Preparez vos mouchoirs 1978
Préparez vos mouchoirs (original title)
1h 48min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 11 January 1978 (France)
Storyline:
Solange is depressed: she’s stopped smiling, she eats little, she says less. She has fainting fits. Her husband Raoul seeks to save her by enlisting Stephane, a stranger, to be her lover. Although he listens to Mozart and has every Pocket Book arranged in alphabetical order, Stephane fails to cheer Solange. She knits. She does housework. Everyone, including their neighbor a vegetable vendor, agrees that she needs a child, yet she fails to get pregnant by either lover. The three take a job running a kids’ summer camp where they meet Christian, the precocious 13-year-old son of the local factory manager. It is Christian who restores Solange to laughter.
La vie de Jesus 1997
La vie de Jésus (original title)
1h 36min | Drama, Romance | 4 June 1997 (France)
Storyline:
A social movie about current life in the north of France. Freddy and his friends are all unemployed. They pass away time by wandering around on their motorcycles and by directing their aggressive feelings towards Arab immigrants. Freddy is in love with Marie, a cashier at a local supermarket. When she is proposed to by Kader, a young Arab man, Freddy and his friends have an idea: they decide to punish Kader for what they call “such a provocation.” After they have raped another girl, Marie finally commits to Kader, which seals his fate.
Don’t Look Down 2008
No mires para abajo (original title)
1h 25min | Drama, Romance | 30 October 2008 (Argentina)
Storyline:
Coming of age. In Buenos Aires, Eloy is on the verge of manhood. He studies physics, helps with the family headstone business, and does advertising – handing out flyers while walking on stilts or wearing an empanada costume. When his melancholy father dies, Eloy imagines that his father visits him at night; the explanation is more pedestrian – Eloy has started sleepwalking. Things change abruptly: while sleepwalking, he falls through an open skylight into the bed of Elvira, a young woman from Barcelona visiting her grandmother. Elvira invites Eloy to become her lover and teaches him Tantric sex. Eloy discovers bliss. And his father?
Ricky leaves Hong Kong for Switzerland to look for the lost soul and the past of his deceased Swiss lover, Pascal. Ricky struggles with the confusion of memories, reality and illusion.
Glasskar 2002
Glasskår (original title)
1h 16min | Drama, Family | 15 February 2002 (Norway)
User review:
Norwegian director Berg takes an unusual approach in this film about a young teen boy: He makes an honest, artistic film with adult production values that actually speaks to kids. The content may seem a bit grown up, but it’s right where these children live! Sometime in the 1980s, Viktor (Evjen), a sharp, perceptive 13-year-old who’s afraid he will never be as cool as his big brother OK (Lauritzsen). His pals (Eidissen and Stigar) seem to feel the same, so they form a band just to get the girls’ attention, even though none of them can play an instrument. Meanwhile, Viktor knows something’s up in his family. His parents (Kokkin and Kolsrud) are not talking to him, while OK tells him secrets he finds hard to believe. Meanwhile, Viktor notices a new girl (Johansen) and gets entangled with the local thug (Rafaelsen) and his girlfriend (Gjertsen). Basically, Viktor knows far more than anyone gives him credit for. And he cooler than all of them put together!
While the filmmaking itself is profoundly un-flashy, Berg captures the story beautifully. This is rich, meaningful cinema–thoroughly entertaining in its use of humour and unexpected adventures to keep us engaged, and then deepening it with a fairly intense examination of family communication (what the film is really about, as opposed to more obvious themes). Why do adults lie and keep the truth from children? Sometimes this is a little heavy-handed, but it’s never sentimental at all, and Berg gets terrific, natural, edgy performances from the entire cast. Evjen is especially good, making Viktor a very intriguing character we like instantly and then learn to respect (he becomes a bit too saintly at the end, but never mind). It’s rare to find a film about children made with this level of integrity and truthfulness; so keep an eye out for it.
Hidden Kisses 2016
Baisers cachés (original title)
1h 27min | Drama | TV Movie 1 January 2016
Storyline:
Nathan, 16, lives alone with his father Stephane. A newcomer in high school, he is invited to a party and falls in love with Louis, a boy in his class. They find themselves out of sight and kiss each other, but someone takes a picture of them. Soon, the photo is published on Facebook and a storm overtakes their lives as they face bullying and rejection.
Memories of My Childhood 1965
Amintiri din copilarie (original title)
1h 12min | Adventure, Biography, Comedy | 13 December 1965 (Romania)
Storyline:
Loosely based on Romanian author Ion Creanga’s life as a child during the 1840s.Young schoolboy Ion is growing up fast in a provincial town of the Moldavia region of Romania.Local villagers call him “Nica a lui Stefan a Petrei”.The film offers a detailed account of his childhood with special focus on the relationships between Ion and the various people in his life.The relationships between Ion as a child and his parents,friends,neighbors and teachers are described.The larger context of the Romanian rural social universe of the 19th century is also touched upon.Finally,the film shows Ion’s coming-of-age from an innocent child growing up in an idyllic remote village to a rebellious adolescent dreaming of becoming a priest.
Taxi zum Klo 1980
1h 38min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 9 January 1981 (West Germany)
Storyline:
Frank Ripploh is a bit of a rascal: he’s a bearded and shaggy-haired teacher, and he’s gay with a very active sex life and an interest in making films. He keeps his personal life and teaching separate, but he sometimes corrects student papers in public toilets as he waits to score. He cruises constantly, and one evening, he meets Bernd. They become lovers. While Bernd is attentive and caring, Frank gets bored and continues his polymorphously perverse ways. For how long will Bernd and Frank tolerate each other’s habits, and for how long can Frank keep his sexual orientation out of the classroom? Things come to a head during Berlin’s annual Queen’s Ball and the morning after.
Hohenfeuer 1985
Höhenfeuer (original title)
1h 59min | Drama | 30 January 1986 (West Germany)
Storyline
A year on an Alpine farm: an older couple have two children, Belli, who wanted to be a teacher, and the younger Franzi, deaf, and although he works like a man, child-like. Belli teaches him. In his work, he can become frustrated, so when he throws an expensive mower over a cliff in a fit of pique, his father banishes him to the outskirts of the farm, where he uses pubescent energy to break rocks and build walls and cairns. (It’s the tradition of the father’s family, called “The Irascibles” by neighbors, to spend puberty doing this.) Belli visits him and they begin sleeping together. By winter, the boy is back in the house and Belli is pregnant. Soon her parents must know.
