The background of the narrative is the widespread fighting between warlords that wreaked havoc on Japan over the 16th century, before one of them overrode his enemies, heralding the long period of political stability and iron-clad, moralistic military rule known as the Tokugawa era. The events occur…

After starting a career as painter and then moving to cinema to create abstract films, Walter Ruttmann decides to shoot a new kind of film that would be a visual symphony composed with the millions of energy comprising the life of the German metropolis. “Berlin: the Symphony of a…

Adam Cramer is a professional troublemaker sent by a far-right organization based in Washington, DC, to a little town of the Deep South, to marshal the local population in a fresh attempt to prevent the enforcement of the landmark ruling of the US Supreme Court on desegregation in…

Two young Jesuits priests, Padre Rodrigues and Padre Garupe, set out to travel to Japan in 1638 to find Padre Ferreira, who used to teach them the faith, has led a proselytizing drive in Japan but is now said to be an apostate. As soon as they arrived they are welcomed…

The way the long titles, which are projected on television footage of a riot, presents the cast indicates the narrative of “La haine” revolves around three different world: the community living in a huge urban project in a suburban town where much of the plot takes place, the police forces…

In the eyes of chiefs of the Unites States military in Vietnam, the apocalypse is coming under the guise of a turncoat, a Special Forces colonel launching unilateral and uncontrolled attacks from inside Cambodia against the Vietnamese Communists. He has gone crazy and thus dangerous…

When Mrs. Park starts harping on the psychological flaws but great artistic talent of the other kid in the house, her son Da-song, Ki-woo gets what is a real, sudden and amazing, inspiration. He pretends to know an artist who dabbles in psychology, an American-educated genius who could provide advice and help…

The first part of “Chung hing sam lam – Chungking Express” brings us on the seedy side of Hong Kong as the camera tracks a blonde woman always wearing sunglasses and a raincoat and dealing with Indian immigrants paid to carry drugs illegally through the borders. She…

This is a samurai film with a foreign accent as the plot of “Kumonosu-jô – Throne of Blood” is conspicuously based on William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. Washizu is a mediaeval military chief who successfully helps his king keep his power by quashing military rebels; Miki is his companion. Both are…

“Do the right thing!” This is the advice Da Mayor, the bum pacing up and down the vibrant street in the borough of Brooklyn where the story takes place, gives to Mookie, the lead character, and his stern looks show he is dead serious about it…

The narrative of “Ikiru – Living” is divided in three parts. The first wryly introduces the main character, Watanabe Kanji, as a narrator tells the audience he is not really worthy of his hero status as his pen-pusher’s career has been useless and his…

The strange case of Angélica has nothing to do with her life but actually with her death. Summoned in the middle of the night by her mourning family to take pictures of her dead body before it is put on the casket amateur photographer Isaac, who shoots as a freelancer…

While traveling in the Trás-os-Montes e Aldo Douro province to shoot a documentary, Manoel de Oliveira saw three crosses on a hill and wondered what significance they held. What he found out was an act of folksy devotion…

After the long, tough, terrible workday that makes up the long first part of “Les misérables” come a long series of shots focusing on the cops as they come back to their homes and the few inhabitants of the Parisian suburb of Montfermeil they have clashed with, silently reflecting on…

In London, a beautiful and mysterious woman asks a Canadian traveler to shelter her as she worries for her safety. At his apartment, she candidly explains she is a spy and even evokes her current assignment. She is later shockingly stabbed and…