Snow Cake is a 2006 independent drama film directed by Marc Evans and starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, and Callum Keith Rennie. It was released on September 8, 2006 in the UK.
Filmed in Wawa, Ontario, Snow Cake is a drama about the friendship between Linda, a woman with autism (Weaver), and Alex (Rickman) who is traumatized after a car accident involving himself and Linda's daughter (Hampshire).
The movie was screened and discussed at Autism Cymru 2nd international conference in May 2006 as well as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, among others. It was the opening night screening for the Berlin Film Festival as well.
The screenwriter, Angela Pell, wrote the role of Alex Hughes with Rickman in mind. It was also Rickman who read the script and made sure Sigourney Weaver (with whom he had previously starred in Galaxy Quest) was contacted about the role of Linda. Both Rickman and Weaver were runners-up at the Seattle International Film Festival for the respective prizes of Best Actor and Best Actress.
During the course of making the movie, Sigourney Weaver (Linda) researched the subject of autism and was coached by Ros Blackburn, a woman with the condition who is also an author and speaker about autism and aspergers syndrome. Alan Rickman chose not to research the subject of autism in order to make his character have an impact/shock when facing Linda.
This motion-picture really IS one definitive "what if" kind of story.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages in reverse and Cate Blanchett as the love interest throughout his life.
The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2008, to positive reviews. The film went on to receive thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Supporting Actress for Taraji P. Henson. It won three Oscars, for Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects.
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of "Everington" in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. In 2001, author Melvin Burgess was commissioned to write the novelisation of the film based on Lee Hall's screenplay. The story was adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005; it opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008.
The film is set during the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and centres on the character of 11-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), his love of dance, and his hope to become a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie (Gary Lewis), older brother, Tony (Jamie Draven), and his invalid Nan (Jean Heywood), who once aspired to be a professional dancer. Both Jackie and Tony are coal miners out on strike.
Jackie takes Billy to the Sports Centre to learn boxing like his father's dad, but Billy struggles and dislikes the sport. He then happens upon a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio in the Sports Centre is temporarily being used as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unknown to Billy's father, he joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this after the boxing coach mentions Billy's absence, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet. But, passionate about dancing, Billy secretly continues his lessons with his dance teacher Georgia Wilkinson's (Julie Walters) help.
Georgia believes Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a skirmish between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Georgia goes to Billy's house to tell Jackie about the missed opportunity. Jackie and Tony, fearing that Billy will be considered a "poof", are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.
Actress Anette Bening is simply FANTASTIC in this film.
Being Julia is a 2004 drama film with comic undertones directed by István Szabó and starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons. The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham. The original music score is composed by Mychael Danna.
Set in London in 1938, the film focuses on highly successful and extremely popular theatre actress Julia Lambert, whose gradual disillusionment with her career as she approaches middle age has prompted her to ask her husband, stage director Michael Gosselyn, and his financial backer, Dolly de Vries, to close her current production to allow her time to travel abroad. They convince her to remain with the play throughout the summer, and Michael introduces her to Tom Fennel, an enterprising American who confesses his deep appreciation of her work. Seeking the passion missing from her marriage, and anxious to fill the void left when her close friend Lord Charles suggested they part ways to avoid scandalous gossip, Julia embarks on a passionate affair with the young man and begins to support him so he may enjoy the glamorous lifestyle to which she has introduced him. Their relationship revives her, sparking a distinct change in her personality. Always hovering in the background and offering counsel is the spirit of her mentor, Jimmie Langton, the theatrical manager who gave Julia her start and made her a star, while flesh-and-blood Evie serves as her personal maid, dresser, and confidante.
Michael suggests they invite Tom to spend time at their country estate, where he can become better acquainted with their son Roger. At a party there Tom meets aspiring actress Avice Crichton, and when Julia sees him flirting with the pretty young woman she becomes jealous and anxious and angrily confronts him. He slowly reveals himself to be a callous, social-climbing, gold-digging gigolo, and Julia is shattered when their affair comes to an end.
Avatar is a 2009 American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system.
