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1964 Japanese film by Masaki Kobayashi

Aimless young Alexandre juggles his relationships with his girlfriend, Marie, and a casual lover named Veronika. Marie becomes increasingly jealous of Alexandre's fling with Veronika and as the trio continues their unsustainable affair, the emotional stakes get higher, leading to conflict and unhappiness.

A bright and idealistic young graduate steels himself for a dog-eat-dog world, only to flounder in a job market packed with thousands of other hopefuls. When he eventually decides to start his own business as a middle-man, he discovers that the world of business does not live up to his lofty ideals.

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

Beautiful young widow Tara returns to her village with her two children from the country. On her way home, she learns that her grandfather has died, and distributes his belongings among her neighbours. But there remains an old sword that no one will accept. One day, on the road, Tara meets an ancient warrior, who claims that his clan have sent him to take the old sword back.

In this unreal walk through the streets of Paris, Marie (Bulle Ogier), a woman convicted of robbing a bank is just out from prison when she runs into Baptiste (Pascale Ogier) a young paranoid needing companionship, and the two team up for awhile. Marie's former boyfriend (Pierre Clementi) supplies them with a strange map of the city, suspicious because he keeps files on political figures that may be somehow linked to the map. A gangster nicknamed "Max" begins to track Marie and the already paranoid Baptiste, causing Marie to examine the map as though it held the clue to which sides of the city were "safe" and which were not. As the two women attempt to outsmart Max and unknown gangsters, they try to figure out the map - a task made all the more difficult by Baptiste's tendency to violent rushes of adrenaline and Marie's overworked imagination (a dragon at the North Bridge is a threat until Baptiste screams him down). Between the dragon and their own demons, Marie and Baptiste face frightening odds against coming out of this misadventure intact. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

1981 film by João César Monteiro

A bizarre black comedy about a man whose overwhelming ambition in life is to be a renowned serial killer of women, and will stop at nothing to achieve it - but not everything goes according to plan...

1954 film by Roberto Rossellini

1952 film directed by Roberto Rossellini

1954 film by Kenji Mizoguchi

1957 film by Andrzej Wajda

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

1957 film by Federico Fellini

1952 Italian film by Vittorio De Sica

1957 film by Yasujirō Ozu

Alexander Dovzhenko’s first sound film, revolving around the construction of a giant dam on the Dnieper River, is one of his greatest, though it was poorly received in the Soviet Union when it came out in 1932. It’s only one of the eccentricities of this lyrical and monumental feature that the title refers to three different characters, and it’s telling that the father of one of them, an illiterate peasant who proudly spends his time fishing and loafing while everyone else works, is treated with considerable warmth. (A sequence in which he’s frightened when addressed by an outdoor loudspeaker evokes Chaplin as well as Tati.) As in all of Dovzhenko’s best work, the style veers closer to lyrical poetry (its opening sequence about the river) and portraiture (a later segment introducing us to various workers) than to narrative, though it’s innovative in other respects as well: the final sequence includes some striking jump cuts almost 30 years before Jean-Luc Godard purportedly invented them in Breathless.

1974 biographical film directed by Peter Watkins

Originally made as a silent film, Odna was released in 1931 as a 'sound' film – which differs from a talkie because although there are sound effects in the film, there is no synchronised dialogue and it was intended to be performed with an orchestral accompaniment using a score by Shostakovich. After it fell into political disfavour the film was archived in the Lenfilm complex, which was destroyed during the siege of Leningrad. Fortunately, although much of the score was lost, all but one 8-minute reel survived, as did the full score for the missing reel. Mark Fitz-Gerald and colleagues, with the encouragement of Shostakovich's widow, completed the restoration of the original score in 2003. It was first performed in the Netherlands and has also been performed in France, Switzerland and Germany. I attended the London Premiere on 10th February 2006.
Normally, a review relates to an experience that can be shared subsequently by any cinema-goer, or watcher of DVDs. A live concert performance (the BBC Symphony Orchesttra conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald) is different. The entire orchestral performance and live sound effects such as the throat singer, Theramin and Harmonium will not be constant factors - which is why performances of great musical works are reviewed repeatedly. The performance I experienced may be different from what you experience. For me, what might have been a rather sentimental ending was transformed by the 'buzz' of the live musical climax (the entire restored score was performed, with titles explaining the action of the missing reel).
A notable feature of the film was the superb natural performance of the 'actors' (including a real shaman performing a real ritual) with none of the exaggerated eye makeup of 'Napoleon' and the German expressionists. Such a live performance converted a good propaganda film into something more sublime and an experience that should not be missed if the opportunity is repeated.

The film was a great success, De Sica and Lia Franca became stars and the song Parlami d'amore Mariù was a hit. Rarelly in Italian film history, it was filmed on real Milan locations, nowadays it is a sort of documentary how was Milan in the 30s. The film was remade in 1953 by Glauco Pellegrini.