Malèna

Plot

The film is set in Sicily in 1940 during World War II just as Italy enters the war. Malena's husband, Nino Scordia, leaves to serve in the military. She learns that her husband has been killed. Malena tries to cope with her loss, as the town she has moved to tries to deal with this beautiful woman who gets the attention of all the local men, including the 12-year-old Renato. However, in spite of the gossip, she continues to be faithful to her husband. Renato becomes obsessed with Malena and starts fantasizing about her.

Renato continues to watch as she suffers from grief. Malena is shunned by the townspeople who begin to believe the worst about her, simply because of her beauty.

She visits her father, an almost deaf professor of Latin, regularly and helps him with his chores. When a slanderous letter reaches his hands, their relationship suffers a catastrophic blow. In the meanwhile, the war worsens. The village is bombed and Malena's father is killed.

She eventually has no money. The wife of the local dentist takes her to court, but Malena is acquitted. The only man Malena does have an innocent romance with, an army officer, is sent away.

Malena's poverty finally forces her to become a prostitute. When the German army comes to town, Malena gives herself to Germans as well. Renato sees her in the company of two German officers and faints.

His mother and the older ladies think that he has been possessed and take him to church for an exorcism. His father however takes him to a brothel; Renato has sex with one of the prostitutes while fantasizing that she is Malena.

When the war ends, the women gather and publicly beat and humiliate Malena, who leaves for Messina. A few days later, Nino Scordia returns, to the shock of all the residents. He finds his house occupied by people displaced by the war. Renato tells him through an anonymous letter about Malena's whereabouts.

Nino goes to Messina to find her. A year later, they return. The villagers, especially the women, astonished at her courage, begin to talk to "Signora Scordia" with respect. Though still beautiful, they think of her as no threat claiming that she had wrinkles near her eyes and put on some weight.

In the last scene near the beach, Renato helps her pick up some oranges that had dropped from her shopping bag. Afterwards he wishes her "Buona fortuna, Signora Malena" (good luck, Mrs. Malena) and rides off on his bicycle, looking back at her for a final time, as she walks away. As this final scene fades out, an adult Renato's voice-over reflects that he has not forgotten Malena, even after the passage of so many years. He says, "Of all the girls who asked me to remember them, the only one I remembered is the one who did not ask." The audience is left not knowing if Malena ever realizes Renato's feelings for her.

Million Dollar Baby

Plot

Margaret Fitzgerald,(Hilary Swank) an Irish-American waitress from a Missouri town in the Ozarks, shows up in the Hit Pit, a run-down Los Angeles gym owned and operated by Frankie Dunn,(Clint Eastwood) a brilliant but only marginally successful boxing trainer. Maggie asks Dunn to train her, but he responds that he doesn't train "girls."

Maggie attempts to win over the grouchy Frankie by working out tirelessly each day in his gym, even when others discourage her. Frankie's friend and employee, ex-boxer Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris,(Morgan Freeman) encourages and helps her all he can. Scrap also narrates the story.

Frankie's prize prospect, "Big" Willie Little, reluctantly signs with successful manager Mickey Mack after becoming impatient with Dunn turning down offers for a championship bout. With prodding from Scrap and impressed with her persistence, Frankie reluctantly agrees to train Maggie. He warns her that he will teach her only the basics and then find her another trainer. His most important advice is to protect herself in the ring at all times.

Maggie turns out to be a natural. She fights her way up in the women's welterweight boxing division, winning many of her bouts with first-round knockouts. Estranged from his own daughter, who returns his letters unopened, Frankie comes to establish an almost paternal bond with Maggie. He eventually arranges a meeting for her with Mickey Mack, but she is more loyal than Big Willie. She exacts a promise from Frankie not to abandon her again. He accompanies her to Europe, where he bestows a Gaelic nickname on her as she continues to win.

Maggie's own white trash family cares little for her well-being. Maggie saves up enough of her winnings to buy her mother a house, but instead of being grateful, she berates Maggie for endangering her welfare payments and Medicaid benefits. She also belittles her daughter's success in the ring, saying that everyone back home is laughing at her.

Frankie is finally willing to arrange a title fight. He secures Maggie a $1 million match in Las Vegas against the WBA women's welterweight champion, Billie "The Blue Bear", a German ex-prostitute who has a reputation as a dirty fighter. Overcoming a shaky start, Maggie begins to dominate the fight, but after a round has ended, Billie knocks her out with a sucker punch from behind. Before Frankie can pull a stool out of the way, Maggie lands hard on it, breaking her neck and leaving her a quadriplegic.

