The Games of Countess Dolingen (1981)

Director
Catherine Binet

Main cast
Michael Lonsdale; Carol Kane; Katia Wastchenko; Marina Vlady; Emmanuelle Riva

Genres
Drama

Description
In this eerie, atmospheric tale, a young woman is on a train when she sees some people she thinks she knows from her childhood. On arriving home, her husband tells her that a certain countess has died. At that point, the film cuts to a scene of the countess singing in a mausoleum while the visual image of the graveyard's many tombstones passes before one's eyes. Back home, the husband -- also a "father-figure" -- is looking over his collection of wooden angels. Some time elapses, and he surreptitiously sees a thief come down through the chimney, steal some things, and then leave. To combat any recurrence, he builds an iron, escape-proof cage around the fireplace, and then goes away on a trip. When he comes back, he finds the thief dead in the cage. Thus far, the camera has only shown the husband in profile or from the back. Then there is another story about a young girl, with a spiteful, nasty mother, who is trying to cope with her own attraction to a man.


Similar movies

In France of the late 19th century, the wife of a wealthy general, the Countess Louise, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off debts; she claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, & her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.
Caged tells the story of a teenage newlywed, who is sent to prison for being an accessory to a robbery. Her experiences while incarcerated, along with the killing of her husband, change her from a very frightened young girl into a hardened convict.
While husband Tim is away during World War II, Anne Hilton copes with problems on the homefront. Taking in a lodger, Colonel Smollett, to help make ends meet and dealing with shortages and rationing are minor inconveniences compared to the love affair daughter Jane and the Colonel's grandson conduct.
Several players from different backgrounds try to cope with the pressures of playing football at a major university. Each deals with the pressure differently, some turn to drinking, others to drugs, and some to studying.
An aging Hollywood star, Joe Scott, lives a life of narcissistic hedonism, observed by his laconic personal assistant, Ophelia. The death of his childhood best friend, Boots, takes our protagonist, and the movie, into an extended flashback to a sea-side town in 1970's Britain.
Narrating in voiceover, Tahimik explains the patterns of daily life in the village. He has a fascination with the Voice of America broadcasts, and particularly with the space program. He longs to be part of the developed world, and forms the Werner von Braun fan club. When an American arrives for an aborted international conference, he gets his chance. The American asks him to come to Paris, to run his chewing-gum-ball machine concession on the streets. In Paris, and on a trip to Germany, he makes friends and discovers that progress in the developed world sacrifices important values. Backgrounded by footage of a summit meeting in Paris, and unable to return to an idealized image of his past, he stubbornly refuses to capitulate to the terms of progress, resigning from his post as head of the Werner von Braun fan club and maintaining that he will find his own way.
Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in kolkata from London to find her missing husband Arnab Bagchi. Seven months pregnant and alone in a festive city, she begins a relentless search for her husband. With nothing to rely on except fragments from her memories about him, all clues seem to reach a dead end when everyone tries to convince Vidya that her husband does not exist. She slowly realises that nothing is what it seems. In a city soaked in lies, Vidya is determined to unravel the truth about her husband - for herself and her unborn child - even at the cost of her own life.
An American woman, trapped in Islamic Iran by her brutish husband, must find a way to escape with her daughter as well.
A woman struggles to find a way to live her life after the death of her husband and child.
Depressed housewife learns her husband was killed in a car accident the day previously, awakens the next morning to find him alive and well at home, and then awakens the next day after to a world in which he is still dead.
It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband.
Just as their boat sets off for the day, Deborah (Crain), Rita (Southern) and Lora Mae (Darnell) receive a letter from the alluring Addie Ross (narrator Celeste Holm) stating she has left town with one of their husbands. Each wife spends the fretful day pondering the state of her marriage and the affection each of their husbands has for Addie. By the end of the day, each woman is convinced she must surely be the betrayed wife.
The study of a marriage. Jo has five children and husband number two when she meets writer Jake Armitage. She leaves this husband to marry Jake, and his career takes off. A few years and at least one child later, Jo is deeply depressed, breaking down in the middle of Harrods. After psychiatric care and the prospect of a new house in the country, she gets better; then, she is pregnant again, and this time Jake objects. Jo consents to an abortion and sterilization in the belief it will make her marriage happy again, but afterwards she learns ugly truths about Jake.
In a small city of Brazil, Flor (a very good looking woman) marries Vadinho, a very handsome and erotic man. Once married she finds he is a good-for-nothing. She works teaching cooking to her neighbours but he takes all her money to gamble. One day he dies. Flor misses the goods of the marriage so she marries again with a very correct gentleman - the owner of the drugstore (Teodoro). Now she's very happy with her man, but misses the erotic moments with her previous husband. Then the ghost of Vadhino comes to earth to chase her.
