The residents of an old people’s home anxiously watch television weather forecasts that predict a hard winter. When a huge transport of coffins arrives in the same night, the old people start to suspect that someone is preparing a mass death for them. In solidarity, they decide to escape and… go out to the country. They are followed by a police chase, which at times resembles a manhunt. The film, made in 1981/82 but released a year later, unexpectedly became a metaphor for the Polish history of the time.
Category: Comedy
Csaba has just come out of doing a stint in prison because he stabbed a man while drunk, and when he goes home he discovers that his wife is now living with someone else in their apartment. Csaba quickly divorces his wife but he still has to move in and share a kitchen and bathroom with her and her new mate, suffering because he still loves her. This untenable situation is complicated by visits from Csaba’s mother, and by various women he starts seeing, as well as by a busy-body neighbor. The three main roles of Csaba, his wife, and her lover are excellently interpreted in this satire on social morés and economic realities.
Four socialites unexpectedly clash: heiress Brooke Carter runs into gambler Johnny Spanish at the race track while playboy Michael O. Pritchard nearly runs into stage star Kitty O’Kelly with his car. Backstage at Kitty’s show, it turns out she and Brooke are old friends who attended public school together. The foursome do the town, accompanied by Brooke’s companion Elizabeth, who throws herself at Michael’s butler and chauffeur Rodney James.
Jean-Claude Lauzon’s highly praised film tells the strange story of Léolo, a young boy from Montréal. Told from Léolo’s point-of-view, the film depicts his family of lunatics and Léolo’s attempts to deal with them. Not one individual in the boy’s life is well adjusted. His brother, after being beaten up, spends the film bulking up on growth protein. The grandfather hires half-naked girls to bite off his toenails and, in a brutal rage, almost kills Léolo. As he witnesses his family decay around him, Léolo retreats into himself and the fantasy world he has constructed. In response to the weirdness of his daily life, Léolo creates a little mental mayhem of his own which Lauzon renders in an amazing series of free-form, surreal images.
Mamá Cora is about 80 years old and she has three sons and a daughter. Mamá lives with one of them, unfortunately, the one who is in the worst economic position. One day, all the members of the family have a reunion to celebrate an anniversary. In the middle of the whole thing, an awkward question appears out of nowhere: Who’s going to be Mamá Cora’s heir? Who is going to take care of her during her last days in this world?. The answer is not easy and it doesn’t take too long for the members of this bizarre family to start a terrible and yet hilarious fight. However, in the middle of the whole thing, they’re interrupted by some disturbing breaking news.
An English professor interested in photography is given a pair of special sunglasses by an Austrian colleague. To his surprise and boyish delight, he discovers they’re X-ray specs, which allow him to see through people’s clothes! As he ventures across Europe, he is pursued by spies who’re after the glasses. He eventually manages to elude them, and settles down to a life of ease, ogling naked women on beaches.
Danny, onto his 49th share house and in his mid 30s is probably ready for some privacy and independence but is still attracted to the friends and oddball characters that makes sharing a house so attractively horrible. We travel with Danny as he moves through shared houses in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Danny’s life is further complicated by the presence of rental goons despatched by landlords in search of unpaid rent and the police chasing him in relation to a credit card debt thanks to a dodgy housemate. Proving he is not responsible is harder than lying about his identity.
In April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.