A Separation (2011), Rome, Open City (1945), The Third Man (1949), Mildred Pierce (1945), Random Harvest (1942), Mishima (1985), The Celebration (1998), Three Colors: Blue (1993) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Circular Staircase movies.
Storyline: Nader (Payman Maadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) argue about living abroad. Simin prefers to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, Termeh. However, Nader refuses to go because he thinks he must stay in Iran and take care of his father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who suffers from Alzheimers. However, Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter.
Plot Keywords: divorce, iran, pregnancy, girl, marital problem, court, alzheimer's disease ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The location: Nazi occupied Rome. As Rome is classified an open city, most Romans can wander the streets without fear of the city being bombed or them being killed in the process. But life for Romans is still difficult with the Nazi occupation as there is a curfew, basic foods are rationed, and the Nazis are still searching for those working for the resistance and will go to any length to quash those in the resistance and anyone providing them with assistance. War worn widowed mother Pina is about to get married to her next door neighbor Francesco. Despite their situation - Pina being pregnant, and Francesco being an atheist - Pina and Francesco will be wed by Catholic priest Don Pietro Pelligrini. The day before the wedding, Francesco's friend, Giorgio Manfredi, who Pina has never met, comes looking for Francesco as he, working for the resistance, needs a place to hide out. For his latest mission, Giorgio also requests the assistance of Don Pietro, who is more than willing as he sees...
Plot Keywords: despair, courage, collaborator, murder, resistance movement, torture, rome italy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has led to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.
Plot Keywords: funeral, betrayal, cat, author, cemetery, friendship, mistaken identity ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: When Mildred Pierce's out-of-work husband leaves her for another woman, Mildred decides to raise her two daughters on her own. Despite Mildred's financial successes in the restaurant business, her oldest daughter, Veda, resents her mother for degrading their social status. In the midst of a police investigation after the death of her second husband, Mildred must evaluate her own freedom and her complicated relationship with her daughter.
Plot Keywords: restaurant, in medias res, based on novel, mother daughter relationship, ex husband ex wife relationship, dysfunctional marriage, husband wife relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A veteran of World War I marries and settles happily into a tidy, humble life until an accident brings back memories of a former life of wealth and privilege while blocking all recollection of his existence since the war. Thus one man disappears, and another man long missing turns up and claims his vast inheritance. What does his devoted wife, whom he no longer recognizes, do?—Paul Emmons <pemmons@wcupa.edu>
Plot Keywords: sailor, loss of son, doctor, dressing room, drink, family relationships, father son relationship ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima. Three of the segments parallel events in Mishima's life with his novels (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses), while the fourth depicts the actual events of the 25th Nov. 1970, "The Last Day".—Nick Lopez <ntlopez@fas.harvard.edu>
Plot Keywords: gay, homosexual, self loathing, reference to michelangelo, reference to lord byron, reference to elvis presley, playwright ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The Father turns 60. His family, which is a big one of the kind, gathers to celebrate him on a castle. Everybody likes and respects the father deeply...or do they? The youngest son is trying to live up to the father's expectations. He is running a grill-bar in a dirty part of Copenhagen. The oldest son runs a restaurant in France, while the sister is a anthropologist. The older sister has recently committed suicide and the father asks the oldest son to say a few words about her, because he is afraid he will break into tears if he does it himself. The oldest son agrees without argument. Actually he has already written two speeches. A yellow and a green one. By the table, he asks the father to pick a speech. The father chooses green. The oldest son announces that this is the Speech of Truth. Everybody laughs, except for the father who gets a nervous look on his face. For he knows that the oldest son is about to reveal the secret of why the oldest sister killed herself.—Jonas L.
Plot Keywords: family secret, speech, haunted by the past, incest, father son relationship, family relationships, birthday party ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: The first part of Kieslowski's trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. 'Blue' is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew, free of personal commitments, belongings, grief or love. She intends to numb herself by withdrawing from the world and living completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heal Julie and draws her back to the land of the living.