The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi—a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi-human hybrid bodies used by a team of researchers to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999, but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film. Work on the language for the film's extraterrestrial beings began in Summer 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006.
Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion. The film was released for traditional viewing, 3-D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and "4-D" viewing. The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology.
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was internationally released on December 16 and in the United States and Canada on December 18, to critical acclaim and commercial success.
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American computer-animated family film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) who, along with a regal tang called Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), searches for his abducted son Nemo (Alexander Gould).
Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and to let Nemo take care of himself. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the 2nd highest-grossing film of 2003, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, earning a total of $868 million worldwide.
Finding Nemo is also the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006 and it was the highest-grossing G-rated movie of all time, before Pixar's own Toy Story 3 overtook it. It is also the 4th highest grossing animated film of all time. It is currently the 25th highest grossing film of all time.
In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest animated film ever made during their 10 Top 10.
The inspiration for Nemo was made up of multiple experiences. The idea goes back to when director Andrew Stanton was a child, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. In 1992 shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (which was called Marine World at the time). There he saw the shark tube and various exhibits he felt that the underwater world could be done beautifully in computer animation.Later, in 1997 he took his son for a walk in the park, but found that he was over protecting him constantly and lost an opportunity to have any "father-son experiences" on that day. In an interview with National Geographic Magazine, he stated that the idea for the characters of Marlin and Nemo came from a photograph of two clownfish peeking out of an anemone:
"It was so arresting. I had no idea what kind of fish they were, but I couldn't take my eyes off them. And as an entertainer, the fact that they were called clownfish—it was perfect. There's almost nothing more appealing than these little fish that want to play peekaboo with you."
The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan. It was executive-produced by Arnold Leibovit and directed by Simon Wells, who is the great-grandson of the original author, and stars Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons, Orlando Jones, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, Sienna Guillory, and Phyllida Law with a cameo by Alan Young, who also appeared in the 1960 film adaptation.
The 2002 film is set in New York City instead of London and contains new story elements not present in the original novel, including a romantic backstory, a new scenario about how civilization was destroyed, and several new characters, such as an intelligent hologram played by Orlando Jones and a Morlock leader played by Jeremy Irons.
Director Gore Verbinski was brought in to take over the last 18 days of shooting, as Wells was suffering from "extreme exhaustion". Wells returned for post-production.
Downfall (German: Der Untergang) is a 2004 German/Italian/Austrian epic war film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler's life in his Berlin bunker and Nazi Germany in 1945.
The film was written by Bernd Eichinger, and based upon the books Inside Hitler's Bunker, by historian Joachim Fest; Until the Final Hour, the memoirs of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries; portions of Albert Speer's memoirs Inside the Third Reich; Hitler's Last Days: An Eye–Witness Account, by Gerhardt Boldt; Das Notlazarett Unter Der Reichskanzlei: Ein Arzt Erlebt Hitlers Ende in Berlin (memoirs) by Doctor Ernst-Günther Schenck; and Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936–1949 (memoirs) by Siegfried Knappe. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In 1942, a group of German secretaries are escorted to Adolf Hitler's (Bruno Ganz) compound at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia. After dictating to her for a moment and despite multiple mistakes, Hitler selects Traudl Humps (Alexandra Maria Lara) to be one of his personal secretaries.
The scene shifts to Hitler's 56th birthday on April 20, 1945. Secretary Traudl Humps (now Traudl Junge) is awakened in the Führerbunker by the sound of Soviet artillery. Later, Generals Wilhelm Burgdorf and Karl Koller confirm to a surprised Hitler that the Red Army is just 12 kilometres from the city centre. Later, at his birthday reception, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) and his SS adjutant Hermann Fegelein (Thomas Kretschmann) plead with Hitler to allow himself to be evacuated from the city. Instead, Hitler declares, "I will defeat them in Berlin, or face my downfall." Himmler leaves Berlin with the intention of negotiating surrender terms with the Western Allies behind Hitler's back.
In another part of the city, a group of Hitler Youth members continue to build up defenses for the defense of Berlin. Peter, a boy in the group, is vainly urged by his father to desert and flee the city. Later, Peter's unit is part of a group which is awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler.
