An ambitious painter on the verge of a big break confronts his moral decay when his idealist, hell-raising, younger sister comes to stay with him in New York City for the summer.
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, more
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, but this matters not at all to their tradition-bound families. At the last minute, the bride balks. Only slightly nonplused, the groom's father, a status-seeking doctor, decides to go ahead with the expensive reception anyway. Polish director Krzysz Zanussi uses this scenario to stick it to capitalist corruption, and to society's destruction of the individual spirit. Leslie Caron, the one recognizable member of the cast, is outstanding as a wealthy, over-the-hill ballerina who happens to be a kleptomaniac. close
Romek, an idealistc 19-year-old boy, takes a job as a tailor in the costume department of a Warsaw theater company where his new colleague, Sowa, is pressured more
Romek, an idealistc 19-year-old boy, takes a job as a tailor in the costume department of a Warsaw theater company where his new colleague, Sowa, is pressured to make a costume for an overbearing soloist. close
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision more
A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family's decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time. close
Volker Schlöndorff transposes Bertolt Brecht’s late-expressionist work to latter-day 1969. Poet and anarchist Baal lives in an attic and reads his poems more
Volker Schlöndorff transposes Bertolt Brecht’s late-expressionist work to latter-day 1969. Poet and anarchist Baal lives in an attic and reads his poems to cab drivers. At first feted and later rejected by bourgeois society, Baal roams through forests and along motorways, greedy for schnapps, cigarettes, women and men: ‘You have to let out the beast, let him out into the sunlight.’ After impregnating a young actress he soon comes to regard her as a millstone round his neck. He stabs a friend to death and dies alone. ‘You are useless, mangy and wild, you beast, you crawl through the lowest boughs of the tree.’ close
The hero of “Peace” Antek Gralak is a worker with a criminal past. After his release from prison, Antek realizes that he has no place in the family. His more
The hero of “Peace” Antek Gralak is a worker with a criminal past. After his release from prison, Antek realizes that he has no place in the family. His ex-fiancée is not interested either. He leaves his native Krakow and finds work on a construction site in Silesia. All he wants out of life are simple things: work, a clean bed, a wife, television and peace.
Wanting to avoid conflicts, he makes friends with colleagues and is grateful to his employer. He finds a girlfriend, gets married, but conflicts at work are inevitable. The building materials disappear, and Antek’s owner is involved in the theft. Seeing a potential accomplice in Gralak, he tries to devote him to his dark affairs. Soon a strike breaks out among the builders and Gralak is forced torn painfully between two opposing sides – his boss and colleagues. close