National Theatre Live: The Effect (2024)

Love

Murphy is an American living in Paris who enters a highly sexually and emotionally charged relationship with the unstable Electra. Unaware of the seismic effect it will have on their relationship, they invite their pretty neighbor into their bed.

Return to Silent Hill

When James receives a mysterious letter from his lost love Mary, he is drawn to Silent Hill—a once-familiar town now consumed by darkness. As he searches for her, James faces monstrous creatures and unravels a terrifying truth that will push him to the edge of his sanity.

Crying Out Love in the Center of the World

While searching for his fiancee Ritsuko, Sakutarou rediscovers through flashbacks the void deep within him caused by the events from his high school days.

Stanley & Iris

An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.

Runaway

Michael Adler has run away from his suburban home with his little brother Dylan. Hiding out in a quiet, rural town, Michael's convinced he can make a better life for both of them. While Dylan stays holed up in a cheap motel all day, Michael works at a convenience store where everything starts to come together for him. But as Michael falls in love with his beautiful co-worker, Carly, his past begin

Chikamatsu Monogatari

When the wife of a 17th century Kyoto scroll-maker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves falling for one another.

Saor

Plot unavailable

Nana 2

Two girls with the same name but very different personalities share an apartment in this sequel to Nana. The rising fame of Nana Osaki's band, the Black Stones, is beginning to take a toll on the best friends' relationship. Meanwhile, Nana Komatsu struggles to make sense of her love triangle with Black Stones' guitarist Nobu and rival group Trapnest's bassist Takumi.

Schoßgebete

A comedy centered on a sexually adventurous young woman who is trying to be the perfect wife, mother, and lover.

Dilan 1990

At a Bandung high school, charming and rebellious Dilan vies for the affections of shy new student Milea.

That Night

A coming-of-age story about an eleven-year-old girl who idolizes her troubled sixteen-year-old neighbor.

A Love Story

He loves her more than anything in the world... ummm... their love??? transcends universes. Something about how he needed her to like him. yeah

The Cat's Meow

Semi-true story of the Hollywood murder that occurred at a star-studded gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924.

Rendez-vous

Nina is a young, carefree actress who arrives in Paris searching for her big break. There, she finds drama both on- and offstage as she becomes involved with three men: a mild-mannered real-estate agent who offers her stability, a bad-boy actor who lives dangerously on the edge, and an intense theater director who casts her in a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” As opening night approaches, the emotional extremes of Nina’s love life fuel her art.

Gertrud

Hopeless romantic Gertrud inhabits a turn-of-the-century milieu of artists and musicians, where she pursues an idealized notion of love that will always elude her. She abandons her distinguished husband and embraces an affair with a young concert pianist, who falls short of her desire for lasting affection. When an old lover returns to her life, fresh disappointments follow, and Gertrud must try to come to terms with reality.

Zandalee

Bored with her marriage to burnt out poet turned corporate executive Thierry, Zandalee falls prey to an old friend of her husband, the manipulative and egotistical Johnny and becomes enmeshed in a sensual, passionate and destructive affair.

Three Way

Lew is a small time loser with a troubled past and a very big secret. Overhearing a couple plan a kidnapping, Lew is tempted to come up with a scheme of his own. He decides to get to the victim first and then blackmail the real criminals. His plan soon spins out of control.

Enchantment

Roland Dane finally retires to the house he was brought up in. Lost in thoughts of his lost love Lark, he does not want to be disturbed in his last days. However, the appearance of his niece and her subsequent romance with Lark's nephew causes him to reevaluate his life and offer some advice so the young couple doesn't make the same mistake he did, all those years ago.

Bad Timing

Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Though Alex is quite a bit older than Milena, he's attracted to her young, carefree spirit. Despite the fact that Milena is already married, their friendship quickly turns into a deeply passionate love affair that threatens to overtake them both. When Milena ends up in the hospital from an overdose, Alex is taken into custody by Inspector Netusil.

Burning

Deliveryman Jong-su is out on a job when he runs into Hae-mi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he'd mind looking after her cat while she's away on a trip to Africa. On her return, she introduces to Jong-su an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. One day Ben tells Jong-su about his most unusual hobby.

Love Exposure

The story of a teenage boy named Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an "up-skirt" photographer. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

Tinā

A woman grieving her daughter's death in the Christchurch earthquakes, becomes a substitute teacher at an elite private school. Unexpectedly, she discovers students lacking guidance and care, prompting her to provide inspiration and support.

