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View attachment 8232
Hannibal Rising
Studio: MGM, The Weinstein Company
Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Thomas Harris
Starring: Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans, Richard Brake, Kevin McKidd
Genre: Thriller
Plot Summary: In "Red Dragon" we learned who he was. In "Silence of the Lambs" we learned how he did it. Now comes the most chilling chapter in the life of Hannibal Lecter – the one that answers the most elusive question of all - why?
"Hannibal Rising" marks the first time in the award-winning series, best selling author Thomas Harris ("Red Dragon," "Silence of the Lambs") writes the screenplay – reaching back to explore the origins of Lecter's rage, terror and savagery.
The story begins in Eastern Europe at the desperate end of World War II. For many it was no longer a conflict of nations but one of individual survival – at any cost. A young Hannibal watches from only steps away as his parents' violently die, leaving his cherished young sister in his care. This horrific moment will soon pale in comparison to the atrocities he is forced to witness and perhaps survive as a result of.
Alone and without any means of support, he is forced to live in a Soviet Orphanage that once served as his family's beloved home. He flees to Paris to find his uncle has died but his beautiful and mysterious Japanese widow, Lady Murasaki (Gong Li) welcomes him. Even her kindness and love cannot soothe the nightmares and sorrows that plague him. Showing a cunning aptitude for science he is accepted into medical school, which serves to hone his skills and provide the tools to exact justice on the war criminals that haunt him day and night. This quest will ignite an insatiable lust within a serial killer who was not born, but made.
Gaspard Ulliel plays the fearsome Lecter, alongside Gong Li, Rhys Ifans and Dominic West. Peter Webber ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") directs.
View attachment 8233
The Last Sin Eater
Studio: Fox Faith, The Bigger Picture
Director: Michael Landon Jr.
Screenwriter: Brian Bird, Michael Landon Jr.
Starring: Louise Fletcher, Henry Thomas
Genre: Drama
Production Stills: Not Available
Plot Summary: When a mysterious man "absolves" her grandmother's sins by eating bread and wine at her grave, 10-year-old Cadi wants the same redemption---while she's still alive! But in her quest for deliverance she uncovers a dark secret that threatens to divide her family. What will happen when the two face each other---and the One who can truly save them? Based on the award winning novel by Francine Rivers.
View attachment 8234
The Lives of Others
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme, Volkmar Kleinert
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Plot Summary: At once a political thriller and human drama, "The Lives of Others" begins in East Berlin in 1984, five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately takes us to 1991, in what is now the reunited Germany. "The Lives of Others" traces the gradual disillusionment of Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe, best known for his lead roles in Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" and as Dr. Mengele in Costa-Gavras' "Amen"), a highly skilled officer who works for the Stasi, East Germany's all-powerful secret police. His mission is to spy on a celebrated writer and actress couple, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).
Five years before its downfall, the former East- German government (known as the GDR, German Democratic Republic) ensures its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance via the Stasi, a vast network of informers that at one time numbered 200,000 out of a population of 17 million. Their goal is to know everything about "the lives of others."
Devoted Stasi officer and expert interrogator Wiesler is given the job of collecting evidence against the famous playwright Georg Dreyman. The job begins after Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), a former classmate of Wiesler's who now heads the Culture Department at the State Security, invites Wiesler to accompany him to the premiere of the new play by Dreyman, also attended by Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme). Minister Hempf tells Grubitz that he has doubts about the successful playwright's loyalty to the SED, the ruling Socialist Unity Party, and implies that he would approve of a full-scale surveillance operation. Grubitz, eager to boost his own political future, entrusts the monitoring, or "Operative Procedure," to Wiesler, who promises to oversee the case personally. Wiesler is also convinced that Dreyman cannot possibly be as loyal to the Party as has always been assumed.
While Dreyman is away from their home, his apartment is systematically bugged. A neighbor who notices the operation is forced to keep silent by a personal threat. Wiesler sets up his surveillance headquarters in the attic of Dreyman's apartment building, thus beginning Wiesler's cold and calculating observation of the lives of the playwright and his girlfriend.
At first Weisler's observations show that, unlike most of his artistic peers, Dreyman does not display any outwardly disdain for the GDR. Dreyman's position slowly changes however, as he discovers that Christa-Maria has been pressured into a sexual relationship with Minister Hempf. When his close friend, theater director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert) is driven to suicide after seven years of unofficial "blacklisting" by the government, Dreyman can no longer remain silent about the GDR. Now determined to alert the outside world about the conditions of life under the GDR, he begins a plot to place an article with the famous West German publication Der Spiegel, exposing the GDR's policy of covering up the high suicide rates under the regime.
