Gloomy Sunday ( Hungary)
Rolf Schuebel makes his directorial debut with this subtly-told true story about one the 1930s' most memorable melodies. Set just prior to WWII, the film focuses on Hungarian beauty Ilona (Erika Marozsan) and her significant other Laszlo Szabo (Joachim Krol), a dapper owner of Budapest's finest restaurant. Though Ilona is known for her prowess on the piano, the two decide to hire a professional as the finishing touch on their classy establishment. They hire Andras (Stefano Dionisi), a taciturn man with a certain mysterious charm. Meanwhile, a regular customer and German businessman Hans (Ben Becker) finds himself utterly and completely smitten with the vivacious Ilona. When she spurns his advances, he drunkenly jumps into the Danube. Laszlo manages to rescue him and the three grow to become close friends. At the same time, Andras and Ilona grow to be something more than friends, and -- with the knowledge and approval of Laszlo -- they become lovers. Later, Andras composes a tune dedicated to his new consort and Laszlo quietly arranges for a couple of Austrian record execs to come to the restaurant to listen. Oozing with jaded ennui, the song, sans lyrics, quickly becomes an international success, yet it also seems to cast a dark spell over listeners -- people cannot help but commit suicide. In Hungary alone, 157 people killed themselves in the span of eight weeks. At the same time, the Third Reich marches into Austria. As the film progresses, Hans returns to Budapest, this time as an SS officer. There he offers Laszlo, who is Jewish, and who offers him free passage in exchange for money. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
Jules at jim ( France)
Paris, 1912. Jules (Oskar Werner), a German-Austrian, and
Jim (Henri Serre), a Frenchman, are two aspiring writers who strike up a close
friendship. They enjoy a carefree life in the city, sharing a passion for the
arts, sport, literature and women. After a trip to Greece, during which they
become fascinated by a sculpture of a woman with an enchanting smile, they
return to France, where they meet Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), who bears an
uncanny resemblance to the statue. She is delightful, desirable and dangerous.
Both men are attracted to Catherine, but it is Jules she decides to marry.
Then, abruptly, all three are separated, as war breaks out across Europe, and
Jules and Jim are forced to fight on opposing sides.
After the war Jim goes to visit Jules and Catherine, who
live in a remote mountain chalet in Austria with their little daughter Sabine,
and discovers their marriage is under strain. Jules confesses to him that he
fears Catherine will leave him and that she has had other lovers during their
relationship. Catherine herself confides to Jim that she misses her freedom.
She flirts and attempts to seduce Jim who still has feelings for her himself.
Jules, desperate not to lose Catherine, gives his blessing to Jim to marry
Catherine, as long as he may continue to visit them and see her. For a while,
the three live happily together in the chalet, but tensions between Jim and
Catherine arise because of their inability to have a child. Jim leaves and
returns to Paris, and after several exchanges of letters, they break off the
relationship. But Catherine is determined to win Jim back no matter what the
cost…
Decades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.
Director:
François Truffaut
Writers:
Henri-Pierre Roché (novel), François Truffaut (adaptation) |
Stars:
Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre
Run lola run ( German)
Lola receives a frantic phone call from her boyfriend Manni, a bagman responsible for delivering 100,000 Deutschmarks. Over the phone, Manni relates the story that he was riding a subway to the drop-off location of the money and panicked at the sight of ticket inspectors. He exited the train and realized that he left the money bag behind; he saw a homeless man examining the money bag as the train pulled away. Manni explains that he is meeting his boss in 20 minutes and that he will be killed unless he has the money. Manni is about to rob a nearby supermarket to secure the funds. Lola implores Manni to wait for her and decides to ask her father, a bank manager, for help.
Lola hangs up and runs down the staircase of her apartment building past a man with a dog. At the bank, her father is shown having a conversation with his mistress, who informs him that she is pregnant. When Lola arrives, she has a conversation with her father, which turns into an argument and him telling her of his affair and that she is not his biological daughter. Lola runs to meet Manni but arrives too late and sees him enter the supermarket with a gun. She helps him rob 100,000 marks from the supermarket but on leaving, they find it surrounded by police. Surrendering, Manni throws the money bag into the air, which startles a police officer who shoots Lola dead.
The events of the film restart from the moment Lola leaves the house, only this time, she trips over the man with the dog. Lola now runs with a limp; her arrival at the bank is delayed, allowing her father's mistress to add that Lola's father is not the father of her unborn child. A furious Lola overhears the conversation, takes a security guard's gun, holds her father hostage and robs the bank of 100,000 marks. When police mistake her for a bystander, she is able to leave and meet with Manni in time, but he is run over and killed by a speeding ambulance that Lola had distracted moments earlier.
