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This Czech film from 1972 was shot by Jaromil Jires, who guides his cast through a fictionalized version of a true story which is based on the experiences of Czech resistance fighter Maruska Kuderikova. Kuderikova found herself in the clutches of the Nazi's for her efforts, but made a diary of her harrowing experiences. Here, Jires attempts to bring Kuderikova's diaries to the screen, creating a painful portrait of her life that illustrates both her bravery and fear. Jires enjoyed an impressive career that began at approximately the same time as his lauded fellow-Czech director Milos Forman (BLACK PETER). Part of the Czech new wave, Jires's early work is a favorite of film scholars thanks to its unique combination of influences; directors as diverse as Jean-Luc Godard and Vittorio De Sica are clear antecedents of Jires's style.
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In this simple family drama from Iran, two children invent an intricate plan to conceal the loss of a pair of shoes. Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) and his sister Zhara (Bahare Seddiqi) are living in a poor neighborhood. Their mother is suffering from illness and their father is overworked and underpaid. When Ali is sent out to pick up his sister's shoes, a blind street peddler accidentally swipes them. Afraid that he will get a beating if his parents find out, he and Zhara concoct a plan by which she will wear Ali's sneakers to school in the morning and he will wear them to school in the afternoon. But the plan has its flaws because Ali is late to school everyday and his principal threatens to expel him. In a final act of determination, Ali enters a race to win the third place prize, a new pair of sneakers. Majidi's acclaimed film is an example of a current trend in Iranian cinema where children are used as central characters in order to circumvent censorship issues. His later film THE COLOR OF PARADISE about a little blind boy received similar international critical attention. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN received an Academy Award Nomination in 1998 for Best Foreign Film.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseAnamorphic Widescreen - 1.85:1Interactive Features: Scene Access Interactive Menus
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Connie Nielsen, who has played pivotal roles in such English-language films as GLADIATOR, THE DEVIL`S ADVOCATE, and RUSHMORE, is the powerful and emotional heart of BROTHERS, a moving Danish film set in her home country. Directed by Susanne Bier (who made the Dogme 95 film OPEN HEARTS), BROTHERS tells the story of two very different brothers: Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is a drunken loser who has just been released from prison for bank robbery and assault, while Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) is a well-respected army major and family man, with a wife, Sarah (Nielsen), and two kids. But when Michael goes off on a mission to Afghanistan to rescue a captured radar man, his helicopter is shot down and he is assumed to have been killed in action. The news devastates Sarah and her in-laws, while Jannik becomes more reckless before stepping in to help her and the kids build a new life. But as Jannik and Sarah grow close, it is discovered that Michael has survived--and has done something that haunts him and threatens everything and everyone. Bier`s film is filled with tender moments as well as bitter, frightening, fast-paced scenes that are hard to forget. Nielsen is a standout as Sarah, who tries to balance love and loss and then love again with a man she`s not sure she knows anymore.
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The first film to positively depict homosexual relations was released in Germany in 1919, 50 years before the gay liberation movement began in the US. A masterpiece of the silent era from acclaimed director Richard Oswald (AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, LUCRETIA BORGIA) DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS starred one of the most popular German actors of the period, Conrad Veidt (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, CASABLANCA). The film was a direct condemnation of the German penal code's Paragraph 175, which sentenced those who were guilty of unnatural vice between men to serve a prison sentence. This historical milestone positively depicts gay lifestyles, condemns the cruel system that forced them to live in terror, and advocated the freedom of the third sex. Though initially a moderate success at the box office, the film was subjected to sabotage from anti-gay activists, and eventually banned under the Nazi regime. Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, head of the Institute of Sexology in Berlin, produced and starred in the film, and possessed the last print in his library; when this was raided by the Nazis, who burned everything, DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS was thought to have been lost for good. 43 years later a partial print was discovered in a Ukrainian archive in 1976. Combining this with still photographs and censorship documents, the current version was pieced together.Veidt plays Paul Korner, a successful gay concert pianist who one night accepts an offer for a walk home from the shady Franz Bolleck, who intimates an interest in him. Upon arriving at their destination, Bolleck reveals his true intention: a blackmail threat to expose Korner's violation of Paragraph 175 if he refuses to pay up. While enduring this prolonged extortion, Korner falls in love with one of his piano students, but as Bolleck asks for increasing amounts of money, Korner gets fed up and goes to the courts. Condemning Bolleck for blackmail, they also sentence Korner to serve time for his homosexuality, and u
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THE SWEET HOUSE OF HORRORS is one of Lucio Fulci's later films that was, strangely, made for Italian TV. In it, a masked man breaks into a couple's house and brutally murders them in a fantastically gory scene, leaving their two children orphaned. After the tragedy, the children are taken in by an aunt and uncle but are haunted by the loss of their parents. Desperate to get them back, the two tykes succeed in conjuring a supernatural force that brings their parents back, but not without other, more disastrous, effects.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseAudio: Stereo - Italian Stereo - EnglishInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive Menus
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