Before every teenage girl fell for Edward, the handsome and protective vampire from The Twilight Saga and every girl/woman boosting up her sexual fantasies got herself besotted with Christian Grey from Fifty Shades of Grey, for decades there was another love story which colored the gloomy evenings of romantic souls. It seems that we love the idea of a strong independent woman who, having suffered enough in her life, finally stands for her own happiness. Is there a chance for a happy ending for a mistreated and deprived of love Jane Eyre? What mystery hides behind the walls of Thornfield Hall? And isn't Edward Fairfax Rochester the inspiration for a contemporary ideal man, broken by life and experiences, but able to win our hearts despite the thorny cover? Two adaptations (1996 and 2011) of one great love story, a feast of contemporary acting talents, and a treat for the eye. Jane Eyre.
Sooner or later in life, we take into account the fact that our future might be shaped by a completely different conflict. We consider many doomsday scenarios, we realize that there have been wars of various kinds and at times they were caused by one unfortunate (or stupid) event which led to the perishing of millions. Future is yet unknown but, having witnessed the epidemics of flu, black death, Ebola, and Zika virus, we might not be entirely sure that there will be another kind of virus. And another war will be waged by us against an infected mutation of the humankind that enjoys eating human flesh.
Post-apocalyptic versions of life on the planet populated by blindly unscrupulous killing and eating machine and the lucky few who want and wish to end it all and bring back peace. Is there a place for human feelings in a world which becomes more and more indifferent towards any suffering? How probable are the actions of the military and government against organized evil on a global scale? Can you trust those you should be most cautious of? And are children the ultimate answer? Two films with an epic vision of one potential war against Zombies, The Girl with All the Gifts and World War Z. Are you afraid? Enjoy.
Never underestimate the power of love. You might rationally weigh the pros and cons of forming a relationship, entering into a marriage, conceiving a child and building a house together. But weak feelings fade in time leaving the bittersweetness from Adele songs: gone, insignificant, mundane, awkward. But true love never dies, it's not destroyed by distance or time. It lasts despite obstacles, family conflicts, religious differences, age gap, and war. A romance which fed generations of romantics and lovers of mystery. A young love which conquered death, but broke many innocent lives due to its protagonists' passionate tempers. A pair of characters who enchanted masses and still do between the reality TV shows and fast food meals. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and one memorable adaptation. Enjoy.
History knows many influential women, independent minds who added to the progress of civilization and were strong-minded enough to change the politics, law or culture. Women proved that they don't need men to achieve something and their fate is in their own hands. But tragic lives of those who were sat on the top and taken to the very bottom by the hands of people's will are those we tend to remember the most. Is it easy to be welcomed in a foreign country and put in a position of power? Can a marriage of alliance bring happiness to a young inexperienced woman? Can the society of gossip and entertainment spoil a woman to the extent of being a legend of a shopping spree? And isn't every tragic woman a victim of circumstances? A modern take on history, Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette, which divided the French and fascinated the American youth.
Love is a dangerous game and being too confident in any game can make you lose from your own weapon. While engaging in fleeting romances and appeasing sexual appetite have rather hedonistic values with no guarantee of longevity, playing with feelings can prove to break more than one heart. In the society, which in the past fed on gossip just as now it feeds on gossip columns in internet blogs and flashing covers of blockbuster magazines, is there a chance for true love? Can the most demoralized learn their lessons and is there any good in the most degenerated minds, who seem to have seen it all, done it all and have no boundaries to cross? A beautiful classic based on de Laclos' 18th-century novel, and a modern version of the same story. Can a villain win the purest of hearts? Enjoy.
The greatest lessons are learned by near to death experience. Having it all and losing everything of value makes you reevaluate your life. What was significant for your entire life seems to fade when clashed with the new circumstances: bankruptcy, cancer, the death of the beloved. But can temporary amnesia and being tricked into a normal, hard and from hand to mouth routine change your attitude and make you a better person? From riches to rags with a bonus of a heart-warming family environment in 1987 was funny enough to produce a 2018 remake. A lesson what is really important in life and why in every snobbish bitch and spoilt heir of a substantial fortune there is ultimately a pinch of good. Overboard.
