fragmentsofjo's - The City List

Show moreShow less

This stylish black-comedy thriller stars Ralph Fiennes as Harry, a vicious London crime-boss, who send his two hit-men to the picturesque Belgian City of Bruges - to lay low and wait for orders.

While Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is happy just to sight see (!), his fast-talking partner, Ray (Colin Farrell) sets out for an adventure. Before long, Ray is experiencing hilariously surreal encounters with tourists, skinheads, dwarves and prostitutes! When, at last, the call comes from Harry, the fun turns to a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions.

Show moreShow less

The sky over Wenders' war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, (Bruno Ganz) wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marion (Solveig Dommartin).

Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience.

Show moreShow less

Welcome to the world's most notorious slum: Rio de Janeiro's 'City of God'. A place where combat photographers fear to tread, where police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20.

This is the true story of a young man who grew up on these streets and whose ambition as a photographer is our window in and ultimately may be his only way out.

Show moreShow less

"8 Mile" explores a week in the lives of a group of young people struggling to find their way in the urban decay of 1995 Detroit. For people like Jimmy 'Rabbit' Smith, Jr. (Eminem) and his friends, hip-hop is the only thing standing between them and the void.

Rabbit knows his ticket out is through his rhymes, but to succeed, he has to channel his anger into his lyrics, and face the showdown of his life.

Show moreShow less

Up-and-coming young lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) has just been fired by his prestigious law firm. They say he hasn't got what it takes. Andrew knows it's because he's got AIDS.

Determined to defend his professional reputation, Andrew hires fierce, brilliant personal-injury attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to sue his former employers for wrongful dismissal. Joe is initially reluctant to take on the case. Although he as grown up knowing the pain of prejudice, he's never had to confront his own prejudices against homosexuality and AIDS...until now. One man is fighting for his reputation, his life and for justice. The other is battling to overcome his own and society's ignorance and fear.

Show moreShow less

Ferris Bueller. Larger than life. Blessed with a magical sense of serendipity. He's a model for all those who take themselves too seriously. A guy who knows the value of a day off. 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' chronicles the events in the day of a rather magical young man, Ferris (Matthew Broderick).

One spring day, toward the end of his senior year, Ferris gives in to an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl (Mia Sara) and his best friend (Alan Ruck), to see the sights, experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at 17 can be a joy!

Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' Arrested on suspicion of cheating, he tells the police the incredible story of his life on the streets, and of the girl he loved and lost.

On the mean streets of Rome, eponymous pimp (Franco Citti) leads a hand-to-mouth existence on the very margins of society: prostituting, scrounging, exploiting. When his prize prostitute Maddalena is arrested and jailed, the pimp's fortunes dwindle, and he is forced to confront his own existence.

Show moreShow less

When her father threatens to annul her marriage to a fortune-hunting playboy, spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) hops on a cross-country bus to New York, where she plans to live happily ever after with her handsome new hubby.

Romantic complications however, when she's befriended by fellow passenger Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a brash and breezy reporter who offers his help in exchange for her exclusive story.

Show moreShow less

Gregory Peck stars as a doting husband and father who gives up his small time job and enters the thrilling world of advertising in Manhattan.

With added tension at work and increasing problems at home with his wife (Jennifer Jones), the rising young executive must decide, as his boss (Frederic March) did, what is the most important thing in life - family or success.

Show moreShow less

"Killer of Sheep" is an undisputed masterpiece of African-American filmmaking and one of the most poetic, perceptive dramas ever made about family and community.

This acclaimed tale of a disillusioned slaughterhouse worker - and the solace to be found in the simplest moments of life - is tender, witty, and affectionate. With lovely neorealist photography - capturing the long, hot days of 1970s Los Angeles - and a gorgeous blues soundtrack (Dinah Washington, Paul Robeson and Little Walter all feature) the film has a quiet emotional power.

Maddalena (Anna Magnani) is a screenstruck mother convinced of her daughter Maria's (Tina Apicella) star potential. Dreaming of a better life for her family she invests everything, including her last penny, into the dream that her daughter will be discovered at an open casting.

Show moreShow less

A middle-class schoolteacher, stuck in a government-enforced teaching post in an arid backwater, stops off in the mining town of Bundanyabba on his way home for the Christmas holidays.

Discovering a local gambling craze that may grant him the financial independence to move back to Sydney for good, the opportunity proves irresistible. But the bad decisions are just beginning and a reliance on local standards of hospitality in "the Yabba" may take him on a path darker than ever expected.