Vivere

2007

After her impulsive little sister Antonietta (Kim Schnitzer) runs off to Rotterdam with her musician boyfriend, dutiful daughter Francesca (Esther Zimmering) is dispatched to find her. But the journey becomes one of unexpected self-discovery when Francesca picks up depressed Gerlinde (Hannelore Elsner). Soon, the three women's fates become intertwined in surprising ways in this lyrical drama from Germany. Angelina Maccarone directs.

2.5 Average Rating

Ilusyon

2005

When the country-raised Miguel (Yul Servo) decides to look up his father, a modernist painter living in Manila, he learns that he's left the city to grieve for the death of his wife, Miguel's mother. While waiting for him to return, however, Miguel meets a beautiful nude model (Jaycee Parker) who's come to sit for a portrait with his father, prompting Miguel to pretend he's an artist just so he can look at her.

2.5 Average Rating

After Sex

1997

A married woman is unable to resist a fling with a younger man in this dark comedy. Forty-something publisher Diane seems to have it all -- a successful business and a loving family -- but everything changes when she meets twenty-something Emilio. The two begin an intense sexual relationship, but when the affair ends, Diane's life is in tatters and she suffers an emotional breakdown. Brigitte Rouan, Patrick Chesnais and Nils Tavernier star.

2.5 Average Rating

Girl Seeks Girl

2007

Culled from a Web-based series, this saucy Spanish soap follows the romantic entanglements of lesbian bartender Nines (Celia Freijeiro) and her circle of friends as they try to unravel the mysteries of same-sex love and lust. Torn between needy Monica (Cristina Pons) and Monica's supposedly straight roommate, Carmen (Sandra Collantes), Nines also contends with advances from high-spirited actress Ana (Almudena Gallego).

2.5 Average Rating

Girls Can't Swim

2000

Gwen, a young French girl who lives in the country, has a best friend, Lise, who lives in Paris but comes to visit Gwen every summer. This year, however, things are a little different. On the verge of full-blown teenhood, Gwen and Lise are beginning to explore their sexuality and must face the possibility that their platonic friendship may be changing to love.

2.5 Average Rating

The Red Earth

1946

Winner of the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, this drama chronicles the Danish resistance during World War II. Several resistance fighters -- including Michael Lans (Poul Reichhardt) -- are caught and imprisoned after planning an act of sabotage. As Michael reminisces about the events leading up to their capture, he and his cohorts must also determine the identity of the informer in their midst -- and make a plan to escape.

2.5 Average Rating

Friday Night

2002

Paris, 1995. Laure (Valérie Lemercier) is about to meet friends for dinner to celebrate her moving in with her boyfriend. But on her way out, she discovers that the entire city is stalled by a massive transit strike. When a handsome stranger (Vincent Lindon) offers her a ride, Laure takes a highly charged, impossibly erotic detour.

2.5 Average Rating

Looking for Cheyenne

2007

Sonia (Aurelia Petit) drifts from one affair to another, but the object of her affection has always been Cheyenne (Mila Dekker), who has dropped out of society to live a nomadic lifestyle. Desperate to find her, Sonia combs the countryside looking for her lost love. Unfortunately for the star-crossed pair, fate conspires to keep them apart. Malik Zidi and Guilaine Londez co-star in Valerie Minetto's fantasy-infused romance.

2.5 Average Rating

Assunta Spina / The Last Diva: Double Feature

1915

Based on the novel and play by Salvatore Di Giacomo, Assunta Spina tells of a Neapolitan working-class girl (Francesca Bertini) whose livelihood and honor is constantly threatened by people more powerful than herself. The Last Diva is a tribute to Italian silent-film actress Francesca Bertini, including a special interview with the star herself and clips from her films, with a special focus on Assunta Spina (filmed in 1915).

2.5 Average Rating

The Housemaid

2009

Placing her camera in the home of an elderly German couple, director Anna Hoffmann captures the palpable friction between three tangled lives: Lore, who's confined to a wheelchair; Max, her effectively mute husband; and Martina, their Slovakian maid. Frustrated, homesick and alienated by a daunting language barrier, the uprooted Martina desperately wants to go home, but her family needs the income.

2.5 Average Rating

Summer Night

1987

Lina Wertmüller (Swept Away) -- the first woman to receive an Oscar nomination for directing -- once again pairs mismatched strangers and chuckles at the results. Fed up with terrorists who tamper with Italy's natural resources, a wealthy woman (Mariangela Melato) hires a former CIA agent to abduct the No. 1 poacher (Michele Placido). But while she waits for someone to pay the criminal's $100 million ransom, she ends up beside him in bed.

2.5 Average Rating

A Man in Love

1987

While working abroad and filming a biopic of a famed Italian author, American actor Steve Elliott (Peter Coyote) falls for his sultry co-star (Greta Scacchi) and immerses himself in an erotic love affair ... which is all well and good, except that his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) is waiting at home. Diane Kurys directs her English-language debut, which was France's official 1987 entry to the Cannes Film Festival.

2.5 Average Rating

Grandi Speranze

2009

Filmmakers Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti craft a fascinating documentary that takes a hard look at entrepreneurship, business ethics and the global economy through the words and actions of three modern Italian businessmen. There's tense drama and bitter comedy in their efforts to establish a mineral water factory in Shanghai, China, as their Western beliefs and business models clash with a culture they can't comprehend.

2.5 Average Rating

Seaside

2003

Marie (Helene Fillieres) lives in the small seaside town of Cayeux, so renowned for its pebbly beach that it has a factory that cleans the stones. An employee at the factory, Marie's become restless with her job and her life and dreams of exploring the world; just as the town has a seasonal life -- popular in the warmer climes, isolated in winter -- so, too, must its residents ebb and flow with the seasons. Will Marie leave to find her dreams?

2.5 Average Rating

Djamilya

1969

Trapped in an arranged marriage, Djamilya falls in love with a wounded war veteran while her husband is away fighting the same war. When news of the husband's imminent return reaches the lovers, they're forced to make a tough choice in this film based on a story by Soviet writer Chinghiz Aitmatov. Set during the Great Patriotic War of the early 1940s, the story is told largely via flashback by a reminiscent young friend of the couple.

2.5 Average Rating

Ice People

2008

In the brutal region of Antarctica, researchers leave behind the comforts of their former lives in the name of science, pouring their ceaseless energy into their work and, in the process, forging new understandings about climate change. Emmy-winning filmmaker Anne Aghion spent four months in the icy locale to make this exhilarating documentary, painting dual portraits of gritty human determination and eye-popping natural splendor.

2.4 Average Rating