We, humans, are prone to aggression. Hatred like a ticking bomb with every second overflows the taught cultural behavior and we are willing to go on the streets and fight for what we believe in. And approach those who dare to have a different opinion. Technology accumulated this trait and turned it into social media hatred, allowing us to express our opinions anonymously and collectively like and share with others. We agreed to create a bubble of venom. At the same time, we want our private to be private, our sins to be known only to us, and we would like to judge not being judged ourselves. But imagine a small town, in which just like throughout your social network, everybody knows one another well. Imagine all the private conversations leaked, all the gossip spread, all the affairs revealed and people allowed to take action and conduct a personal vendetta for their lost reputation. Something of a cult, rebel, female-power thing, Assassination Nation. Enjoy.
We all secretly dream that our marriages will last forever, that our golden anniversary will be celebrated among family members and friends, our children will look up to us, our grandchildren will put us on the pedestal and treat us as an example. Ideals are hard to follow and a lot wake up somewhere in the middle of a relationship, bored, loveless, exhausted and fed up with the state of affairs. And this is the time when even the most innocent and conservative might fall passionately in love. Why the consequences for a love affair are still tragic for women and men go unpunished for the same exact sin? Don't we all have the right for a happy ending between high expectations and the cruel intentions of our beloved? Why society is your biggest enemy in terms of judgment and hypocrisy?
About 150 years ago Leo Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina, adapted frequently for film and theatre. I present you with two recent film adaptations, one with Sophie Marceau (1997) the other with Keira Knightley (2012). Will the future one be as universal as these two or will there be a positive change for women and times will make the concept outdated?
It's a dream come true for every well-behaved school girl to find a bad boy who could be her guardian in the world of love, sex, and dance. What better opportunity to do this than to take part in a summer holiday and mingle with the staff? What can come of the clash of two classes and two beautiful bodies entangles in a passionate embrace? Unforgettable dance and music, a teenage hit, parents' worst nightmare loved to the extent of having a remake this time with the Cuban revolution in the background. If you have a craving for young love and a whole lot of dance classes, enjoy. Dirty Dancing and Dirty Dancing 2 Havana Nights.
For some, having a loving husband and children is a dream come true. It's the epitome of happiness and a life goal of the majority of women. For centuries they have been encouraged into it and other options (spinsterhood, convent, or being a burden to ageing parents) seemed to be less attractive. Why then, some find this fulfillment to be a nightmare and a reason for unhappiness? Why some of us suffer in marriage and despair in the fact that they have to raise the kids? Why hasn't society embraced the fact what one woman finds enjoyable, the other perceives loathsome? What if a woman is deeply unhappy in her family and (like many men) decides to escape? The Escape.
You can fall down in the deepest holes of your personal and professional history. You can hit rock bottom at any age, regardless of your previous victories and successes. Falling from the top hurts the most but losing any job and breaking any relationship is equally degrading and depressing. We live in a world when it's equally easy to become a millionaire and a bankrupt, from rags to riches has the same application as from hero to zero, as the lottery of luck is rarely fair. But once reaching the bottom, will you let the depression hit you and give in? Or will you fight for your place in the world and make use of your chances? An inspirational true story of how hard work and motivation can save the hopeless who seem to have lost on the American dream. The Pursuit of Happiness.
War is unpredictable. Within a second it can destroy everything you have worked for for the whole life, it can delete from existence everyone you loved, leaving you broken-hearted. It has no mercy and taste for happy endings. But war involves millions. It forces people to take sides, make choices, and follow fear, love, or the instinct of survival. At the same time, it teaches us lessons. It puts into perspective our problems, dilemmas, and little material things that we fight for: gold, land, power, admiration. Can the heart of one wild pilot be overwhelmed with love for one married woman? Can a hurt nurse find peace after witnessing so many traumas and losses? And finally what is the factor that connects them all? The quintessence of the fragility of life and love despite consequences and sides to take. The English Patient.
While still for some, the sole purpose of woman's life is to be a housewife, a mother, and the guardian of the home's warmth (and to this day many men dream about such a partner), it's difficult to ignore the fact that a whole lot of women have different ambitions. Being only the support for their husbands, forgetting their own talents and skills, letting their partners play the first fiddle, women agreed to live in the shadows. But life is brutal and those who sacrificed the most soon learned from their mistakes and bet on their own career, intuition, and success. There was one woman unappreciated by her husband and deceived, but managed to overcome the impossible. An interesting outlook on the disillusionment with marriage and unstoppable female resourcefulness. How one woman changed the history of French literature and broke one or two taboos? Colette.
