Moving Mountains

This powerful true tale of one boy's struggle out of isolation and silence is perfectly captured on film by the renowned Taviani brothers, Paolo and Vittorio. Based on the autobiography by Gavino Ledda, who at the age of six was taken from school into the mountains where his father enslaved him as a shepherd. Gavino eventually broke free discovering the outside world and his own identity within it.
A Grand Prize winner at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival Padre padrone is an incredible story of perseverance and is an exhilarating example of filmmaking (-DVD Cover)

A handsome, suave Toshiro Mifune lights up the screen as painter Ichiro, whose circumstantial meeting with a famous singer (Yoshiko Yamaguchi) is twisted by the tabloid press into a torrid affair. Ichiro files a lawsuit against the seedy gossip magazine, but his lawyer, Hiruta (Kurosawa stalwart Takashi Shimura), is playing both sides. A portrait of cultural moral decline, Scandal is also a compelling courtroom drama and a moving tale of human redemption.

Don Plutarco, su hijo Genaro y su nieto Lucio llevan una doble vida: además de músicos y campesinos, forman parte de la guerrilla campesina que se ha alzado contra el gobierno. El ejército ataca el pueblo y los rebeldes se refugian en la sierra, dejando atrás las municiones. Mientras la guerrilla prepara un contraataque, el viejo Don Plutarco pone en marcha un plan…

A number of artists and art historians comment on Paul Cézanne, making note that while details about his life are somewhat sketchy, we know he was a boyhood friend of writer Emile Zola, and he grew up to be a troubled loner who spent most of his career in obscurity. Cézanne was "obsessed with flesh, yet terrified of it," notes one expert in an interview, explaining the early work, examples of which are shown, which is filled with images of brutality and violence. Moving to Paris, Cézanne spent his days studying in the Louvre, found an unlikely influence in the music of Wagner, and eventually developed his distinctive style with its passionate use of color. Eventually, younger painters flocked to see him, citing the profound influence he was having on their work, but Cézanne, who felt his success and acceptance came too late, told would-be disciples he should have been born in their own time. This look at a fascinating character benefits from the inclusion of many of Cézanne's own works as well as reconstructions of scenes from the artist's life.

In this drama, an embittered widow, a former concert singer, can't help but blame Lassie for her son's death. Needing help with her chores, she hires an orphan from the local home. At first she remains aloof towards the charming lad who quickly bonds with the collie dog, but as time passes she can't help but develop feelings for the boy. Later Lassie redeems herself when she saves the boy from a terrible fire in the orphanage. After that, the widow suddenly realizes that she does indeed love the boy and adopts him and puts Lassie back in her good graces.

A few months after his notorious suicide attempt, Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa was regenerated by the notion of helming the first Russian/Japanese co-production. Co-scripted and directed by Kurosawa, Dersu Uzala is the story of an elderly guide and Goldi hunter (Maxim Munzuk), who, at the turn of the century, agrees to shepherd a Russian explorer (Yuri Solomin) and a troop of soldiers through the most treacherous passages of the Far East. The guide has been "one" with the land almost from birth, and is thus able to save his party from perishing. Four years in the making, Dersu Uzala won the 1976 Best Foreign Film Oscar and restored the flagging Akira Kurosawa to the top ranks of the Japanese film industry.

In the 1960s, Frances "Baby" Houseman, a sweet daddy's girl, goes with her family to a resort in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains. Baby has grown up in privileged surroundings and all expect her to go on to college, join the Peace Corps and save the world before marrying a doctor, just like her father. Unexpectedly, Baby becomes infatuated with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny, a man whose background is vastly different from her own. Baby lies to her father to get money to pay for an illegal abortion for Johnny's dance partner (Johnny is not the father). She then fills in as Johnny's dance partner and it is as he is teaching her the dance routine that they fall in love. It all comes apart when Johnny's friend falls seriously ill after her abortion and Baby gets her father, who saves the girl's life. He then learns what Baby has been up to…

The Ballad of Narayama is legendary Japanese director Shohei Imamura’s riveting view of the harsh existence of pre-war rural life in Japan. The 1983 film, set in a rural mountain village is an artful blend of naturalistic drama and dark comedy, highlighting the customs of a people so tied to the land and the cycle of life and death that their customs dictate that when their elderly reach the age of 70, they must leave the village and ascend the mythical Narayama mountain to die, making way for a new life. It is a place where third sons are denied the pleasures of having a wife or any sort of sexual pleasures to keep the population down, unwanted boy children are put to death and girls are sold off for money…..

Adventurous and curious, young Englishwoman Adela Quested (Judy Davis) travels with the open-minded Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) to Chandrapore, India, perhaps to marry up-and-coming colonial judge Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers). Both newcomers are distressed by the boorish and hateful attitudes of the ruling British, and when her fiancé proves to be a similar 'Sahib' snob, Adela considers breaking off her engagement. But Mrs. Moore has a delightful encounter with muslim doctor Aziz (Victor Banerjee) in a mosque, and with the help of local professor Richard Fielding (James Fox) they're soon meeting other Indians like the odd Professor Godbole (Alec Guinness) and learning more about this strange new country…..