The film's events restart once more. This time, Lola leaps over the man and his dog, arriving at the bank earlier but not triggering an auto accident that delayed her father's colleague in the previous runs. As a result, she misses the opportunity to ask her father for help. She wanders aimlessly before entering a casino, where she exchanges all of the cash she has (about 100 marks) for a chip, with which she plays roulette. She bets all of her earnings on the number 20, which wins. Roulette pays 35 to 1, so she wins 3,500 more marks, which she immediately adds to her original chip on 20. She now makes a deafening scream, causing 20 to come up again. She leaves with a bag containing 129,600 marks, and runs to where Manni will be meeting his boss. Manni spots the homeless man from the subway passing by on a bicycle with the money bag. Manni chases him down and steals back the money bag at gunpoint, giving the man his gun in exchange. Lola arrives to witness Manni handing off the money to his boss. Manni joins Lola, who is dishevelled and perspiring. As they walk along, Manni casually asks her what is in her bag.
After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.
Director:
Tom Tykwer
Writer:
Tom Tykwer (screenplay)
Stars:Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
Road to home ( China)
The Road Home is the story of a country girl and a young
teacher falling in love, and the teacher's death many years later that brings
their son back from the big city for the funeral.
The film begins in black and white in present-day China when
the son (Sun Honglei) returns to his village from the city upon hearing of his
father's death. His mother, Zhao Di (Zhao Yulian), insists upon following the
tradition of carrying the coffin back to their remote village by foot so that
her husband's spirit will remember its way home. As the narrator, the son
recounts the story of his parents' courtship, so famous that it has gained the
status of a legend in the village. It is here the bleak black and white turn
into vivid colours as the story shifts to the past.
His father, Luo Changyu (Zheng Hao), came to the village as
the teacher. Immediately, Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi) became infatuated with him and
he with her. Thus began a courtship which consisted mostly of the exchange of
looks and glances between the two. Unfortunately, the courtship was interrupted
when Luo was summoned by the government to return to the city. (Several
reviewers have speculated that the flashback portion of the film is set during
the Anti-Rightist Campaign and that Luo's recall was for investigation and
questioning.)[2][3][4] Zhao Di's heart was broken; she insisted on waiting for
him in the snow and fell so ill that the villagers thought she would die.
However, upon hearing news of her illness, the teacher was able to sneak back
to the village and Zhao Di, in tears, welcomed the sight of her beloved. Still,
their love would not be consummated for a few years more because the teacher
was kept away from the village as punishment for having left his assignment in
the city without permission.
Returning to the present day, and black and white, the son
realizes how important this ritual of carrying the coffin back to the village is to
his mother, Zhao Di, and he agrees to make all necessary arrangements to
fulfil her wish. He is told by the mayor of the village that it might be
difficult to find enough porters to carry the father home, as there are few
young able men left in the village. The mayor and the son reach an agreement on
the price to be paid to the porters. But when the procession sets out, more than
100 people show up to help carry home the casket of the man who was their
teacher through various generations in the village. The mayor returns the money
to the son, as no one will accept payment for doing what they consider to be an
honour rather than a task.
On the morning of the day the son leaves to return to his
job in the city, he fulfils his father's dream and teaches a class in the old the schoolhouse that was central to his parents have fallen in love, using the
textbook his father had written himself.
Prompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.
Director:
Yimou Zhang
Writers:
Writers:
Shi Bao (novel), Shi Bao (screenplay)
Stars:
Ziyi Zhang, Honglei Sun, Hao Zheng
. Four for Venice (German)
The film involves two married couples: Nick and Charlotte
and Luis and Eva.
Nick and Charlotte are more than busy earning money, there
is no time for love or sex - only Tuesdays. Soon, Charlotte finds a lover,
Luis, an unsuccessful artist. Luis and Eva also have no time for sex: he must
find his inspiration for art and Eva has agreed to give up her own occupation
as an artist to support themselves and their 3 and 6 year old kids by working
in a restaurant.
The secret affair between Luis and Charlotte lasts quite a
while, they decide to spend a romantic week in Venice, Italy, but accidentally
Eva finds out about the affair and their destination.
Eva kidnaps Nick on her trip to Venice in order to restore
her marriage as well as his. During their stay in Venice, Luis becomes ill and
spends the entire week in the bathroom. On their way from Munich, Germany
(where the first half of the story takes place) to Venice, Eva's car breaks
down somewhere in the Alps, so she, Nick, and her two children are forced to
walk and hitchhike the rest of the way.