Ginger Rogers, a young defense plant worker whose husband is in the military during World War II, shares a house with three other women in the same situation.
7 Khoon Maaf movie is a romantic misadventures story of an Anglo-Indian woman Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes, a beautiful lass who over the course of thirty-five odd years, gets married seven times due to the untimely and mysterious deaths of half a dozen of her hapless husbands. The strange circumstances of their deaths, makes Susanna a prime accused. Did the husbands deserve to die? Were the murders out of necessity or pure blood-lust? Does Susanna ever find her one true love?
On the day before their holiday trip to Dubai, a wife who believes her husband is unfaithful enlists the help of Roohi, a young women sent by an agency to clean the house. She asks Roohi to make an appointment and gather information at the salon of the woman she suspects. Roohi is betrothed, innocent of marital discord. Over the course of the day, she, the couple, their small son, the wife's sister and husband, and the beautician engage in a series of exchanges, confrontations, and prevarications. Are the wife's suspicions unwarranted; is her behavior imperiling her marriage? Acts of kindness may go awry. And the trip to Dubai?
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
An airline pilot and his wife are forced to face the consequences of her alcoholism when her addictions threaten her life and their daughter's safety. While the woman enters detox, her husband must face the truth of his enabling behavior.
A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.
A rich man's wife finds she has a bad prenuptial agreement with an even worse husband. Over drinks with a stranger, she fantasizes about doing her husband in to void the prenupt. The stranger decides to turn her imagination into reality much to the wife's surprise.
Harper is a cynical private eye in the best tradition of Bogart. He even has Bogie's Baby hiring him to find her missing husband, getting involved along the way with an assortment of unsavory characters and an illegal-alien smuggling ring.
After a bombing raid destroys the family store and her husband, Reiko rebuilds and runs the shop out of love stopped short by destruction.
The last movie from the team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in 1930s Shanghai, "The White Countess" is both Sofia (Natasha Richardson), a fallen member of the Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat named Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
The film is about the life of Aung San Suu Kyi (Yeoh) who spent more than a decade under house arrest. David Thewlis portrays Suu Kyi's husband, Dr. Michael Aris. Rebecca Frayn began working on the project after she and her husband, producer Andy Harries, visited Burma in the early 1990s.Harries' production company Left Bank Pictures began development of the script in 2008 under the working title Freedom from Fear. Harries wanted Michelle Yeoh as the lead and had the script sent to her.
Visions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband.
Bathory is based on the legends surrounding the life and deeds of Countess Elizabeth Bathory known as the greatest murderess in the history of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, Elizabeth Bathory was a modern Renaissance woman who ultimately fell victim to mens aspirations for power and wealth.
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.
Follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman, and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.
Old-fashioned Soon-yi marries into a family in the country without love. But when her husband abandons her by enlisting into the Vietnam war, she wants to show that she is capable of loving him. She uses her vocal talent to join a band heading there and sings for the restless soldiers in hopes of meeting her husband while on tour.
An American goes to Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of a German countess he engineers her escape.
A drama centered on the awakening of the painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.
Set in the 17th-century, an Italian nobleman weds an impoverished countess, who is wooed by the King of Piedmont and faces pressure from his entire court to succumb to his wishes.
Insurance executive Charles suspects his wife Hélène of playing the field, so he has a private detective locate his wife's lover, author Victor Pegala. Confronting Victor, Charles tries to adopt an air of indifference, but the conversation ends with the husband bludgeoning the author to death and then calmly disposing of the evidence. When Hélène is questioned about Victor's murder, she discovers on her own that her husband is guilty. Instead of turning him in, Hélène is so thrilled that Charles cares so deeply about her that she is more in love with him than ever before.
Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life.
In a small and conservative Scottish village, a woman's paralytic husband convinces her to have extramarital intercourse so she can tell him about it and give him a reason for living.
In 1867, with Garibaldi's forces close to bringing Rome into the Italian kingdom, Monsignor Colombo da Priverno, a world-weary judge on the papal court, wants to resign, disgusted by the violence to which the papacy resorts to hold secular power. That night, three rebels blow up the Zouaves' barracks. Colombo learns that a brief liaison with a countess 20 years' before produced a son, one of the rebels arrested for the bombing. He uses his influence to gain the youth's release, hides him, and then engages in doomed battles of wit with the court and with the Black Pope to free the other two. Can this priest be a father, blunt power, and live out his faith?
