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Category Archives: Drama

The Maid / La Nana (2009)

13 Jun

95m; Chile
Director: Sebastián Silva
Cast: Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón and Alejandro Goic

Synopsis: Story of how a maid called Raquel, who has worked for over 20 years in one affluent Chilean household, rediscovers herself. La Nana is a microcosm of Latin social hierarchy while also focusing on one woman’s journey to free herself from a mental servitude of her own making.

Contact: http://www.themaidmovie.com/ JACOB WOLTERS Oscilloscope Laboratories 511 Canal Street, 5E New York, NY 10013 212.219.4029 ex. 38(p) 212.219.9538 (f) jacob@oscilloscope.net

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Service Workers

 

The Proud Valley (1940)

13 Jun

76m; U.S.

Director: Pen Tennyson

Cast: Paul Robeson, Edward Chapman and Simon Lack

Synopsis: Paul Robeson stars as a black miner in Wales. Filmed on location in the South Wales coalfield the heart of the main coal mining region of Wales, Proud Valley documents the hard realities of Welsh coal miners’ lives. Robeson’s part is based on the real-life adventures of a Black miner from West Virginia who drifts to Wales by way of England, searching for work. Robeson sings “Deep River” at a Welch music festival.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Working Class

 

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The Shop Steward (1953)

13 Jun

21m; Canada

Director: Morten Parker

Synopsis: A dramatized presentation of the role of the shop steward in the effective day-to-day functioning of free trade unionism, the film begins with the election of machinist Johnny Walachuk as shop steward for the men in his section of a large industrial plant. Continuing, it shows the part the shop steward plays in carrying out the grievance procedures set up by company and union. How Johnny fulfills his responsibility to protect the men who elected him from infractions of the agreement is told in his own words and typifies the function of union shop stewards generally in Canada. Number one of the series.

Contact: http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=15383

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Working Class

 

The Trap (2007)

13 Jun

115m; Serbia/Germany/Hungary

Director: Srdan Golubovic

Synopsis: Modern film noir reflecting the true face of Serbian “society in transition,” THE TRAP is an archetypal story of a parent’s worst nightmare—a dying child—and how far a man is willing to go to save him. In post-Milosevic’s Serbia there is no more war, however, normal life remains almost unreachable, and when Mladen is offered an only chance to save his son, he must confront moral and existential demons and decide how to measure the worth of a human life.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Children, Drama, Working Class

 

The Waiters (2006)

13 Jun

85m; U.S.

Director: Derik Wingo

Cast: Derik Wingo, Lorrainne Petersen and Scott Vogel

Synopsis: Taylor Starks and his co-workers, all aspiring actors, toil in a Los Angeles restaurant while “waiting” for their big break.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Entertainment Industry, Service Workers

 

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Thelma & Louise (1991)

13 Jun

130m; U.S.

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis and Harvey Keitel

Synopsis (IMDB): Louise is working in a fast food restaurant as a waitress and has some problems with her friend Jimmy, who, as a musician, is always on the road. Thelma is married to Darryl who likes his wife to stay quiet in the kitchen so that he can watch football on TV. One day they decide to break out of their normal life and jump in the car and hit the road. Their journey, however, turns into a flight when Louise kills a man who threatens to rape Thelma. They decide to go to Mexico, but soon they are hunted by American police.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Crime-Action, Drama, White Collar, Working Class

 

They Don’t Wear Black Tie (Eles Não Usam Black-Tie) [1981]

13 Jun

122m; Brazil

Director: Leon Hirszman

Cast: Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Fernanda Montenegro and Carlos Alberto Riccelli

Synopsis (NYT): At the beginning of the Brazilian film “They Don’t Wear Black Tie,” a middle-class boy and girl are making plans to live happily ever after. Maria (Bete Mendes) is pregnant by the handsome young Tiao (Carlos Alberto Ricelli), and that helps accelerate their plan to rush into marriage. Everything looks rosy. “They Don’t Wear Black Tie” is an extremely successful politically aware drama about how the bloom falls off the rose . . . The film chronicles the process by which Maria realizes that Tiao is not the man she thought he was. Her understanding of Tiao’s weakness is heightened by the political activity surrounding a local strike, at the factory where Tiao, his father and Maria are all employed. When the labor trouble begins, Tiao manfully wanrs Maria that she’d better stay home, exhibiting just the hind of stubborn sexism this courageous heroine refuses to tolerate. Later on, he violates the most basic tenets of his upbringing by becoming a scab. And Maria declares that her child will be bery, very proud of his grandfather, even if he never has a kind thought about his father at all.

“They Don’t Wear Black Tie” is an outstandingly good film in this year’s New Directors/New Films lineup.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Manufacturing, Romance, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

13 Jun

129m; U.S.

Director: Sydney Pollack

Cast: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin and Susannah York

Synopsis: Gloria is a young woman of the Depression. She has aged beyond her years and feels her life is hopeless, having been cheated and betrayed many times in her past. While recovering from a suicide attempt, she gets the idea from a movie magazine to head for Hollywood to make it as an actress. Robert is a desperate Hollywood citizen trying to become a director, never doubting that he’ll make it. Robert and Gloria meet and decide to enter a dance marathon, one of the crazes of the thirties. The grueling dancing takes its toll on Gloria’s already weakened spirit, and she tells Robert that she’d be better off dead, that her life is hopeless – all the while acting cruelly and bitterly, alienating those around her, trying to convince him to shoot her and put her out of her misery. After all, they shoot horses, don’t they?

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Unemployment-Wages, Women, Working Class

 

To Kill a Priest (1988)

13 Jun

117m; U.S.

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Cast: Christopher Lambert, Ed Harris and Joss Ackland

Synopsis (IMDB): A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.

 

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Drama, Politics

 

To Sleep with Anger (1990)

13 Jun

101m; U.S.

Director: Charles Burnett

Cast: Danny Glover, Paul Butler and DeVaughn Nixon

Synopsis (Wikipedia): Harry Mention (Danny Glover), an enigmatic drifter from the South, comes to visit an old acquaintance named Gideon (Paul Butler), who now lives in South-Central Los Angeles. Harry’s charming, down-home manner hides a malicious penchant for stirring up trouble, and he exerts a strange and powerful effect on Gideon and his thoroughly assimilated black, middle-class family, including wife Suzie (Mary Alice) and sons Junior (Carl Lumbly) and Babe Brother (Richard Brooks).

After Gideon suffers a stroke, Harry’s influence over the family grows, in particular over Babe Brother, the youngest son. Harry introduces him to a lifestyle of drinking and gambling, and encourages him to leave his wife to join Harry and his friends on the road. However, before Babe Brother gets a chance to leave, Junior confronts him. They fight, and their mother gets stabbed in the hand trying to separate them. After taking her to the hospital, Babe Brother decides to stay with his family instead of joining Harry. When Harry comes back to collect some things, he slips on some marbles belonging to Babe Brother’s son, and dies. Soon after, Gideon gets out of his bed for the first time in months, causing the viewer to question the relationship between Harry’s presence in the house and Gideon’s sickness.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Blacks, Drama, White Collar, Working Class

 
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