Posts Tagged ‘bittersweet’

Misérables, Les (1998)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Romance
Countries: Germany | UK | USA
Actors: Liam Neeson | Geoffrey Rush | Uma Thurman | Claire Danes | Hans Matheson | Reine Brynolfsson | Peter Vaughan | Christopher Adamson | Tim Barlow | Timothy Bateson | David Birkin | Václav Chalupa | Ian Cregg | Ben Crompton | Zdenek David
Directors: Bille August
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Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men’s lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

This Is England (2006)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: UK
Actors: Thomas Turgoose | Stephen Graham | Jo Hartley | Andrew Shim | Vicky McClure | Joseph Gilgun | Rosamund Hanson | Andrew Ellis | Perry Benson | George Newton | Frank Harper | Jack O'Connell | Kriss Dosanjh | Kieran Hardcastle | Chanel Cresswell
Directors: Shane Meadows
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Roland Rat, Margaret Thatcher; Rubik’s Cubes, the Royal Wedding; aerobics, skinheads… It’s 1983, and the schools are breaking up for summer. Shaun is 12 and a bit of a loner, growing up with his mum in a grim coastal town, his dad killed fighting in the Falklands War. On his way home from school where he’s been tormented all day for wearing flares, he runs into a group of skinheads, who against expectations turn out to be friendly and take him under their wing. Soon Shaun discovers parties, girls and snappy dressing, and finds some role models in Woody, Milky and the rest of the gang. But when an older, overtly racist skinhead returns home from prison, the easy camaraderie of the group is broken, and Shaun is drawn into much more uncomfortable territory. Based largely on his own experience as a youngster, this is Shane Meadows’ most mature and fully realised film. Handling the complexities of masculinity, violence and race with sensitivity and a lightness of touch, it’s hard to imagine a film that would better capture the mood of the time, or that could have any greater an understanding of the allure of being part of a gang.

The Notebook (2004)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Tim Ivey | Gena Rowlands | Starletta DuPois | James Garner | Anthony-Michael Q. Thomas | Ed Grady | Renée Amber | Jennifer Echols | Geoffrey Knight | Kevin Connolly | Ryan Gosling | Heather Wahlquist | Rachel McAdams | Andrew Schaff | Matt Shelly
Directors: Nick Cassavetes
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An old man in a nursing home reads a story to an old woman each day. The story he reads follows two young lovers named Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun. They met one evening at a carnival many years ago. Allie’s parents separate Noah and Allie. They disapprove of Noah’s lack of wealth, and move Allie away. After waiting for Noah to write her for several years, Allie meets and becomes engaged to a handsome young soldier named Lon. In a local newspaper, Noah’s picture catches Allie’s eye. He is standing in front of a fully restored, 200 year old home. The article is filled with praise for his accomplishments. Allie’s heart nearly bursts. The last time she saw this house it was a rotted decaying shamble. She stood enfolded in Noah’s arms in the great entryway and listened to his plans to buy and restore this house. Just the way she wanted it. With her love for Noah still alive, the picture pulls at her heart. She has to go back, see if Noah is okay, and tell him about her marriage. They both think the echo deep in their hearts, the one that has lasted all these years, is not shared by the other. The cry they could not stifle. It wasn’t over for me.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: USA
Actors: John Cusack | Kevin Spacey | Jack Thompson | Irma P. Hall | Jude Law | Alison Eastwood | Paul Hipp | Lady Chablis | Dorothy Loudon | Anne Haney | Kim Hunter | Geoffrey Lewis | Richard Herd | Leon Rippy | Bob Gunton
Directors: Clint Eastwood
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This panoramic tale of Savannah’s eccentricities focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams: self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso a magazine reporter finds himself in Savannah amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings to write a feature on one of William’s famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim’s violent, young and sexy lover, Billy. Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters the irrepressible Lady Chablis, a drag queen commedienne, Sonny Seiler, lawyer to Williams, whose famous dog UGA is the official mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs, an odd man who keeps flies attached to mini leashes on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply, the Married Ladies Card Club, and Minerva, a spiritualist. Between being Jim’s buddy, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Billy’s murder, Kelso has his hands full.

