Posts Tagged ‘1890s’

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Genres: Drama | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Daniel Day-Lewis | Michelle Pfeiffer | Winona Ryder | Alexis Smith | Geraldine Chaplin | Mary Beth Hurt | Alec McCowen | Richard E. Grant | Miriam Margolyes | Robert Sean Leonard | Siân Phillips | Jonathan Pryce | Michael Gough | Joanne Woodward | Stuart Wilson
Directors: Martin Scorsese
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Society scion Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland, but his well-ordered life is upset when he meets May’s unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. At first, Newland becomes a defender of the Countess, whose separation from her abusive husband makes her a social outcast in the restrictive high society of late-19th Century New York, but he finds in her a companion spirit and they fall in love.

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Genres: Drama | Romance | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Omar Sharif | Julie Christie | Geraldine Chaplin | Rod Steiger | Alec Guinness | Tom Courtenay | Siobhan McKenna | Ralph Richardson | Rita Tushingham | Jeffrey Rockland | Tarek Sharif | Bernard Kay | Klaus Kinski | Gérard Tichy | Noel Willman
Directors: David Lean
Download: DivX 

A Russian epic, the movie traces the life of surgeon-poet Yury Zhivago before and during the Russian Revolution. Married to an upper-class girl who is devoted to him, yet in love with an unfortunate woman who becomes his muse, Zhivago is torn between fidelity and passion. Sympathetic with the revolution but shaken by the wars and purges, he struggles to retain his individualism as a humanist amid the spirit of collectivism.

The Time Machine (1960)

Friday, April 24th, 2009
Genres: Adventure | Sci-Fi
Countries: USA
Actors: Rod Taylor | Alan Young | Yvette Mimieux | Sebastian Cabot | Tom Helmore | Whit Bissell | Doris Lloyd | Bob Barran | Paul Frees | James Skelly | Josephine Powell
Directors: George Pal
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From the book by H.G. Wells, a scientist and tinkerer builds a time machine and uses it to explore the distant future where there are two races, a mild gentle race, and a cannibalistic one living underground. His machine is stolen by the underground race and he must risk being captured (and eaten) to return to his own time.

Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Genres: Comedy | Family | Musical | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Barbra Streisand | Walter Matthau | Michael Crawford | Marianne McAndrew | Danny Lockin | E.J. Peaker | Joyce Ames | Tommy Tune | Judy Knaiz | David Hurst | Fritz Feld | Richard Collier | J. Pat O'Malley | Louis Armstrong
Directors: Gene Kelly
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Film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. Concerns itself with Dolly Levi, a New York-based matchmaker who merrily arranges things… like furniture and daffodils and lives. A widow, she has found herself in love with a “half-a-millionaire” Yonkers merchant named Horace Vandergelder. So she proceeds to weave a web of romantic complications involving him, his two clerks, a pretty milliner and her assistant. Eventually, of course, all is sorted out, and everyone ends up with the right person.

Gandhi (1982)

Friday, December 19th, 2008
Genres: Biography | Drama | History
Countries: India | UK
Actors: Ben Kingsley | Candice Bergen | Edward Fox | John Gielgud | Trevor Howard | John Mills | Martin Sheen | Ian Charleson | Athol Fugard | G?nther Maria Halmer | Saeed Jaffrey | Geraldine James | Alyque Padamsee | Amrish Puri | Roshan Seth
Directors: Richard Attenborough
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When ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ (qv) first set foot in British India, he had already been to Britain and South Africa, and had created quite a stir for the betterment of the people. But in India, he realized that he had first to live the life of a peasant to understand what it is to be an Indian. This resolve will lead him to shed his westerners clothing, and don a simple loincloth, be subjected to racial slurs from none other than Winston Churchill (Half naked Indian Fakir); Mobilize awareness of local industry and less dependence on imported clothing and material; the historic dandee march for withdrawal of the salt tax; a fast unto death to stop the virtual slaughter of British troops by irate Indian mobs; and be imprisoned several times. His resolve was to work with stalwarts such as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sardar Valabhbhai Patel, Professor Gokhale, J.B. Kripalani, Maulana Azad, and Pandit Jawarharlal Nehru to ensure first of all to get the British to quit India, and then run an Indian Government under the Congress party. Gandhi will soon realize that it is not enough to be just an Indian, for India has many facets - Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Christian. The British relied on these many facets as an excuse for their continuance as they wanted to ensure that the minorities are not oppressed by the Hindu majority. Concerned over the inroads made by Gandhi to unite the Hindus, Muslims, and all others under a common umbrella, the British invited Jinnah for talks, and it is here that a seed was laid for a separate country called Pakistan. When Gandhi came to know about this, he pleaded with Jinnah to unite the Muslims, even take over as the first Prime Minister with his choice of Muslim candidates for Parliament, but separatist Jinnah had already made his mind. The World Wars of 1914 and 1944 having taken it’s toll on Europe and Britain in particular, the weary British finally decided to leave India in 1947 - not the India they had conquered - but an India that was ready to be divided in East Pakistan and West Pakistan. Now after the much awaited independence was the real test for Gandhi - a test that will make him or break him - as he started a fast unto death to try and stop the violence that was threatening to break out into a civil war, not realizing that he had indirectly fanned Hindu extremism, which would later be called the Shiv Sena, into taking the matter directly in their hands to ensure that Muslims are kept out of their Hindustan forever.

