Drama: 385

Days of Heaven (1978) is a romantic period drama film directed and written by Terrence Malick. Set in 1916, the story follows Bill, a laborer from Chicago who accidentally kills his boss at a steel mill and flees with his girlfriend Abby and sister Linda to the Texas Panhandle. In order to avoid gossip, Bill and Abby pretend to be siblings when they are hired by a shy wealthy farmer as seasonal workers. The farmer’s doctor reveals he only has one year left to live but doesn’t specify the illness. As the farmer falls for Abby, Bill convinces her to marry him so they can inherit his wealth. However, their ...

F.I.S.T. (1978) is a neo-noir crime drama film from America, produced and directed by Norman Jewison. At a loading dock in Cleveland in 1937, Mr. Gant, the supervisor, hires Lincoln Dombrowsky – a new worker of Polish descent. Gant warns Dombrowsky that any overtime work will go unpaid and any damages to merchandise during working hours will be taken out of his pay. When Dombrowsky accidentally spills some carts of tomatoes, he loses pay and a colleague gets fired for trying to help him clean up. Johnny Kovak – a Hungarian-American laborer – becomes resentful of these unjust practices and leads a riot. ...

Paradise Alley (1978) is an American sports drama film featuring Sylvester Stallone as the writer, director, and lead actor. The Carboni brothers, Cosmo and Lenny, see potential for success in their younger brother Victor. They encourage him to enter the world of wrestling under the name Kid Salami. With Cosmo as his manager and Lenny as his promoter, they hope to earn enough money for all three of them to leave Hell’s Kitchen behind. Victor’s motivation? To marry his girlfriend from Asian descent and start a life on a houseboat in New Jersey. Each brother has their own unique personality; Cosmo is always on ...

Interiors (1978) is an American drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It follows the story of a family, specifically Arthur and Eve, who have three adult daughters. The eldest daughter, Renata, is a successful poet with a struggling writer husband named Frederick. Meanwhile, the youngest daughter, Flyn, is an actress who is often away filming low-quality movies that are the subject of gossip. Joey, the middle daughter in a relationship with Mike, struggles to find her career path and resents her mother’s favoritism towards Renata. While Renata resents their father’s concern for Joey’s ...

Saturday Night Fever (1977) is an American dance drama that follows the life of Tony Manero, a 19-year-old Italian-American from Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood. He lives with his family and works at a small paint store. Seeking an escape from his mundane routine, Tony heads to 2001 Odyssey, a popular discotheque where he reigns supreme on the dance floor and receives the admiration and respect he craves. His circle of friends includes Joey, Double J, Gus, and Bobby C, with Annette, a local girl who has a crush on Tony, on the fringe of their group. However, Tony does not reciprocate her feelings. On occasion, Tony and his friends play around on the ...

The American drama film The Front (1976) takes place during the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s, when individuals in the entertainment industry were deemed unemployable due to allegations of Communist sympathies or affiliations. Written by Walter Bernstein and directed by Martin Ritt, the film features Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, and Michael Murphy. In 1953 New York City, television writer Alfred Miller is unable to find work ...

The American romantic comedy drama film, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), directed by Martin Scorsese, follows the story of Alice Hyatt. After her husband Donald, a Coca-Cola delivery driver, is killed in a traffic accident in Socorro, New Mexico, Alice decides to sell most of her belongings and leave with her son Tommy to their childhood home in Monterey, California. Being a former singer, she hopes to revive her abandoned singing career. However, their financial struggles lead them to make a temporary stop in Phoenix, Arizona where Alice finds work as a lounge singer. It is there that she meets Ben, a ...

Save the Tiger (1973) is a film that delves into the moral dilemmas of contemporary America, helmed by director John G. Avildsen. Harry Stoner resides in a lavish mansion in Beverly Hills with his Spanish-speaking maid. Despite his success and opulent lifestyle, he is haunted by the traumas of his wartime experiences and weighed down by the demands of both work and personal life. He finds solace in reminiscing about his love for baseball during his youth. However, this nostalgia often leads him to act out intense games in his bedroom, causing concern for his wife Janet. In an attempt to help her husband cope with these ...

The Rain People (1969) is an American road drama film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Long Island housewife Natalie Ravenna sets off on a road trip in a family station wagon, leaving her husband at home. She visits her parents who are greatly upset with her, and later makes a collect phone call to share the news of her pregnancy with her husband. Despite his excitement, she explains that she needs some time away from him and is not yet ready to return home. Along the way, she gives a ride to Jimmy ‘Killer’ Kilgannon, a former college football star who had been paid to leave school due to a ...

Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967) is an American independent drama film written and directed by Martin Scorsese. The story follows J.R., a typical Catholic Italian-American young man navigating the streets of New York City. Even in adulthood, he remains close to a core group of friends with whom he enjoys drinking and partying. Things change when he meets a local girl on the Staten Island Ferry and decides he wants to settle down with her. However, despite their deepening relationship, he declines her advances for sex because he believes she is a virgin and wants to wait instead of ‘spoiling’ ...

Magnet of Doom (1963) is a French noir film, helmed by Jean-Pierre Melville and adapted from the novel of the same name by Georges Simenon. In Paris, Michel Maudet – an ex-soldier and aspiring boxer – suffers a defeat in his first major match, leading to him being fired by his manager. In need of work, he responds to an advertisement for a male secretary with a willingness to travel and is immediately hired by Dieudonné Ferchaux, the senior partner of a struggling bank who has a criminal background. Without informing his girlfriend Lina, whom he leaves without ...

Directed by Clive Donner, the British drama film The Caretaker (1963) stars Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence and Robert Shaw. This acclaimed film is an adaptation of the Harold Pinter play of the same name and earned the Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. Aston, a reserved man who lives alone in a cluttered top-floor room of a rundown house in a poor London neighborhood, strikes up a friendship with Mac Davies, an old derelict who ...

Time Out for Love (1961), a French film by Jean Valère, features Jean Seberg as Parisian fashion designer Michèle. After being abandoned by her lover Philippe, Michèle attempts suicide but is rescued by her doctor and Ann, a young American nurse who moves in with Michèle to care for her.

Five Day Lover (1961) is a French comedy directed and co-written by Philippe de Broca. The protagonist, Claire, is an Englishwoman living in Paris with her husband Georges and their two young children. While attending a fashion show put on by her friend Madeleine, a fashion designer, Claire meets Antoine, a carefree Frenchman. Despite Antoine being involved with Madeleine, Claire is drawn to him and begins visiting his lavish apartment five afternoons a week. However, evenings and weekends are still dedicated to her family. When Madeleine discovers the affair, she confronts the couple ...

Léon Morin, Priest (1961) is a French drama film helmed by director Jean-Pierre Melville. The story is based on Béatrix Beck’s award-winning novel The Passionate Heart. Set during the Occupation of France, the film follows Barny, a single mother residing in a small town in the French Alps with her daughter France. To make ends meet, Barny works as an assignment corrector for a Parisian correspondence school that has relocated to their town. Grief-stricken by the loss of her Jewish husband in the war and lacking sexual satisfaction, she finds herself drawn ...

The film Bonjour Tristesse (1958) is a Technicolor movie in CinemaScope, directed and produced by Otto Preminger. Cécile, a wealthy and unconventional young woman, shares a close bond with her playboy father Raymond. However, she finds herself uninterested in potential suitors and their activities. As she dances to the titular song, she reflects on the events of the previous summer on the French Riviera, wondering if she will ever be happy again. The story then unfolds through flashbacks as Cécile and Raymond holiday on the Riviera with his current mistress Elsa, a shallow and superficial woman. During their vacation, ...

12 Angry Men (1957) is an American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, adapted from a 1954 teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. On a hot summer day in the New York County Courthouse, a jury prepares to deliberate the case of an impoverished 18-year-old boy accused of killing his abusive father. The judge instructs them that if there is any reasonable doubt, they must return a verdict of ‘not guilty’. Otherwise, the defendant will face a mandatory death sentence via the electric chair. The verdict must be unanimous. Initially, the evidence seems ...

When You Read This Letter (1953) is a French-Italian drama film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. After their parents pass away in a car accident, Thérèse Voise, a strong-willed young woman, leaves her convent just before taking her vows to dedicate herself to taking care of her younger sister Denise and running the family stationery shop. Thérèse is fiercely protective of Denise and becomes worried when she begins spending time with Max, an amateur boxer and mechanic who has a reputation for being self-centered and morally questionable. Max’s lifestyle includes multiple relationships with women at nightclubs and ...

O. Henry’s Full House (1952), released by Twentieth Century Fox, is an American anthology film featuring five different stories. Each story is based on a work by renowned author O. Henry. Narrator John Steinbeck presents a prologue providing insight into O. Henry’s life and mentions some of his other works that were not included in the film. Notably, A Retrieved Reformation tells the tale of reformed safecracker Jimmy Valentine. 1. The Cop and the Anthem (

The French film, The Terrible Children (1950), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and adapted from Jean Cocteau’s novel of the same name, portrays the complex bond between a brother and sister. Elisabeth takes care of their bedridden mother and is fiercely protective of her younger brother Paul. When Paul gets hurt in a snowball fight and has to drop out of school, Elisabeth becomes even more shielding towards him. This causes them to spend most of their time at home with very little visitors besides the doctor and maid. One exception is Paul’s friend Gérard, ...