At first, Frankie refuses to accept the bleak prognosis, but dozens of other medical opinions unanimously confirm there is no hope of recovery. He half-heartedly places the responsibility on Scrap for convincing him to train Maggie, but in the end blames himself.

In a medical rehabilitation facility, Maggie looks forward to a visit from her family, though Frankie repeatedly calls them with no success. Eventually, the family arrives -- but only after first visiting Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood -- and with an attorney in tow. Their lone concern is to arrange the transfer of Maggie's assets to them. She sees through their transparent scheme and orders them to leave, threatening to sell their house if they ever show their faces again.

Frankie never leaves her side. He reads to her, urges her to go back to school and invites her to come live with him. As the days pass, though, Maggie develops bedsores and undergoes an amputation for an infected leg. She asks a favor of Frankie -- to help her die while she can still remember the cheers she heard, saying she got what she most wanted out of life.

A horrified Frankie refuses, but seeks the advice of his Catholic priest (whom he has tormented for 23 years). Father Horvak warns him that euthanasia is a grave sin, far worse than anything he has ever done. Maggie bites her tongue repeatedly in an attempt to bleed to death, but the medical staff saves her life and takes measures to prevent further suicide attempts.

Frankie sneaks in one night. Just before administering a fatal injection of adrenaline, he finally tells Maggie the meaning of a nickname he gave her, Mo Chuisle (spelled incorrectly in the film as "mo cuishle"): Irish for "my darling, and my blood" (literally, "my pulse"). And then Frankie disappears for good. Scrap's narration is revealed to be a letter to Frankie's daughter, Katy, informing her of her father's true character.

My Sassy Girl (2008 film)

Plot

Like the original film, this is a story of how a nice guy falls in love with a hellion. The guy is Charlie Bellow (Bradford), a polite, kind-hearted young man from the Midwestern state of Indiana, and the hellion is Jordan Roark (Cuthbert), a beautiful, fun-loving, emotionally volatile young woman who drinks too much and lives in New York City with her father, who is a wealthy physician. Charlie narrates the story.

Charlie's parents hope Charlie will one day secure a managerial position with the Tiller King agricultural company, where his father works as a maintenance mechanic. When Charlie starts business school in New York City, he sees Jordan drunkenly leaning over the guard rail in a subway station, saves her from an oncoming train, and carries her to his apartment. During the following weeks, Charlie and Jordan have several fun, creative dates. Worried about Jordan's volatility, Charlie usually declines when she invites him somewhere, but she cheerfully ignores his refusal and he always gives in to her. Among other things, Jordan tells Charlie that her fiancé recently left her, tells a Tiller King representative she is pregnant with Charlie's child, sabotages Charlie's job interview with another Tiller King representative, and gives a piano recital. Charlie and Jordan have no sex during this time, but he falls deeply in love with her and she obviously enjoys being with him. Their dating is occasionally interrupted by Jordan's father, who believes Charlie is responsible for her drunkenness.

After two or three months, Jordan asks Charlie to meet her in Central Park to exchange love letters. At the park, she says she needs more time to heal from the loss of her fiancé. She insists that they bury their letters under a bonsai tree, stop seeing each other, and meet at the same place on the same day of the following year. When the day arrives, Charlie returns to the tree, but Jordan is not there. In her letter, she explains that her fiancé actually died, that Charlie reminds her of him, and that many of her dates with Charlie were reenactments of previous dates with her fiancé. She says that her absence at the bonsai tree means she has not healed yet and that this means destiny has dictated that she and Charlie were not meant to be together. The next day, Jordan goes to the tree, where an old man tells her Charlie has visited the tree periodically, even going so far as to replace it a few months ago after it was struck by lightning. In his letter, Charlie tells Jordan she is the only woman he will ever love and says he believes he is destined to be with her.

Some time later, Jordan meets at a restaurant with her ex-fiancé's mother. The two women got along well while he was alive, and they have stayed in touch since his death. The mother has been trying to set Jordan up with another young man, and she has arranged for the two to meet today. As she begins to describe the man, Charlie walks into the restaurant. The mother is Charlie's aunt, Jordan's fiancé was Charlie's recently deceased cousin, and Charlie is the young man himself. The film ends after Charlie and Jordan share their first kiss and Charlie explains to the audience that we all need to help destiny in shaping our lives. Repeating the old man's words, he says "You need to build a bridge to the one you love."

[edit]

Girl, Interrupted

Plot

Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), 18 years old in April 1967, voluntarily checks herself into Claymoore Hospital after an overdose of aspirin and her stay extends for over a year. She denies the accusation from many that she was attempting to commit suicide. Nurses and therapists are surprised when Susanna acknowledges that she does not actually want to go to college and would like to become a writer.

