Play of the Week: Rashomon

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

A young man finds himself unexpectedly taking an audiovisual odyssey into a world of surreality, slowly recounting his memories, revealing the puzzle pieces that led him to where he is, and maybe how he can get out.

An ambitious businessman knocks up his mistress with fraternal twins. He keeps the boy but sends his bodyguard to dispose of the mother and the girl. Years later…

Perception explores the breach of experience that divides us all by glancing into the lives of three individuals: Clarissa, a young idealistic photographer who chooses to live as a homeless person on the streets of New York, supporting herself meal by meal by selling her photography from a blanket in Central Park; Ralph, a successful real estate salesman who struggles for balance against the cut-throat nature of his business; and Tobias, a perpetual student who gets fired a lot. Perception journeys through the same season of time from each character's point of view, detailing how presumption and mistaken intention leads to great misunderstanding. A moment, revisited from another point of view, takes new dimension--and the line between protagonist and antagonist blurs.

Documentarians Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer turn their camera on 81-year-old Traudl Junge, who served as Adolf Hitler's secretary from 1942 to 1945, and allow her to speak about her experiences. Junge sheds light on life in the Third Reich and the days leading up to Hitler's death in the famed bunker, where Junge recorded Hitler's last will and testament. Her gripping account is nothing short of mesmerizing.

A reflection on the fate of humanity in the Anthropocene epoch, White Noise is a roller-coaster of a film, a whirlwind of sounds and images. The fourth feature-length work by Simon Beaulieu, this film essay plunges viewers into a subjective sensory adventure—a direct physical encounter with the information overload of daily life. White Noise transforms the imminent collapse of our civilization into a visceral aesthetic experience.

A glimpse into a visual representation of memory; A Christmas-time series of meals, coffees, and movies, with friends, lovers, and housemates. Faced with the compounding of faces and places, each moment begins to collide with one another: voices are muddled, and faces are broken. How is memory created? How are they separated from one another?

Forced to run from Texas Rangers after a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman, Mexican American farmer Gregorio Cortez sets off in desperate flight, evading a massive manhunt on horseback for days.

Hardened criminal Lester is in prison for armed robbery and murder. When his request for parole is refused, he escapes and hatches a plan for revenge and make him rich. He leads two gang members to the home of a witness who helped put him in jail. But the FBI and a SWAT team are on his trail...

A woman searches for clues that led to the murder of her scientist husband whom was experimenting with a possible AIDS vaccine.

Life in the neighborhood is bleak for Dorrie, a misfit 10-year-old whose restrictive upbringing by her disillusioned grandmother leaves her with few friends and a desire to repeatedly run away. But now her mother Lorna is coming home for one of her rare visits, this time determined to turn over a new leaf -- to stay off drugs, raise her daughter, make peace with her mother. All Dorrie wants is to have her little family back to what it once was, but the future will come at a high price, higher than any of them could have imagined.

One last job and Love is out of the erotic escort business. Unfortunately, that final job is for a trio of escaped mental patients who are looking to change the world. One victim at a time.

In this crime drama, a man learns that he has six months left to live, and before he dies he decides to get revenge against the man responsible for his incarceration. First he hires a man to kill him and frame the traitor. Later the fellow learns that he is not sick after all. Fortunately his hit man died. Later the man he wants to avenge has a final showdown with him. A struggle ensues and the fellow kills his enemy in self-defense.

A fateful Stranger's Meeting leads to a maelstrom of crime, deception and murder in this 64-minute British programmer. The beautiful Delphi Lawrence heads a stellar cast, including such reliables as Victor Maddern, Norman Rossington, Conrad Phillips and Reginald Hearne. The plot centers around acrobat Peter Arne, falsely accused of murder. Escaping from the authorities, Arne hides out in a rustic inn, allowing first-time director (and former cinematographer) Robert Day ample opportunity for dark, menacing shadows and sinister underlighting. The genuine murderer is revealed just seconds before the culprit's death. Stranger's Meeting was held back from release until Robert Day's "official" directorial debut, The Green Man, had made the rounds.

This is an exiting night in the life of Nelson and Lucas. They are preparing to march to the government hall. Nelson is a elite squad police officer. Lucas, his brother, prepares posters and Molotov cocktail to ignite the crowds.

A young filmmaking student turns his camera on a female friend as she gets ready to go out for the night. She confides in him something he struggles to come to grips with.

A film by John Mikulenka documenting various people's investigation into the mystery of the Zodiac.

A movie star is typecast as a ruthless gangster. His troubles begin when he gets reality confused with his job and becomes deluded into believing that he really is a mobster.

Sometimes listed as a horror film, the British Girl on the Pier is a Spartan little melodrama starring the alluring Veronica Hurst as the title character. The wife of wax museum curator Campbell Singer, Hurst carries on with Singer's partner Ron Randell. Killing Randell, the cuckolded husband tries to hide the body among his waxworks. The police eventually catch on when Singer proves too clever for his own good. Girl on the Pier doesn't pretend to be a classic; on its own terms, it's an agreeable 65 minutes out of your life.