Nick is allergic to children and continually sneezes but the
children grow warm on him, since Eva's no-nonsense attitude forces him to spend
a lot of time with them. They arrive in Venice without money, passports, credit
cards, their clothes torn and burnt, on a Friday evening, which means that they
have to spend the weekend without any support from the German consulate. When
they finally meet their respective spouses, things are not quite the same for
neither of them.
Dr,Zhivaco ( USA)
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director:
David Lean
Writers:
Boris Pasternak (novel) (as Boris Leonidovich Pasternak), Robert Bolt (screenplay)
Stars:
Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin
Love me if you dare( French)
The film begins where a little girl, Sophie, is being bullied by other children. Only a bus driver and a boy, Julien, help her collect her books that the others have thrown into a puddle.
To cheer Sophie up, Julien gives her a small tin box, a gift from his fatally ill mother. Because it is important to him, he asks her to lend it back to him from time to time. As Julien wants the box back at the moment he gave it to her, Sophie demands proof of how important it is to him. Julien disengages the handbrake of the bus without hesitation, and the bus full of children rolls down a hill. Their game has begun: the box changes its owner after each completed dare.
Between the son of wealthy Belgian parents and the daughter of poor Polish immigrants a lasting friendship develops. As children, they misbehave in school, wreak havoc on a wedding, and request silly tasks of each other. As teenagers, their romantic relationships with others suffer as a result of their dares. Meanwhile, the two friends ignore any consequences or punishment during their game.
While they are always looking for the next kick, love is slowly evolving between the protagonists. Not wanting to admit it, they divert their attention from it by even more extreme dares.
As young adults, Julien tells Sophie that he wants to get married, only later revealing that he means to someone else. The climax is reached when Sophie interrupts Julien's wedding, after which he is cast out by his father and Sophie is nearly killed during another game. Julien returns to marry his wife, and Sophie declares that they will not see each other for ten years.
Ten years pass, and Julien is married with two children. Sophie has also married her husband, a famous soccer star. A successful Julien admits that he has not forgotten Sophie, though he assumes that she has forgotten him. On the night of Julien's tenth wedding anniversary, Sophie sends a message to him, indicating that the game is back on. Julien and Sophie meet for a brief moment in the midst of another dare, yet it is enough to remind Julien that their game is "better than life itself." After a dramatic accident, Julien and Sophie finally reunite, despite the protestations of their spouses.
The film has two alternate endings, which are shown consecutively. In the first, Julien and Sophie decide as an ultimate dare to finally share their dream together, their "dream of eternal love" – the pair embrace while they stand in a construction pit that is about to be filled with concrete. The couple kiss as they are pulled beneath the cement and both drown in the sludge. The other ending has the now aged Julien and Sophie spending time together in a garden and carrying on playing their game with milder dares. However, the opening scene of the film (an overhead view of a building site and a pit filled with concrete in which the upper side Julien's tin box rests partially sunk) replays, suggesting that the two friends actually did bury themselves and drown beneath the concrete.
As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.
Director:
Yann SamuellWriter:
Yann SamuellStars:
Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault Verhaeghe
Cynaro de bergarac (French)
Cyrano de Bergerac is a Parisian poet and swashbuckler with
a large nose of which he is self-conscious but pretends to be proud. He is
madly in love with his cousin, the beautiful Roxane; however, he does not
believe she will requite his love because he considers himself physically
unattractive, because of his overly large nose. Soon, he finds that Roxane has
become infatuated with Christian de Neuvillette, a dashing new recruit to the
Cadets de Gascogne, the military unit in which Cyrano is serving. Christian
however, despite his good looks, is tongue-tied when speaking with women.
Seeing an opportunity to vicariously declare his love for Roxane, he decides to
aid Christian, who does not know how to court a woman and gain her love.
Cyrano aids Christian, writing love letters and poems
describing the very emotions that Cyrano himself feels for Roxane. Roxane
begins to appreciate Christian, not only for his good looks but also his
apparent eloquence. She eventually falls in love with him and they contract a
secret marriage in order to thwart the plans of the Comte de Guiche, an
arrogant nobleman who is himself a frustrated wooer of Roxane. In revenge, De
Guiche summons Christian to fight in the Siege of Arras against the Spanish. The
siege is harsh and brutal: the Cadets de Gascogne are starving. Cyrano escapes
over enemy lines each morning to deliver a love letter written by Cyrano
himself but signed with Christian's name, sent to Roxane.
Christian, at this time, is completely unaware of Cyrano's
doings on his behalf. The love letters Cyrano writes eventually draw Roxane out
from the city of Paris to the war front. She had come to visit Christian, the
supposed romantic poet. Apparently, she admitted that she would rather love an
ugly, but great poet, than a handsome, dimwitted fellow. Christian, realising
his mistake, tries to find out whether Roxane loves him or Cyrano, and asks
Cyrano to find out. However, during the battle that follows Roxane's visit,
Christian is wounded and dies in battle. As he lies dying, Cyrano tells him
that he asked Roxane and it was Christian she loved, but he actually has done
no such thing. Cyrano fights off the attackers and the French win.
