Janus Films is a film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut, Yasujirō Ozu and many other well-regarded directors. Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) was the film responsible for the company's initial growth. Janus has a close relationship with The Criterion Collection regarding the release of its films on DVD and is still an active theatrical distributor.
The company's name and logo come from Janus, the two-faced Roman god.
Eleven-year-old Kevin has a vivid imagination and is fascinated by history, particularly Ancient Greece; his parents ignore his activities, having become more obsessed with buying the latest household gadgets to keep up with their neighbours. One night, as Kevin is sleeping, an armoured knight on a horse bursts out of his wardrobe. Kevin is scared and hides as the knight rides off into a forest setting where once his bedroom wall was; when Kevin looks back out, the room is back to normal and he finds one of his photos on the wall similar to the forest he saw. The next night he prepares a satchel with supplies and a Polaroid camera, but is surprised when six dwarves spill out of the wardrobe. Kevin quickly learns the group has stolen a large, worn map, and are looking for an exit from Kevin's room before they are discovered. They find that Kevin's bedroom wall can be pushed, revealing a long hallway. Kevin is hesitant to join until the visage of a menacing head – the Supreme Being – appears behind them, demanding the return of the map. Kevin and the dwarves fall into an empty void at the end of the hallway.
Masashi Kusakabe (Takuto Sueoka) has just moved to a suburban town, where lush, green rice paddies stretch out on both sides of the road, to start a new life alone with his mother, Yasuko (Mayu Tsuruta). Although overwhelmed with sadness after losing his father (Kanji Tsuda), Masashi acts cheerfully for the sake of his mother. As he goes about carrying boxes into their new apartment, Masashi feels a mysterious presence in the room.
The film follows a group of kids growing up in a depressed rural town in North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Nasia. After breaking up with her show-off boyfriend Buddy (played by Curtis Cotton III), she withdraws from her delinquent friends and becomes romantically interested in a strange, introverted boy named George who is burdened by the fact that his skull never hardened after birth. Tragedy strikes when George accidentally kills Buddy, and the group, fearing punishment, decides to hide his body. In its aftermath, George takes up the unlikely role of town hero.
The film takes place in late 1999. India has an out-of-control nuclear satellite in orbit that is about to re-enter the atmosphere at any time, contaminating large areas of the Earth. This has caused a massive panic, with everyone trying to flee the likely impact sites. Caught in a traffic jam, impatient and disconnected Claire Tourneur (Solveig Dommartin) escapes the highway congestion by taking a side road. Her dashboard computer system announces she has left the map zone database and is on her own. She then has a couple of odd encounters, first with a pair of bank robbers (which leaves her with a large amount of cash), then with a hitchhiker being pursued by an armed party. Claire discovers, after falling in love with the enigmatic fugitive, that he is the son of a scientist (played by Max von Sydow), and has absconded with the prototype of a secret research project. Multiple government agencies and freelance bounty hunters are chasing him to recover the device.
The story follows relationship between Walt (Tim Streeter), a gay store clerk, and two younger Mexican boys, Johnny (Doug Cooeyate) and Roberto Pepper (Ray Monge). Walt and his female friend (Nyla McCarthy) convince them to come over for dinner, but Johnny and Pepper have to return to their cheap hotel because another friend is locked out. Walt makes his first pass at Johnny by offering him $15 to sleep with him. Johnny refuses and runs to his hotel room, leaving Roberto locked out with nowhere to spend the night but Walt's. Settling for second best, Walt lies down next to Pepper and allows him on top for sex. However, he does not give up on trying to win over Johnny. The film progresses from there into not always clearly defined relationships, unbalanced by age, language, race, sexuality and money.
Jeanne Dielman examines a single mother's regimented schedule of cooking, cleaning and mothering over three days. The mother, Jeanne Dielman (whose name is only derived from the title and from a letter she reads to her son), prostitutes herself to a male client daily for her and her son's subsistence. Like her other activities, Jeanne's prostitution is part of the routine she performs every day by rote and is uneventful. But on the second day, Jeanne's routine begins to unravel subtly, as she drops a newly washed spoon and overcooks the potatoes that she's preparing for dinner. These alterations to Jeanne's existence prepare for the climax on the third day.
At Appleyard College, a girls' private school, near the town of Woodend, Victoria, Australia, the students are dressing on the morning of St. Valentine's Day, 1900. Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert), Irma (Karen Robson), Marion (Jane Vallis), Rosamund (Ingrid Mason), waifish Sara (Margaret Nelson), and outsider Edith (Christine Schuler) read poetry and Valentine's Day cards.
The film begins with Effi Briest using a swing set in her family’s back yard, where her mother, Louise Briest, comments on her wild nature, saying that she has an aerial spirit. Later, Effi is seen talking to some of the other teenage girls outside her house about when Baron Instetten was younger. She recalls a story her mother had told her about Instetten visiting her at her family estate while he was still a soldier. However, the man who would become Effi’s father was already in the council of nobles and owned Hohen-Cremmen, so when he asked to marry Effi’s mother she chose to accept. Afterward, Instetten chose to resign from the army and study law. When Effi returns inside, Effi’s mother informs her that Baron Instetten has asked for her hand. With her parent’s encouragement, along with her own desire for prestige, she accepts the proposal.
The Invitation tells the story of a group of office workers, one of whom inherits a large country house and invites his co-workers to a party. At the party, they gradually let go of their inhibitions and get to know one another.
Le film se déroule dans les années 1940 au Québec à Black Lake (maintenant Thetford Mines). Dans les villages de cette taille, le magasin général est le pôle d’attraction et le lieu d’échanges de toute la communauté. Les habitants s'y réunissent donc la veille de Noël. Gérant du magasin, l’oncle Antoine, avec son humour et ses gorgées de gin, anime les lieux sous l’œil intéressé de son neveu Benoît (15 ans), qui est orphelin et qui vit chez son oncle.
The film begins in Paris around the year 1902 when Claude Roc and his widowed mother are visited by Ann Brown, daughter of an old friend. Ann invites Claude to spend the summer on the coast of Wales with her widowed mother and sister Muriel. While she enjoys Claude's company, her hope is that he may be a husband for her introverted sister. In the event, Claude and Muriel do start to fall in love and Mrs Brown, with the agreement of Madame Roc, says they must live apart for a year.
The film starts out with 13-year-old Valerie (Schallerová) sleeping in a gazebo. A thief comes in the night and steals her earrings; when she goes to investigate, she sees a horrific man before he covers his face with a weasel mask. The next day she is swimming in a pool and is then watching the water when the thief's arms suddenly return her earrings to her.
Bound for a London show, the Beatles escape a horde of fans. Once they are aboard the train and trying to relax, various interruptions test their patience: after a dalliance with a female passenger, Paul's grandfather is confined to the guard's van and the four lads join him there to keep him company. John, Paul, George, and Ringo play a card game, entertaining schoolgirls before arriving at their destination.