She befriends fellow patients Polly "Torch" Clark (Elisabeth Moss), Georgina Tuskin (Clea DuVall), Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphy), Janet Webber (Angela Bettis), Cynthia Crowley (Jillian Armenante) and forms a small troupe of troubled women in her ward. Susanna is enchanted in particular by Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie) when she sees her cause a scene. When Lisa returns to the ward after running away she notices that her old best friend's place has been taken by Susanna. She demands to know what happened to her best friend, eventually realizing that she had committed suicide. Lisa befriends Susanna and the two start causing trouble. Lisa encourages Susanna to stop taking her medications and/or trade them with others, and generally resist the influences of therapy.

During a visit outside the ward at a nearby ice cream shop, Susanna is confronted by her mother's friend, the angry wife of a man Susanna had an affair with, and her daughter. The woman harshly berates Susanna, but Lisa intervenes with a verbal assault, horrifying the older woman. As a result, Lisa loses her outside privileges.

Susanna's former boyfriend, Tobias "Toby" Jacobs (Jared Leto), comes to visit her. Toby discovers that he is going to get drafted, and he tells her he wants them to run away to Canada together. He tells her she isn't crazy and that the girls in the asylum aren't really her friends. But she refuses to go with him.

It is shown that Polly observes the couple almost wistfully as they speak outside, perhaps reflecting on her own unattractiveness and how it has impeded her from having such devotion from a man. That night, she awakes screaming. The nurses remove her and place her into solitary confinement with the intention of calming her down, but she continues sobbing. After all of the staff went to bed Susanna steals a guitar and she and Lisa sit outside Polly's room, singing "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Eventually a male orderly notices and Susanna seduces him in order for him not to report the incident, they fall asleep outside Polly's room. In the morning, Valerie Owens, the RN (Whoopi Goldberg) sees the two, she exclaims she is sick of her promiscuity and is referring her to the therapists.

The next morning, Susanna is called into the therapist's office, where she is analyzed once more. Susanna meets the head psychiatrist, Dr. Sonia Wick (Vanessa Redgrave), and attempts to shut her out with a nasty attitude. Wick decides to have Susanna be her patient from now on. She is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Lisa is also taken in to see the doctor but doesn't return, and Susanna falls into a depression. The frustrated nurse, Valerie, has had enough and throws Susanna into a cold bath to wake her. Susanna attacks her verbally.

Lisa returns, and she and Susanna break out of Claymoore. After hitching a ride, they spend the night at the house of the recently released Daisy, whom Lisa antagonizes in her usual fashion. She accuses Daisy of having incestuous sex with her father. It is revealed that Daisy continues cutting herself. Perhaps as a reaction to Lisa's words, Daisy hangs herself the next morning. Lisa runs away before anything could happen, trying to convince Susanna to come with her but she is mortified and stays. Susanna calls the police and returns to the hospital. Susanna also adopts Daisy's cat, Ruby. In the next few weeks, she begins to cooperate with her doctors and responds to her therapy, writing and painting. She is scheduled to be released.

At that point, Lisa is caught and returned by the police. Upon finding out about Susanna's pending release, Lisa targets Susanna for ridicule and emotional abuse. On her last night, Susanna awakens to discover Lisa in the maze of corridors beneath the ward, reading Susanna's diary to Georgina and Polly, including all of the private thoughts and comments she has made about the other residents, including how she thought Lisa was already dead, which she eventually declares to her. The other girls turn on Susanna, with Lisa particularly vicious. In the ensuing dispute Lisa threatens to stab herself with a large hypodermic needle, but Georgina's words disarm her. Susanna confronts Lisa, telling her the truth Lisa has been longing to hear, and Lisa has never been told the truth before about her illness, and this ends up being the thing that puts her on the road to recovery.

Susanna is released the next day. Before she leaves, she visits Lisa and talks to her again, telling her that she will get out and that she must come and see her. As Susanna leaves, she says goodbye to all her friends, giving Polly her adopted cat Ruby, reconciling with Georgina and gets into the cab. At the end of the film, Susanna states that by the 1970s, most of her friends were released and some she saw and some never again.