Wiesler, who has been monitoring all of Dreyman's activities, finally has the proof he needs to destroy his subject and to serve the GDR by foiling Dreyman's plot. But Wiesler's unemotional façade is showing signs of erosion. While he observes the day-to-day life of Dreyman and Christa-Maria, he begins to be drawn into their world, which puts his own position as an impartial agent of the GDR into question. His immersion in "the lives of others," in love, literature and freethinking, also makes Wiesler acutely aware of the shortfalls of his own existence.
When the anti-GDR article is published, the regime is thoroughly embarrassed and Grubitz is ordered to discover the identity of the article's author. Dreyman is one of the prime suspects, but Grubitz cannot believe that the trustworthy Wiesler would have failed to discover the plot. At the same time, Hempf's discovery of Christa-Maria's drug addiction forces her to expose her lover as the author of the Der Spiegel article, but a search of Dreyman's apartment does not yield any incriminating evidence. Convinced that Weisler knows more than he is revealing, Grubitz summons him to interrogate Christa-Maria in order to find the one item linking Dreyman to the Der Spiegel article. Wiesler, who has known all along about the source of the article and purposely failed to disclose the information to his superiors, must now decide where his allegiances lie. If he does not extract the information from Christa-Maria, his life and his career as an elite Stasi officer will undoubtedly be over. If he succeeds, Dreyman's fate will be sealed.
In 1991, two years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dreyman is in for a rude awakening when he runs into ex-minister Hempf and learns that he had been the subject of a Stasi surveillance. Immediately afterward, he finds the cables and microphones secretly installed years earlier behind the wallpaper in his apartment. In disbelief, he sets out to research and discovers the different reality of his past, which not only has a profound impact on his life but also surprises him with shocking revelations.
View attachment 8235
Norbit
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)
Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Eddie Murphy, Charles Murphy, Jay Scherick, David Ronn
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Eddie Griffin, Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Genre: Comedy
Plot Summary: Norbit (Eddie Murphy) has never had it easy. As a baby, he was abandoned on the steps of a Chinese restaurant/orphanage and raised by Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy). Things get worse when he's forced into marriage by the mean, junk food-chugging queen, Rasputia (Eddie Murphy). Just when Norbit's hanging by his last thread, his childhood sweetheart, Kate (Thandie Newton), moves back to town. In the comedy "Norbit," he'll find that nice guys sometimes finish first.
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Studio: The Documentary Group
Director: Richard E. Robbins
Screenwriter: Richard E. Robbins
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: "Operation Homecoming" is a unique documentary that explores the first-hand accounts of American troops through their own words. The film is built upon the Operation Homecoming initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through interviews and dramatic readings by such actors as Robert Duvall, Josh Lucas, Beau Bridges, Blair Underwood, Justin Kirk, Aaron Eckhart, Chris Gorham and John Krasinski, the film transforms selections from this collection of writing into a deep examination of the experiences of the men and women who are serving in America's armed forces. At the same time it provides depth and context to these experiences through a broader look at the universal themes of war literature.
The writing in "Operation Homecoming" covers the full spectrum - poetry, fiction, memoir, letters, journals, and essays. The stories recounted here are sad, funny, violent, and uplifting. Yet each one displays an honesty and intensity that is rarely seen in explorations of the war. Through an extraordinary group of men and women, it offers a profound window into the human side of America's current conflicts. The film also includes interviews with great American war writers from other conflicts including Tim O'Brien, James Salter, and Anthony Swofford.
The NEA's Operation Homecoming initiative has collected thousands of pieces of writing from service members and their families. The film takes a handful of this writing as a central element – presenting powerful readings of the soldier's words. These readings are brought to the screen though a variety of innovative filmmaking techniques that push the boundaries of traditional documentary, but avoid clumsy re-creations. Some stories are told through archival news images of the war. Several use striking visual collages to accompany the words of a poem. A few move even farther a field to illustration or animated still photographs, yet always rooted in a reading of the writer's original words.
At the core of the writing in "Operation Homecoming" is a deep desire by all those who have served in war to come to terms with their experiences. Throughout the film the soldiers, young and old, express a profound hope that people will listen to their stories and try to understand what they have seen. As with all of the great war writers, stretching back as far as the Iliad, the soldier writers of "Operation Homecoming" are trying to find meaning in the chaos and brutality of war. The film is a deeply humanizing look at those who suffer the de-humanization of war.
Black Friday
Studio: Adlabs Films
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Screenwriter: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Shrivastava, Pawan Malhotra
Genre: Drama
Plot Summary: "Black Friday" is a film about the investigations following the March 12, 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved - police, conspirators, victims, and middlemen. The film is based on S. Hussain Zaidis' book of the same name which depicted the shocking and violent events of that fateful day which followed just two weeks after the bombing of the World Trade Center. "Black Friday" was also nominated for the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Hannibal Rising
Studio: MGM, The Weinstein Company
Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Thomas Harris
Starring: Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans, Richard Brake, Kevin McKidd
Genre: Thriller
Plot Summary: In "Red Dragon" we learned who he was. In "Silence of the Lambs" we learned how he did it. Now comes the most chilling chapter in the life of Hannibal Lecter – the one that answers the most elusive question of all - why?
