |
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Trading Christmas |
Emily (Faith Ford) misses her daughter Heather (Emma Lahana), who is attending college in Boston. Since her father died, Heather is sensitive to her mom’s dependence on long-standing holiday traditions. This Christmas, Heather has planned a trip to Phoenix with her boyfriend, but tells her mother she is staying on campus to study. After Emily arranges a house-swap with Charles (Tom Cavanagh), an English professor from Boston who wants Washington State’s solitude in order to finish his novel, Emily hops on a flight to Boston to surprise Heather for Christmas. Unaware of the house swap, Emily’s best friend, Faith (Gabrielle Miller) walks in on Charles at Emily’s house and in Boston, Ray, Charles’ brother (Gil Bellows) responds to a 911 call only to find Emily at Charles’ condo. Will Christmas travel calamities lead to cross-country romances? Or have there been one too many surprises already? |
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