tasteofcinema masterpieces
List activity
212 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
37 titles
- DirectorLina WertmüllerStarsGiancarlo GianniniFernando ReyShirley StolerThe defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.
- DirectorGrigoriy ChukhrayStarsVladimir IvashovZhanna ProkhorenkoAntonina MaksimovaYoung Russian soldier Alyosha earns a medal, but asks to visit his mother instead. His journey recounts various kinds of love during wartime.
- DirectorYimou ZhangStarsMinzhi WeiHuike ZhangZhenda Tian13-year old Wei Minzhi is the new substitute teacher of a mountain village school. She is told not to lose any of her pupils under any circumstances.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsNascimento FernandesVital dos SantosAntónio PalmaThe story takes place in the old streets of Porto and by the banks of the Douro River. A gang of very young kids has just accepted a new member, Carlitos, a shy boy who has "played it tough" by stealing a doll in a shop. Carlitos soon has a crush on Terezinha, the only girl in the group. The trouble is that Eduardo, the gang boss, is also in love with the pretty girl. And he will not allow any rival to challenge him.
- DirectorNacer KhemirStarsParviz ShahinkhouMaryam HamidGolshifteh FarahaniThe story of a blind dervish Bab'Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar, together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years.
- DirectorAgnès VardaStarsSandrine BonnaireMacha MérilStéphane FreissA young woman's body is found frozen in a ditch. Through flashbacks and interviews, we see the events that led to her inevitable death.
- DirectorFredi M. MurerStarsThomas NockJohanna LierDorothea MoritzIsolated in the Swiss Alps, a young woman who would have liked to become a teacher teaches her deaf brother arithmetic and writing. An incestuous relationship develops between them.
- DirectorMohamed DiabStarsNilli KarimBushraMaged El-KidwaniUnfolds the poignant story of three women and their search for justice from the daily plight of sexual harassment in Egypt.
- DirectorEmil LoteanuStarsGalina BelyaevaOleg YankovskiyKirill LavrovA romantic drama in which a beautiful but poor young woman has to choose between three suitors: an old widower, a decadent nobleman and a handsome but poor young man.
- DirectorHenning CarlsenStarsPer OscarssonGunnel LindblomBirgitte FederspielIn 1890, Pontus, the starving writer, wanders the streets of Christiania, in search of love and a chance to get his work published. All he meets is defeat and suffering while his sense of reality is withering. One moment his is delighted and the next he curses everybody. All the time he manages to maintain human dignity and pride.
- DirectorZoltán FábriStarsMari TörőcsikSándor PécsiLászló KozákIn Budapest, two rival gangs of young boys lay claim to a vacant lot. The hostilities escalate yet never quite boil over into actual violence. The film poignantly portrays the struggles and resilience of youth amid the harsh realities of war.
- DirectorChristiane JatahyStarsCristina AmadeoPedro BrícioDani FortesDocumentary or fiction? Actors or characters? A recording of real life or scenes? Did it really happened or was it all staged? - This is the first film by acclaimed stage director Christiane Jatahy, with cinematography by Walter Carvalho and produced by Tambellini Filmes. The film is about the subtle boundary between reality and fiction. On Christmas's Eve, during twelve hours straight and in a single location, five actors were filmed uninterruptedly by three hand-held cameras. They were waiting for someone. They wonder if he will ever come. The reunion of these five friends, the absences, the joys and the pains are shared by all at the peak of tension. The film within a film reveals itself. The main purpose of the film is to probe deeply into human complexities. To expose each of the actors through an alteration of their emotional states: the web of subtle, emotional relationships among individuals in a group of very close friends. The recording of this radical encounter also brings back memories of a generation who is presently in their forties. Born after the military putsch, this generation experienced their childhood right through a dictatorial regime, a masked dictatorship though, fed by the support by from the medium class, in times where what was really happening was not supposed to be revealed; in short, a generation who lived inside a bubble, with no political education and no rights to their own biography. A generation that believed what was said in soap operas and TV commercials and raised themselves with little freedom of learning and thinking. Daily exposed to the mediocrity of media products imported from the USA, the children of the Brazilian dictatorship very often had politically engaged parents who passed to military grandparents the responsibility of their upbringing and education. Today, fully conscious of this situation, this generation exposes itself with braveness and anguish.
- DirectorSujoy GhoshStarsVidya BalanParambrata ChattopadhyayIndraneil SenguptaA pregnant woman's search for her missing husband takes her from London to Kolkata, but everyone she questions denies having ever met him.
- DirectorPeter WatkinsStarsPaul JonesJean ShrimptonMark LondonBritain's biggest pop singer, Steven Shorter (Paul Jones), receives unwavering adulation and possesses total control over his rabid fans, which includes nearly the entire population. Yet Shorter is not an autonomous performer -- he is little more than a puppet for the government, promoting whatever agenda they see fit. When a beautiful artist, Vanessa Ritchie (Jean Shrimpton), is commissioned to paint his portrait, she pushes Shorter to question his obedience to his manipulative handlers.
- DirectorJuan Carlos ManegliaTana SchémboriStarsCelso FrancoVíctor SosaLali GonzalezVíctor receives an unusual proposal, to carry 7 boxes of unknown content through the Market Number 4 but things get complicated along the way.
- DirectorJan TroellStarsMax von SydowLiv UllmannEddie AxbergSmåland, Sweden, mid-19th century. A farming family struggle with their rocky, unyielding land, and decide to embark on the arduous journey to new hope in America.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsAlex DescasMati DiopNicole DoguéThe relationship between a father and daughter is complicated by the arrival of a handsome young man.