"Hannibal Rising" marks the first time in the award-winning series, best selling author Thomas Harris ("Red Dragon," "Silence of the Lambs") writes the screenplay – reaching back to explore the origins of Lecter's rage, terror and savagery.
The story begins in Eastern Europe at the desperate end of World War II. For many it was no longer a conflict of nations but one of individual survival – at any cost. A young Hannibal watches from only steps away as his parents' violently die, leaving his cherished young sister in his care. This horrific moment will soon pale in comparison to the atrocities he is forced to witness and perhaps survive as a result of.
Alone and without any means of support, he is forced to live in a Soviet Orphanage that once served as his family's beloved home. He flees to Paris to find his uncle has died but his beautiful and mysterious Japanese widow, Lady Murasaki (Gong Li) welcomes him. Even her kindness and love cannot soothe the nightmares and sorrows that plague him. Showing a cunning aptitude for science he is accepted into medical school, which serves to hone his skills and provide the tools to exact justice on the war criminals that haunt him day and night. This quest will ignite an insatiable lust within a serial killer who was not born, but made.
Gaspard Ulliel plays the fearsome Lecter, alongside Gong Li, Rhys Ifans and Dominic West. Peter Webber ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") directs.
View attachment 8233
The Last Sin Eater
Studio: Fox Faith, The Bigger Picture
Director: Michael Landon Jr.
Screenwriter: Brian Bird, Michael Landon Jr.
Starring: Louise Fletcher, Henry Thomas
Genre: Drama
Production Stills: Not Available
Plot Summary: When a mysterious man "absolves" her grandmother's sins by eating bread and wine at her grave, 10-year-old Cadi wants the same redemption---while she's still alive! But in her quest for deliverance she uncovers a dark secret that threatens to divide her family. What will happen when the two face each other---and the One who can truly save them? Based on the award winning novel by Francine Rivers.
View attachment 8234
The Lives of Others
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme, Volkmar Kleinert
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Plot Summary: At once a political thriller and human drama, "The Lives of Others" begins in East Berlin in 1984, five years before Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately takes us to 1991, in what is now the reunited Germany. "The Lives of Others" traces the gradual disillusionment of Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe, best known for his lead roles in Michael Haneke's "Funny Games" and as Dr. Mengele in Costa-Gavras' "Amen"), a highly skilled officer who works for the Stasi, East Germany's all-powerful secret police. His mission is to spy on a celebrated writer and actress couple, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).
Five years before its downfall, the former East- German government (known as the GDR, German Democratic Republic) ensures its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance via the Stasi, a vast network of informers that at one time numbered 200,000 out of a population of 17 million. Their goal is to know everything about "the lives of others."
Devoted Stasi officer and expert interrogator Wiesler is given the job of collecting evidence against the famous playwright Georg Dreyman. The job begins after Lieutenant Colonel Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), a former classmate of Wiesler's who now heads the Culture Department at the State Security, invites Wiesler to accompany him to the premiere of the new play by Dreyman, also attended by Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme). Minister Hempf tells Grubitz that he has doubts about the successful playwright's loyalty to the SED, the ruling Socialist Unity Party, and implies that he would approve of a full-scale surveillance operation. Grubitz, eager to boost his own political future, entrusts the monitoring, or "Operative Procedure," to Wiesler, who promises to oversee the case personally. Wiesler is also convinced that Dreyman cannot possibly be as loyal to the Party as has always been assumed.
While Dreyman is away from their home, his apartment is systematically bugged. A neighbor who notices the operation is forced to keep silent by a personal threat. Wiesler sets up his surveillance headquarters in the attic of Dreyman's apartment building, thus beginning Wiesler's cold and calculating observation of the lives of the playwright and his girlfriend.
At first Weisler's observations show that, unlike most of his artistic peers, Dreyman does not display any outwardly disdain for the GDR. Dreyman's position slowly changes however, as he discovers that Christa-Maria has been pressured into a sexual relationship with Minister Hempf. When his close friend, theater director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert) is driven to suicide after seven years of unofficial "blacklisting" by the government, Dreyman can no longer remain silent about the GDR. Now determined to alert the outside world about the conditions of life under the GDR, he begins a plot to place an article with the famous West German publication Der Spiegel, exposing the GDR's policy of covering up the high suicide rates under the regime.
