Friday, August 31, 2012

Arirang (2011)

Arirang • 아리랑 (2011)
Arirang • 아리랑 (2011)
Genre: Documentary | Drama
Director: Kim Ki-duk
Starring: Kim Ki-duk
Language: Korean
Duration: 100 min.
Rating: 6.8
Summary:
A self shot portrait of a filmmaker going through a personal crisis.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

A Prayer for Katerina Horovitz (1965)

A Prayer for Katerina Horovitz • Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horovitzovou (1965)
A Prayer for Katerina Horovitz • Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horovitzovou (1965)
Czech New Wave
Genre: Drama
Director: Antonín Moskalyk
Starring: Jiří Adamíra , Lenka Fišerová , Martin Růžek , Čestmír Řanda, Ilja Prachař
Language: Czech
Duration: 68 min.
Rating: 7.5
Summary:
In 1943 Italy, a group of Jewish-American businessmen and a young Polish actress are arrested by the Germans, and their freedom is offered in exchange for a large ransom and a trade for captured Nazi officers.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Marley (2012)

Marley (2012)
Marley (2012)
Genre: Documentary | Biography
Director: Kevin MacDonald
Language: English
Duration: 144 min.
Rating: 7.7
Summary:
A documentary on the life, music, and legacy of Bob Marley.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Crime in a Music Hall (1968)

Crime in a Music Hall • Zločin v šantánu (1968)
Crime in a Music Hall • Zločin v šantánu (1968)
Czech New Wave
Genre: Crime | Comedy | Musical
Director: Jiří Menzel
Starring: Eva Pilarová , Jiří Suchý , Jiří Šlitr , Jitka Zelenohorská , Vlastimil Brodský
Language: Czech
Duration: 85 min.
Rating: 6.7
Summary:
Follows the botched investigation of a stolen pearl necklace and a subsequent murder at the Tartaros cabaret.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Caesar Must Die (2012)

Caesar Must Die • Cesare deve morire (2012)
Caesar Must Die • Cesare deve morire (2012)
Genre: Drama | Documentary
Director: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Starring: Cosimo Rega, Salvatore Striano, Giovanni Arcuri, Antonio Frasca, Juan Dario Bonetti
Language: Italian
Duration: 76 min.
Rating: 7.4
Summary:
Follows convicts in their rehearsals ahead of a prison performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Monday, August 13, 2012

2012 Locarno Film Festival: Award Winners


The 65th edition of the Locarno Film Festival has now come to an end, with the closing awards ceremony held Saturday (August 11) evening at the Piazza Grande.

The jury presided by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakhul awarded this year's Golden Leopard (Pardo d'oro) for Best Feature Film to The Girl From Nowhere (La fille du nulle part). A French film directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau, and starring Virginie Legeay and Claude Morel, about a retired math professor whose life changes when a young and injured homeless woman arrives at his door one day. Brisseau is known for making some twisted adult fables such as Secret Things (2002) and The Exterminating Angels (2006).

The Silver Leopard for Best Actor went to Walter Saabel for his role in The Shine of Day (Der glanz des tages), directed by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel.

While the Best Actress trophy went to An Nai in When Night Falls (Wo hai you hua yao shou) by Ying Liang who also picked up the Best Director award. This South Korean produced Chinese film, which the Chinese authorities tried to stop from being shown, tells the true story of the mother of a man who killed six Shanghai policemen.

Read on for the list of winners from the Concorso internazionale section of this year's Festival del film Locarno:

Friday, August 10, 2012

Farewell My Concubine (1993)

Farewell My Concubine • Ba wang bie ji • 霸王别姬 (1993)
Farewell My Concubine • Ba wang bie ji • 霸王别姬 (1993)
Genre: Drama | Epic
Director: Chen Kaige
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li
Language: Mandarin
Duration: 171 min.
Rating: 7.8
Summary:
The passionate story of two lifelong friends, trained from childhood to become stars of the Beijing Opera.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The Raid: Redemption (2011)

The Raid: Redemption • Serbuan maut (2011)
The Raid: Redemption • Serbuan maut (2011)
Genre: Action
Director: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian
Language: Indonesian
Duration: 101 min.
Rating: 6.7
Summary:
A SWAT team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Valley of the Bees (1968)

Valley of the Bees • Údolí včel (1968)
Valley of the Bees • Údolí včel (1968)
Czech New Wave
Genre: Historical Drama
Director: František Vláčil
Starring: Petr Čepek, Jan Kačer, Zdeněk Kryzánek, Věra Galatíková, Miroslav Macháček, Josef Somr
Language: Czech
Duration: 97 min.
Rating: 8.8
Summary:
The tale of a man forced to join the Order of the Teutonic Knights at a young age, and his later struggle with maintaining loyalty to the order versus his desire to live a free life.

Friday, August 3, 2012

The Piano (1993)

The Piano (1993)
Palme d'Or Winner
Genre: Drama | Romance
Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill
Language: English, Maori, British Sign Language
Duration: 121 min.
Rating: 8.5
Summary:
The story of a mute woman who along with her young daughter, and her prized piano, are sent to 1850s New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Three Daughters (1968)

Three Daughters • Tri dcéry (1968)
Three Daughters • Tri dcéry (1968)
Czech New Wave
Genre: Drama
Director: Stefan Uher
Starring: Jozef Cierny, Alžbeta Štrkuová, Stanislava Strobachová, Dušan Blaškovic, Milan Fiabane
Language: Czech
Duration: 86 min.
Rating: 7.4
Summary:
Following WWII, a wealthy farmer who sent his three daughters to a convent in order to give all his land to his only son, finds himself homeless, poor, and seeking refuge with the daughters he shunned long ago.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Dil Se.. (1998)

Dil Se.. (1998)
Dil Se.. • दिल से (1998)
Genre: Drama | Romance | Musical | Thriller
Director: Mani Ratnam
Starring: Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta
Language: Hindi, Tamil, Assamese, Urdu, Telugu, English
Duration: 163 min.
Rating: 7.6
Summary:
The clash between love and ideology is portrayed in this story of a lovestruck radio executive and the beautiful enigmatic woman he meets at a train station.