The White Sister
★ 7.2 · 1923 · 135m · Drama · Romance
Angela Chiaromonte is the daughter of a wealthy Italian prince who is killed in a fall from his horse. Though Angela stands to inherit half of a large estate, her older half-sister burns the will and thus inherits everything herself, throwing Angela into poverty. Fortunately, Angela is engaged to marry dashing Captain Giovanni Severi - but he soon is captured by Arabs while on an expedition to Africa. Believing him dead, Angela, dedicating her life to his memory, becomes a nun, unaware that her lover has escaped his captors and is returning to Italy. The dramatic climax takes place against a backdrop of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
More Like This
When Love Kills
1913
After a harsh argument between her and her father, a young girl with artistic talent leaves home for a new life.
More info →
Pandora's Box
1929 · ★ 7.5
The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
More info →
Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl
1919 · ★ 6.9
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
More info →
City Lights
1931 · ★ 8.2
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
More info →
The General
1926 · ★ 7.9
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.
More info →
The Gold Rush
1925 · ★ 8
A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
More info →
The Passion of Joan of Arc
1928 · ★ 8
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
More info →
Beyond the Walls
1985 · ★ 5.2
This 1985 Spanish film reveals one of the many terrible aspects of 16th century Spain, still plagued by the radical Christian Inquisition, one of a plethora of difficulties Spaniards faced at the time. Spanish super star Carmen Maura plays a nun who agrees to a selfless scam, a fake stigmata, only to avoid separation from her lover, another nun. It's a serious and passionate work, highlighting the theme of outspoken women-against-repression, seen in other good gay and lesbian films. This is not a lesbian "Nun sense" or another "Dark Habits" (by Almodovar, which also starred Carmen Maura, and also set in a Spanish convent, with some lesbian nuns). Perhaps, best of all, 'Extramuros' is realistic and frank. It isn't shy about its characters' sexuality. Their sexuality, and the film as a whole are genuine.
More info →
Maternal
2019 · ★ 6.8
Lu and Fati are teen mums living in a religious shelter in Buenos Aires. Sister Paola arrives there to take her final vows. But the girls’ impending motherhood faces her with a challenging situation.
More info →
One-Eyed Likho
1916 · ★ 7.5
The plot is the embodiment of everyday belief about the impact of a certain evil force on a person. The action develops in a peasant environment.
More info →
Brother of Sleep
1995 · ★ 6.7
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.
More info →