Film Reviews

Society-girl thrillseeker Lydia's fun comes to an end when she accidentally causes the death of motorcycle policeman.

After the death of her parents young girl Manuela von Meinhardis is sent to a boarding school where Prussian drill rules the education. Desperately seeking love and warmth in Manuela's heart special emotions for the only human lady teacher, Fraeulein von Bernburg, start growing. Manuela falls in love with her. It's just a matter of time until that forbidden love becomes known what immediately leads to disaster. Though Elisabeth von Bernburg has never returned the love she is forced to leave the school; Manuela gets a severe punishment, like someone who has committed a crime.

The Empire Builder is America’s busiest long-distance train route, running from Chicago to Seattle. Throughout these corridors sit runaways, adventurers, and loners – a myriad of passengers waiting to see what their journey holds. A touching and honest observation, co-directed by the iconic Albert Maysles, In Transit breathes life into the long commute, and contemplates the unknowns that lie at our final destination.

Sheffield, England. Gaz, a jobless steelworker in need of quick cash persuades his mates to bare it all in a one-night-only strip show.

A Dutch film, post-Saturday Night Fever, which follows the lives of three young men who are amateur dirt-bike motorcycle racers. They each fall in love with a young woman who, with her brother, sells French fries and hot dogs at the races. Everyone is looking for a better life. She wants out of the business and away from her brother. The motocross racers want to make their marks as professional racers, like their hero, played by Rutger Hauer.

Sam and Silvy are best friends. One night, as they are watching a falling star while floating on their backs in a lake, Sylvy disappears from his side. Despite his best efforts, he cannot find her under water. Many years later, Sam, now a psychologist, returns to bury his father. Back in his hometown, he meets a woman called Ruby who reminds him in so many ways of his lost love.

Red Dot on the Ocean is a riveting film about a troubled youth who becomes a sailing legend, earning two Guinness Records. Matt Rutherford was an angry teen with learning disabilities; a petty criminal who lived on the streets. Sailing saved him from a life of crime, or worse. Matt became the first to sail alone, without stopping around both Americas. His beat up boat was as tiny as his budget, yet he raised $120,000 for disabled sailors while braving icebergs, the Arctic and Cape Horn. After 309 days at sea, he returned to a hero's welcome and 30 dollars in the bank. He founded a non-profit that does ocean research. Matt's story makes us feel we can do more than we imagined.

They recount their impressions to the Interviewer. They met through a magazine ad, She and He. They corresponded through the Internet. He responded to her ad seeking someone to fulfil her fantasy for "a pornographic affair". This is their first meeting in a Paris café. He's a little reticent. She wants to know whether or not he's hairy. (He is; he's Spanish.) They retire to a nearby hotel room. The door of the room closes. Unseen, the affair is consummated... They continue to see one another regularly each week. They find they get along well together. Soon she suggests that they try normal sex the next time...

Majestic mountains are in the background and a waterfall in the foreground. Is that a canoe on the river? No it's a cradle with a baby. The buoyant Molly Brown has survived the first crisis of her life -- a flood. Sixteen years later she sets out to make her way in the world. Can she sing and play the piano? She assures the Leadville saloon keeper that she can and learns quickly. Soon she is the bride of Johnny Brown, who in a few years will be able to replace the original cigar wrapper wedding ring with a replica in gold and gemstones. But it takes more than a few million dollars to be accepted by Denver society. The Browns head for Europe and bring a few crowned heads back to Denver for a party that turns into a ballroom brawl. Molly goes to Europe alone, returning on the Titanic. She didn't survive a flood as a baby for the story to end here.

The true story of Edward Gein, the farmer whose horrific crimes inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. This is the first film to Gein's tormented upbringing, his adored but domineering mother, and the 1957 arrest uncovered the most bizarre series of murders America has ever seen

Young prince Aleksandr has to hold out against two enemies - the Horde in the east and the Teutonic order and Sweden in the west. He discovers that some boyars are plotting against him and are ready to betray Novgorod to the Swedes and the Germans to boost their trade. Meanwhile, his best friend falls under suspicion, as somebody tries to poison the young prince at his own wedding feast. Aleksandr has no way out - to defend his people against the invaders and to find the true poisoner.

Six Catholics share their thoughts and problems with Jesus in different churches. The camera accompanies them.

Valerie, a Czechoslovakian teenager living with her grandmother, is blossoming into womanhood, but that transformation proves secondary to the effects she experiences when she puts on a pair of magic earrings. Now seeing the world around her in a different light, Valerie must endure her sexual awakening while attempting to discern reality from fantasy as she encounters lecherous priest Gracian, a vampire-like stranger and otherworldly carnival folk.

Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.

One modern critic termed this classic of the Danish silent screen, “a bad story translated into moving pictures with a visual energy that still commands respect.” Directed by future Hollywood emigre Benjamin Christensen, Det Hemmelighedsfulde X told a sordid story of a navy officer (Christensen) falsely accused of being a spy and stubbornly refusing to hand over proof of his innocence in order to protect a philandering wife.