Film Reviews

Shot by a reported “1,001 Syrians” according to the filmmakers, SILVERED WATER, SYRIA SELF-PORTRAIT impressionistically documents the destruction and atrocities of the civil war through a combination of eye-witness accounts shot on mobile phones and posted to the internet, and footage shot by Bedirxan during the siege of Homs. Bedirxan, an elementary school teacher in Homs, had contacted Mohammed online to ask him what he would film, if he was there. Mohammed, working in forced exile in Paris, is tormented by feelings of cowardice as he witnesses the horrors from afar, and the self-reflexive film also chronicles how he is haunted in his dreams by a Syrian boy once shot to death for snatching his camera on the street.

Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company production is one of the best versions of this oft-attempted but seldom achieved vision.

This film, adapted from a work of fiction by author Tracy Chevalier, tells a story about the events surrounding the creation of the painting "Girl With A Pearl Earring" by 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. A young peasant maid working in the house of painter Johannes Vermeer becomes his talented assistant and the model for one of his most famous works.

A journey into night.

The sudden disappearance of a wealthy banker's wife cracks open a dizzying world of secret fetishes, desperate acts and elaborate deceptions.

On 9 April 1940, German soldiers arrive in the city of Oslo. The King of Norway faces a choice that will change his country forever. The King's Choice is a story about the three most dramatic days in Norway's history, the royal family's escape and King Haakon's difficult choice after Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway.

Santiago returns home from the Peruvian army ill-prepared to cope with the realities of life. Haunted by his violent military past, he is conflicted by his desire for education and his temptation to join his comrades in a decadent life of crime.

Monsters once lived in hiding—even from each other—because they were afraid they would be in danger if humans knew they existed. But Draculaura, the daughter of Dracula, along with her best ghoulfriends, dreamt of a school where everyone was welcome and accepted for who they are. Determined to make their dream come true, the ghouls travel the world on an epic adventure to recruit new students. But even in this amazing place, there's drama: a villainess zombie is spreading trouble rather than friendship, and every student must live with the fear that their secret will be revealed. Now the ghouls must save their school so that every monster has a place where they belong and their uniqueness is celebrated!

A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.

Hell and Mr. Fudge is an 2012 American drama film directed by Jeff Wood and written by Brian Phillip Stoddard. Based on a true story, the film stars Mackenzie Astin as Edward Fudge, an Alabama preacher who has been hired to determine the existence of hell.

A mischievous high school sophomore faces a conflict of conscience vs. character when his best friend becomes linked to the death of a youth from another clique in suburban Middle America circa '76.

In 1988, Oscar-winning German filmmaker Volker Schlondorff ("The Tin Drum") sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder at his office in Beverly Hills, California and turned on his camera for a series of filmed interviews. The conversation went on for two weeks. The results were aired on German TV in 1992 and debuted on U.S. television when it was shown on Turner Classic Movies in 2006. We are presented with a generous smattering of film clips, rare photographs and artwork, but mostly Wilder just sits in his office and talks with the off screen Schlondorff, moving easily between English and German.

The neglected child of parents living on a commune, Victor is helpless to resist the atmosphere of sex and drugs that permeates his world, but he"s smart enough to know that if he is going to survive, he has to get out.

As winter gives way to spring in the Russian wilderness, a crafty fox promptly expels a defenceless hare from his warm, comfortable residence, claiming the house for himself and leaving the poor owner to sleep outside under the stars. An assortment of compassionate animals – a wolf, a bear, a bull – take pity on the disheartened hare, and attempt to evict the cunning fox, but to no avail. Along comes a hilariously militant rooster, proud and tenacious, who marches into the hare's house and doesn't give up until the fox has been hounded back into the wilderness. (IMDb)

In a remote corner of England's Peak District, a mysterious skull is unearthed. But even weirder is that Lady Sylvia steals the skull for use in worshiping - very erotically - her pagan god, The White Worm, who hungers for the taste of virginal flesh.