- DirectorPaulo RochaStarsRui GomesIsabel RuthRuy Furtado19-year-old Julio has just left the provinces to settle down in the outskirts of Lisbon. He lives in a poor area with his uncle Afonso and starts working as an apprentice shoemaker. At the shop he gets to know Ilda, a young housemaid and regular customer. Ilda is pretty, joyful, and modern, and Julio falls for her. The two young people, although very different from each other, embark on an idyll.
- DirectorVojtech JasnýStarsJan WerichEmília VásáryováVlastimil BrodskýPeople arrive in a small village with a strange cat wearing glasses. When someone takes them off, he can color people, according to their nature and mood. Adults consider him dangerous; children love him.
- DirectorKaren ShakhnazarovStarsAllison WhitbeckVladimir MashkovMariya ShukshinaA lonely Russian man is trying to see his daughter who lives with her mother far away in the USA.
- DirectorGuido ManuliMaurizio NichettiStarsMaurizio NichettiAngela FinocchiaroMariella ValentiniMartina is a professional lady whose clients are harmless if eccentric; she sees herself as a social worker. Shy Maurizio dubs sound for cartoons while his outgoing brother dubs more saucy material and gets the girls. After Maurizio accidentally helps Martina on some of her assignations she decides to find out if he wants to help regularly. Whether or not it's the possibility of romance, Maurizio is horrified to find on their first date that his hands have been replaced by cartoon ones with minds of their own.
- DirectorÉric RohmerStarsMarie RivièreMaría Luisa GarcíaVincent GauthierIt's July, and Delphine has nowhere to go for the summer. She feels very bored and "empty", but this won't last; one day she accidently meets someone who seems to be totally made for her...
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsSophia LorenMaximilian SchellFredric MarchA maddened German war criminal lives in a secluded house owned by his rich father who lets him think the war is still on 20 years after the fact.
- DirectorJaco Van DormaelStarsDaniel AuteuilPascal DuquenneMiou-MiouAn unusual and wonderful friendship develops between a busy but unhappy salesman and a resident of a mental asylum.
- DirectorNorifumi SuzukiStarsShin'ichi ChibaYutaka NakajimaMakoto SatôSonny Chiba plays the character referred to as "Mr Soh", who is based on the true life founder of Shorinji Kempo, Doshin So. Mr Soh has been acting as a secret agent in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation. He is first seen spying on a meeting of Chinese soldiers as they plan a surprise ambush on the retreating Japanese Army. He is discovered and has to fight his way out, using fists, feet and then a machine gun. He rushes to inform the Japanese commanders of the plot, but is horrified to learn that Japan has done the unthinkable by surrendering unconditionally. Soh returns to his homeland to find a ravaged land of beaten people. Victimised by gangsters, occupation forces and corrupt local officials, the poor and the disenfranchised have lost the will to fight back. Using his "Shao Lin" skills (subtitle translation of Shorinji Kempo), he regularly champions the weak and teaches the black market thugs the error of their ways, becoming a regular guest at the local prison. He is seen to assist a former soldier, Otaki, who is seeking his lost wife at the bottom of a bottle, a fallen woman (Kiku) who has turned to prostitution after suffering rape by Russian soldiers, her little brother Kimio who gets injured by some American G.I.s who subsequently try to flee from accident. The Prison Governor warns him that the US Administration will not be so tolerant now that he has "crippled" the troops, suggesting a likely death sentence. He helps him to "escape" the jail and Soh leaves town in a hurry, pausing only to give advice to the band of orphans that he has befriended. Soh leaves the city of Osaka (central Japan) to go to the rural island of Shikoku where he finds a similar situation. He determines to bring new hope to the locals by teaching his martial arts skills to a growing band of followers. He gathers the loafers, ruffians and aimless, teaches them Shorinji Kempo (referred to as "Shao Lin" in subtitles) to build them up to be stronger physically and mentally. He meets some new characters, who he soon enlists in his school; Tomoda the young ex-soldier and his sister Miho. When the noodle-stall girl Noriko is raped by a gang of yakuza thugs, Soh and Tomoda dish out some rough justice (with some sharp scissors to one of the miscreant's tenderest flesh). Later, Tomoda and Miho are attacked and Tomoda has his arm cut off with a katana (Samurai sword). Soh avenges that with a visit to the local yakuza boss that leaves the boss with a dislocated arm and his minion missing a digit. Otaki, the former drunken soldier from Osaka joins the group, then in an emotional scene, discovers his wife is alive but has re-married after he was reported dead in the war. When the small-time local yakuza gangs are joined by familiar faces from Osaka seeking to expand their activities, it is time for action with a capital A. Before the final climactic face-off between Soh's students and the yakuza mob, there is time for Soh to receive an urgent message to see Kiku in Osaka. He returns to find the orphans caring for a terminally ill Kiku, who had turned to prostitution to help support them all. Soh experiences an epiphany and comes to recognise that "Strength and Compassion must be together" (Riki Ai Funi). In a typically cinematic finale, Soh's friend Otaki dies is killed by yakuza thugs paid to clear the honest poor from land to be used to build brothels and gambling dens. Soh goes on a final rampage to clear the yakuza right out of town forever. The epilogue reveals how Soh's school has flourished and spread across Japan (circa 1975), with scenes filmed at the organisations magnificent headquarters still based in the town of Tadotsu.