Boot, Das

Plot summary

It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy English shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however, German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. "Das Boot" is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers, attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served. Written by Anthony Hughes {husnock31@hotmail.com}

A detailed look into the claustrophobic and terrifying world of a German U-boat crew hunting ships from undersea. Gritty, realistic, and peppered with black humour, this is one of the few sympathetic portrayals of the war from the German side to be released in western distribution. Written by Keith Loh {loh@sfu.ca}

Cast of Boot, Das

	Jürgen Prochnow	...	Der Alte/Capt.-Lt. Henrich Lehmann-Willenbrock
	Herbert Grönemeyer	...	Lt. Werner/Correspondent
	Klaus Wennemann	...	Der Leitende/Der LI/Chief Engineer/Fritz Grade
	Hubertus Bengsch	...	1st Lieutenant/Number One/1WO
	Martin Semmelrogge	...	2nd Lieutenant/2WO
	Bernd Tauber	...	Kriechbaum/Chief Quartermaster/Navigator
	Erwin Leder	...	Johann
	Martin May	...	Ullman
	Heinz Hoenig	...	Hinrich
	Uwe Ochsenknecht	...	Chief Bosun
	Claude-Oliver Rudolph	...	Ario
	Jan Fedder	...	Pilgrim
	Ralf Richter	...	Frenssen
	Joachim Bernhard	...	Preacher
	Oliver Stritzel	...	Schwalle

Rashômon

Plot summary

In ancient Japan, a woman is raped and her husband killed. The film gives us four viewpoints of the incident - one for each defendant - each revealing a little more detail. Which version, if any, is the real truth about what happened ? Written by Colin Tinto {cst@imdb.com}

In 12th century Japan, a samurai and his wife are attacked by the notorious bandit Tajomaru, and the samurai ends up dead. Tajomaru is captured shortly afterward and is put on trial, but his story and the wife's are so completely different that a psychic is brought in to allow the murdered man to give his own testimony. He tells yet another completely different story. Finally, a woodcutter who found the body reveals that he saw the whole thing, and his version is again completely different from the others. Written by rmlohner

Rashomon (1950) is a Japanese crime drama, that is produced with both philosophical and psychological overtones. An episode (rape and murder) in a forest is reported by four witnesses, each from their own point of view. - Who is telling the truth? What is truth? Written by Frode S. Stringer {fstringe@direct.ca}

Cast of Rashômon

	Toshirô Mifune	...	Tajômaru
	Machiko Kyô	...	Masako Kanazawa
	Masayuki Mori	...	Takehiro Kanazawa
	Takashi Shimura	...	Woodcutter
	Minoru Chiaki	...	Priest
	Kichijiro Ueda	...	Commoner
	Fumiko Honma	...	Medium
	Daisuke Katô	...	Policeman

The Pianist

Plot summary

A brilliant pianist, a Polish Jew, witnesses the restrictions Nazis place on Jews in the Polish capital, from restricted access to the building of the Warsaw ghetto. As his family is rounded up to be shipped off to the Nazi labor camps, he escapes deportation and eludes capture by living in the ruins of Warsaw. Written by Anonymous

The true story of Wladyslaw Szpilman who, in the 1930s, was known as the most accomplished piano player in all of Poland, if not Europe. At the outbreak of the Second World War, however, Szpilman becomes subject to the anti-Jewish laws imposed by the conquering Germans. By the start of the 1940s, Szpilman has seen his world go from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and then must suffer the tragedy of his family deported to a death camp, while Szpilman is conscripted into a forced German Labor Compound. At last deciding to escape, Szpilman goes into hiding as a Jewish refugee where he is witness to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw City Revolt in August/October 1944. Written by Anthony Hughes {husnock31@hotmail.com}

Cast of The Pianist

	Adrien Brody	...	Wladyslaw Szpilman
	Thomas Kretschmann	...	Captain Wilm Hosenfeld
	Frank Finlay	...	Father
	Maureen Lipman	...	Mother
	Emilia Fox	...	Dorota
	Ed Stoppard	...	Henryk
	Julia Rayner	...	Regina
	Jessica Kate Meyer	...	Halina
	Michal Zebrowski	...	Jurek
	Wanja Mues	...	SS Slapping Father
	Richard Ridings	...	Mr. Lipa
	Nomi Sharron	...	Feather Woman
	Anthony Milner	...	Man Waiting to Cross
	Lucy Skeaping	...	Street Musician
	Roddy Skeaping	...	Street Musician