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 dramatic disaster film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is an adaptation of the 1997 non-fiction book of the same title by Sebastian Junger about the crew of the Andrea Gail that got caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, William Fichtner, John C. Reilly, Allen Payne, John Hawkes, Diane Lane, Michael Ironside, Karen Allen and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The film was released on June 30, 2000 by Warner Bros. Pictures.
In October 1991, the swordfishing boat Andrea Gail returns to port in Gloucester, Massachusetts with a poor catch. Desperate for money, Captain Billy Tyne (Clooney), convinces the Andrea Gail crew to join him for one more late season fishing expedition. They head out past their usual fishing grounds, leaving a developing thunderstorm behind them. Initially unsuccessful, they head to the Flemish Cap, where their luck improves. At the height of their fishing the ice machine breaks; the only way to sell their catch before it spoils is to hurry back to shore. After debating whether to sail through the building storm or to wait it out, the crew decide to risk the storm. However, between the Andrea Gail and Gloucester is a confluence of two powerful weather fronts and a hurricane, which the Andrea Gail crew underestimate.
The film is based on Junger's non-fiction book of the same title. The book itself has sometimes been accused of factual errors (e.g., misspelling of a person's name), one-sided research (e.g., initially not interviewing the skipper and owner of the yacht Satori) and bias against the fishing industry (e.g., role of drinking among fishermen); the author and, according to him, also fishermen have defended the book. The film leaves out many of the book's technical details, like the prominent role of the Canadian Coast Guard, as well as contested parts about the stability (resistance to capsizing) of the Andrea Gail.
The film only claims to be "based on a true story." It differs in many ways from the book, starting with the fictionalization of the material into a "story." The film also continues to narrate the story of the Andrea Gail after its last radio contact. As the boat and the bodies of the crew were never found, these final events (e.g., the decision to change course, the 360° knockover, etc.) are obviously entirely speculation.
I was quite fixated by this scary 'what if' film. It's so suspenseful and has such super special-effects!
28 Days Later is a 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston. The plot depicts the breakdown of society following the accidental release of a highly contagious "rage" virus and focuses upon the struggle of four survivors to cope with the ruination of the life they once knew.
A critical and commercial success, the film is widely recognised for images of a deserted London, and was shot almost entirely on digital video. The film spawned a 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, a graphic novel entitled 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, which expands on the timeline of the outbreak, and a 2009 comic book series 28 Days Later.
Match Point is a 2005 dramatic thriller film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton. The film received critical acclaim, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
When former tennis pro Chris Wilton begins a relationship with shy heiress Chloe Hewett after befriending her brother Tom, he finds his social and financial status vastly improved. However, once he has an affair with Tom’s ex-lover, American actress Nola Rice, he realises that his new, luxurious lifestyle may be threatened. Intensely dramatic!
What a FUN film mixed with drama, comedy and music. I loved the music so much that I bought the soundtrack. If you don't mind French with English subtitles...you'll LOVE this one. The BEST part is the mostly women cast of the BEST ACTRESSES 'ever' from France. It's an awesome one to watch over the Christmas holidays, too.
8 Women (French: 8 Femmes) is a 2002 French musical comedy murder-mystery film, directed by François Ozon and based on the play by Robert Thomas. The film was known as 8 femmes to distinguish it from the 1972 play entitled Huit femmes.
The film is set in the 1950s in a large country residence, as a family and its servants are preparing for Christmas, when the master of the house is discovered dead in his bed, with a dagger stuck into his back. The murderer must be one of the eight women in the house at the time, and in the course of the investigations each has a tale to tell and secrets to hide.
