Made as Cuba was entering the economic crisis of the early 90s, King of the Jungle demonstrates Colina’s talent at capturing the sentiments of a particular moment. We observe life along Havana’s Prado street through the eyes of the lion sculpture located there.Read More »
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In the ’30s a man is obsessed with a painting of a woman that reminds him of his long-lost mother. He models his girlfriend exactly after the woman in the painting and after she attempts to commit suicide she is committed into a sanatoriumRead More »
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There are times in “Mephisto” when the hero tries to explain himself by saying that he’s only an actor, and he has that almost right: All he is, is an actor. It’s not his fault that the Nazis have come to power, and that as a German-speaking actor he must choose between becoming a Nazi and being exiled into a foreign land without jobs or German actors. As long as he is acting, as long as he is not called upon to risk his real feelings, this man can act his way into the hearts of women, audiences, and the Nazi power structure. This is the story of a man who plays his life wearing masks, fearing that if the last mask is removed, he will have no face.Read More »
The dictatorship forced thousands of Argentines to leave their country and settle in different corners of Europe. This film follows the daily routine of a community of Argentine exiles in Paris. While waiting to return to Argentina, the days pass and liven up the wait with the tangos, which were the exile of Gardel and now represent the only connection of these people with the land that saw them born.Read More »
Aesthetics provides a humorous glimpse into Cubans’ sense of style. Enrique Colina reveals the desire for expressing individuality through diverse conceptions of beauty in everyday life whether in the form of a hood ornament, a display window, or a star-studded tooth.Read More »
Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader wrote:
Soft and Hard (A Soft Conversation Between Two Friends on a Hard Subject)
Soft and Hard, a highly intimate 48-minute video made by Godard and Anne-Marie Mieville for English television three years later, shows Godard and Mieville at their home in rural Switzerland. In many ways the most intimate and domestic of Godard’s works, it broaches the matter of what distinguishes film from video. Can be viewed in retrospect as necessary preludes to his recently completed magnum opus, the eight-part Histoire(s) du cinema.Read More »
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Though John Woo’s lifelong admiration of Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick are also evident in this stylish actioner, the film is essentially a tribute to Jean-Pierre Melville and his cult thriller Le Samourai. During a restaurant shootout, hitman Jeff (Chow Yun-Fat) accidentally hurts the eyes of a singer (Sally Yeh). Later he meets the girl and discovers that if she does not have a very expensive operation very soon, she will go blind. To get the money for the surgery, Jeff decides to perform one last hit. The cop (Danny Lee), who has been chasing Jeff for a long time, is determined to catch him this time. The film’s number of victims makes The Terminator or Rambo pale in comparison, but its brilliant visual style and bravura direction earned accolades even from non-action fans.Read More »
Johnny Fortune is no good to anyone, not mean, but just no good. To escape Casino bosses
who want him for stealing money, he flees to England. He gets a job dressed as a bear for
Punch & Judy shows, which is an effective disguise. But when the Casino thugs track him
down it’s up to his two resourceful bosses to help him.Read More »
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Anna, a former top model, is relegated to second-rate modeling jobs. Her lover, Ulf, a drug dealer and pimp, leaves her to settle in Stockholm. Anna gets involved with Ilja, a middle-aged fashion photographer who treats her badly and violently. The police arrest Anna and hold her in custody for a fortnight. After she is released from the prison, Ilja continues his disgusting behaviour towards her. Supported only by Taukka, a young biker with a good heart, Anna leaves for Stockholm to rejoin with Ulf. After a fatal shooting incident in the beautiful Gamla Stan, the old town district of Stockholm, Anna meets up with Taukka who has been released from the prison and together they ride towards a better future on Taukka’s gleaming bike.Read More »