In this surreal comic confection, a traditional naniwa-bushi singer moves to Prohibition-era San Francisco. He goes in search of Al Capone, whom he mistakenly believes is president, hoping to impress the gangster with his singing and to popularize the art form in the States.
Month: May 2020
Bob Davis, an American dancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, finds himself desperate for work after losing all his money. He takes a gig at a wedding, hoping to impress the bride’s father, Eduardo Acuña, a local club owner who has decreed that his daughters must marry in order of age. Eduardo eventually agrees to allow Bob to perform at his club, but only under the condition that he play suitor to his second-oldest daughter, the beautiful Maria.
An anthology film drama featuring a poetic mirror structure based on existential identity. In “The Immortals,” adapted from a Helder Prista Monteiro play, two famous doctors, an 80-year-old father, and his 60-year-old son, contemplate senility and death. “Suzy,” from an Antonio Patricio story, is set in the ’30s when a young courtesan dies on the operating table. “Mother of the River” is from an Agustina Bessa-Luis fable about eternal life.
Ema is a sweet and innocent girl who is so beautiful she turns the head of every man she passes. Her life takes a despairing turn for the worse when her father forces her into a passionless marriage to his friend, a wealthy doctor. To make matters worse, she is relocated to the scenic but unfamiliar and isolated vineyards of Abraham’s Valley, Portugal where the breathtaking river Douro flows. Trapped in a marriage to a man she does not love, she scorns her husband and threatens to kill herself rather than submit to his desires.
A close-up of Berlin coal carriers from Prenzlauer Berg. No portrayal of heroic workers or progress here. Instead, bright, deeply-felt sketches of rough men and their resolute female boss.
Losing faith in their original idea for a movie to celebrate Finland’s 50 years of independence, a film crew decides to hire a typical Finnish taxpayer to tell them what to shoot. The result becomes a comedic cavalcade of Finnish promotional clichés – Lapland, sauna, moose hunting, beautiful blond women etc. – as presented by a slick entourage following on the heels of William Nurmi, a Finnish-American hair tonic millionaire on a visit to his ancestors’ homeland. Add some half-baked criminal hanky-panky, and towards the end even one of the main characters has to confess to the camera that he’s lost track of this movie’s plot about fifteen minutes ago.
A department store floor walker is persuaded by four husband-seeking salesgirls to pose as their father in a Long Island mansion which they have rented by pooling resources and pretending to be wealthy themselves.
Following the relationship that grows up between a reclusive old lady and a fast-talking escaped convict after she finds him raiding her fridge one night. Because he bears an uncanny resemblance to her long-dead true love, she decides to shelter him. In exchange for friendship, she hides him from the police; and as their time together passes, both parties learn a lot about each other and about themselves.