The scene opens with Suzon returning from school for Christmas break, finding her mother Gaby, her younger sister Catherine, and her wheelchair-bound grandmother Mamy in the living room, where most of the action of the film takes place. Their conversation drifts to the subject of the patriarch of the family, and Catherine leads the first song of the film, "Papa t'es plus dans le coup" (roughly, "Dad, you're out of touch"). The singing wakes up Suzon and Catherine's aunt Augustine, who picks arguments with the rest of the family and the two servants (Madame Chanel and Louise), eventually returning upstairs, threatening to commit suicide. Mamy jumps out of her wheelchair, trying to stop her, haphazardly explaining her ability to walk as a "Christmas miracle." Augustine is eventually calmed down, and she sings her song of longing, "Message personnel" (Personal Message).
If you missed this one in 2001 it's a "must-see". It's a 2001 German film directed by Caroline Link and based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Stefanie Zweig. It tells the story of a Jewish family that emigrates to Kenya during World War II to escape the Nazis and run a farm. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The film was very well received by many international critics. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune called Nowhere in Africa "stunning". Keneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times hailed the film as being "laced with poigancy and conflict, urgency and compassion." "I loved this film!" raved Roger Ebert; "...this is the kind of movie that real people really, really like!"
This is a great flashback to 1941 ITALY story that I thought was so very uniquely told and photographed. I highly recommend it. Watching Monica Bellucci as "Malena" is worthy of your time (Italian elegance). The ending may not be the best--but keep in mind that it's a slice of what may be a longer, more in-depth story.
he film is set in Sicily in 1940 during World War II just as Italy enters the war. Malena's husband, Nino Scordia, who left to join the military is presumed dead. Malena tries to cope with her loss, as the town she has moved to tries to deal with this beautiful woman who gets the attention of all the local men, including the 12-year-old Renato. However, in spite of the gossip, she continues to be faithful to her husband. Renato becomes obsessed with Malena and starts fantasizing about her.
Renato continues to watch as she suffers from grief. Malena is shunned by the townspeople who begin to believe the worst about her, simply because of her beauty.
Film critic Roger Ebert compared the film to Federico Fellini's work, writing, "Fellini's films often involve adolescents inflamed by women who embody their carnal desires (e.g. Amarcord and 8½). But Fellini sees the humor that underlies sexual obsession, except (usually but not always) in the eyes of the participants. Malena is a simpler story, in which a young man grows up transfixed by a woman and essentially marries himself to the idea of her. It doesn't help that the movie's action grows steadily gloomier, leading to a public humiliation that seems wildly out of scale with what has gone before and to an ending that is intended to move us much more deeply, alas, than it can."
THE MATRIX (1999), THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003), THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (2003) The Matrix is a science fiction action franchise created by Andy and Larry Wachowski and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The series began with the 1999 film The Matrix and later spawned two sequels; The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003, thus forming a trilogy. The characters and settings of the Matrix fictional universe are further explored in other media, including animation, comic books, and video games.
The series depicts a cyberpunk story incorporating numerous references to philosophical and religious ideas. Other influences include mythology, anime, and Hong Kong action films (particularly "heroic bloodshed" and martial arts movies). The fight choreographer for the trilogy was Yuen Woo-ping.
The term "Matrix" is used to describe what is today referred to as virtual reality in the seminal 1984 science fiction novel Neuromancer by William Gibson.
In the dystopia the series depicts, Earth is dominated by sentient machines, who have turned on humans and forced them into slavery. At one point, humans believed they could wipe out the machines by "scorching the sky," as they thought solar energy to be the life source of the machines. However, the machines devised a way to extract the bioelectricity and thermal energy from the human body by growing humans in pods connected by cybernetic implants to an artificial reality called the Matrix, which keeps their minds under control.
The Matrix makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths and philosophy including Buddhism, Vedanta, Advaita Hinduism, Christianity, Messianism, Gnosticism, Existentialism, Nihilism. The film's premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the cave, René Descartes's evil demon, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly", Marx's social theory and the brain in a vat thought experiment. Many references to Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation appear in the film, although Baudrillard himself considered this a misrepresentation. There are similarities to cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowski brothers first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him that anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real". Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G, which produced Ghost in the Shell, noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowski brothers. He also commented, "... cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios." He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowski brothers used it as a "promotional tool". Besides Ghost in the Shell, another Japanese anime which influenced The Matrix was the 1985 film Megazone 23, directed by Noboru Ishiguro and Shinji Aramaki. An American adaptation of Megazone 23 was released in 1986 as Robotech: The Movie. There are also several more Japanese anime and manga that can be found as sources of influence.
