If anyone were ever to question the undoubted skill of cinematographer Roger Deakins, then they need only watch this beautifully crafted story of the youth of the 14th Dalai Lama. Filmed in the Moroccan Atlas mountains, for obvious reasons, Martin Scorsese provides us with a lavish, colourful and thought-provoking postulation on just how this young man was selected, after a four year search, to become the venerated spiritual leader of a peaceful nation of farmers and monks, buried deep in the Himalaya mountains. The boy was but two, but already there was a fear amongst these folks for whom time has largely stood still, that their neighbour has designs on their homeland. As the boy ages into youth, those threats manifest themselves more practically and by the end, the man has little choice but to embark on a perilous journey to safety in India. The actors are perfect for their roles - the three iterations of the principal character morph seamlessly together as he must learn to tread a very thin line and attain the level of political acuity necessary to deal with the disarming, but ruthless, Chairman Mao (Robert Lin). Philip Glass scores well too - grand and intimate orchestrations complimenting well the beautifully coloured costumes and the rising political temperature. It does take it's time, but it is a subtly delivered hypothesis, this. It suggests more than it imposes on history and that makes for a more complete film to enjoy. Sure it has a message, quite a few as it happens, but they are there for us to develop ourselves - Scorsese doesn't tell us what to think. He invites us. Deakins was nominated for an Oscar for this, and to appreciate that fully then do try to see it on a big screen. In any case, it's well worth a watch offering plenty of food for thought.
The film chronicles the rise and fall of the world's most feared drug lord Pablo Escobar and his volatile love affair with Colombia's most famous journalist Virginia Vallejo throughout a reign of terror that tore a country apart.
Two Chinese miners, who make money by killing fellow miners and then extorting money from the mine owner to keep quiet about the "accident", happen upon their latest victim. But one of them begins to have second thoughts.
A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.
Kurt Gerstein—a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS—is horrified by what he sees in the death camps. he is then shocked to learn that the process he used to purify water for his troops by using Zyklon-B, is now used to kill people in gas chambers.
When a cunning murderer vanishes into the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest, pursuing FBI agent Warren Stantin must exchange familiar city streets for unknown wilderness trails. Completely out of his element, Stantin is forced to enlist the aid of expert tracker Jonathan Knox. It's a turbulent yet vital relationship they must maintain in order to survive... and one that becomes increasingly desperate when Knox's girlfriend Sarah becomes the killer's latest hostage!
Two former cops start investigating the series of murders that tanked their careers when the killings begin again.
Saiko travels to Thailand but she jumps out of the cab after knowing the driver's intentions. However, her life changes after she meets Greg.
In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.
When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.
A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.
During the Sarikamis Battle, the Ottoman army runs out of ammunition and appeals to the people of Van for help, who happen to have supplies. However, the First World War is on and all men are fighting at four corners of the empire and therefore can not respond to to the appeal. The young children of Van want to do something...