A Sign of Affection

A well-bred, lovely, spiritual, sad young woman marries an attentive physician who loves her. She feels affection but no love. Soon after, without design, she falls in love with Pedro Abrunhosa, a poet and performance artist. He also loves her. She keeps her distance from him, confessing her love to a friend who is a nun and, later, to her husband. Hunger for her love and jealousy consume him; she attends him as he wastes away. With his death, she can marry and express her passion, but what she does and how she explains herself, particularly to her cloistered friend, is at the heart of the film. Glimpses of convent life and of Abrunhosa on stage give contrast and mute comment.

''KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN'' begins with a theatrical-sounding homosexual describing the plot of an old movie (''her petite ankle slips into the perfumed water'') for the benefit of his prison cellmate, a political radical. There is nothing in this seemingly frivolous, beautifully staged opening to betray the film's tremendous reserves of seriousness and passion. Nor are there sufficient clues in the previous film careers of the director, Hector Babenco (the highly praised ''Pixote''), or the two stars, William Hurt and Raul Julia, to anticipate the stature of the work they do here. ''Kiss of the Spider Woman'' is a brilliant achievement for all of them, staged with the perfect control and fierce originality that make it one of the best films in a long while.

When the powerful wizard, Lord Tensley, is jilted by Princess Ennogard, he vows to rid the land of love. He commands his fire-breathing dragon to destroy any sign of affection seen throughout the kingdom. As the death toll rises, Camilan, a brave but arrogant warrior seeks to marry his true love despite the curse upon the land. In order to fulfill his destiny, he seeks the help of his estranged brother Ramicus, a bounty hunter with no desire to get involved. It takes an enchanted distress message and the promise of great reward from the beautiful Princess Ennogard, to lure Ramicus into the quest to defeat the wizard and his terrible beast. This Fantasy/Adventure Comedy is the 'Lord of the Rings' meets 'The Princess Bride'.

With The Music Room (Jalsaghar), Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat (the beloved actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life. His greatest joy is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years—now a shadow of its former vivid self. An incandescent depiction of the clash between tradition and modernity, and a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians of the day, The Music Room is a defining work by the great Bengali filmmaker.

The future is set for Tony and Michael - owning a neighbour- hood bar and making deals in the mean streets of New York city's Little Italy. For Charlie, the future is less clearly defined. A small-time hood, he works for his uncle, making collections and reclaiming bad debts. He's probably too nice to succeed. In love with a woman his uncle disapproves of (because of her epilepsy) and a friend of her cousin, Johnny Boy, a near psychotic whose trouble-making threatens them all - he can't reconcile opposing values. A failed attempt to escape (to Brooklyn) moves them all a step closer to a bitter, almost preordained future.

Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age was perhaps the most Draconian entry in Hollywood's early-1930s "vigilante" film cycle.

The Repair Shop is a workshop of dreams, where broken or damaged cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life. Furniture restorers, horologists, metal workers, ceramicists, upholsterers and all manner of skilled craftsmen and women have been brought together to work in one extraordinary space, restoring much-loved possessions to their former glory. Many of these items have incredible stories behind them and a unique place in history.

Celebrating the virtuosity of the Man of a Thousand Faces!
Long before teams of technicians used computers to bring monsters and superheroes to the screen, one man with little more than a makeup kit and a remarkable acting talent dazzled moviegoers with his ability to transform himself into all manner of men, monsters and outcasts. That man was Lon Chaney.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a salty village cop in Ireland, has a subversive sense of humor, a caustic wit, and an uncanny… knack for keeping people at arm's length. When a straitlaced FBI agent chasing an international drug-smuggling ring hits town, Boyle has no intention of letting the arrival disrupt his routine of hookers and wisecracks. Initially, he relishes offending and ridiculing the agent, but a murder and a series of peculiar events draw the reluctant sergeant into the investigation.

The last entry in the John Ford - John Wayne "Cavalry Trilogy", Rio Grande is regarded by many observers as the best of the three. Wayne stars as Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, whose devotion to duty has cost him his marriage to his beloved Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara). When Yorke's son Jeff is assigned to his father's post, Yorke is determined not to afford any preferential treatment to the boy-nor to exhibit any sign of love and affection. Yorke's resolve to remain oblivious to personal feelings is further tested when his estranged wife Kathleen arrives at the post, the better to look after her son-and possibly to buy back the boy's enlistment. Before the long-anticipated reconcilation scene between Yorke, his wife and his son, there are several peripheral plot complications, many of these involving a murder charge hanging over trooper Tyree's head.