Cyrano keeps his love for Roxane a secret for fourteen
years, during which time he becomes unpopular because of his writings
satirising the nobility. Roxane, grief-stricken, enters a convent. For fourteen
years, Cyrano faithfully visits Roxane at her convent every week, never late
until a fateful attempt on his life leaves him mortally injured. (He is not
wounded by a sword, but instead suffers a serious head injury when struck by a
heavy wooden beam.)
One evening, against doctor's orders, Cyrano visits Roxane
at the convent. Although he faints while telling her the court news, he
dismisses it as the effect of his wound at Arras. When she mentions Christian's
last letter, he asks to read it, but after she gives it to him, he instead is
forced to recite it from memory, as it is now too dark for him to be able to
read it. Only then does Roxane realise that it was Cyrano who wooed her under
the balcony and wrote the love letters. After fainting again, he is forced to
reveal his mortal wound to her. As Cyrano dies, Roxane realises that it was he,
and not Christian, whom she had really loved all along.
Embarrassed by his large nose, a romantic poet/soldier romances his cousin by proxy.
Director:
Jean-Paul RappeneauWriters:
Edmond Rostand (play), Jean-Paul Rappeneau (adaptation)Stars:
Gérard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez
In the mood for love( HONG KONG)
The story opens in an exiled Shanghainese community in
British Hong Kong in 1962. Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung), a journalist, rents a room
in an apartment of a building on the same day as Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung), a
secretary of a shipping company. They become next-door neighbours. Each has a spouse who works and often leaves them alone on overtime shifts. Due to the friendly but overbearing presence of a Shanghainese landlady, Mrs Suen, and
their bustling, mahjong-playing neighbours, Chow and Su often find themselves
alone in their rooms. Their lives continue to intersect in everyday situations:
a recurring motif is a loneliness of eating alone. The film documents the
leads' chance encounters, each making his and her individual trek to the street
noodle stall, sometimes intersecting without connecting.
Chow and Su each nurse suspicions about their own spouse's
fidelity; each comes to the conclusion that their spouses have been seeing each
other. Su wonders aloud how their spouses' affair might have begun. Su and Chow
re-enact what they imagine might have happened.
Chow soon invites Su to help him write a martial arts serial
for the papers. Their neighbours begin to take notice of Su's prolonged
absences. In the context of a socially conservative 1960s Hong Kong,
friendships between men and women bear scrutiny. Chow rents a hotel room away
from the apartment where he and Su can work together without attracting
attention. The relationship between Chow and Su is platonic, as there is the
suggestion that they would be degraded if they stooped to the level of their
spouses. As time passes, however, they acknowledge that they have developed
feelings for each other. Chow leaves Hong Kong for a job in Singapore. He asks
Su to go with him; Chow waits for her at the hotel room and then leaves. She
can be seen rushing down the stairs of her apartment, only to arrive at the
empty hotel room, too late to join Chow.
The next year, Su goes to Singapore and visits Chow's
apartment. She calls Chow, who is working for a Singaporean newspaper, but she
remains silent when Chow picks up. Later, Chow realises she has visited his
apartment after seeing a lipstick-stained cigarette butt in his ashtray. While
dining with a friend, Chow relays a story about how in older times, when a
person had a secret that could not be shared, he would instead go atop a
mountain, make a hollow in a tree, whisper the secret into that hollow and
cover it with mud.
Three years later, Su visits her former landlady, Mrs. Suen.
Mrs. Suen is about to emigrate to the United States, and Su inquires about
whether the apartment is available for rent. Sometime later, Chow returns to
visit his landlords, the Koos. He finds they have emigrated to the Philippines.
He asks about the Suen family next door, and the new owner tells him a woman
and her son are now living there. He leaves without realising Su is the lady
living there.
The film ends at Siem Reap, Cambodia, where Chow is seen
visiting Angkor Wat. At the site of a ruined monastery, he whispers for some
time into a hollow in a ruined wall and then plugs the hollow with mud.
Two neighbours, a woman and a man, form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
Director:
Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)Writer:
Kar-Wai Wong (as Kar Wai Wong)Stars:
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ping Lam Siu
My sassy girl ( Korea)
A young man sees a drunk, cute woman standing too close to the tracks at a metro station in Seoul and pulls her back. She ends up getting him into trouble repeatedly after that, starting on the train.