Sylvia

Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

The Unknown

On the lam, criminal Alonzo hides in the circus as The Armless Wonder – a performer who uses his feet to hurl knives. Alonzo keeps the arms he really has concealed to hide his identity. Meanwhile, ringmaster's daughter Nanon has a phobia of being touched by men, but is romantically pursued by not only Alonzo but the strongman Malabar. Alonzo's desperation to remain with Nanon will only end in tragedy.

Laugh, Clown, Laugh

A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.

Moriqueta

Lucas is a 19 years old deaf animator who explores life through his sketchbook. He encounters a handsome young man at his favorite library, leading him to seek a creative way to communicate with him. He chooses to set aside his beliefs and insecurities to ask him out on a date.

The Lucky Pennies

Antoine got some family issues so he follows the advices of Lucy on how to make a wish. It's quite easy, you just need to find a lucky penny and to put it on a railroad track. If the train passes and the penny does'nt fall off, then you know the wish will come true.

Argentina, Forgive Me

An intricate exploration of football, international rivalry, personal disappointments and the enduring power of friendship that transcends national boundaries.

Bikini Blue

A historical drama set in 1950s Britain. Dora Szumski, 30, is an Englishwoman married to a Polish immigrant, Eryk, a former Polish Army officer, who is left with no choice by the post-war balance of power, condemned to die in his homeland or emigrate. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Eryk stays in Mabledon Park, a psychiatric hospital designed for former Polish soldiers suffering from war trauma. Erik's illness resulting from a past that has been haunted and concealed from his wife not only becomes a barrier to the couple's future, but also a threat to Erik's life. Dora decides to find out what the secret of her husband's illness is.

Dream

A young girl strives to rekindle her parent's dwindling romance at their desert town's annual carnival, and learns hard lessons about love in the process.

Marjorie Morningstar

While working as a counselor at a summer camp, college-student Marjorie Morgenstern falls for 32-year-old Noel Airman, a would-be dramatist working at a nearby summer theater. Like Marjorie, he is an upper-middle-class New York Jew, but has fallen away from his roots, and Marjorie's parents object among other things to his lack of a suitable profession. Noel himself warns Marjorie repeatedly that she's much too naive and conventional for him, but they nonetheless fall in love.

Satanás - Profile of a Killer

Based on the Mario Mendoza's book and inspired by true events, tells three interconnected stories happening in the eve of the infamous Pozzetto Massacre.

Beyond the Clouds

Four tales, each centered on a woman, journey inward to explore the enigmatic reality of their lives, connecting through a single narrative thread.

The Welts

Following the death of his mother in '80s Poland, 12-year-old Wojciech has taken the brunt of his stressed father's frustrations with him; the boy frequently gets punished via belt. Wojciech's father occasionally tries to, instead, bond with him, but soon snaps back to his short-fused habits. Apart from Wojciech's friend Bartek, no one does anything to help. Jump to present day, Wojciech is a furrow-browed journalist who spends most of his spare time spelunking alone. Just like his father, he has serious anger management issues. Fellow caver Tania feels inexplicably attracted to him, but the love of a good woman may not be enough.

Nina

Getting ready to go their own ways in life, an uncertain boy and his anxious girlfriend have to decide how to navigate their next steps.

Cruel Intentions

Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.

Moulin Rouge!

A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.

Sleepless in Seattle

After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Across the country, an engaged woman becomes convinced that they belong together, despite their never having met. Will their paths collide despite the odds?

Tsotsi

A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.

Love Letters

An ambitious U.S. Senator reflects back on his life after the death of a woman whom he loved and kept in contact with only through correspondence.

Card Zero

Before disappearing in the Mojave Desert, Robbie Zagorac captured love, life and heartbreak in a video diary.

Titanic

101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.

9 Songs

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Joel Barish, heartbroken that his girlfriend underwent a procedure to erase him from her memory, decides to do the same. However, as he watches his memories of her fade away, he realises that he still loves her, and may be too late to correct his mistake.

Three Colors: White

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.

Match Point

Chris, a former tennis pro, takes a job as an instructor and befriends his wealthy young student, Tom. After being introduced to his family, Chris is soon engaged to Tom's sister, Chloe. Despite the professional and financial advantages that this relationship affords him, Chris becomes obsessed with Tom's fiancee, American actress Nola.

Wrong Way

In this short film the director reflects on the feeling of being on the wrong path in your life, that you have no control over your own life. But coming to the conclusion, it's life, we all go through it, and without these moments of fall we don't learn to live.

