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Donnie Darko
It’s the run up to the 1988 presidential election in the States and troubled teenager, Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is plagued by visions of a giant evil rabbit predicting the end of the world. As Donnie tries to discover the laws that influence the future and why he escaped a fatal accident, he is led by…
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Zatoichi
Zatoichi is a blind traveller who makes his living as a gambler and masseur. But behind this lowly façade is a master swordsman blessed with lightening-fast skill and precision. The eponymous anti-hero wanders into a mountain village controlled by ruthless gang-leader Ginzo. Zatoichi hears the story of two geishas whose parents were murdered by the Ginzo…
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City of God
This is the film that made director, Fernando Meirelles (more recent work includes “The Constant Gardener”) internationally famous. “City of God” was filmed with actors plucked out of Rio de Janeiro’s favellas. Based on the novel of the same title by Paulo Lins, the film tells the story of two boys who take different paths:…
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The Motorcycle Diaries
The film recounts the 1952 expedition, partly by motorcycle, across South America by Ernesto Guevara, later known as the revolutionary leader Ché, and his friend Alberto Granado. The screenplay is based primarily on Guevara’s trip diary of the same name, with additional context supplied by Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by…
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Angels and Insects
The film, Angels and Insects, was adapted for the screen from Booker prize-winning author AS Byatt’s Morpho Eugenia, one of the two novellas in her book Angels and Insects. With Dame Antonia on hand to give us a master class on both book and film, Programme Notes are superfluous. This is a work of clarity,…
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Reconstruction
Its a mystery why Alex suddenly leaves the devoted Simone to follow a beautiful woman into the Copenhagen night. Time twists and Simone becomes a stranger to him – his past disappears. To create his future, Alex must return the enigmatic Aimee’s love, but will he have the courage Boe offers us a noir-ish, psychological…
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Three Colours: Blue
Three Colours Blue is the first part of Kieslowski’s trilogy examining the meaning to contemporary French society of the concepts behind the three national colours blue, white, and red. These represent liberty, equality and fraternity. The director gives us the story of Julie who loses her husband and daughter in a car crash. Blue manifests…
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Mullholland Drive
A woman regains consciousness after a car crash in Mulholland Drive on the outskirts of LA. Suffering from amnesia Rita is befriended by aspiring actress, Betty. Together they search for her true identity in unscrupulous Hollywood. And just when you think you know where the plot is going, that enthusiastic amateur detective Betty will triumphantly…
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Holes
Stanley is dogged by the family curse and blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Sent to juvenile detention centre, Camp Green Lake, Stanley is forced to dig holes in the desert. A story of good against evil, courage and redemption, Holes delivers a murder mystery and treasure hunt that takes in racism and prison…
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All About My Mother
Esteban, an aspiring young writer, runs to get the autograph of an actress, with tragic results. His mother, Manuela, goes to Barcelona to find Esteban’s transvestite father and her dislocated life begins to take a very different shape. Self -parody is part of Almodovar’s approach and the effectiveness of his story-telling comes partly from the…