The Butterfly Effect

Plot

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), who suffered severe traumas as a boy (played by Logan Lerman) and a teenager (played by John Patrick Amedori), blacks out frequently, often at moments of high stress. While entertaining a girl in his dorm room, he finds that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he travels back in time, and he is able to basically "redo" parts of his past, thereby causing the blackouts he experienced as a child. There are consequences to his choices, however, that then propagate back to his present life: his alternate futures vary from college student, to prisoner, to amputee. His efforts are driven by the desire to undo the most unpleasant events of his childhood which coincide with his mysterious blackouts, including saving his childhood sweetheart Kayleigh (Amy Smart) from being molested by her father (Eric Stoltz) and harassed by her aggressive brother (William Lee Scott).

The actions he takes, and those he enables others to take during his blackouts, change the timeline in the new future wherein he awakes. As he continues to do this he realizes that even though his intentions are good his actions have unforeseen consequences. Moreover, the assimilation of dozens of years' worth of new memories from the alternate timelines causes him brain damage and severe nosebleeds. Ultimately, he decides that his attempts to alter the past end up only harming those he cares about. But the focal point for all of these traumatic timelines appears to be Kayleigh, so Evan travels back in time once more to the first day he met her and by scaring her away finally succeeds in saving Kayleigh's life. He then destroys all of his journals so that he's not ever tempted again to make any more changes.

The film ends eight years in the future with Evan leaving an office building in Manhattan and passing Kayleigh on a crowded daytime sidewalk. They alternately pause and turn after spotting and passing each other. While Kayleigh seems to have only a vague intimation of having seen him somewhere before, Evan remembers her very well and allows the moment to pass without attempting to speak to her.

Dead Man Walking

Plot

Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) has been in prison six years, awaiting his execution by lethal injection for killing a teenage couple. Poncelet, located in the Louisiana State Penitentiary,^[1] committed the crimes with a man named Carl Vitello (Michael Cullen), who received life imprisonment. As the day of his execution comes closer and closer, Poncelet asks Sister Helen to help him with a final appeal.

She decides to visit him, and he comes across as arrogant, sexist, and racist, not even pretending to feel any kind of remorse. Instead he affirms his innocence, insisting it was Vitello who killed the two teenagers. Convincing an experienced attorney to take on Poncelet's case pro bono, Sister Helen tries to obtain life imprisonment for Poncelet. Over time, after many visits, she establishes a special relationship with him. At the same time, she gets to know Poncelet’s mother (Roberta Maxwell) and the victims’ families. The families don’t understand Sister Helen's efforts to help Poncelet, claiming she is "taking his side." Instead they desire "absolute justice," namely his life for the lives of their children.

Sister Helen’s application for a pardon is declined. Poncelet asks Sister Helen to be his spiritual advisor through the day of execution, and she agrees. Sister Helen tells Poncelet that his redemption is possible only if he takes responsibility for what he did. Just before he is taken from his cell, Poncelet admits to Sister Helen that he killed the boy and raped the girl. During his execution, he appeals to the boy's parents for forgiveness and tells the girl's parents he hopes his death brings them peace. Poncelet is then executed and later given a proper burial. The murdered boy's father attends the ceremony and begins to pray with Sister Helen, ending the film.

A Lot Like Love

Plot

Constructed as a series of chapters that take place at a turning point in each character's life, the story moves from seven years in the past to three years to two and finally arrives in the present day. Emily Friehl and Oliver Martin's first encounter is on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City, during which they join the mile high club. He has hopes of becoming an Internet entrepreneur and, certain of his future success, gives her his phone number and suggests she call him in six years to see if his prediction came true.

Three years later, facing the prospect of spending New Year's Eve alone, Emily finds Oliver's number and calls him, and the two meet for dinner. Thus starts a series of reunions with the passing of time, as each drift in and out of relationships with others, Oliver and his business partner Jeeter start an on-line diaper service, and Emily becomes a successful photographer. Each time they meet, one appears to be settled and content while the other is struggling to make headway in both life and career. Eventually they come to the realization that each is exactly the person the other one needs for fulfillment.

Twilight

Plot summary

Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother,Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention.

When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return; their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands.

Bella becomes determined to find out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After a family friend, Jacob Black, tells her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was too desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

Their relationship is disturbed when another vampire coven arrives in Forks. James, a tracker vampire who is intrigued by the Cullens' relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens attempt to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella receives a phone call from James, who claims to be holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her. Before she is killed, Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues her and defeats James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward successfully sucks the poison from her bloodstream and prevents her from becoming a vampire, after which she is brought to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, but Edward refuses.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Plot of Perfume

The film begins with the sentencing of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), a notorious murderer. Between the reading of the sentence and the execution, the story of his life is told in flashback, beginning with his abandonment at birth in a French fish market. Raised in an orphanage, Grenouille grows into a strangely detached boy with a superhuman sense of smell. After growing to maturity as a tanner's apprentice, he makes his first delivery to Paris, where he revels in the new odors. He focuses on a girl selling plums (Karoline Herfurth) and startles her with his behavior. To prevent her from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally suffocates her. After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her until the scent fades. Afterwards, Grenouille becomes haunted by the desire to preserve a woman's scent forever.

