Monday Movies 7.12.10

Feature Presentation...
MONDAY MOVIE MEME

Today's movie topic is Movies You Might Have Missed! Terry Kate, book blogger and film maker is a Guest Director of The Bumbles Blog today. She has come up with this wonderful theme about the film gems you have seen which fellow bloggers might not have. I came up with quite a few and could have double or tripled the number of films on the list! Some star well-known actors so many of you may be familiar with these movies. But on the chance you aren’t, I felt they were worth listing. Be forewarned - I may return to add more movies to my list later today! If you can think of any great movies you think fellow bloggers don’t know about jot them down in your blog and then head on over to The Bumbles blog and post a link there!

Beethoven's Nephew (1985) Starring Wolfgang Reichmann, Ditmar Prinz and Jane Birkin. Ludwig Beethoven is extremely concerned with the welfare of his nephew, Carl, and fights a lengthy custody battle against his sister-in-law, after the death of his brother. Beethoven is awarded custody of his nephew and plans to make Carl into a great composer but his nephew doesn't have the talent or ability. This disappoints Beethoven and Carl as well.. Beethoven is portrayed quite realistically as the impatient, tyrannical, slobby and temperamental artist he was.

8 Women (2002) Starring Catherine Deneuve, Virginie Ledoyen and Isabelle Huppert, among others. A snowy morning in the French countryside, 1950; A family is gathered for a holiday celebration until it is discovered that the patriarch of the family has been murdered. The killer is one of the 8 women in the house, all close to the patriarch, all with a motive and a secret: The household erupts in chaos with much squabbling, fretting, exacerbated rivalries, histrionics and periodic musical interludes and much hilarity. Somebody is guilty!

Love Liza (2002) Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates. Following the unexplained suicide of his wife Liza, website designer Wilson Joel (Hoffman) turns to gasoline fumes and remote control gaming while avoiding an inevitable conflict with his mother-in-law ( Bates).

Owning Mahowny (2003) Starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, John Hurt and Minnie Driver. Dan Mahowny, 24, is an assistant bank manager of a major branch in the Toronto financial district. He is hard-working, helpful, intelligent, funny and quiet as far as his colleagues, customers, friends and girlfriend know. But there is a side of him they don't know: he has (a) a gambling problem and (b) access to a multi-million dollar account and he gets into a messy situation. Based on the story of the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history.

High Art ( 1998 ) Starring Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchell, Gabriel Mann and Patricia Clarkson along with several others. A young female intern (Mitchell) at a small magazine company becomes involved with a once famous drug-addicted photographer (Sheedy) she discovers lives in her apartment building. They begin falling in love while using each other to help their careers. But not everyone in their lives is happy with the way things are going, including the intern's boyfriend.

The Visitor (2007) Starring Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira and Hiam Abass.
A college professor, Walter, travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple, Tarek and Zainab, living in his apartment. Rather than make them leave, he sympathizes with the plight of these illegal immigrants and asks them to stay, sharing the apartment with them. Walter befriends the couple and learns to play the African drum from Tarek. After a gig in the subway, Tarek is arrested and sent to a detention center for immigrants. Walter hires an attorney for Tarek while unexpectedly, Tarek's mother, Mouna arrives at Walter's apartment in NY concerned about her son. Walter helps her to get Tarek released from the detention center and , as a result, learns much about himself and life.

The Puffy Chair (2005) Written by Mark and Jay Duplass and directed by Jay Duplass (The Duplass Brothers movie, Cyrus, opened in theaters this past weekend)
Starring Mark and Larry Duplass.
Emily (Katie Aselton) and Josh (Mark Duplass) are in a relationship that doesn't always work well. Josh invites Emily to drive with him from NYC to Virginia to pick up a recliner chair he bought on ebay for his father as a birthday gift. The trip doesn't go smoothly and there are several unpleasant "situations". And Emily asks Josh tough questions about their relationship leaving viewers wondering if it's close to the end or if there is more there than meets the eye. At times funny, sad, strange, sweet and uncomfortable. Great movie!

Stardust Memories (1980) Written and directed by Woody Allen. Starring Allen, Charlotte Rampling, Tony Roberts, Daniel Stern and many others...
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker, Sandy Bates (Woody Allen) recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films. A biting satire of celebrity, celebrity culture, fans and the critics from Allen's point of view.

*much of this info comes from imdb.com Thank you!