Synopsis: During the Second World War, U-96, a German submarine, ships out from its French home port on a dangerous mission to sink shipping in the Atlantic. Commanded by a still young but highly experienced captain (Prochnow), the ship also carries a journalist (Grönemeyer), sent to write a propaganda piece on the heroic crew. Over…
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A collection of high-quality academic essays.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967): Summary and Analysis
Summary: A violent yet romanticised account of the career of the notorious bank-robbing couple who meet and embark on their spree amidst the poverty of the Great Depression in 1920s USA. Analysis: When first released in 1967, Bonnie and Clyde was a critical failure and achieved only mediocre box office sales. Even then, however, it…
The Lion’s Den (1988): Summary and Analysis
Summary: Vitín Luna is a young police officer who aspires to be a respected member of the armed forces. In order to achieve this promotion, he volunteers to go to Chuspi, a village in the Andes which has been badly affected by the violence of the Shining Path insurgency group. There he first encounters Lieutenant…
Bob le Flambeur: Synopsis and Analysis
Synopsis: Bob is an ageing, former gangster turned gambler in Montmartre (Paris), leading a pleasant if unconventional life with his friend Roger, his protégé, Paolo, and a young woman, Anne, who he has picked up on the street and who he helps out. After a spell of bad luck, he’s running out of money and…
Blue Velvet: Summary and Analysis
Summary: After finding a severed ear in a vacant lot, Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) becomes drawn into a mystery in the town of Lumberton. Jeffrey and Sandy (Dern), the daughter of the local police detective, begin investigating a woman named Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini), who is somehow connected to the case. Jeffrey soon finds himself hiding in…
The Blue Angel (1930): Summary and Analysis
Summary: Professor Immanuel Rath strictly enforces discipline in his high-school classroom. That is, until his curiosity leads him to his students’ hangout: The Blue Angel club. There he falls in love with and sleeps with performer Lola Lola, an ordinary city girl with an extraordinary penchant for attracting men. When he returns to school, Rath…
Blade Runner (1982, 1992): Summary and Analysis
Summary: 2019, a chaotic, decaying Los Angeles afflicted with crime and perpetual rains brought on through climate change. Anyone who has the means has fled to off-earth settlements and space colonies. Three androids designed for strictly extraterrestrial use have escaped and returned to LA to track down their genius inventor; they intend to have their…
Birth Of A Nation (1915): Summary and Analysis
Summary: A US Civil War (1861–65) drama, Birth of a Nation centres on two white families, the Camerons from the South and the Stonemans from the North. Before the war, during a visit of the Stonemans to the Camerons, Ben Cameron falls in love with Elsie Stoneman, and Phil Stoneman with Margaret Cameron. The war,…
The Battle of Algiers – Summary and Analysis
Summary: Battle of Algiers starts with Ali La Pointe’s arrest in 1957, before a flashback cuts to 1954 when Ali was still a small-time thug. Radicalised in jail, he joins the National Liberation Front (FNL), becoming a key player in the battle for Algerian independence. Using Ali as a way to connect different events, the…
Bashu, The Little Stranger – Summary and Analysis
Summary: The film begins in the war-torn south of Iran, and the opening sequence unfolds like an action film. Bombs hit homes and other civilian buildings, date trees disappear amidst smoke, and a woman who has been set on fire because of the explosions spins in vain to extinguish the flames. Rather incredibly, a trucker…