Milind Soman Made Me Gay (2007)
Actors
Plot
In 1995, Indian Government charged Bollywood superstar Milind Soman with 'obscenity' for appearing nude in a shoe advertisement. Under the rhetoric of preserving nation's morality, these charges were carried-out using old colonial laws that are still evoked to restrict desire & persecute homosexuality in India today. Milind Soman Made Me Gay is a conceptual documentary about desire & notions of home & belonging. The film employs a unique mix of visual elements along with voice over narration to juxtapose memories of the filmmaker's own past against lives of three gay South Asian men living in the diaspora. Overshadowing these nostalgic explorations of life 'back home,' are harsh realities of homophobia & racism in USA.
Keywords: anthropology, bollywood, diaspora, gay-asian
Genres
Taglines:
Memories of Home and Abroad
Alexander: Hero of Heroes (2007)
Actors
Plot
With the assassination of his rowdy and bawdy father King Philip in 336 BC, Alexander gathers up his Home-Boy Macedonians (30,000 or so) and crosses the Hellespont to strike Darius and the Persian Horde. The Persians, of course, torched the Acropolis three generations earlier. The Greeks (and Macedonians) never forgot. During his herculean 12-year odyssey, Alexander succeeds in creating a world empire from the Danube to the Indus. Ever the glorious conqueror, he shows not only military genius, but compassion for the conquered. Alexander's women (aside from his mother Olympias) include his life-long consort, Barsine, who takes him on erotic / chemical "trips". There is also Roxanne, the Bactrian princess / wannabe dancer, his possessive first wife and True Love. His second marriage to Stateira, Darius' clueless daughter, doesn't set well with Roxanne, which starts the tragic time-clock ticking. Roxanne opts into a regime-changing scenario-- orchestrated back in Athens by Demosthenes and Macedonian rivals.
Keywords: betrayal, women
Genres
Taglines:
In the fourth century before Christ, a young Macedonian prince led 30,000 armed and dangerous Greeks into Asia. . . .
Re-Live the Legend !
Sometimes it's hard to tell your friends from your enemies
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Actors
Plot
In 16th century Venice, courtesans enjoy unique privileges: dressed richly in red, they read, compose poetry and music, and discuss affairs of state with the men who govern the Republic. When Veronica Franco comes of age, she cannot marry Marco Venier, whom she loves, because she is well born but penniless. Her choice: cloister or courtesan. She steels her heart, and with beauty and intelligence becomes the best. She's a heroine when she helps convince France to aid Venice in war with Turkey, but when plague descends, the Church charges her with witchcraft. At her inquisition, she must match wits with an old rival, speak for all women, and call courage from Venier.
Keywords: 1580s, 16th-century, admiral, adultery, apology, arranged-marriage, author, bare-breasts, based-on-book, bath
Genres
Taglines:
Passion. Seduction. Betrayal. A Scandalous Love Story.
Born without privilege. Bound by tradition. She found the courage to follow her heart.
A life without compromise.
Quotes:
Domenico Venier: If I didn't know you better I'd think you have the feigned indifference of a man in love. Go on son. Tell the truth and shame the devil.
Marco Venier: I'm getting married Veronica. Congratulate me.::Veronica Franco: Felicitations on your grand match.
Beatrice Venier: Do you know what my daughter's nurse told her today? "In a girl's voice lies temptation - a known fact. Eloquence in a woman means promiscuity. Promiscuity of the mind leads to promiscuity of the body." She doesn't believe it yet, but she will. She'll grow up just like her mother. Marry, raise children and honor her family. Spend her youth in needlepoint and rue the day she was born a girl. And when she dies, she'll wonder why she obeyed all the rules of God and Country for no biblical hell could ever be worse than a state of perpetual inconsequence.
Veronica Franco: There's not a man in Venice I can't have.::Marco Venier: And there's not a woman in Venice I can't have.::Veronica Franco: You cannot have me.
