Maruyama the Middle Schooler 2013
Chûgakusei Maruyama (original title)
1h 59min | Comedy | 18 May 2013 (Japan)
Storyline:
Of what does a fourteen-year-old boy often think and fantasize? Well, supposedly the answer is mostly of an erotic nature and, more particularly, quite often self-eroticism. In this case our middle-school hero is not content to wonder. He is willing to put in the work, exercise and effort to achieve his goal. To complement our young man there is the offbeat father, obsessed mother and a whole cast of curious characters.
Fanny och Alexander 1982
3h 8min | Drama | 17 December 1982 (Sweden)
Storyline:
It’s the early twentieth century Sweden. Adolescent siblings Alexander and Fanny Ekdahl lead a relatively joyous and exuberant life with their well-off extended paternal family, led by the family matriarch, their grandmother, Helena Ekdahl. The openness of the family culture is exemplified by Helena’s now deceased husband ending up becoming best friends with one of her lovers, a Jewish puppet maker named Isak Jacobi, and their Uncle Gustav Adolf’s open liaison with one of the family maids, Maj, who everyone in the family adores, even Gustav Adolf’s wife, Alma. Between the siblings, Alexander in particular has inherited the family’s love of storytelling, his parents and his grandmother who are actors and who manage their own theater. Things change for Alexander and Fanny when their father, Oscar, dies shortly after Christmas 1907. Although she truly does believe she loves him, the children’s mother, Emilie, decides to marry Bishop Edvard Vergérus, who she first met as the officiate at Oscar’s funeral. She also wants a father figure for the children. Going into the marriage, Emilie has inclinations that it will be a much different life than she had with the Ekdahls, but is not prepared for the harsh, austere and strict life Edvard rules with an iron fist. Emilie, Alexander and Fanny end up being prisoners in the bishop’s stark and humorless house. As Alexander butts head with his stepfather and tries to learn how to keep to his own principles while obeying Edvard, Emilie tries to figure out a way to regain her and her children’s own destiny, as Edvard will not consent to divorce, and her “desertion” in the eyes of the law means that Alexander and Fanny would become his wards.
Chippendiddys 1995
45min | Documentary | Video 1995
Storyline:
Imagine nine, peach-fuzzed young teasers in a milk and cookies spoof of the world’s most famous all male dance troupe! Aaron, Simon, Sid, Kyle and their pals will gyrate their way into your heart and make you chuckle aloud at their puppyish exuberance and camaraderie. Watch the guys at rehearsal and later on stage, as they reveal some of their most exotic costumes and dance routines to an enthusiastic audience of female bubblegummers. Then meet these charming pre-teen dreamboys up close and personal, as they discuss their lives and passions, and then get wild in a spirited game of shirts and skins soccer
Nicolas is a boy living on a remote island set in the future, or another planet – or is it a dream? His village consists of white-painted houses located above the sea with a volcanic rock and black sand coastline, populated by young women and boys all of a similar age to Nicolas. Whilst swimming, Nicolas makes a discovery in the ocean, which is shrugged off my his mother, who, like all the women in the town has tied-back hair, is pale and wears a simple thin beige dress. Nicolas is curious, thinks that he is being lied to and starts to explore his environment, witnessing some unsettling scenes. He then finds himself taken to a hospital-like building where he along, with the others, undergoes a series of medical procedures by the women, dressed as nurses. He is befriended by one nurse, who becomes instrumental in the film’s denouement. The film is not easy to categorise; it is not only enigmatic but beautifully filmed with deeply poetic imagery. It reflects the fear of the unknown, experienced by a boy on the cusp of adolescence.
The only residents of young Nicholas’s seaside town are women and boys. When he sees a dead body in the ocean one day, he begins to question his existence and surroundings. Why must he, and all the other boys, be hospitalised?
Madame Rosa 1977
La vie devant soi (original title)
1h 45min | Drama | 2 November 1977 (France)
Storyline
Madame Rosa lives in a sixth-floor walkup in the Pigalle; she’s a retired prostitute, Jewish and an Auschwitz survivor, a foster mom to children of other prostitutes. Momo is the oldest and her favorite, an Algerian lad whom she raises as a Muslim. He asks about his parents; she answers evasively. As she ages and takes fewer children, Momo must do more for her; as money is tight, he tries to earn pennies on the street with a puppet. He’s a beautiful man-child, and Madame Rosa makes him promise never to sell himself or become a pimp. A film editor, Nadine, befriends him, and his father appears as well. Madame Rosa reaches her last days in fear of hospitals, and Momo must act.
La ville dont le prince est un enfant 1997
1h 31min | Drama | TV Movie 7 March 1997
Storyline:
Two boys in their early teens in a strictly-run pre-WWII Catholic School form a firm friendship which is troubled by an abbot who is obsessed with the younger of the students.
L’enfant sauvage 1970
1h 23min | Drama | 26 February 1970 (France)
Storyline
1798. In a forest, some countrymen catch a wild child who can not walk, speak, read nor write. Doctor Itard is interested by the child, and starts to educate him. Everybody thinks he will fail, but with a lot of love and patience, he manages to obtain results and the child continues with normal development. This is based on true story.
You, Me and Him 2007
Café com Leite (original title)
18min | Short, Drama | 22 November 2007 (Brazil)
Storyline:
When the plans for the future change, new bonds are created between Danilo, Lucas and Marcos. in between video-games and milk cups, pain and disappointment, they need to learn how to live together.
