The Mantis Parable (2005)

"Impressionen vom alten marseiller Hafen," captures the steady hum of commerce of one of europe's biggest and most populous port cities.

Rikiya is blinded in a fight after falling in love with a courtesan. Believing the blindness permanent and his opponent dead, he goes back home to his sister Okiku, who become a prostitute to pay for his treatment.

Working primarily in the arena of nonfiction, Marker rejected conventional narrative techniques, instead staking out a deeply political terrain defined by the use of still images, atmospheric soundtracks, and literate commentary. In Description d’un Combat, Marker’s idiosyncratic style, combining location footage with archival material, builds a complex and personal portrayal. Israel’s demography is explored, from the kibbutzim to the Arab minorities, the orthodox Jews, and the tourists. The “battle” of the title does not refer to the tank-and-artillery variety, but to the inner struggle of Israeli citizens to adapt to a new view of themselves, in a new country.

Salva working as security guard in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Madrid. There he meets Leo, a girl who makes a living collecting cardboard. Gradually Salva be falling in love for the young, but the life of Leo holds a dark past.

The love-hate relations between a girl and his disabled brother.

Guy Maddin takes his dog Spanky out for his last walk with him at the lake.

Alfredo is a cheerful party animal, son of a wealthy man. Alfredo's brother, a young very focused and mature boy, and their father try unsuccessfully to change the profligate lifestyle of Alfredo to remedy the dissolute life of the latter, which, by all indications, is clearly gay.

A Jewish family suffers persecution and suffering in the 16th century when they are accused of practicing witchcraft.

Prague, during World War II. Hana Kaufmann, a Jewish ophthalmologist, marries Dr. Antonín Bureš, a Christian man. When her family is sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, their romance turns into a struggle for survival.

Pedro and Julian, two friends entomologists are in love the same woman, Adela, who decides to marry Peter. Julian attends the marriage, but acts against women as her own husband. The passion that unites the two friends, entomology, leads them to conclude a treaty. The woman, however, is not comfortable with the life she has lived and want to abandon them. Discovered that she suffers from the disease, makes men willing to please her in everything, without her knowing the reason for his change of attitude.

Christian, an art critic, must write a study on the painter René Dimanche in order to understand why he did not produce anything for eight years. He asks his friend Ingrid to help him break through this mystery.

Fearing that her niece Rosita will abandon her true love and enter into a marriage of convenience, doña Juanita tells her the story of when, many years ago, she fell in love with an accountant who worked in a circus.

Bruno, a young traffic agent of the Spanish Guardia Civil, is abandoned by his wife after having an affair. Bruno, devastated, discovers one night, by chance, a strange passageway that leads him to another level of reality.

It is the year 1936 and the Spanish Civil War is raging. When the German commander of an international brigade is badly wounded he gives his five comrades a message which he divides up and secretes into in five cartridges. All five shells must reach the battalion in order for the message to be relayed. But Frenchman Pierre can’t bear the heat of the Sierra. When he leaves their hide-out to drink from a well he is hit by an enemy bullet.

Catherine Racan, a young journalist who always puts her career over her love life, is brought in by the police for questioning. They are looking for a doctor who illegally performs abortions and now they are interrogating all of his previous clients.

Although members of the Hitler Youth chant anti-Semitic paroles in front of his house during the Purim festival, Rabbi Singer is still profoundly convinced that Germany will stay a safe country for him, his family, and his fellow believers. But several years later, his son David is banned from going to school because he is a Jew. Shortly after, Rabbi Singer and his wife are deported. Now, young David also fears for his life. In constant fear of being detected, he tries to find a way to leave Germany.

The teacher explains to her students, step by step and with full details and live examples, how are the different types of execution: the electric chair, the garrote, the gallows ..

Two young girls, Nobiko and Tomiko, go to the same school. The less fortunate girl Nobiko is one of the top students, while the rich girl Tomiko is not. At one time Tomiko's father was quite fond of Nobuko's mother.

Inflamed by his readings of chivalric novels, Don Quixote, a knight with a sad face, accompanied by Sancho Panza, a peasant steeped in common sense, decides to set off across the world in search of improbable adventures.

In 1996, Marcello Mastroianni talks about life as an actor. It's an anecdotal and philosophical memoir, moving from topic to topic, fully conscious of a man "of a certain age" looking back. He tells stories about Fellini and De Sica's direction, of using irony in performances, of constantly working (an actor tries to find himself in characters). He's diffident about prizes, celebrates Rome and Paris, salutes Naples and its people. He answers the question, why make bad films; recalls his father and grandfather, carpenters, his mother, deaf in her old age, and his brother, a film editor; he's modest about his looks. In repose, time's swift passage holds Mastroianni inward gaze.