The Edukators

Three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home.

The Science of Sleep

A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is lovestruck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.

Insomnia

Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.

Head-On

With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.

Manhattan

Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.

Annie Hall

New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

Little Ashes

About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.

Loners

Robert works for a travel agency and helps to arrange scenes from the everyday lives of "ordinary" Czech families as an attraction for Japanese tourists. He also works as a kind of matchmaker and occasionally helps to put together some of his friends. He helps to separate his friend Hanka from Peter, an announcer for an independent radio station who tries to capture "real" life by recording the moments from "reality" and playing them over the air. Vesna, came to Prague from Macedonia because it is according to her the best place for UFOs to land, but her real reason for coming is somewhat different... Hanka is followed by the crazy Ondrej, until then a respected brain surgeon, and married with two kids. Through him she meets Jacob, who uses copious amounts of weed in order to be constructive in this gloomy world. On the other hand, this destroys his short-term memory - and he forgets that he already has a girlfriend...

Relationships

This is the story of a grownup who is looking for answers in the words and imaginations of children.

Maldeamores

A three-part look at the ironies of love, with stories that involve a young boy, a hostage situation, and a divorced elderly couple caught in a love triangle.

He Who Gets Slapped

After a baron steals his scientific discoveries, runs away with his wife, and slaps him in public, a man joins a Parisian circus sideshow as a clown whose act consists of being slapped repeatedly and becomes infatuated with a showgirl colleague whose father intends to marry her off to the baron.

The Panic in Needle Park

A stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in Needle Park in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves.

The Heiress

In 1840s New York, the uneventful and boring days of the daughter of a wealthy doctor come to an end when she meets a dashing poorer man — who may or may not be after her inheritance.

Heidi

Heidi is orphaned and her uncaring maternal Aunt Dete takes her to the mountains to live with her reclusive, grumpy paternal grandfather, Adolph Kramer. Heidi brings her grandfather back into mountain society through her sweet ways and sheer love. When Dete later returns and steals Heidi away to become the companion of a rich man's wheelchair-bound daughter, the grandfather is heartsick to discover his little girl missing and immediately sets out to get her back.

Vision Quest

After deciding he needs to do something meaningful with his life, high school wrestler Louden Swain sets out on a mission to drop weight and challenge the area's undefeated champion, which creates problems with his teammates and health. Matters are complicated further when Louden's father takes in an attractive female drifter who's on her way to San Francisco.

Jeans

The father of twin brothers wants to get them married to only twin sisters. But one of the brothers falls in love with a woman does not have a twin sister.

Forever A Never

Two best friends, about to marry others, write wedding speeches for each other, reflecting on what it truly means to love and if they’ve been expressing it right all along.

No desearás la mujer de tu hijo

An elderly man falls in love with a beautiful young woman, without knowing that she is in love with his son.

The Very Same Munchhausen

A philosophical and poetic portrait of the famous (or maybe infamous?) Baron Munchhausen. His crazy, yet very merriment, stories, views and behavior is what sets him apart from others. He becomes alienated from the society that failed to grasp his brilliance. In fact, his brilliance is what underlines the faults with the society itself. It's a beautiful yet tragic story that is filled with dense and intellectual dialogue.

Fire on the Amazon

When a well-known environmental researcher is murdered in the Amazon jungle, an arrogant photojournalist joins forces with a beautiful young activist to find out who is responsible. Along they way, they fall in love as they discover the men responsible for the killing would be more than willing to murder again if it will keep them quiet.

The House of Branching Love

A sort of "Divorce Finnish Style," Mika Kaurismäki's rambunctious comedy, The House of Branching Love , recounts the breakup of a thirty-something professional couple - Juhani, a family therapist, and his wife, Tuula, a successful business trainer.

Reconstruction

Late one evening Alex suddenly abandons his girlfriend, Simone, to pursue the beautiful Aimee. In his encounter with Aimee time and place dissolve for him and he becomes a stranger to Simone, to whom he cannot return.

Seduce Me

Luka (19) is leaving a youth care centre, his only sanctuary for the past nine years, after his mother and relatives abandoned him. His wish is to find out where his father is buried. At his work, he falls in love with a lively girl named Ajda (19), and they begin a relationship together. While searching for answers from his past, Luka finds out a shocking family secret. He finds his only solace in the love he has for Ajda. He wants to move in with her, but Ajda hides her true feelings from him. Luka soon finds out that Ajda holds a family secret, too.