Veronica Franco: I confess that as a young girl I loved a man who would not marry me for want of a dowry. I confess I had a mother who taught me a different way of life, one I resisted at first but learned to embrace. I confess I became a courtesan, traded yearning for power, welcomed many rather than be owned by one. I confess I embraced a whore's freedom over a wife's obedience. I confess I find more ecstacy in passion than in prayer. Such passion is prayer. I confess I pray still to feel the touch of my lover's lips. His hands upon me, his arms enfolding me... Such surrender has been mine. I confess I pray still to be filled and enflamed. To melt into the dream of us, beyond this troubled place, to where we are not even ourselves. To know that always, this is mine. If this had not been mine-if I had lived any other way-a child to her husband's will, my soul hardened from lack of touch and lack of love... I confess such endless days and nights would be a punishment far greater than you could ever mete out. You, all of you, you who hunger so for what I give yet cannot bear to see that kind of power in a woman. You call God's greatest gift-ourselves, our yearning, our need to love-you call it filth and sin and heresy... I repent there was no other way open to me. I do not repent my life.
Maffio Venier: It must be interesting to be in a room full of men, most of whom you've seen with their pants down.::Veronica Franco: Puts it all in some kind of perspective.
Paola Franco: Desire begins in the mind.
Paola Franco: It's the wanting that keeps us alive.
Veronica Franco: You... all of you... you who hunger so for what I give, but cannot bear to see such power in a woman. You call God's greatest gift... ourselves, our yearning, our need to love... you call it filth and sin and heresy.
Marco Venier: What God and greed have joined together, let no love put asunder.
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Actors
Plot
In 16th century Venice, courtesans enjoy unique privileges: dressed richly in red, they read, compose poetry and music, and discuss affairs of state with the men who govern the Republic. When Veronica Franco comes of age, she cannot marry Marco Venier, whom she loves, because she is well born but penniless. Her choice: cloister or courtesan. She steels her heart, and with beauty and intelligence becomes the best. She's a heroine when she helps convince France to aid Venice in war with Turkey, but when plague descends, the Church charges her with witchcraft. At her inquisition, she must match wits with an old rival, speak for all women, and call courage from Venier.
Keywords: 1580s, 16th-century, admiral, adultery, apology, arranged-marriage, author, bare-breasts, based-on-book, bath
Genres
Taglines:
Passion. Seduction. Betrayal. A Scandalous Love Story.
Born without privilege. Bound by tradition. She found the courage to follow her heart.
A life without compromise.
Quotes:
Domenico Venier: If I didn't know you better I'd think you have the feigned indifference of a man in love. Go on son. Tell the truth and shame the devil.
Marco Venier: I'm getting married Veronica. Congratulate me.::Veronica Franco: Felicitations on your grand match.
Beatrice Venier: Do you know what my daughter's nurse told her today? "In a girl's voice lies temptation - a known fact. Eloquence in a woman means promiscuity. Promiscuity of the mind leads to promiscuity of the body." She doesn't believe it yet, but she will. She'll grow up just like her mother. Marry, raise children and honor her family. Spend her youth in needlepoint and rue the day she was born a girl. And when she dies, she'll wonder why she obeyed all the rules of God and Country for no biblical hell could ever be worse than a state of perpetual inconsequence.
Veronica Franco: There's not a man in Venice I can't have.::Marco Venier: And there's not a woman in Venice I can't have.::Veronica Franco: You cannot have me.
Veronica Franco: I confess that as a young girl I loved a man who would not marry me for want of a dowry. I confess I had a mother who taught me a different way of life, one I resisted at first but learned to embrace. I confess I became a courtesan, traded yearning for power, welcomed many rather than be owned by one. I confess I embraced a whore's freedom over a wife's obedience. I confess I find more ecstacy in passion than in prayer. Such passion is prayer. I confess I pray still to feel the touch of my lover's lips. His hands upon me, his arms enfolding me... Such surrender has been mine. I confess I pray still to be filled and enflamed. To melt into the dream of us, beyond this troubled place, to where we are not even ourselves. To know that always, this is mine. If this had not been mine-if I had lived any other way-a child to her husband's will, my soul hardened from lack of touch and lack of love... I confess such endless days and nights would be a punishment far greater than you could ever mete out. You, all of you, you who hunger so for what I give yet cannot bear to see that kind of power in a woman. You call God's greatest gift-ourselves, our yearning, our need to love-you call it filth and sin and heresy... I repent there was no other way open to me. I do not repent my life.
