np1's - Favourites List
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It's the beginning of summer in a small village in northern Turkey. Lale and her four sisters are on their way home from school, innocently playing with local boys but prying village eyes view their games with suspicion and word soon reaches their family. Their home consequently becomes a prison at the hand of their uncompromising uncle and all the girls have to now live for is a future of arranged marriage. But these girls' rebellious streak will not be tamed so easily. Drawing vocal support from critics, festivals and audiences across the globe, this beautiful debut from director Deniz Gamze Erguven is a touching portrayal of innocent strength and resilience against modern misogyny. - Director:
- Deniz Gamze Ergüven
- Cast:
- Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu
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Elle (2016)Oh!
From legendary filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, 'Elle' is a gripping psychological noir thriller. Starring iconic actress Isabelle Huppert in a career-defining role, 'Elle' follows Michele LeBlanc (Huppert), founder and CEO of a successful video game company, who is attacked in her own home. Upending our expectations, Michele begins to track down her assailant, and soon they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, one that at any moment may spiral out of control. - Director:
- Paul Verhoeven
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Oury Milshtein, Laurent Lafitte
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Wild Tales (2014)Relatos Salvajes
From director Damian Szifron and producer Pedro Almodovar comes six stories, each exploring a different facet of revenge and the various brilliant, mad, toe-curling and hilarious flavours in which it can be dished out. Whether it's taking out a belligerent crime lord, getting even with officious parking enforcement, retribution for infidelity, or good old fashioned road rage, 'Wild Tales' takes acts of vengeance for infuriating, often all too familiar situations and blows them out to a bitter and hysterical end in this outrageous, tense and ferociously funny dark comedy. - Director:
- Damián Szifrón
- Cast:
- Darío Grandinetti, María Marull, Mónica Villa
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The Piano Teacher (2001)La pianiste
Isabelle Huppert gives a performance of astounding emotional intensity as Erika Kohut, a repressed woman in her late thirties who teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory and lives with her tyrannical mother (Annie Girardot), with whom she has a volatile love-hate relationship. But when one of Erika's students, the handsome and assured Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel), attempts to seduce her, the barriers that she has carefully erected around her claustrophobic world are shattered, unleashing a previously inhibited extreme and uncontrollable desire. - Director:
- Michael Haneke
- Cast:
- Isabelle Huppert, Noam Morgensztern, Annie Girardot
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Cold War (2018)Zimna Wojna
In the ruins of post-war Poland, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Zula (Joanna Kulig) fall deeply, obsessively and destructively in love. As performing musicians forced to play into the Soviet propaganda machine, they dream of escaping to the creative freedom of the West. But one day, as they spot their chance to make a break for Paris, both make a split decision that will mark their lives forever. Pawel Pawlikowski follows his Oscar-winning 'Ida' with the stunning 'Cold War', an epic romance set against the backdrop of Europe after World War II. Sumptuously shot in luminous black and white, it spans decades and nations to tell a love story that is as tragic as it is moving, and as transportive as it is honest. - Director:
- Pawel Pawlikowski
- Cast:
- Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc
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Broken Embraces (2009)Los Abrazos Rotos
Harry Caine is a successful writer but a man who writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years ago Harry was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote, resulting in not only the loss of his sight, but of something much greater. However Harry Caine is a pseudonym and only a few people know Harry's real identity, and of the life he led before the accident. Now Harry has decided to tell the moving and terrible story of his former self, a story of "amour foil*, dominated by love, jealously, treachery and fatality. - Director:
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast:
- Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo
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The White Crow (2018)Rudolf Nureyev Project
The incredible true story of legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev (Oleg Ivenko) is brought vividly to life by Academy Awardy-nominee Ralph Fiennes and BAFTA-winning screenwriter David Hare. From Nureyev's poverty-stricken childhood in the Soviet city of Ufa, to his blossoming as a student dancer in Leningrad, to his nail-biting escape from the KGB and defection to the West at the height of the Cold War, The White Crow is a gripping, revelatory look at a unique artist who transformed the world of ballet forever. - Director:
- Ralph Fiennes
- Cast:
- Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann
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Land of Mine (2015)Under Sandet
Inspired by real events, "Land of Mine" follows the dramatic story of the young German prisoners who, as World War II came to an end in 1945, were forced to defuse and remove two million mines on the Danish Coast. Presided over by tough veteran Sergeant Carl Rasmussen (Roland Mailer), these teenage POW's were treated with hostility whilst being forced to dig up the mines from the sand with their bare hands with little training. When Rasmussen begins to sympathise and promises their release back to Germany when the task is completed, they soon realise that the war is far from over. - Director:
