121m; Japan
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa (Ryuhei Sasaki), Kyoko Koizumi (Megumi Sasaki), Yu Koyanagi (Takashi Sasaki), Kai Inowaki (Kenji Sasaki), Haruka Igawa (Kaneko), Kanji Tsuda (Kurosu), Koji Yakusho (Thief)
Synopsis (IMDB): An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company.
Contact: Regent Releasing 310-806-4288 info@regentreleasing.com http://www.regentreleasing.com
81m; France
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Charles Blavette, Celia Montalván and Jenny Hélia
Synopsis (IMDB): In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently – like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, love, or enmity, and Toni gets entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.
120m; U.S.
Director: Mel Stuart
Cast: David Dukes, Tovah Feldshuh and Lauren Frost
Synopsis (IMDB): The story of a fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist building in New York City in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young women. The ensuing investigation revealed the company’s almost total disregard for its workers’ safety in pursuit of increased production and profits, and resulted, among other things, in the passage of new worker safety laws.
110m; U.S.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen and Martin Landau
Synopsis (IMDB): Based on a true story. Shortly after World War II, Preston Tucker is a grandiose schemer with a new dream, to produce the best cars ever made. With the assistance of Abe Karatz and some impressive salesmanship on his own part, he obtains funding and begins to build his factory. The whole movie also has many parallels with director Coppola’s own efforts to build a new movie studio of his own.
131m; India
Director: Bimal Roy
Cast: Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy and Rattan Kumar
Synopsis: A small Bengali landowner and his young son are in danger when their two-acre farmland where they live is in danger of being taken over by a local zamindar (feudal lord) for failure to pay for mounting debits. They move to Calcutta where the father tries making a living as a rickshaw puller while his wife joins him but falls ill which threatens everything they have going to try to save their ancestral home.
Contact: Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd. (2003) (India) (DVD) Shemaroo House No. 18 Marol Co-operative-Industrial Estate Andheri East, Mumbai 400059 India Phn: +91 222 8529911
108m; U.S.
Director: Raymond De Felitta
Cast: Michael Rispoli, Kelly Macdonald and Kathrine Narducci
Synopsis (IMDB): An unseen narrator looks back to 1956, on Staten Island, when Buddy, an Italian guy with big dreams, buys a house planning to live upstairs with his wife Estelle and run a bar downstairs. The first problem is Estelle’s lack of confidence in Buddy. Then, Irish tenants upstairs refuse to move and won’t pay rent; plus, the woman upstairs is about to have a baby. The next problem is the baby: once he’s born, it’s clear his father was Black. The Irish guy splits; Buddy evicts mother and child, then feels guilt and sets her up in a flat while she sorts out an adoption. Estelle’s lack of faith, the Irish lass’s spirit, Buddy’s dream, racial prejudice, and the baby’s fate play out.
100m; Brazil
Director: José Joffily
Cast: Guy Camilleri, Roberto Bomtempo and Theodoris Castellanos
Synopsis: Two Brailizans trade lack of opportunity in Brazil for illusion of the American Dream.
90m; France
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Joseph Gehrard, Marina Vlady and Anny Duperey
Synopsis: Prostitution becomes a metaphor for marriage and for working class; selling one’s body for food, shelter and consumer goods.
91m; Italy
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio and Lina Gennari
Synopsis (IMDB): Umberto Ferrari, aged government-pensioner, attends a street demonstration held by his fellow pensioners. The police dispense the crowd and Unberto returns to his cheap furnished room which he shares with his dog Flick. Umberto’s lone friend is Maria, servant of the boarding house. She is a simple girl who is pregnant by one of two soldiers and neither will admit to being the father. When Umberto’s landlady Antonia demands the rent owed her and threatens eviction if she is not paid, Umberto tries desperately to raise the money by selling his books and watch. He is too proud to beg in the streets and can not get a loan from any of his acquaintances. He contracts a sore throat, is admitted to a hospital and this puts a delay on his financial difficulty. Discharged, he finds that his dog is gone and, following a frantic search, locates him in the city dog pound.
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