Maffio Venier: It must be interesting to be in a room full of men, most of whom you've seen with their pants down.::Veronica Franco: Puts it all in some kind of perspective.
Paola Franco: Desire begins in the mind.
Paola Franco: It's the wanting that keeps us alive.
Veronica Franco: You... all of you... you who hunger so for what I give, but cannot bear to see such power in a woman. You call God's greatest gift... ourselves, our yearning, our need to love... you call it filth and sin and heresy.
Marco Venier: What God and greed have joined together, let no love put asunder.
In Custody (1994)
Actors
Plot
An editor asks Deven, a teacher who loves Urdu poetry, to interview poet Nur Shahjehanabadi, an aging whale of a man. Deven goes to Bhopal from Mirpur to meet Nur, of whom he is in awe. He finds him living with feuding wives, visited by sycophants who drink his whisky and eat his food. Deven wants to record Nur for posterity and seeks funds to buy an aged tape recorder, to bribe Safiya, the elder wife, to get Nur into a room at a brothel for a week for the recording, and to feed Nur's pals who show up. Nur's beautiful second wife, Imtiaz, wants to be taken seriously as a poetess. Dever dismisses her and ignores his own wife and child much as Nur does. In the end, what is preserved?
Keywords: based-on-novel, bhopal-india, college, cultural-difference, cynicism, disillusionment, drink, drinking, drunkenness, ex-husband-ex-wife-relationship
Genres
In Custody (1994)
Actors
Plot
An editor asks Deven, a teacher who loves Urdu poetry, to interview poet Nur Shahjehanabadi, an aging whale of a man. Deven goes to Bhopal from Mirpur to meet Nur, of whom he is in awe. He finds him living with feuding wives, visited by sycophants who drink his whisky and eat his food. Deven wants to record Nur for posterity and seeks funds to buy an aged tape recorder, to bribe Safiya, the elder wife, to get Nur into a room at a brothel for a week for the recording, and to feed Nur's pals who show up. Nur's beautiful second wife, Imtiaz, wants to be taken seriously as a poetess. Dever dismisses her and ignores his own wife and child much as Nur does. In the end, what is preserved?
Keywords: based-on-novel, bhopal-india, college, cultural-difference, cynicism, disillusionment, drink, drinking, drunkenness, ex-husband-ex-wife-relationship
Genres
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Actors
Plot
The life of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) from betrothal and marriage in 1770 to her beheading. At first, she's a Hapsburg teenager isolated in France, living a virgin's life in the household of the Dauphin, a shy solitary man who would like to be a locksmith. Marie discovers high society, with the help of Orleans and her brothers-in-law. Her foolishness is at its height when she meets a Swedish count, Axel de Fersen. He helps her see her fecklessness. In the second half of the film, she avoids an annulment, becomes queen, bears children, and is a responsible ruler. The affair of the necklace and the general poverty of France feed revolution. She faces death with dignity.
Keywords: 1700s, 18th-century, arranged-marriage, austria, benjamin-franklin, birth, character-name-in-title, childbirth, dauphin, epic
Genres
Quotes:
Marie: I cannot wear a crown upon my heart.
Mme. du Barry: I was never a laundress! I was a milliner!
King Louis XV: [presenting Marie to Louis the Dauphin on their wedding night] Louis, I cast this pearl before you.
Marie: Perhaps the great loves come with tears.
