Casablanca

The story is set during World War II where refugees were trying to escape to America via Casablanca. An influential saloon owner, Rick, meets a former lover, Ilsa, unexpectedly and has to deal with both the police and the black market as events unfold.

An exciting story and great acting by the leading actor and actress! The actress, Ingrid Bergman, is very pretty too! I also liked how Rick manages the bar! He treats his staff well, drives a hard negotiation with his stakeholders and goes out of his way to help his customers! Interesting to note that most of the cast were real life refugees who escaped from Europe! No wonder I felt a genuine sense of patriotism when they sang the French anthem!

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Miss Potter

The story is about the life of a famous children's book author from England, Beatrix Potter. She wrote "Tales of Peter Rabbit" and does her own illustrations using water color!

Liked how the film showed the little things that happened in Miss Potter's life that helped her to become a good writer and the nice use of animation to make the animals in the illustrations come alive!

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The Birth of a Nation

The story is about the life of two American families during and after the Civil War. The film is made 50 years after the end of the Civil War.

Not too familiar with the historical events depicted in the film at first and felt it dragged a little bit but the pace picked up towards the end! Learnt how the Ku Klux Klan came about and how people coped with the racial tension that was present at that time.

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Notes on a Scandal

The story is about the friendship between two teachers in school and what happens when they attempt to cover up a scandal.

Great acting by Judi Dench! She can look lost like a kitten or fierce like a giant tiger in a split second! Liked the voice-over narration as well!

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World of Geisha

The story is about the life of a group of geishas during the time when Japan wages war against Russia in 1918 and has trouble within the country itself as well.

Thought I could learn a bit more about Japanese history from this film but it only made use of several newspaper cuttings to describe the major events of that era so I didn't learn as much as I hoped to.

Pretty comprehensive coverage of the different types of geishas! There is an apprentice undergoing on-the-job training, a geisha with her first client, a popular geisha doing a show for a group of clients and an obnoxious aged geisha who spends her time sucking flies from the ceiling with a special gadget. Didn't like the blatant use of gigantic words written on the screen to convey the so-called "principles" though.

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Employee of the Month

The story is about two guys competing to become the employee of the month at a megamart store and to capture the heart of a fellow colleague.

Pretty interesting look at the life of the people working in a supermart! The competition at the end was very well thought out and tested the skills of the cashiers to their limit! Hmm, maybe someone should organise a cashier competition inviting NTUC, Carrefour and Giant to take part!

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Babel

The story is about how families from different parts of the world have trouble communicating with each other properly. A Moroccan family, an American family, a Mexican family and a Japanese family are featured and they are interconnected with each other.

Liked how the director cleverly linked the different stories together and showed how each family unite in the face of crisis!

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Bobby

The story is about a day in the lives of the people in a hotel during the Robert Kennedy election. Something shocking happened in the end but I won't spoil it for you here by revealing what it is.

I liked the documentary clips that were inserted into the picture! The film dived directly into showing the thoughts and actions of the ordinary folks with a brief overview of the era of that time. Lots of big stars in this film but the small characters were interesting too! Thought the girl working in the F&B outlet and the reporter from Czechoslovakia looked quite cute!

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Tickets

This is a collection of three short stories about the use of the train ticket on a train. It is a collaboration effort among three directors from different countries: Ermanno Olmi from Italy, Abbas Kiarostami from Iran and Ken Loach from UK.

The professor in the first segment reminds me of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story where the little girl asks why her grandmother's nose is so big! Liked the multiple flashbacks that presents several perspectives of what happened.

Second segment had an unreasonable old lady, a helpful young man who travels with her and a cute girl in braces. Great acting by the old lady! I felt intimidated when she was arguing with other passengers and sad for her towards the end when she was left alone.

Last segment was about an encounter between a group of Scottish soccer fans and a refugee family. Liked how the dilemma faced by one of the soccer fans was presented and how they struggled to decide what to do!

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