Director Li Han-hsiang teams up again with the irreverent comedic talents of Michael Hui Kwun-man in this tongue-in-cheek drama. Corruption is rife in Wan Ping County in Hopei Province. Two good-for-nothing loafers Chen Ming (Michael Hui Kwun-man) and Chia Liang (Wang Sheng) arrive and turn the officials on their head. After a bout of blackmailing, they end up in positions of power themselves. It’s all done with the best intentions, or so they believe.Read More »
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The explicit body politics in Gunvor Nelson’s popular Take Off is developed further in her highly personal Moons Pool. The film begins with shots of naked bodies in a bath and transgresses into depicting male and female bodies swimming naked underwater. The latter part of the film is almost totally liberated from speech, and has a dreamlike, complex soundtrack consisting of sounds of waves, voices, water and music woven together into a seamless web of sounds. (John Sundholm)Read More »
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An old hermit lives in a slum and wants to teach the alphabet to the children regularly go there to play. What makes the hermit happiest however, is when he comes to the letter P (for “Pedarsag”, or “Puppy”). When a child proposes he use the word “Pelican” instead, the hermit goes to the nearby park looking for this animal he has never heard of.Read More »
A story of conflict between the police and the Black community in Notting Hill at the start of 1970s.Read More »
A company is studying the possibility to open a spa hotel named after a mythical island, Ieodo. The island is inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the location of the hotel lost a journalist under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors go to Ieodo’s neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the disappearance.Read More »
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“Pikoo is a very complex film by Satyajit Ray. It is a poetic statement which cannot be reduced to concrete terms. One statement the film tries to make is that, if a woman is to be unfaithful, if she is to have an extramarital affair, she can’t afford to have soft emotions towards her children, or, in this case, her son. The two just don’t go together. You have to be ruthless. Maybe she’s not ruthless to that extent. She’s being very Bengali. A European in the same circumstances would not behave in the same way.”Read More »
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A lyrical, if Peronist adaptation of the José HernándezMartin Fierro (1872-9). One of the more essential Latin American films in my opinion.
Summary:
Directed by Fernando Solanas, produced by Cine Liberación group , which openly appeared as the film arm of the Peronist movement , it is a militant and passionate film, but whose passion does not stop producing a remarkable analysis of the political period that goes from Peron’s fall to await his return from Spain. Solanas’s film is structured around a mix between the figure of Martin Fierro and that of Juan Domingo Perón , a mixture in which the verses of the poem, symbol of the wisdom of the Argentine gaucho, intersect with the word in Peron’s speeches . Read More »
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Wazed Ali Shah is the ruler of one of the last independent kingdoms of India. The British, intent on controlling this rich country, have sent general Outram on a secret mission to clear the way for an annexation. While pressure is mounting amidst intrigue and political manoeuvres, Ali Shah composes poems and listens to music, secluded in his palace. The court is of no help, as exemplified by nobles Mir and Mirza, who, ignoring the situation of their country and all their duties towards their families, spend their days playing endless parties of chess.
— IMDb.Read More »
Krzyżtopór Castle in Ujazd plays the lead in this short film based on an idea by Stanisław Janicki. Dziworski managed to capture the appearance and atmosphere of the castle ruins in spectacular scenes and found an interesting solution for the commentary: The photographs are accompanied by a folk ballad about the castle’s history performed by the village choir from Iwaniska.Read More »