Duke d'Orléans: Bravo, witty & beautiful. Oh most rare lady. To the King:Sire.::Mme. du Barry: Oh, his Grace d'Orleans. I've been waiting.::Duke d'Orléans: I'm desolate.::Mme. du Barry: His grace is late.::Duke d'Orléans: The loss is mine, Madame.::Mme. du Barry: Flatter, I believe you want something.::Duke d'Orléans: Let's see. Why, of course I do. I want to be Grand Admiral of France::Mme. du Barry: Laughing: And can we resist him? He has all the charm of a sailor.::Duke d'Orléans: You're too kind.::Mme. du Barry: Oh, but you have. And I've know lots of sailors. All fancy lads. And all liars.::King Louis XV: What? What?::Mme. du Barry: Handing the pamphlet to the King:Read this little sea ballad. It's about me. This couch, the one you gave me, it was pinned there. Oh, I'll read it! "Is this the couch of a princess? Is this the couch of a duchess? Oh, no indeed twa-la, twa-la. It's only the couch of a laundress."::King Louis XV: Who wrote this?::Mme. du Barry: Ask his Grace d'Oleans.::Duke d'Orléans: Why,I deny it sire.::Mme. du Barry: He had it written. He paid for it. He has writers by the dozen. Riff-raff! Against the state, against you, against me and blast your eyes I never was a laundress, I was a milliner!::Duke d'Orléans: If Madame will kindly permit me to assure her that I...::Mme. du Barry: You fool! I could've made you the biggest man in Paris, but you weren't smart enough. You let me find you out!::Duke d'Orléans: That has its pleasant side, Madame. For to be frank as these gentleman would like to be, I am as weary of paying homage to the somewhat overblown charms of the ladies who rule our ruler as the people are paying their bills.::Mme. du Barry: You royal lout!::King Louis XV: This is enough! You can't forget, cousin, that your great-grandfather was Regent of France. You have his ambition, but without his talent. No, I'm not afraid of you, nor of the nobles, nor of the people, nor of ideas. The state will last my time. After me, the deluge.::Duke d'Orléans: Taking leave & bowing to the King: With your permission, Your Majesty.::King Louis XV: And take care, cousin. The liberals you encourage for your ends, they'll destroy you for theirs. Good morning!::Mme. du Barry: Laughing hysterically: His face when he saw the pamphlet!
Prince de Rohan: Monseigneur, Madame. I have the honor to deliver this charming box.::Marie: A present! Yes, I'm sure it is! Our anniversary, you know! From whom?::Prince de Rohan: Oh, that Madame, I am not at liberty to say. Shall we unfasten the ribbon?::Marie: I shall do it myself! To Louis: Will you help me? It's for you too, you know. What do you suppose it is?::King Louis XVI: From the King perhaps?::Marie: Oh, I do hope so! To the Price de Rohan: Is it from the King?::Prince de Rohan: Madame, you positively must not ask or I shall break my vows, but Madame is warm, if I may so express myself. Madame, is very warm.::Marie: Unwrapping the gift with child-like excitememt, and then a sudden look of confusion: A cradle... uh, an empty cradle. Read from the card attached to the present: Since at least it is quite beyond doubt this cot your unable to fill... go back to your schitzel and krout and leave the job to some baggage who will."::Prince de Rohan: Oh Madame! I assure you! I had no idea! The Countess DuBerry...::Marie: Wll you go, Monsieur?::Prince de Rohan: I assure you, Madame, I knew nothing!::Marie: You may leave us, Monsieur. Go back to the person who sent you and let her have the satisfaction of knowing her barb went home.::Prince de Rohan: Madame!::Marie: Will you go, please?::Prince de Rohan: As he's bowing & departing: Oh, this is ! Deplorable!::King Louis XVI: Snatching the cradle from Marie Antionette and quickly crushing it to pieces: I'll go to the King! I'll have her punished! I'll have her flogged! I'll have her branded!::Marie: Oh, go Louis!::King Louis XVI: It'll be no use.::Marie: Louis, this woman only dares to insult me because you seem to despise me.::King Louis XVI: But I...::Marie: Help me, Louie, please! I need you! I know you don't love me, but couldn't you pretend to like me a little?::King Louis XVI: Why I...::Marie: If only you would, before everybody. I'd feel so secure, so proud. I could even ignore DuBerry. Louie: It would only make trouble. What if it does? We have been brushed aside as though we were of no account and we've been cowardly enough to submit! We should live as becomes heirs to the throne of France. I want life to be rich and full and beautiful. It could be if only we stood together!::King Louis XVI: I tell you I can't! I can't try to be anything but what I am! Why do you plauge me? The King is the King?::Marie: And I'm a princess of the House of Hapsburg;I'm an Archduchess of Austria and a daughter of the Empress Maria Therese! I'm sorry you don't see it my way, Louis, but I mean to be the Dauphine of France. Not in the way I might have been if we'd stood together, but at least I'll be the highest, brightest figure in this court!