Reviewers have commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show. Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles; Morrison believes that the Wachowski brothers essentially plagiarized his work to create the film. In addition, the similarity of the film's central concept to a device in the long running series Doctor Who has also been noted. As in the film, the Matrix of that series (introduced in the 1976 serial The Deadly Assassin) is a massive computer system which one enters using a device connecting to the head, allowing users to see representations of the real world and change its laws of physics; but if killed there, they will die in reality. There is also a similar "Matrix" used by the Travellers in Paul Cornell's 1992 Doctor Who spin-off novel Love and War, in which a socket at the top of the spine is used to plug into the Matrix.
There are still numerous other influences from diverse sources such as Harlan Ellison (I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream), Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49), and William Gibson (Neuromancer).
The Lake House is a 2006 American romantic drama film remake of the South Korean motion picture Il Mare (2000). It was written by David Auburn, directed by Alejandro Agresti, and stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as Alex Wyler and Kate Forster, respectively an architect living in 2004 and a doctor living in 2006. The two meet via letters left in a mailbox at the lake house they have both lived in at separate points in time; they carry on correspondence over two years, remaining separated by their original difference of two years. For Alex the time goes from 2004 to 2006. For Kate the time goes from 2006 to 2008. This film reunites Reeves and Bullock for the first time in a film since they co-starred in Speed in 1994.
In 2006, Dr. Kate Forster is leaving a lake house that she has been renting in suburban Wisconsin to move to Chicago. She leaves a note in the mailbox for the next tenant, adding that the paint-embedded pawprints on the walkway leading into the house were already there when she arrived.
Two years earlier, in 2004, Alex Wyler, an architect, arrives at the lake house and finds Kate's letter in the mailbox. The house is neglected, with no sign of pawprints anywhere. As Alex restores the house, a dog runs through his paint and leaves fresh pawprints right where Kate said they would be.
The film is set and filmed in the Chicago area. The downtown scenes are in The Loop. The scene where Kate and Morgan go to Henry's office, and Kate's dramatic exit down the stairs was filmed at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The scene where Henry and Alex talk on the street after being in their father's office was filmed on the 400 block of South Michigan Ave, in front of the Fine Arts Building and the Auditorium Theater. Other filming location include Aurora, Illinois (now the Madison Park community) & Riverside, Illinois, a small town on the outskirts of Chicago known for its historic houses, and several Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. The train station in the movie is the real station of Riverside, and the bridge that Alex crosses, chasing Jack is called the "Swinging Bridge". It crosses the Des Plaines River. The lake house itself was built for the movie and dismantled after filming completed.
I saw this film at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in May 2004 (where it had its PREMIERE) and I met Gerard Butler after the film. I knew then that he was a great actor. This is a very heartwarming, dramatic film.
Dear Frankie is a 2004 British drama film directed by Shona Auerbach. The screenplay by Andrea Gibb focuses on a young single mother whose love for her son prompts her to perpetuate a deception designed to protect him from the truth about his father.
Lizzie Morrison, her opinionated, chain-smoking mother Nell, and nine-year-old deaf son Frankie frequently move to keep one step ahead of her abusive ex-husband and his family. Newly relocated in the Scottish town of Greenock, she accepts a job at the local fish and chips shop owned by a friendly woman named Marie, and enrolls Frankie in school.
Through a Glasgow post office box, Frankie maintains a regular correspondence with someone he believes to be his father Davey, who allegedly is a merchant seaman working on the MS Accra. In reality, the letters he receives are written by his mother, who prefers maintaining this charade to telling her son the reason she fled her marriage.
In the UK, Radio Times awarded the film four out of a possible five stars and commented, "This simple story is rich with precise observation and it tugs at the heartstrings without being maudlin or manipulative . . . With its sincere and perceptive script, the beautifully shot film vividly captures the raw emotions of its complex characters . . . Despite occasional flickers of a fairy-tale ending, Auerbach ultimately resists the temptation, maintaining the realism and integrity that give this thoughtful feature its bittersweet charm."