Reign Over Me (2007)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Adam Sandler | Don Cheadle | Jada Pinkett Smith | Liv Tyler | Saffron Burrows | Donald Sutherland | Robert Klein | Melinda Dillon | Jonathan Banks | Rae Allen | Paula Newsome | John de Lancie | Paul Butler | Camille LaChe Smith
Directors: Mike Binder
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Alan Johnson has everything he needs to get through life: a good job, a beautiful and loving wife, and their wonderful children. Yet he feels isolated because he finds having a hard-working job and managing a family too much to handle and has no one to talk to about it. Charlie Fineman, on the other hand, doesn’t have a job or a family. He used to have both until he lost his family on the fateful day of 9/11, and the grief he felt caused him to quit his job and isolate himself from everyone around him. As it turns out, Alan and Charlie were roommates in college, and a chance encounter one night rekindles the friendship they shared. They soon feel that their friendship is the one thing that allows them to forget about their problems.

Oliver Twist (2005)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama | Family
Countries: Czech Republic | France | Italy | UK
Actors: Barney Clark | Jeremy Swift | Ian McNeice | Richard Durden | Timothy Bateson | Andy de la Tour | Filip Hess | Andreas Papadopoulos | Laurie Athey | Joseph Tremain | Peter Copley | Andy Linden | John Nettleton | Tony Noble | Michael Heath
Directors: Roman Polanski
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Oliver Twist (Clark) is an orphan, who is soon kicked out of the orphanage and thrown into a terrible home. The bad treatment Oliver receives, forces him to run off to London. Here, he is soon picked up by the Artful Dodger (Eden) and taken to Fagin (Kingsley). Fagin treats Oliver well, but is it the life Oliver really wants?

The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Michelle Pfeiffer | Treat Williams | Whoopi Goldberg | Jonathan Jackson | Cory Buck | Ryan Merriman | Alexa Vega | Michael McGrady | Brenda Strong | Michael McElroy | Tony Musante | Rose Gregorio | John Kapelos | Lucinda Jenney | John Roselius
Directors: Ulu Grosbard
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The Deep End of The Ocean is a film about a family’s reaction when Ben, the youngest son is kidnapped and then found ten years later, living in the same town.

Sabrina (1954)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Humphrey Bogart | Audrey Hepburn | William Holden | Walter Hampden | John Williams | Martha Hyer | Joan Vohs | Marcel Dalio | Marcel Hillaire | Nella Walker | Francis X. Bushman | Ellen Corby | David Ahdar | Raymond Bailey | Ralph Brooks
Directors: Billy Wilder
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Linus and Davis Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work — busily running the family corporate empire, he has no time for a wife and family. David is all play — technically he is employed by the family business, but never shows up for work, spends all his time entertaining, and has been married and divorced three times. Meanwhile, Sabrina Fairchild is the young, shy, and awkward daughter of the household chauffeur, who has been infatuated with David all her life, but David hardly notices her — “doesn’t even know I exist” — until she goes away to Paris for two years, and returns an elegant, sophisticated, beautiful woman. Suddenly, she finds that she has captured David’s attention, but just as she does so, she finds herself falling in love with Linus, and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her.

The Banger Sisters (2002)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Goldie Hawn | Susan Sarandon | Geoffrey Rush | Erika Christensen | Robin Thomas | Eva Amurri | Matthew Carey | Andre Ware | Adam Tomei | Sal Lopez | Kohl Sudduth | Tinsley Grimes | Larry Krask | Marlayna Garrett | Josh Todd
Directors: Bob Dolman
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When fiftysomething Suzette loses her job as a bartender she decides to make a road trip to visit her old friend Vinnie who she hasn’t seen since their days as groupies back in the day. On the way she meets Harry, a nervous writer who says he is going home to confront his father, then shows her his gun. Once they reach their destination Suzette finds that Vinnie is now Lavinia, a conservative housewife who is reluctant to reexperience the flower power of her youth, and Harry finds confrontation with himself rather than with his father.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Julianne Moore | Woody Harrelson | Laura Dern | Trevor Morgan | Ellary Porterfield | Simon Reynolds | Monté Gagné | Robert Clark | Michael Seater | Erik Knudsen | Jake Scott | Jordan Todosey | Ryan Price | Shae Norris | Abigail Falle
Directors: Jane Anderson
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This true-story-based bittersweet drama follows Evelyn Ryan (Julianna Moore) who was a housewife and a devoted mother of 10. Her remarkable ingenuity and an uncommon wit had success at the jingle contests staged by corporations to promote their products. Evelyn had found the way to keep her family together, notwithstanding an alcoholic husband and the other difficult circumstances.