Mme. du Barry: I'm late, Madame, but with His Majesty's permission... a slight headache.::Marie: I'm so sorry, Madame. It was a pleasure delayed.::Mme. du Barry: For me too, Madame. I might say a triumph.::Marie: You're very kind.::Mme. du Barry: I presume I shall not have the honor of meeting his Royal Highness?::Marie: My husband does not care for dancing, madame.::Mme. du Barry: Quite the family man, isn't he? The fireside, the nursing room and all that? To the duc Orleans: Well, here is my old friend and how well he takes the husband's place!::Marie: I'm sorry you feel your triumph incomplete, madame. My husband has better sense than I. He knows where to draw the line.::King Louis XV: To du Berry: Will you dance, Madame?::Mme. du Barry: Ignoring the King's request: So that's it? I'm dirt, ah? Not good enough for your high and mightiness?::Marie: But, nooo, madame! Royalty loves an occasional roll in the gutter, don't they Grand-pappa?::King Louis XV: Madame!::Marie: Ignoring the King's dismay at her rudeness: I enjoy nothing more than meeting people of broad experience.::King Louis XV: To both Marie-Antionette & du Berry: Recollect yourselves!::Marie: Still ignoring the King: You see I've never walked the streets of Paris, but I am sure you could tell me something about that.::King Louis XV: To du Berry: You will prefer to leave, madame, as I do.
King Louis XV: What's the meaning of this? Why are you here?::King Louis XVI: I don't want her to be sent back!::King Louis XV: Ha, ha! Indeed.::Mme. du Barry: [Sharply to Louis XVI] His majesty is not well!::King Louis XVI: [Ignoring du Barry] But it isn't her fault! Don't you understand?::King Louis XV: [Looking up to Du Barry with confusion] What? What's he talking about?::Mme. du Barry: [Even more sharply to Louis XVI] Will you go, please?::King Louis XVI: No! You get out! [Then to the king & now pleading on his knees] Listen, grandfather, it's going to be different now...::King Louis XV: Get up you fool! Your argument is as unimpressive as your appearance. Your wife goes back to Austria! Your marriage will be annulled! I'll hear no more of it! [Looking frail & weak he starts coughing uncontrollably & waves him impatiently away] Get out! Get out!::King Louis XVI: I'll get out, but I'll come back! I'll come back when your dead! I'll be king then!::King Louis XV: Silence!::King Louis XVI: [Ignoring the king he turns to du Barry] And you! You know what will happen to you when I'm king? There are places for women like you in the Bastille!::Mme. du Barry: Stop it! [to the king] Make him stop!::King Louis XV: Silence!::King Louis XVI: I'm going to have my wife back! I'm going to have children! I know! [he starts loosing his composure] But you... your weak! Your not going to live long! I'll be sitting there and you'll be dead!::King Louis XV: [Trembling with anger he starts to rise] Be silent!::King Louis XVI: [Roughly shoving the king down hard] Sit down! [Then with shame he hangs his head as he leaves] Forgive me, sire. I didn't mean to touch you. Forgive me.
Empress Maria Theresa: Toni, France is not Austria. You must accustom yourself to new people and new ways. Count Mercy is my ambassador at Versailles. He will guide you when he can. The rest, you must trust to your husband.::Marie: I will! Of course I will! Is he handsome?::Empress Maria Theresa: There's time enough for that later. You go to bed now.::Marie: They say Versailles is too marvelous!::Empress Maria Theresa: [More firmly now] I said to bed.::Marie: Yes, mama.::Empress Maria Theresa: Versailles is no more marvelous than Vienna.::Marie: No, mama.::Empress Maria Theresa: [Kissing her cheek] Goodnight.::Marie: Oh, goodnight, mama and thank you, thank you, thank you! Mama! Oh, mama, just think of it! I shall be queen! Queen of France!
King Louis XVI: I don't want to be king. People expect so much of a king. Nothing comes easily to me.