After making a delivery to a perfume shop, Grenouille amazes the Italian owner, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), with his ability to create fragrances. He revitalizes the perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how to convert scents into perfume. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of twelve individual scents, and may contain a theoretical thirteenth scent. He also tells a story about a perfume discovered in an Egyptian tomb that was so perfect that it caused everyone in the entire world to briefly believe they were in paradise the moment the bottle was opened. When Grenouille discovers that Baldini's method of distillation will not capture the scents of all objects, such as iron chains and dead animals, he becomes depressed. After receiving a letter of presentation written by Baldini, Grenouille leaves to learn a different method in Grasse. En route to Grasse, Grenouille realises that he has no scent of his own, and is therefore a cipher. He decides that creating the perfect smell will prove his worth.

Upon arrival in Grasse, Grenouille catches the scent of Laura Richis (Rachel Hurd-Wood), daughter of the wealthy Antoine Richis (Alan Rickman) and decides that she will be his "thirteenth scent", the linchpin of his perfect perfume. Grenouille finds a job in Grasse under Madame Arnulfi (Corinna Harfouch) and Dominique Druot (Paul Berrondo) assisting with perfumes and learns the method of enfleurage. He kills a lavender picker and attempts to extract her scent using the method of hot enfleurage, which fails. After this, he tries the method of cold enfleurage on a prostitute and successfully preserves the scent of the woman. Grenouille embarks on a killing spree, murdering beautiful young virgins and capturing their scents. He dumps the women's naked corpses around the city, creating panic. After preserving the first twelve scents, Grenouille plans his attack on Laura. During a church sermon against him it is announced that a man has confessed to the murders. Richis remains unconvinced and flees the city with his daughter. Grenouille tracks her scent to a roadside inn and sneaks into her room that night. The next morning, Richis discovers Laura lying dead in her bed.

Soldiers capture Grenouille moments after he finishes preparing his perfume. On the day of his execution, he applies a drop of the perfume over himself. The executioner and the crowd in attendance are speechless at the beauty of the perfume; they declare Grenouille innocent before falling into a massive orgy. Richis, still convinced at Grenouille's guilt, threatens him with his sword, before being overwhelmed by the scent and embracing Grenouille as his "son". Eventually, the town awakens and decides that the godly Grenouille could not have been the murderer. Druot is convicted for the murders and hanged, since it was his backyard where the clothes and hair of the victims were found.

Walking out of Grasse unscathed, Grenouille has enough perfume to rule the world, but has discovered that it will not allow him to love or be loved like a normal person. Disenchanted by his aimless quest and tired of his life, he returns to Paris. Back in the city, Grenouille returns to the fish market where he was born and dumps the perfume on his head. Overcome by the scent and in the belief that Grenouille is an angel, the nearby crowd devours him. The next day, all that is left are his clothes and the open perfume bottle, from which one final drop of perfume falls.

Quotations by Kahlil Gibran

Every man loves two women;the one is the creation of his imagination and the other is not yet born.

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

In the sweetness of friendship; let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.

Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.

Quotes from Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

For I am the first and the last
I am the venerated and the despised
I am the prostitute and the saint
I am the wife and the virgin
I am the mother and the daughter
I am the arms of my mother
I am the barren and my children are many
I am the married woman and the spinster
I am the woman who gives birth and she who never procreated
I am the consolation for the pain of birth
I am the wife and the husband
And it was my man who created me
I am the mother of my father
I am the sister of my husband
And he is my rejected son
Always respect me
For I am the shameful and the magnificent one.
Eleven Minutes
Hymn to Isis.

At every moment of our lives we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss.
Eleven Minutes

...but something always went wrong, and the relationship would end precisely at the moment when she was sure that this was the person with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. After a long time, she came to the conclusion that men brought only pain, frustration, suffering and a sense of time dragging.
Eleven Minutes

The power of beauty: what must the world be like for ugly women?
Eleven Minutes

Sometimes you get no second chance and that it's best to accept the gifts the world offers you.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria's diary.

If I must be faithful to someone or something, then I have, first of all, to be faithful to myself.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria's diary.

If I'm looking for true love, I first have to get the mediocre love out of my systems.
Eleven Minutes
From Maria's diary.