Plot Keywords: liberty, paris france, 1990s, accidental death, mourning, telling a joke, trauma ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: London based hit men Ray and Ken are told by their boss Harry Waters to lie low in Bruges, Belgium for up to two weeks following their latest hit, which resulted in the death of an innocent bystander. Harry will be in touch with further instructions. While they wait for Harry's call, Ken, following Harry's advice, takes in the sights of the medieval city with great appreciation. But the charms of Bruges are lost on the simpler Ray, who is already despondent over the innocent death, especially as it was his first job. Things change for Ray when he meets Chloe, part of a film crew shooting a movie starring an American dwarf named Jimmy. When Harry's instructions arrive, Ken, for whom the job is directed, isn't sure if he can carry out the new job, especially as he has gained a new appreciation of life from his stay in the fairytale Bruges. While Ken waits for the inevitable arrival into Bruges of an angry Harry, who feels he must clean up matters on his own, Ray is dealing with his own ...
Plot Keywords: dwarf, irish, hitman, murder of an innocent person, tourist, bullet, death ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Former Catholic priest Oliver O'Grady - Father Ollie in more familiar circumstances - talks about his life as priest, including what he saw as his many failings in that role. Although not stating it as one of those failings, he also speaks about the sexual abuse of minors, both girls and boys, in his role as a priest, where his victims number in the hundreds covering approximately two decades in Central California, with his youngest known victim being nine months old. He admits that he spent as much time planning his abuses, which included gaining the confidences of parents sometimes also in sexual means, than he did with actual ministering. A handful of his victims and their support networks speak of how the abuse was able to happen, how it has negatively affected their collective lives to this day (while Father Ollie walks seemingly happy a free man in his native Ireland), and how they are trying to regain their faith in a holistic manner. Experts talk about how items specific to the Catholic religious structure institutionalize such abuse where power rests in the hands of a small few, while the flock - the masses - are meant, as good Catholics, to be subservient to that power, and why the abuse of girls is treated differently by the church than that of boys. This documentary then opens up the discussion to the fact that clergy abuse within the Catholic church is not isolated only to Father Ollie, but is widespread, may be institutionalized psychologically, and efforts are still made at almost every step by those in positions of power, including the Pope, to protect the abusers at the expense of the victims. In Father Ollie's case, he was moved from parish to parish within his diocese (the Los Angeles Diocese) and often promoted, while his victims were told he would be moved not only into therapy but into positions where children could no longer be abused.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: ireland, theology, holy communion, molestation, celibacy, child molestation, investigation ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Forced to leave their collapsing house, Ranaa and Emad, an Iranian couple who happen to be performers rehearsing for Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman" rent a new apartment from one of their fellow performers. Unaware of the fact that the previous tenant had been a woman of ill repute having many clients, they settle down. By a nasty turn of events one of the clients pays a visit to the apartment one night while Ranaa is alone at home taking a bath and the aftermath turns the peaceful life of the couple upside down.
Plot Keywords: rape, revenge, teacher, husband wife relationship, attack, stage play, apartment ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him.
Plot Keywords: con artist, screwball comedy, snake, gold digger, victim, seduction, heartbreak ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is happily settled with the Brown family in Windsor Gardens, where he has become a popular member of the community, spreading joy and marmalade wherever he goes. While searching for the perfect present for his beloved Aunt Lucy's (Imelda Staunton's) 100th birthday, Paddington spots a unique pop-up book in Mr. Gruber's antique shop, and embarks upon a series of odd jobs to buy it. But when the book is stolen, it's up to Paddington and the Browns to unmask the thief.
Plot Keywords: london england, false accusation, prison, courtroom, escape from prison, hair salon, gong ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: County Durham, during the endless, violent 1984 strike against the Thatcher closure of British coal mines. Widower Jackie Elliot and his firstborn, fellow miner Tony, take a dim view of 11 year-old second son Billy's poor record in boxing class, which worsens when they discover he sneakily transferred to the neighboring, otherwise girls-only-attended ballet class. Only one schoolmate, closet-gay Michael Caffrey, encourages Billy's desire, aroused by the teacher, who judged him talented enough for private lesson, to train and try out for the world-renowned Royal Ballet audition. Only the prospect of a fancy career unimagined in the pauper quarter may twist pa and big brother's opposition to indispensable support.
Plot Keywords: ballet, coming of age, bully, gay crush, miner, brother brother relationship, dance class ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.—Wiedemann & Berg Film
Plot Keywords: east germany, painter, doctor, pregnancy, communism, death of father, male nudity ...
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