The Horse Mistress

The first major work of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene, this 1966 film is widely recognized as one of the founding works of African cinema. Diouanne Therese N'Bissine Diop, a young Senegalese woman, is employed as a governess for a French family in the city of Dakar. She soon becomes disillusioned when the family travels to the Riviera, where her comfortable duties as a nanny in a wealthy household are replaced by the drudgery and indignities of a maid. In a series of escalating confrontations with her mistress (Anne-Marie Jelinek), Diouanne is painfully reminded of her racial identity. She is caught in the tension between the French upper-class and post-colonial West Africa and finds herself alienated from both worlds. Along with narration and dialogue in French, this film also shares the sparse tone and visual style of French cinema of its period. Nevertheless, the influence of Sembene's European counterparts does not diminish this subtle but striking examination of racial and cultural prejudice.

Le Marquis Rodolphe de Sambreuil, jeune diplomate, mène avec sa maîtresse Irène, la vie facile de la jeunesse dorée du temps de Louis-Philippe. Malgré cette existence tapageuse, il est resté juste et droit. Responsable de la mort d'u ouvrier, à la suite d'un accident de voiture, il met tout en oeuvre pour venir en aide à sa veuve injustement accusée de vol et retrouver sa fille, Fleur-de-Marie, qui a mystérieusement disparu…

Zatoichi (座頭市, Zatōichi) is a fictional character featured in one of Japan's longest running series of films and a television series set in the Edo period. The enduring popularity of the character has been likened to that of James Bond in Western countries. The character, a blind masseur and swordmaster, was created by novelist Kan Shimozawa (子母澤 寛, Shimozawa Kan). This originally minor character was developed for the screen by Daiei Studios (now Kadokawa Pictures) and actor Shintaro Katsu, who created the screen version. A total of 26 films were made from 1962 to 1989.
Film number 17 of the original series was remade in America in 1990 (by TriStar Pictures) as Blind Fury, an action movie starring Rutger Hauer.

Among Stephen Dodgson's portfolio of more than 250 works are chamber operas, of which Margaret Catchpole: Two Worlds Apart is a most striking example. It is based on the true story of a woman who was convicted of the then capital crime of horse stealing and transported to Australia, and Dodgson conveys the romance and drama of the story with characteristic lyricism and rhythmic energy. Words are paramount for Dodgson, and his setting is vivid, immediate and tonal, with some swaggering rustic moments amidst the precise characterisation and idiomatic instrumental writing.