American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy
Genres
Overview
Chantal Akerman explores Jewish American identity in this multilayered portrait of the immigrant experience. Shot in Brooklyn near the Williamsburg Bridge, Histoires D'Amérique takes the form of a series of first-person addresses delivered by a cross-section of Jewish New Yorkers, whose by turns tragic and humorous tales speak to a collective history of trauma, displacement, and resilience.
Details
Budget
$0
Revenue
$0
Runtime
96 min
Release Date
1989-10-04
Status
Released
Original Language
English
Vote Count
7
Vote Average
5.1
Mark Amitin
Eszter Balint
Stephan Balint
Judith Malina
Kirk Baltz
Sharon Diskin
5.7
Jamila and the President
Jamila is a prostitute serving a life sentence behind bars. She surrenders herself to the authorities after admitting she killed a high-ranking minister, and refuses to be represented by any lawyer or request a plea to ease her sentence.
2009-04-30 | id
3.7
Ma fille est innocente
A teenage girl spends her vacation in Asia together with her mom and dad. There she meets another guy from France, who uses her, and she is caught by the drug police, arrested and sentenced to jail. Now her parents need to do something to release their innocent girl and punish the real criminal. Conditions in prison are very bad, the authorities are corrupted and are only interested in their money.
2007-10-15 | fr
3.5
Awakened
Samantha believes that her father murdered her mother. In her exhausting search for the truth about her young mother's untimely death 14 years earlier, Samantha receives help from beyond the grave.
2013-06-12 | en
6.0
The Tied Up Balloon
A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...
1967-12-01 | bg
6.8
Freak Show
The story of teenager Billy Bloom who, despite attending an ultra conservative high school, makes the decision to run for homecoming queen.
2018-01-12 | en
1.0
Bye Bye Victor
Friendship between two old men becomes love. Slightly-unkempt, tired, and frail, Philippe Lanctot moves into a rest home. The administrator says she wants him to be happy, but that seems far from his mind: he's waiting to die. Then, into his room, unannounced, rolls the voluble Victor Laprade, who draws out Philippe over the next few months. Victor gives Philippe the gift of experiencing the moment. In return, the well-heeled Philippe organises field trips to dinner and to a botanical garden, and, unknown to Victor, becomes the man's benefactor when Victor's children get stingy. The openly-gay Victor also pushes Philippe to acknowledge feelings he's always kept suppressed.
1989-09-24 | fr
6.4
Peasants
Pavel's mother hates his fiancee. When Pavel serves in the Army she writes him that Nastya is no longer faithful to him. Pavel decides not to return to his native town. But many years later he returns to his fathers funeral and finds out that Nastya died sometime ago. She left three kids orphans and her elder daughter is also a daughter of Pavel.
1981-06-06 | ru
0.0
Cherry Blossoms in March
In this mother-daughter story, a young woman explores her own mortality through art and poetry as her terminal illness holds her back from a normal life.
2024-05-06 | en
6.1
My Life Without Me
A fatally ill mother with only two months to live creates a list of things she wants to do before she dies without telling her family of her illness.
2003-03-07 | en
7.1
Open Hearts
Cecilie and Joachim are about to get married when a freak car accident leaves Joachim disabled, throwing their lives into a spin. The driver of the other car, Marie, and her family don’t get off lightly, either. Her husband Niels works in the hospital where he meets Cecilie and falls madly in love with her.
2002-09-06 | da
6.4
Italian for Beginners
Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.
2000-12-07 | da
7.0
The Secret Life of Words
A solitary nurse bonds with a badly burned patient who survived an accident on an oil rig.
2005-12-15 | en
5.3
My Life as a Comedian
Juha, 12, class clown in the suburb of Sävbyholm, Sweden. To be funny is the only thing he is good at and all he wants is to fit in the social peckingorder at school. When Juha as an adult performs the show – My Life As A Comedian- to sold out theatres and tells the horrid and funny stories from his childhood to the audience he gets an unexpected visit from an old friend from school which makes him return to Sävbyholm and deal with his past.
2019-10-11 | sv
7.5
Suddenly Gina
Laurens works for the German Minister of Finance and is an extremely correct and conscientious person. He knows his way around numbers, but less so with women. One day he meets Gina, a single young woman. She is sitting alone at one of the tables and Laurens forces himself to sit with her. Hesitantly, a first conversation develops between them. This is the beginning of a seemingly impossible love story that not only throws Laurens' life into turmoil. Laurens is secretary to the German finance minister. Over breakfast, he approaches the attractive Gina and invites her to accompany him to the G8 summit. There, Gina realizes that she doesn't fit into the world of politicians and business bosses. She is the only one to say what she thinks - and causes quite a stir. Laurens has to choose between his career and the love of his life.
2007-05-29 | de
6.0
Mutants
Thirteen-year-old Paula lives with her mother on a well-kept estate in a small town surrounded by nice neighbours. But Paula's view of normality has been sharpened by her extensive and consistent diet of horror movies.
2002-01-01 | de
6.6
Earth
It's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.
1998-09-16 | hi
6.8
Water
The year is 1938, and Mahatma Gandhi's groundbreaking philosophies are sweeping across India, but 8-year-old Chuyia, newly widowed, must go to live with other outcast widows on an ashram. Her presence transforms the ashram as she befriends two of her compatriots.
2005-09-08 | hi
5.6
Come Early Morning
A thirty-something southern woman searches for love, despite the burdens she carries with her.
2006-01-10 | en
6.9
Caramel
In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.
2007-08-09 | ar
0.0
Weekend
A country house. A weekend. A family. Time goes by. Silence prevails. "But listen to the breath of the unceasing message made of silence."
2007-07-06 | pt