Paris, 1315. The Tour de Nesle, a guard tower on the banks of the Seine, has become a symbol of mystery and fear. Each morning, at its base, the bodies of handsome young aristocrats are found floating in the river, all butchered by sword or arrow. One evening, two noblemen, Buridan and Philippe d'Aulnay, find themselves in the infamous tower, lured there on the expectation of a night of unbridled passion. Little do they realise that they are to be the next victims of a woman who is determined to take revenge against all men - Margaret of Burgundy, the present Queen of France. Although Philippe is killed, Buridan escapes, and intends to blackmail the Queen. Unless she makes him her prime minister, he will expose her crimes to Philippe's brother and her husband, King Louis X. When she moves to eliminate Burdan, Margaret makes a terrible discovery... In the twilight years of his long and pretty uneven career, the great avant-garde film director Abel Gance made a number of films which, whilst not as grand and artistically inspired as his early silent masterpieces (La Roue (1923), Napoléon (1927)), still compared very favourably with the work of his contemporaries. Of these, La Tour de Nesle is a film that still stands up remarkably well today - an ambitious historical drama based on the famous 1832 play by Alexandre Dumas. It makes a nice companion piece to Gance's subsequent historical romp, Cyrano et d'Artagnan (1964). Needless to say, the film isn't to be commended on its historical accuracy. As any historian will tell you, the Alexandre Dumas version of French history is wildly fanciful, to say the least. However, this doesn't prevent La Tour de Nesle from being an entertaining and, at times, highly poignant, piece of cinema. Whilst the characterisation and dialogue leave much to be desired, the plot (a murky tale of cruel revenge and political intrigue) is gripping, and the film's artistic design is exceptional for a film of this period. Gance brings a strangely expressionistic touch to his use of colour and shade, something which adds to the darkly sinister nature of the plot, whilst imbuing the film with a striking sense of historical realism.
A propos, Gance's assistant director Nelly Kaplan makes her screen début in a small role, shortly before she herself embarked on a successful film making career.
《Mad Men》是由American Movie Classics公司出品的美剧。 该剧曾获得第65届、第66届、第67届美国电影电视金球奖最佳电视剧,并连续四年夺得艾美奖剧情类最佳电视剧奖。 1960年代,美国的广告业步入全盛时代,位于曼哈顿的麦迪逊大道有数百家广告公司,斯特林·库帕公司堪称行业中的佼佼者。创意总监唐·德雷柏(乔·哈姆 Jon Hamm 饰)面容英俊,体格健硕,足智多谋,仿佛广告业中的007。除此,公司中还有酷爱炫耀其上流社会出生的老板罗杰·斯特林(约翰·斯拉特里 John Slattery 饰)、识时务的秘书佩吉·奥尔森(伊丽莎白·莫斯 Elisabeth Moss 饰)、野心勃勃却缺乏真才实学的拜特·坎贝尔(文森特·卡塞瑟 Vincent Kartheiser 饰)等各色人等,他们一边为了满足客户的要求殚精竭虑,一边又要在生活的困顿中挣扎。
The first story is about Nanda, a young man who leaves Calcutta to work as a postmaster in an isolated malaria-infested village. The postmaster is looked after by a young orphan girl, Ratan. His only solace in the village is in teaching Ratan how to read and write. The second story is about a student, Amulya, who returns to his village after finishing his exams. His widowed mother is very anxious for him to marry, and has already picked out a girl. He rejects his mother's choice and, being forced to choose some girl, marries a lively tomboy who is not ready to give up her freedom.