Vracenky 1991
Vracenky 1991
1h 34m | Drama | Release date: November 1, 1991 (Czechoslovakia)
Storyline:
In the fifites the 10 year old boy Honza lives with his single mother in Prague. The mother is a dedicated communist in the beginning but she changes her mind when a show trial is held. She speaks about her dissatisfaction with the government and is immediately arrested. Honza is given to another family.
Louis, enfant roi 1993
Louis, enfant roi 1993
2h 40m | Biography, Drama, History | Release date: April 21, 1993 (France)
Storyline:
The title of this major French costume drama means “Louis, child-king”, and indeed it’s a fascinating fresco about the formative years of the young king Louis XIV, before he became the Sun-king at Versailles. It was a dark and violent period, when the Louvre (meaning ‘wolves hunt castle’, hunting was a major aristocratic pastime), then still the somewhat gloomy royal palace, was the battle field of palace intrigues while the regency was held by queen-mother Anne of Austria but the actual head of the royal government was the aging cardinal Giulio Mazirini (‘Mazarin’), the less-known Italian successor of Richelieu, who also introduced to the court and the kingdom a host of his countrymen from whom Louis would learn the passion for Italian culture, especially music which would flourish under the direction of Lully (but that later story is another movie, “Le Roi danse”). The elaborate script sketches the story of French power politics, too complicate and devious to summarize in any detail, but mainly from the viewpoint of the immature king under maternal guardianship, who probably didn’t comprehend half of the grave troubles focusing on the strife between the official Catholic church and those claiming freedom of religion, especially for the Huguenots, but in reality mainly driven by personal and family ambitions and the grip of nobles on the kingdom at the expense of the royal power, and climaxing in a full rebellion, known as the Fronde, which forces the royal family to flee for their lives, an experience that may have decided Louis to dedicate his reign to preventing a repeat by establishing absolutism as he did. Some narration is done by Louis’s younger brother Philip, the duke of Anjou, who seems smarter but as the spare heir is condemned to life in a golden cage, overshadowed by Louis while any ‘disrespect’ for his crowned sibling is punishable on the spot by strap lashes administered on his bare behind by a servant.
Koi kizuna no sato 2012
Koi kizuna no sato 2012
57m | Drama | Release date: 2012 (Japan)
Storyline:
Twelve year old Osamu Hirano is in love with his classmate Rio, but he doesn’t have courage to confess his love to her. One day he learns that she is going out with Shuichi and this makes him very depressed. Shuichi is also a classmate, but unlike Osamu, he is very smart and also good at sports. Meanwhile, Osamu’s 21 year old sister Yumi, who years ago ran away to the big city of Nagoya, suddenly turns up with her fiancé, Kenji Yamaoka, a 45 year old ethnologist. Unsurprisingly, her parents have problems with Yumi’s choice of husband, particularly since he is the same age as her father and appears to have major health problems to boot. Yumi’s sudden reappearance, after years of silence, and her insistence on marrying a man more than twice her age, predictably throws the family into turmoil. Both Yumi and Osamu have problems addressing love, the deeper they fall into it, the more difficulty they have expressing their true feelings.
Birds Without A Nest 1996
Birds Without A Nest 1996
Ptitsy bez gnyozd (original title)
1h 29m | Biography, Drama | Release date: 1996 (Belarus)
Storyline:
A film based on Belarusian poet Larisa Geniyush’s memoir. Despite living through the difficult times and being in emigration, she fought for freedom in her homeland and expressed devotion to the nation and it’s language.
Smil mand 1972
Smil mand 1972
1h 11m | Family | Release date: December 15, 1972 (Denmark)
Storyline:
Teenage Ole is sent to boarding school by his single mother so he can learn more about life as he goes through puberty. But he finds the other boys just have their own problems.
Body Switch 1995
Body Switch 1995
Farligt venskab (original title)
1h 28m | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi | Release date: October 6, 1995 (Denmark)
Storyline:
An elite sports doctor with 2 months to live offers to help a basketball team, so as to find a healthy boy to switch bodies with. A teenager wakes up to find himself in the old doctor’s dying body.
Keep The River On Your Right 2000
Keep The River On Your Right 2000
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (original title)
1h 33m | Documentary, Adventure, Romance | Release date: April 15, 2000 (United States)
Storyline:
In 1955, while a Fulbright scholar, a Manhattan painter named Tobias Schneebaum spent seven months in the Amazon basin with the Harakambut. When he returned to the US, he could no longer paint. What happened? Nearly 45 years later, filmmakers want Tobias, now 78 and suffering from Parkinson’s, to return to Peru. He refuses but allows that he will revisit the Asmat in New Guinea where he spent an idyllic time years before. That trip goes well, including a serendipitous meeting with Aipit, an aging native and once Tobias’ friend and lover. Tobias then agrees to go to Peru to look for the people whom he joined on a murderous raiding party. The scars of war remain as does fear.