I was so mesmerized by the cinematography in this film. The romantic tale really captures the viewer. What a GREAT film!
House of Flying Daggers is a 2004 wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. It differs from other wuxia films in that it is more of a love story than a straight martial arts film.
The use of strong colours is again a signature of Zhang Yimou's work. Several scenes in a bamboo forest completely fill the screen with green. Near the end of the film, a fight scene is set in a blizzard. The actors and blood are greatly highlighted on a whiteout background. Another scene uses bright yellow as a colour theme. The costumes, props, and decorations were taken almost entirely from Chinese paintings of the period, adding authenticity to the look of the film.
The film opened in limited release within the United States on December 3, 2004, in New York City and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later. The film is set in 859 AD. The once great Tang Dynasty is now in decline. Numerous rebel groups have formed, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Feng Tian county. The Flying Daggers steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals.
The local deputies have managed to kill the leader of the Flying Daggers, but the rebel group only becomes stronger, due to a mysterious new leader. Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau), two police captains, are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days.
In order to accomplish this, they arrest Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the daughter of the old leader of the Flying Daggers. While Mei is incarcerated, Jin and Leo decide to let her go to track the mastermind; Jin will pretend to be a lone warrior called Wind, and break her out of prison. This will gain her trust, and hopefully, Jin will be led to the headquarters of Flying Daggers. The plan works, but Mei and Jin fall in love on the way. They are followed at a distance by Leo; Jin and Leo meet secretly to discuss their plans. Jin jokes about his seduction of the girl; Leo warns him sternly against getting involved.
To add authenticity to the deception, Leo and his men ambush the pair: the fight is, however, a fake. Further on, they are attacked again, but this time their assailants are apparently for real: Jin and Mei battle for their lives, being saved only by the intervention of an unseen knife-thrower. Furious, Jin confronts Leo: Leo explains that he has reported the matter up the chain of command and his general has taken over the pursuit. Jin realizes that he is now expendable.
The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han Dynasty poet Li Yannian.
This is a must-see documentary for every person on this planet Earth. The importance of "dirt" really woke me up after seeing this film. Plant a garden...shop at a farmers market. Do your share for a better world. Use your dirt! Cultivate it. Spread the word!
"Dirt! The Movie" is a 2009 American documentary film directed by filmmakers Gene Rosow and Bill Benenson and narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis. It was inspired by the book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan. The film explores the relationship between humans and soil, including its necessity for human life and impacts by society.
"Dirt! The Movie" was an official nominee for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won several other awards, including the best documentary award at the 2009 Visions/Voices Environmental Film Festival and the "Best film for our future" award at the 2009 Mendocino Film Festival.
Good luck locating a copy of this film with English subtitles. I was lucky enough to see it at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2004. It's a great Italian story about life in and around Naples, Italy. It really captures the 'real insides of Italy'. If you can ever see this story I would highly recommend it. I am sure if one does an internet search they can find a way to stream view this classic.
Vento Di Terra (wind of the earth) is an Italian film about an 18 year old boy (Vicenzo Pacilli) from a poor suburb of Napoli, Italy who finds himself burdened by expectations of supporting his mother after his father dies from an unexpected heart attack. Working in a blue-collar factory job, Vince soon finds that he does not have enough money to support himself, let alone his frail recently widowed mother. His sister departs to Cassano to finally end her employment drought by getting a job in the local FIAT factory. Vince is left alone to support his mother.
He gets involved in a heist, and then out of guilt confesses his sin to a close family friend, who suggests he joins the Italian army. In the army Vince meets a new found friend through his training period, and they are soon deployed together to the war torn state of Kosovo in the Former Yugoslavia, where he is exposed to the brutality of war.
This film is gripping, even though it has a sad storyline. It does have an abrupt ending but the story in and of itself is so very well done. Some things remain unresolved but--like most movies--one has to leave filling in the blanks and using ones own imagination. Think of this one as a 'slice of Italian life'.
