FanFare

[TRAILER] Macbeth (Orson Welles), a medieval Scottish general, is told by three witches he will rise to be king. After learning the prophecy, he's pressured by his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan), to murder King Duncan (Erskine Sanford) and seize the throne. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 11, 2024 - 10 comments

[TRAILER] Hutu Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) manages the Hôtel des Mille Collines and lives a happy life with his Tutsi wife and their three children, but when Hutu military forces initiate a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Tutsi minority, Paul is compelled to allow refugees to take shelter in his hotel. As the U.N. pulls out, Paul must struggle alone to protect the Tutsi refugees in the face of the escalating violence later known as the Rwandan genocide. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Feb 16, 2024 - 2 comments

This Oscar-nominated documentary interviews the men and women who were at Los Alamos during work on the first atomic bomb. Includes the secrecy, lab alcohol-fueled social scene ("their average age was 29"), footage of the bomb, the tense final preparations in a lightning storm, scientists talking about the pride, horror and/or regret they felt in both 1945 and 1981, and more. At Criterion Channel and free on YouTube. [more inside]
posted by mediareport on Jul 17, 2023 - 3 comments

During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Oct 31, 2019 - 2 comments

Alexievich chronicles the experiences of the Soviet women who fought on the front lines, on the home front, and in the occupied territories. These women—more than a million in total—were nurses and doctors, pilots, tank drivers, machine-gunners, and snipers. They battled alongside men, and yet, after the victory, their efforts and sacrifices were forgotten. Alexievich traveled thousands of miles and visited more than a hundred towns to record these women’s stories. Together, this symphony of voices reveals a different aspect of the war—the everyday details of life in combat left out of the official histories. [more inside]
posted by mixedmetaphors on Mar 16, 2019 - 2 comments

The agents travel to Spain and France in 1943 to ensure the success of Britain's "Operation Mincemeat" during WWII. A Spanish spy captured in Nazi-occupied France is revealed to be an important figure in the Ministry's past and its present. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Aug 9, 2018 - 3 comments

Amelia and Alonso are sent to the premiere of "Vertigo" at the 1958 San Sebastián Film Festival, to foil a plan by Russia to kidnap Alfred Hitchcock and force him to produce propaganda films. While the Ministry is under construction, a wheelchair-bound Salvador becomes suspicious of a Sony Walkman-wearing construction worker he observes through his office window. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jun 28, 2018 - 4 comments

Salvador sends Alonso on a mission to save Julián from a lengthy battle during the Siege of Baler in the Philippines. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jun 4, 2018 - 9 comments

While hiding out in the Philippines in the 19th century, Julián makes a promise to a dying soldier that gets him into a dangerous situation.
posted by zarq on Jun 4, 2018 - 2 comments

During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on May 7, 2018 - 22 comments

Julián, Amelia and Alonso are ordered to travel to Lisbon, 1588 to prevent the playwright Lope de Vega from dying before he writes his greatest works. [more inside]
posted by zarq on May 2, 2018 - 8 comments

Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Apr 27, 2018 - 2 comments

Kublai has a disagreement. A bloody egg. Fire lances and trebuchets. A bit of a dust up at Xiangyang. An exquisitely jokey scene to end it all. [more inside]
posted by unliteral on Dec 26, 2014 - 1 comment

AAAHHHHHHHHH! A cute mini-cannon. Impotence rears it’s ugly head. We spend a lot of time preparing for an execution. [more inside]
posted by unliteral on Dec 22, 2014 - 5 comments

An engagement. A revengeful murder. AhLin develops further. Sword dancing. Bone dice are played with. Grisly pots get stirred. Kokachion comes under Marco's protection. Marco gets sucked in. [more inside]
posted by unliteral on Dec 22, 2014 - 2 comments

We learn about Sidao and Mei Lin’s history. There are missions for Marco and Hundred Eyes. Khutulun goes stone cold. Preparations for war. [more inside]
posted by unliteral on Dec 22, 2014 - 1 comment