We start with the sight of a group of journalists at a wedding. The daughter of an industrialist is marrying the son of another. Nothing new here until, that is, an extra wedding cake is wheeled into the reception shaped just like an office block. Sticking out of a seventh floor window is a rose. We are quickly told that symbolises the window from which the groom's father committed suicide. Shortly afterwards, two senior executives are arrested after a ¥12 billion deal is suspected of being a bit fishy. Neither executive will talk to the prosecutors so one is released and the other released and re-arrested. The latter man takes the hint and falls foul of a passing lorry! Could the events of years ago be coming back to haunt those responsible? It certainly has shades of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" to it, but this isn't one of my favourite Kurosawa films. Despite being almost 2¼ hours long I felt the characterisations rather under-developed. The always reliable Toshirô Mifune is the groom ("Nishi") and for a while there is a strong dynamic between him and the star of the film, for me anyway, Kô Nishimura ("Shirai). This latter man is complicit in the double dealings and is quite literally scared into helping "Nishi" expose the culprits and activities that caused his misery. The rest of the acting here is not up to the usual standard, though. There is a great deal of dialogue and in this case that slows the pace down and creates a sense of almost the ennui around the middle third of the film - just as the plot ought to be thickening. The denouement is also rather underwhelming - though, I suppose entirely plausible and totally consistent with the ethos of the title (and the source play), but I still left this screening just a bit disappointed.
Jean-Claude Delsart, a 50 years-old bailiff, with his worn-out smile and heart, abandoned a long time ago the idea that life could give him pleasures. Until the day, he dares to push the doors of a tango lesson...
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
The mother of a severely traumatized daughter enlists the aid of a unique horse trainer to help the girl's equally injured horse.
After a whirlwind romance in Mexico, a beautiful heiress marries a man she barely knows with hardly a second thought. She finds his New York home full of his strange relations, and macabre rooms that are replicas of famous murder sites. One locked room contains the secret to her husband's obsession, and the truth about what happened to his first wife.
Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.
Throughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Bridget Jones is an average woman struggling against her age, her weight, her job, her lack of a man, and her various imperfections. As a New Year's resolution, Bridget decides to take control of her life, starting by keeping a diary in which she will always tell the complete truth. The fireworks begin when her charming though disreputable boss takes an interest in the quirky Miss Jones. Thrown into the mix are Bridget's band of slightly eccentric friends and a rather disagreeable acquaintance into whom Bridget cannot seem to stop running or help finding quietly attractive.
Set in colonial French Indochina during the 1930s to 1950s, this is the story of Éliane Devries, a French plantation owner, and of her adopted Vietnamese daughter, Camille, set against the backdrop of the rising Vietnamese nationalist movement.
Carlos, a reckless card player burdened by debt, becomes involved in a shady affair when an old flame asks him to return a necklace he has pawned.
A man suffers from mental illness after having lived with a mother suffering from dementia and a brother addicted to gambling. Now institutionalized, he falls in love with a nurse at the psychiatric hospital.