Gloria (1999)
Genre : Drama
Runtime : 1H 42M
Director : Manuela Viegas
Synopsis
Gloria is set against the backdrop of a rural landscape slowly disappearing in modern Portugal. The small border town of Vila de Santiago, once a booming trade center for illegal trafficking, is about to become a ghost town, as a new motorway is to bypass the city and the railway station is being closed. Its stationmaster, Vincente, is preparing to retire. Many young people have moved out, leaving the children to be brought up by the elderly, including thirteen-year-old Glória and her friend Ivan. Glória's life suddenly changes with the arrival of Vincente's younger brother, Mauro, who has just come out of prison and has some old issues to settle. Mauro begins to charge around the station on his motorbike, while Glória's friendship with Ivan is put to test on account of her attraction to older Mauro.
Ngor is a young man living in a Senegalese village who wishes to marry Coumba. Ongoing drought in the village has affected its crop of groundnuts and as a result, Ngor cannot afford the bride price for Coumba. He goes to Senegal's capital city, Dakar, to try to earn more money and is exploited there. He returns to the villagers and shares his experiences of the city with the other men. The story, which shows the daily lives of the villagers, is told in the form of a letter to a friend from a villager, voiced by Faye.
A Spanish teacher and her student develop an unexpected friendship.
Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.
When Sam Baldwin's wife dies, he is left to bring up his eight-year-old son Jonah alone, and decides to move to Seattle to make a new start. On Christmas Eve, Jonah rings a radio phone-in with his Christmas wish to find a new wife for his dad. Meanwhile in Baltimore, journalist Annie Reed, who is having doubts about her own relationship, is listening in.
The children of the Salazar family have been pursuing separate lives in the recent years. After a few years of not being together as a whole family, they find themselves reuniting when CJ announces his plan to marry Princess, his girlfriend for three months. Much to their shock and dismay, CJ's sisters come together for the wedding and have agreed to dissuade him from marrying his fiancée.
Since her parents divorce Allison continues to hold on to her memories and dreams. In doing so, she herself stands in the way of a life in the present.
After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.
On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.
When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.
Devoted teacher Anne Sullivan leads deaf, blind and mute Helen Keller out of solitude and helps integrate her into the world.
A biography of artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work.
A woman finds a baby python in her apartment and has a strange connection with it. Together, both snake and woman begin a transformation into something new.
On a winter evening, Émilie arrives unannounced at her neighbor Joëlle's house. As the evening goes by, Émilie longs for her neighbor who seems to be impervious to her charms. Exploration of an ambiguous relationship marked with admiration, power games, maternal tenderness and sexual attraction.
A beautiful minimalist string score accompanies this sweet little film. A couple bring an old lady into their home to help her shelter from the thick falling snow, but it turns out to be a fairy who grants them a wish. This uses some effective reverse photography and the simple story works well.
A lone hitch hiker, marooned near a housing estate, has a dramatic effect on the lives of those around him.
BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield and his wife, Belle's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet the color of her skin prevents her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. Left to wonder if she will ever find love, Belle falls for an idealistic young vicar's son bent on change who, with her help, shapes Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England
Determined to carve out a better future for herself, teenage Gouri leaves behind a life of prostitution that was forced upon her at a young age and takes a job as a caregiver for a mistrusting elderly widow. But just as she starts to find her footing in this new life, Gouri’s past rears its ugly head again. Skillful direction and understated performances shine in this nuanced exploration of the challenges and triumphs of starting over.
Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute
Santos Palace is a coffee shop in Belgium. There, a waitress serves a strange client. Their eyes meet, minutes pass and we seem to witness a love story that hasn’t began or may have already started, with its potential jealousies and passions, or which may never happen at all; another type of romance. The feeling of seeing or being seen, the rhythmical editing, the use of cinemascope to make objects and spaces appear as abstract forms, the predominance of detailed shots: these are all obsessions, forms and audiovisual ideas that explode in this surprising film.
Life is good in Rabbitland - its rabbit inhabitants have reached the highest stage of evolution where they have no brains and happily spend their days voting in the free and democratic elections.
