Ugetsu Monogatari In 16th-century Japan, two peasant brothers-in-law, both ambitious in different ways, set out for the city to better themselves. One of the two. Tobei (Sakas Ozawa), who dreams of military glory, encounters catastrophe when he comes across samurai armor and claims another man's victory as his own. The other man, Genjuro (Masayuki Mori), meets an…
The Look of Ulysses To Vlemma Tou Odyssea The Gaze of Ulysses A Greek-American filmmaker whose name is only given as A … (Harvey Keitel) returns to Greece after decades in the U.S. to attend a festival of his work. Obsessed with the history of the Balkans—particularly in light of the current conflict—and obsessed as well with the history of the cinema, A ……
An aged, former civil servant, now trying to live on a completely inadequate government pension, does what he can to maintain a semblance of dignity in spite of his poverty. Umberto is far behind on his rent, and though he's convinced that suicide is the only possible solution to his plight, he's reluctant to leave his beloved dog behind to fight for scraps of food on the mean, postw…
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg In Jacques Demy's brave and bittersweet love story, a 20-year-old Catherine Deneuve plays Genevieve, the teenaged daughter of umbrella shop owner Madame Emery (Anne Vernon). When the war in Algeria means that her adored boyfriend Guy (Nino Castelnuovo) is called to active duty, Genevieve becomes panicked …
A Heart in Winter Stephane (Daniel Auteuil) is a master craftsman who repairs violins with the care, sensitivity, and attention to perfection of a great surgeon. One day, a stunningly beautiful violinist (Emmanuelle Béart) comes into the shop that Stephane and his partner Maxime (André Dussollier) run together. A complicated and potentially m…
Sous les Toits de Paris In a teeming, tenement quarter of Paris, a street singer and his best friend both court a charming young girl. Complications ensue, but they don't get in the way of friendship. From this simple wisp of a plot, René Clair created this enchanting and inventive early film musical, which suggested new possibilities for the creative use of sound in filmmaking. Clai…
Once Upon a Time There Was a Country Il Etait une Fois un Pays Marko and Blacky, two wild and crazy Yugoslavian friends, join forces to fight the invading Nazis in 1941, hiding in a cellar to produce much-needed munitions. When the war ends, however, Marko (now dwelling above ground in the “real” world) neglects to inform Blacky, and continues to exploit his patriotic f…
Five Women around Utamaro Utamaro O Meguru Gonin No Onna Utamaro was a legendary 18th-century Japanese printmaker who gained inspiration from the demimonde of Edo, a sordid and disreputable environment of brothels, public drunkenness, and passionate love affairs. The director, Kenji Mizoguchi, was himself an artist concerned with areas of society that are often less than respectable, and the emoti…