Francisco is rich, rather strict on principles, and still a bachelor. After meeting Gloria by accident, he is suddenly intent on her becoming his wife and courts her until she agrees to marry him. Francisco is a dedicated husband, but little by little his passion starts to exhibit disturbing traits. Nevertheless, Gloria meets with scepticism as she expresses her worries to their acquaintances.
An urban husband and wife travel to the jungle and learn just how precious their relationship is.
Vanina Vanini, a bored, spoiled Roman countess, falls in love with a dedicated young patriot who is in Rome to assassinate a traitor to the brotherhood of the Free Masons.
Scott Calvin is an ordinary man, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall from his roof on Christmas Eve and is knocked unconscious. When he and his young son finish Santa's trip and deliveries, they go to the North Pole, where Scott learns he must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed, Father Christmas.
A poor student rescues a beautiful countess and soon becomes obsessed with her. A sorcerer makes a deal with the young man to give him fabulous wealth and anything he wants, if he will sign his name to a contract. The student hurriedly signs the contract, but doesn't know what he's in for.
A polish countess becomes Napoleon Bonaparte's mistress at the urging of Polish leaders, who feel she might influence him to make Poland independent.
A GI in Vietnam saves his buddy's life, but in the process is shot in the head. The injury results in brain damage to the point where he basically has a child's brain in a (very large) man's body. When they get out of the army the two open up a bar together, but some local gangsters make things tough for them after they refuse to take part in brutal "cage" matches where fighters battle to the point of serious injury and/or death.
On these streets everyone is fighting for a way out, but after a lifetime of hard knocks, a down-on-his-luck cage fighter gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he is chosen to compete against the MMA world champion during a massive competition. The stakes are high and the reward great...but should he lose, it will cost him his life.
British agent working in Russia is forced to remain longer than planned once the revolution begins. After being released from prison in Siberia he posses as a Russian Commissar. Because of his position among the revolutionaries he is able to rescue a Russian countess from the Bolsheviks.
After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi...
After years of suppressing her desires, Stella finds she can no longer ignore her deep-rooted longings. Breaking out of her cage and starting a secret double-life, Stella transforms into a "unicorn", a nickname for single women who indulge in a hedonistic lifestyle, visiting sex clubs and erotic parties, and flourishing with all the new attention. Even as her husband uncovers his Stella's secret life, he can't do much more than give her the freedom that she obviously needs, in the hope it's all just a phase. Then one day she finds herself lying unconscious in a basement cell, with no idea how she arrived there. Days go by when an other woman is brought into her cell. Christine, a woman about the same age. In the following days they reveal their life stories to one other. Christine is convinced that the reason for their captivity lies in Stella's lifestyle.
In the aftermath of the BP oil spill, an idealistic but imperfect New Orleans politician (Nicolas Cage) finds his plans of restoration unraveling as his own life becomes contaminated with corruption, scandal and deceit.
Tale of 19th century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant.
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman...
Behind these bars lies an unbridled fury. Caged Terror-a tale of madness, infidelity and revenge. Everyone needs to get away from it all, and the country is the most tranquil place to escape life's everyday battles. Or is it? Richard and Janet, a city couple, find that just the opposite is true as their weekend getaway is transformed into a frightening and primitive wilderness. Camping for the night in a seemingly abandoned farmhouse, the two are suddenly joined by strangers who have been secretly watching them all afternoon. Strangers who will soon cage Richard like a trapped animal and ravage his wife. Strangers who will drive Richard berserk in the cold and inhuman isolation of Caged Terror.
A former NCAA champion wrestler is paroled after 10 years in prison. Now, to save a friend's life, in a series of cage fights he must agree to do the impossible - lose.
Stefan and Dolly Oblonsky have had a spat and Stefan has asked his sister, Anna Karenina, to come down to Moscow to help mend the rift. Anna's companion on the train from St. Petersburg is Countess Vronsky who is met at the Moscow station by her son. Col. Vronsky looks very dashing in his uniform and it's love at first sight when he looks at Anna and their eyes meet.
Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer. Through some of the deadliest war zones, Yuri struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals, even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, Yuri must also face his own conscience.
Sissy Hankshaw (Uma Thurman) is born with enormous thumbs that help her hitchhiking through the US from a young age. She becomes a model in advertising and her NY agent 'the Countess' (John Hurt) sends her to his ranch in CA to shoot a commercial, set against the background of mating whooping cranes. There, she befriends Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix), one of the cowgirls at the beauty- ranch.
From the cage to the big screen, the world's greatest Mixed Martial Arts Champions come together for the first time in a major motion picture. When an MMA world champion is lured into the illegal world of underground cage fighting by an elusive promoter, he quickly realizes that the only way out is to kill or to be killed.
A woman trapped in a home elevator is terrorized by a group of vicious hoodlums.

© Valossa 2015–2024