This was Roberto Rossellini’s revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it. Though told with more melodramatic flair than the other films that would form this trilogy and starring some well-known actors—Aldo Fabrizi as a priest helping the partisan cause and Anna Magnani in her breakthrough role as the fiancée of a resistance member—Rome Open City (Roma città aperta) is a shockingly authentic experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II, with immediacy in every frame. Marking a watershed moment in Italian cinema, this galvanic work garnered awards around the globe and left the beginnings of a new film movement in its wake. Presented in Italian and German with English subtitles.
Read MoreGenre: Drama
Leila, who’s serving a life sentence for murder, is pardoned and offered a job in a secluded parsonage reading and composing letters for Father Jacob, a blind priest. She reluctantly accepts the job and resents the man at first, but gradually grows to admire him for his positive outlook and his continued help to those seeking prayers and counsel. Two completely different lives are unexpectedly intertwined in this heartwarming tale of personal redemption. This beautifully shot and scored feature is written and directed by Klaus Härö. Presented in Finnish with English subtitles.
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Wealthy, impulsive Susan Trexel undergoes a religious conversion, one undoubtedly destined to last as long as this season’s hemline length. But in the meantime, Susan insists everyone around her – including her neglected husband and child – alter their lives (and loves) to conform to her latest whim. A sterling cast highlights this witty comedy-drama: Joan Crawford, Frederic March, Ruth Hussey, Nigel Bruce, John Carroll and a pre-stardom Rita Hayworth. For Crawford, Susan and God (headlined on Broadway by the formidable Gertrude Lawrence) was her chance to play a more nuanced part than her typical shopgirl-makes-good characters. As she famously declared to studio brass in her campaign to win the role of Susan, “I’d play Wally Beery’s grandmother if it’s a good part.” It is!
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For two years the Civil War has been elsewhere. Now Confederate forces are nearby, looting and burning. It’s time to fight back, Jess Birdwell’s neighbors insist. Yet Birdwell, a Quaker, knows there must be a better way to settle things. In a role ideally suiting his stalwart persona, Gary Cooper plays Jess in William Wyler’s beloved film of Jessamyn West’s novel that earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Dorothy McGuire (the National Board of Review choice as Best Actress), Anthony Perkins and a superior cast get to the heart of faith, family and pacifism put to the test.
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BRAZIL, 1971 – Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship. Eunice Paiva, a mother of five children is forced to reinvent herself after her family suffers a violent and arbitrary act by the government. The film is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s biographical book and tells the true story that helped reconstruct an important part of Brazil’s hidden history. Presented in Portuguese with English subtitles.
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Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
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Sabrina is charming, humorous and aglow with some of Hollywood’s greatest stars. Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn star in a Cinderella story directed by renowned filmmaker Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot). Bogart and Holden are the mega-rich Larrabee brothers of Long Island. Bogart’s all work, Holden’s all playboy. But when Sabrina, daughter of the family’s chauffeur, returns from Paris all grown up and glamorous, the stage is set for some family fireworks as the brothers fall under the spell of Hepburn’s delightful charms.
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Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
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The light, the lives, and the textures of contemporary, working-class Mumbai are explored and celebrated by writer/director Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Centering on two roommates who also work together in a city hospital — head nurse Prabha and recent hire Anu — plus their coworker, cook Parvaty, Kapadia’s film alights on moments of connection and heartache, hope and disappointment to create a soulful study of the transformative power of friendship and sisterhood, in all its complexities and richness. Presented in Malayalam and Hindi with English subtitles.
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Mismatched cousins David (Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd-couple’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
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