Men are easily bored. If you think that being a good wife and mother to your children is enough to satisfy their needs, you might soon be disappointed with the slow downfall of your relationship. For centuries, there were women trained to attract, seduce and win the hearts of the wisest, most accomplished and most demanding representatives of the ugly sex. They were educated in arts, dance, singing, the art of conversation and lovemaking. Every society and culture has such women, whether they are called prostitutes, mistresses, or geishas. Japan gave women of company a higher status and tradition lasting centuries, giving these women prestige. But being chosen to fulfill men's wildest dreams, can you take care of your own happiness? Can you abandon the admiration of many for one man? Japan's magic and one girl's road to perfection. Memoirs of a Geisha.
If you really want to know a person, look like he/she treats their superiors. It's not an art to keep up appearances among people your own class and status, but when it comes to treating your employees, nannies, and servants your true nature tends to outshine the carefully designed package of good behavior. What if a small town happened to give all the discriminated and mistreated women their voice? What stories would they tell about their well-off bosses? Isn't the mistreatment of people a deeper problem stemming from personal failures and low self-esteem? And is the life of a suburban housewife sad in its simple mundane tasks, surrounded by loveless husbands, demanding children, envious neighbors, and worthy our pity? The Help.
Aren't you tired of the hustle and bustle of big city life? Wouldn't you like to forget about your mortgage hanging over your head like a nagging parent or nit-picking boss? Wouldn't you love to erase the memories of bad relationships and your personal failures in a system someone created without your participation and will? Wouldn't you be happy to experience a different culture, lifestyle, tastes and smells, join the freedom train of spiritual revival? You can say that it's for students and people without responsibilities, however, they aren't the ones who need this renewal the most. What if you were a single mother of two daughters? What if your urban lifestyle made you excruciatingly unhappy? What if Marocco's rainbow of colors could bring you back to life and shed another light on your problems, giving you distance and making you believe what is important in life? Hideous Kinky.
People crave various things. Some want to be rich and successful. Others desire fame and beauty. Some find happiness in creativity and adventure. Others cherish peace and routine. One man's meat is another man's poison. Happiness for some means misery for others. Misery for others means happiness for the few who made the right choices. What do look for in love? Security, passion, family? Is your love the first love or a subsequent choice after many failed relationships? Or maybe you quickly realized that all that glitters is not gold and you chose right from the very beginning? A love story of our times and a dream most of us have despite differences. Can a well-brought-up girl fall in love with a simple boy? Are class differences easy to overcome? And can one teenage feeling last a lifetime? The Notebook.
Two hundred years have passed and still, the biggest difference between people, a difference deeper than race, religion or nationality, is the financial status. Some have very little, others live the lives of privileges and pleasure, enjoying the services of private doctors, fashion designers, gourmet cooks, and luxury travel. We love the stories of from rags to riches, fables of how a poor and good boy resorting to wit and luck became a millionaire and changed his life for the better. But the reality is less optimistic. There were millions who starved to death, millions who died in political conflicts, and millions who sold everything, including their dignity, for a better life for their children. Despite the passing of time, a story of one who overcame poverty and those who were somehow connected to his renewed life. The fate of the criminals of the circumstances, the cruelty of the hungry, money-making world, the young French paying for the sins of their parents, trying to fight for their own happiness. Poverty-struck France with all its injustices, based on Victor's Hugo novel, Les Misérables.
What can await you in the French province from the times of King Louis? Should you resort to stereotypes? Is it great food, wines, escargot? Or maybe beautiful women willing to fulfill your deepest desires and erotic fantasies, paid and trained to entertain and give pleasure? Maybe it is true love lingering behind the corner, able to change your nature and right all your wrongs? Possibly it is also a mystery of serial murders, crimes committed by an untamed beast, an unclassified specimen trained to kill. All this in an unforgettable climate, fights, and quite an unrepeatable yet feast for the eye. Two blood brothers against evil, Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Very often we seem to love our pets more than our family members. We are astonished by the amount of energy and love they give us, we are devastated at their diseases, accidents, and deaths. People cherish various bonds that they developed over the course of their lives. Some of us can be named great parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, or friends. Others one of the most important bonds in their lives consider the relationship with a pet. But how this friendship came about? A fable on the human's best friend, an old world at the beginning of human civilization, and a bond old as time, especially for those who have an animal by their side. ALPHA.
