- Martin Zandvliet
- Cast:
- Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman
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'Wadjda' is the story of a young Saudi girl whose burning desire for a bicycle leads her into bold defiance of her society's restrictive codes of gender and religion. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn't be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda's mother won't allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl's virtue. Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself. Although her cunning plans are continuously thwarted, she is determined to continue fighting for her dreams... - Director:
- Haifaa Al-Mansour
- Cast:
- Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani
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Let the Right One In (2008)Lat den ratte komma in
Twelve year old Oskar is an outsider; struggling to fit in at school and left alone to fend for himself at home while his mother works nights. One evening he meets the mysterious Eli. As a sweet romance blossoms between them, Oskar learns to overcome his tormentors and discovers Eli's dark secret and the connections to gruesome events occurring across town. Together they must help Eli be gone and live, or stay and die. - Director:
- Tomas Alfredson
- Cast:
- Kåre Hedebrant, Bengt Bylund, Bengt Lindström
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I've Loved You So Long (2008)Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
I've Loved You So Long is the outstanding, critically celebrated breakthrough film of the year. Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient) offers a truly sensational performance in this utterly engrossing and deeply moving tale of two sisters who rebuild their relationship after fifteen years apart. The two women gradually rediscover common ground and learn how to relate to one another through the memories of their shared childhood, all the while the spectre of their time apart looming overhead... This intelligent and compassionate film is a testament to the power of family, love and forgiveness. - Director:
- Philippe Claudel
- Cast:
- Kristin Scott-Thomas, Claire Lefevre, Elsa Zylberstein
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Cinema Paradiso (1988)Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
Giuseppe Tomatore's loving homage to the cinema tells the story of Salvatore (Marco Leonardi, Salvatore Cascio, Jacques Perrin), a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena (Agnes Nano) and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier. - Director:
- Giuseppe Tornatore
- Cast:
- Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili
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All About My Mother (1999)Todo sobre mi madre
From acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, a stunning valentine to femininity in all its disguises, motherhood in all its glory and to classic Hollywood melodramas and their diva actresses. A birthday treat turns into heart-rending tragedy for single mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth) when her teenage son is killed in a car accident after a performance of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' starring his favourite actress Huma Roja (Marisa Paredes). Determined to exorcise her overwhelming guilt, Manuela goes to Barcelona to finally tell his father about the son he never knew he had. There, the reason why she has kept the identity of her forbidden lover a secret for so long is revealed. He is a transvestite named Lola who is dying from an AIDS related illness. However in confronting her own past, Manuela forges a new future with Lola's transsexual best friend Agrado (Antonia San Juan), church social worker Sister Rosa (Penelope Cruz) and Huma, when her play comes to town But even as the women from different fringes of society form a bond, further heartbreak, misfortune and ultimate joy lies in store for each. Considered by critics world wide to be the finest movie Almodovar has directed in his entire glittering career, and featuring glorious acting from the cream of Spanish cinema, All About My Mother combines warmth, love, tears and humour as it builds to an unforgettable emotional crescendo. - Director:
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast:
- Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña
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Tell No One (2006)Ne Le Dis A Personne
Relentless edge-of-your-seat suspense, jaw-dropping, high-octane action and a powerful love story combine in what has been hailed by many critics as the best film of the year. 'Tell No One' follows one man's frantic race against time when his tragic past is suddenly and unexpectedly unearthed. Dr. Alex Beck (François Cluzet) is left unconscious after his wife, and childhood sweetheart, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze) is brutally murdered. 8 years on and still unaware of the truth, Alex receives an anonymous e-mail. Clicking on the link he sees a woman's face in a crowd - Margot's face...But before this can sink in, Alex is thrown headlong into a deadly chase - running from both the Police and a team of killers who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden. - Director:
- Guillaume Canet
- Cast:
- François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, André Dussollier
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Julieta (2016)Silencio
12 years ago Julieta's daughter, Antia (Blanca Parés / Priscilla Delgado), abandoned her without warning and hasn't spoken to Julieta since. When a chance encounter brings news of her daughter, Julieta (Emma Suárez) returns to her former home to revive her search for Antia, whilst also examining the events leading to her daughter's estrangement. - Director:
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Cast:
- Emma Suárez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao
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