The Haunting of M. (1981)

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
Genres: Horror
Countries: USA
Actors: Sheelagh Gilbey | Nini Pitt | Evie Garratt | Alan Hay | Jo Scott Matthews | William Bryan | Peter Austin | Ernest Bale | Isolde Cazelet | Varvara Pepper | Peter Stenson | Jenny Greenaway | Gwen Williams | Ruby Melvin | Willie Payne
Directors: Anna Thomas
Download: DivX iPod 

This ghost story, set at the turn of the century, centers on the plight of elderly dowager Marianna (Sheelagh Gilbey), who is tormented by the alleged specter of a young man roaming the corridors of her mansion. After spotting a face in an old photograph that seems to match the old woman’s description of the “visitor”, Marianna’s sister (Nina Pitt) decides to check things out and see if any of this is for real.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Mystery
Countries: USA
Actors: Joseph Cotten | Dorothy Comingore | Agnes Moorehead | Ruth Warrick | Ray Collins | Erskine Sanford | Everett Sloane | William Alland | Paul Stewart | George Coulouris | Fortunio Bonanova | Gus Schilling | Philip Van Zandt | Georgia Backus | Harry Shannon
Directors: Orson Welles
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Considered by many to be the best film ever made, this is the story of Charles Foster Kane. The film opens with a long shot of Xanadu - the private estate of one of the world’s richest men. In the middle of the estate is a castle. We see, inside the castle, a dying man examining a winter scene within a crystal ball. As he drops it, it smashes, and one word is heard - “Rosebud…” What follows are pieces of newsreel-like footage detailing how Kane amassed his fortune, and turning around full circle at the end.

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Monday, December 15th, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Joseph Cotten | Dolores Costello | Anne Baxter | Tim Holt | Agnes Moorehead | Ray Collins | Erskine Sanford | Richard Bennett | Orson Welles | Edwin August | Jack Baxley | William Blees | Lyle Clement | Bobby Cooper | Don Dillaway
Directors: Fred Fleck
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The young, handsome, but somewhat wild Eugene Morgan wants to marry Isabel Amberson, daughter of a rich upper-class family, but she instead marries dull and steady Wilbur Minafer. Their only child, George, grows up a spoiled brat. Years later, Eugene comes back, now a mature widower and a successful automobile maker. After Wilbur dies, Eugene again asks Isabel to marry him, and she is receptive. But George resents the attentions paid to his mother, and he and his whacko aunt Fanny manage to sabotage the romance. A series of disasters befall the Ambersons and George, and he gets his come-uppance in the end.

Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Monday, November 17th, 2008
Genres: Drama | Musical | Romance
Countries: Australia | USA
Actors: Nicole Kidman | Ewan McGregor | John Leguizamo | Jim Broadbent | Richard Roxburgh | Garry McDonald | Jacek Koman | Matthew Whittet | Kerry Walker | Caroline O'Connor | Christine Anu | Natalie Jackson Mendoza | Lara Mulcahy | David Wenham | Kylie Minogue
Directors: Baz Luhrmann
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Christian, a young wannabe Bohemian poet living in 1899 Paris, defies his father by joining the colorfully diverse clique inhabiting the dark, fantastical underworld of Paris’ now legendary Moulin Rouge. In this seedy but glamorous haven of sex, drugs and newly-discovered electricity, the poet-innocent finds himself plunged into a passionate but ultimately tragic love affair with Satine, the club’s highest paid star and the city’s most famous courtesan. Their romance is played out against the infamous club - a meeting place of high life and low, where slumming aristocrats and the fashionably rich mingled with workers, artists, Bohemians, actresses and courtesans.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Monday, November 17th, 2008
Genres: Action | Fantasy | Sci-Fi
Countries: Czech Republic | Germany | UK | USA
Actors: Sean Connery | Naseeruddin Shah | Peta Wilson | Tony Curran | Stuart Townsend | Shane West | Jason Flemyng | Richard Roxburgh | Max Ryan | Tom Goodman-Hill | David Hemmings | Terry O'Neill | Rudolf Pellar | Robert Willox | Robert Orr
Directors: Stephen Norrington
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Renowned adventurer Allan Quatermain (Connery) leads a team of extraordinary figures with legendary powers to battle the technological terror of a madman known as “The Fantom.” This “League” comprises seafarer/inventor Captain Nemo (Shah), vampiress Mina Harker (Wilson), an invisible man named Rodney Skinner (Curran), American secret service agent Tom Sawyer (West), the ageless and invincible Dorian Gray (Townsend), and the dangerous split personality of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Flemyng).