Jeanne and the Perfect Guy

Jeanne loves men. One day, she finds herself drawn to a man named Olivier. Olivier is a HIV positive patient and told that his life won’t last longer that 6 month. After she visits him in the hospital, Olivier decides to go home with his parents without telling Jeanne. Finding this out, Jeanne struggles hard to find him. She finds him though, but really late for Olivier.

Genre: Art/Foreign, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance
Starring: Virginie Ledoyen, Mathieu Demy, Jacques Bonnaffe, Valerie Bonneton, Frederic Gorny
Director: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau
Release Date: April 16, 1999

Love's Labour's Lost

Kenneth Branagh continues to make sterling adaptations of classic William Shakespeare plays with this romantic musical-comedy. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST takes place in 1939, when the King of Navarre and his three best friends make a pact to remain celibate for three years. When the Princess of France arrives with her three beautiful companions, their will, and honor, is put to the test immediately. Their efforts to hide their true feelings provide the film with its most humorous situations. Featuring classic compositions by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, and Jerome Kern.

Genre: Art/Foreign, Musical, Comedy, PerformingArts
Starring: Alessandro Nivola, Alicia Silverstone, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Lillard, Natascha McElhone
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: June 9, 2000 LA/NY

Half Moon

Mamo, the old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a music concert after the fall of Sadam Hossein. On the journey, a middle aged man who is Mamo’s follower escorts him and the sons as a driver of an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. When the last son joins the team he insists to speak to Mamo. He explains to Mamo that the Old of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because as the full moon comes, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persist on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to work for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a woman singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, with his team. But Hesho has lost the strength of her old voice with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s teams face many difficulties and their journey becomes full of events and adventures.


Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama, Musical/Performing Arts
Starring: Allah-Morad Rashtian, Hedye Tehrani, Ismail Ghaffari, Kambiz Arshi, Sadiq Behzadpoor
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Release Date: December 14, 2007 (NY), September 9, 2006 (Toronto Film Festival)

I'll Sing for You

In the early 1960s, Mali radio broadcast the melancholy voice of Boubacar Traore, better known as KarKar, who sang of love and independence. After Malian independence, however, KarKar disappeared from public life. This film, which reveals his fate, is ultimately a portrait of Mali, painted with intertwining discussions of politics and religion, reminiscences of notable Malian musicians including, Ali Farka Toure, Madieye Niang, and Ballake Sissoko, and moving musical performances.

Genre: Art/Foreign, Documentary and Musical/Performing Arts
Duration: 1 hr. 16 min.
Starring: Boubacar Traore, Ali Farka Toure, Madieye Niang, Ballake Sissoko, Blaise Pascal,
Director: Jacques Sarasin
Producer: Jacques Sarasin
Distributor: First Run Features
Release Date: March 26th, 2004 (Washington, DC).
Writer: Jacques Sarasin

8 Women

At an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season, but there will be no celebration - their beloved patriarch has been murdered! The killer can only be one of the eight women closest to the man of the house. Was it his powerful wife, his spinster sister-in-law, his miserly mother-in-law? Maybe the insolent chambermaid or the loyal housekeeper? Could it possibly have been one of his two daughters? A surprise visit from the victim's chic sister sends the household into a tizzy, encouraging hysterics, exacerbating rivalries and encompassing musical interludes. Comic situations arise with the revelations of dark family secrets. Seduction dances with betrayal. The mystery of the female psyche is revealed. Eight women. Each is a suspect, each has a motive, each has a secret. One of them is guilty.

Genre: Art/Foreign, Comedy, Crime/Gangster, Musical, and Mystery
Duration: 1 hr. 43 min.
Starring: Emmanuelle Beart, Virginie Ledoyen, Catherine Deneuve, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert,
Director: Francois Ozon
Producer: Olivier Delbosc
Distributor: Focus Features (USA Films)
Release Date: September 20, 2002 (LA/NY).
Writer: Francois Ozon, Marina De Van, Robert Thomas

Gloomy Sunday (2003)

Budapest in the thirties. The restaurant owner Laszlo hires the pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody triggers off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans goes and falls in love with Ilona as well.

Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama, Musical/Performing Arts, Romance
Duration: 1 hr. 52 min.
Starring: Erica Marozsan, András Bálint, Joachim Krol, Stefano Dionisi, Ben Becker,
Director: Rolf Schubel
Producer: Richard Schops
Distributor: Menemsha Films
Release Date: June 20, 2003 Chicago; November 7, 2003 NY/LA/BO/WA; November 14, 2003 MI.
Writer: Nick Barkow, Rolf Schubel