Wiesler, who has been monitoring all of Dreyman's activities, finally has the proof he needs to destroy his subject and to serve the GDR by foiling Dreyman's plot. But Wiesler's unemotional façade is showing signs of erosion. While he observes the day-to-day life of Dreyman and Christa-Maria, he begins to be drawn into their world, which puts his own position as an impartial agent of the GDR into question. His immersion in "the lives of others," in love, literature and freethinking, also makes Wiesler acutely aware of the shortfalls of his own existence.
When the anti-GDR article is published, the regime is thoroughly embarrassed and Grubitz is ordered to discover the identity of the article's author. Dreyman is one of the prime suspects, but Grubitz cannot believe that the trustworthy Wiesler would have failed to discover the plot. At the same time, Hempf's discovery of Christa-Maria's drug addiction forces her to expose her lover as the author of the Der Spiegel article, but a search of Dreyman's apartment does not yield any incriminating evidence. Convinced that Weisler knows more than he is revealing, Grubitz summons him to interrogate Christa-Maria in order to find the one item linking Dreyman to the Der Spiegel article. Wiesler, who has known all along about the source of the article and purposely failed to disclose the information to his superiors, must now decide where his allegiances lie. If he does not extract the information from Christa-Maria, his life and his career as an elite Stasi officer will undoubtedly be over. If he succeeds, Dreyman's fate will be sealed.
In 1991, two years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dreyman is in for a rude awakening when he runs into ex-minister Hempf and learns that he had been the subject of a Stasi surveillance. Immediately afterward, he finds the cables and microphones secretly installed years earlier behind the wallpaper in his apartment. In disbelief, he sets out to research and discovers the different reality of his past, which not only has a profound impact on his life but also surprises him with shocking revelations.
View attachment 8235
Norbit
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)
Director: Brian Robbins
Screenwriter: Eddie Murphy, Charles Murphy, Jay Scherick, David Ronn
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Eddie Griffin, Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Genre: Comedy
Plot Summary: Norbit (Eddie Murphy) has never had it easy. As a baby, he was abandoned on the steps of a Chinese restaurant/orphanage and raised by Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy). Things get worse when he's forced into marriage by the mean, junk food-chugging queen, Rasputia (Eddie Murphy). Just when Norbit's hanging by his last thread, his childhood sweetheart, Kate (Thandie Newton), moves back to town. In the comedy "Norbit," he'll find that nice guys sometimes finish first.
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Studio: The Documentary Group
Director: Richard E. Robbins
Screenwriter: Richard E. Robbins
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: "Operation Homecoming" is a unique documentary that explores the first-hand accounts of American troops through their own words. The film is built upon the Operation Homecoming initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts to gather the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through interviews and dramatic readings by such actors as Robert Duvall, Josh Lucas, Beau Bridges, Blair Underwood, Justin Kirk, Aaron Eckhart, Chris Gorham and John Krasinski, the film transforms selections from this collection of writing into a deep examination of the experiences of the men and women who are serving in America's armed forces. At the same time it provides depth and context to these experiences through a broader look at the universal themes of war literature.
The writing in "Operation Homecoming" covers the full spectrum - poetry, fiction, memoir, letters, journals, and essays. The stories recounted here are sad, funny, violent, and uplifting. Yet each one displays an honesty and intensity that is rarely seen in explorations of the war. Through an extraordinary group of men and women, it offers a profound window into the human side of America's current conflicts. The film also includes interviews with great American war writers from other conflicts including Tim O'Brien, James Salter, and Anthony Swofford.
The NEA's Operation Homecoming initiative has collected thousands of pieces of writing from service members and their families. The film takes a handful of this writing as a central element – presenting powerful readings of the soldier's words. These readings are brought to the screen though a variety of innovative filmmaking techniques that push the boundaries of traditional documentary, but avoid clumsy re-creations. Some stories are told through archival news images of the war. Several use striking visual collages to accompany the words of a poem. A few move even farther a field to illustration or animated still photographs, yet always rooted in a reading of the writer's original words.
At the core of the writing in "Operation Homecoming" is a deep desire by all those who have served in war to come to terms with their experiences. Throughout the film the soldiers, young and old, express a profound hope that people will listen to their stories and try to understand what they have seen. As with all of the great war writers, stretching back as far as the Iliad, the soldier writers of "Operation Homecoming" are trying to find meaning in the chaos and brutality of war. The film is a deeply humanizing look at those who suffer the de-humanization of war.
Black Friday
Studio: Adlabs Films
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Screenwriter: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Shrivastava, Pawan Malhotra
Genre: Drama
Plot Summary: "Black Friday" is a film about the investigations following the March 12, 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved - police, conspirators, victims, and middlemen. The film is based on S. Hussain Zaidis' book of the same name which depicted the shocking and violent events of that fateful day which followed just two weeks after the bombing of the World Trade Center. "Black Friday" was also nominated for the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno International Film Festival.