MyMovies: Movies I Have Seen

In 1985, four middle-aged Yugoslav emigres return to Belgrade for the funeral of Mariana, their beautiful compatriot. They called her Esther, for Esther Williams, she was the coxswain for their four-man rowing team, and they each loved her. They'd last seen her in 1953, when they rowed her across the Adriatic, pregnant, to join her exiled father in Italy. In flashbacks we learn the story of their youthful baptism into sex, smoking, rock and roll (Hey Ba-ba-re-bop), Hollywood and Swedish films, blue jeans on the black market, and their rivalry with Ristic, the Communist Party youth leader for whom they had instant antipathy.

After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet resistance movement against ruthless German forces and experiences the horrors of World War II.

A close friendship between two crew teammates is tested when one slowly discovers he's gay and attracted to the other.

Stories of crime, revenge, love, and friendship at the Carandiru Penitentiary, the largest prison in Latin America.

A malevolent phony preacher plots to take advantage of a woman from his congregation who happens to be in love with his long-estranged identical twin brother.

Raw portrayal of the controversial East Europe sex trade forcing nubile young men into prostitution, exposing their harsh realities on streets, porn shoots, and inner struggles.

A posthumous look at the last days of Guenther's life as he, his best friend, and his sister let loose on a four-day binge of alcohol, drugs, and sex.

Adrift in a lush, nocturnal urban landscape, Nick is a post-modern urban hero asserting his anarchistic agenda on the endless maze of virgin exterior walls that comprise downtown Seattle and Portland. For writer/director Bolton's lonely "tagger" protagonist, the vast wall surfaces of deserted alleys and trainyards are at once a daunting symbol of capitalist oppression and a texturally rich, seamless tableau ripe for exploitation to amplify his artistic dialectic of anger and rebellion. His own virtually anonymous existence seemingly only secondary to the painted surfaces and "rupture the system" manifesto which more poignantly evidence his presence, Nick's prodigious solo graffiti output is interrupted by friendship with another young tagger. Their communication begins as less verbal than a kind of shared graphic tour de force; their enormous collaborative graffiti murals appear to emerge as the unmistakable offspring of their kindred spirit. But eventually their assumptions about one another are disproved as political, emotional and ethical issues arise which cause their relationship to dissolve into the background of urban detritus, and the artists themselves emerge only further atomized and alienated by the experience. Compelling themes, sensitive performances, and luscious visuals define this film which is a revealing immersion into the experiential reality of those daring to make their art in a socially condemned arena. For a film ostensibly focusing on manipulated surfaces, Bolton's cinematic artistry probes deep into the consciousness of the "tagger" and "graffiti artist" sub-culture.

In 1431, Jeanne d'Arc is placed on trial on charges of heresy, and the ecclesiastical jurists attempt to force her to recant her claims of holy visions.

Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.

For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.

After the death of her father, Hannah becomes concerned with the strange behavior of her mother. As her mother's troubled childhood is revealed, Hannah realizes how little she ever knew.

The true-life story of 19-year-old Jürgen Bartsch, a German pedophile serial killer who murdered four boys, based on his correspondence, over the course of eight years, with German American author Paul Moor.

Two sisters confront their sexual attitudes and experiences while on a family holiday.

Zypcio is an idealistic heir to a large brewery in Poland. In the face of Chinese invasion threatening Eastern Europe, he is corrupted by the advances of both Princess Irina, who is after his money, and the court jester, who is after his virginity.

Fifteen-year-old Beni falls in love with Fögi, a singer in a Rock band. As Fögi seduces him, Beni is willing to follow him where ever he takes him. But Fögi is a drug addict and pulls Beni deeper and deeper into his addiction.

A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it...

The film is built around the very complex relationships between Yoshida, leaving Shimizu for Aihara (or at least he tries to), and his friend Ito, whose love for Yoshida seems to have little chance of success.

24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

A long night's journey into day: Victor, a street hustler in the Santa Fe and Pueyrredón neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, from the evening of November 1, All Saints Day, to the dawn of November 2, All Souls Day. Victor's odyssey takes him from clients to friends to a gay gym then a hotel room and an all-night café. He plays pick-up soccer with kids whose parents are going through trash or waiting in parks. A vendor gives him a chrysanthemum. It seems he's being followed, and on the night streets, death is close at hand. Can Victor survive until dawn?

In this Derek Jarman version of Christopher Marlowe's Elizabethan drama, in modern costumes and settings, Plantagenet king Edward II hands the power-craving nobility the perfect excuse by taking as lover besides his diplomatic wife, the French princess Isabel, not an acceptable lady at court but the ambitious Piers Gaveston, who uses his favor in bed even to wield political influence - the stage is set for a palace revolt which sends the gay pair from the throne to a terminal torture dungeon.

An inside look into one night in the San Francisco underground rave scene.

Will Thomas still lead a life of crime and cruelty, just like his thuggish father, or will he pursue his dream of becoming a pianist?

A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking and deflowering virgins.

Will the 30 y.o. Hlynur ever move out of his mother's apartment in Reykjavík? Social welfare keeps him passive but things change when his mother's Spanish friend, Lola, arrives and stays through Xmas and New Year's Eve.