1981-1990

Ryszard Bugajski’s Przesluchanie (Interrogation) is a powerful movie about a certain time in Polish history, that was marked by censorship and oppression and this is where Antonina ‘Tonia’ Dziwisz is caught up in. Played by one of Poland’s most remarkable actresses, Krystyna Janda, it is her that along with the wonderful cinematography work and realistic portrayal of prison conditions makes this movie so incredible. It is through her eyes that we see the story unfold and the suffering of her and her prison inmates (with some great co-acting by the likes of Agnieszka Holland). This is along with Krzysztof Kieslowski’s and Andrzej Wajda’s finest work one of the defining moments of Polish cinema, and beyond that. Certainly one of the most powerful prison movies ever made in my book, not just within the perspective of Polish or European cinema as such. And in the wake of events like Guantanamo bay or Abu Ghraib it still is as fresh and important with the covered subject as it was when it was made, reminding us how things could go horribly wrong within a judicial and in the end prison system. Due to it’s critical stance at the time of making, it was banned by the local government for 7 years, until the Soviet bloc broke up. An extremely powerful reminder of that time.Read More »

Quote:
Aki Kaurismäki is a cult and prolific Finnish filmmaker known for his offbeat, deadpan style. One of cinema’s great humanists, his films explore the misfortunes of the misfits and disaffected of Helsinki with great affection and droll, sometimes black, humour.
Although influenced by filmmakers such as Robert Bresson, Luis Bunuel and Jim Jarmusch, Kaurismaki has a distinctive cinematic style of his own, recognisable by his spare, economical visuals, eclectic soundtracks of vintage rock and pop and use of a regular troupe of actors, including Kati Outinen, Marko Peltola & Matti Pellonpaa… and dogs.Read More »

Noé made two black-and-white short films upon finishing his studies, Tintarella di luna in 1985, and Pulpe amère in 1987. Tintarella di luna tells the simple story of a woman who leaves her husband for her lover.Read More »

from IMDB:
The deranged Roman emperor Gainus ‘Caligula’ (Little Boots) Caesar (12-41 A.D.) rules Rome with an iron fist and has anyone tortured and exectued for even the slightest insubordination. Mostly set during his last year of his reign, as Caligula loses support due to his brutal and crazed excess, a young Moor woman, named Miriam, becomes his lover while ploting to kill him to avenge the murder of a friend which Caligula was responsible for. But Miriam is torn between her personal vandeda against Caligula and her own personal feelings towards him despite his madness and debauched lifestyle of orgies and bloody torture murders. Written by Matthew PatayRead More »

Quote:
Set in 1930s Sweden. On the death of his mother, a young man with learning difficulties (and a harelip) is sent to work for a local rich landowner. He is ill-treated by the man who is a petty tyrant to all his employees. He makes friends with the disabled daughter of a poor family. Unable to take more debasement from the landowner he runs away and is harboured by the girl’s family. But the tyrant fights to get him back with bloody consequences.Read More »

Sometime during the 19th century in Switzerland: After a delirious night of drinking, three herdsmen who are all alone in the alps with their kettle, create a female doll from cloth and a strangely formed wooden root. When their creation comes to life in form of an evil and beautiful female demon, they have to fear for their lives…Read More »

Quote:
PASSION is a film dairy in which daily events are related to archaic and evolutionary images. The chemical decomposition of the film emulsion blurs the borders between the microcosmic world of the embryo and macrocosmic elements. It leads to an alchemical quest for filmic expression based on the exploration of film’s physical material qualities. Sound segments and melody fragments combined with rhythmical pulsating, droning and hissing of natural events create a dramatic tension between image, sound and chemistry.
PASSION is a personal film-journey in which Reble accompanies his unborn child in a filmdiary, following the seasons until his birth. Reble’s unfamiliar chemistry generates slowly pulsating structures and colors. Micro- and macroscopic imagery build a near-abstract, hypnotic landscape – an intimate perception of creation.
(Re:Voir Video)Read More »

Synopsis:
A wide-scope panoramic view of Russia in 1916. The country is in its third year of war which seems to never end, with police rule, hunger and devastation at their peak. All this plays out against a background of luxury and corruption at the court, where the agonizing power still entertains hopes of coping with “the rebels”. The courtiers have a presentiment of the collapse of the Russian autocracy. Fear, despair and blind belief in Providence make a fertile ground for the “great” starets, adventurist Rasputin, who is a friend of the royal family and has gained mastery over the Czar and his ministers. The filmmakers used newsreels of the 1917 Revolution… This controversial historic drama was released twice: in 1975 and, after a number of changes, in 1985. RUSCICO offers the film’s 1985 version.Read More »

“A husband and wife have separated and while in that semi-marital state, the wife begins an affair with a Turkish architect. In the meantime, the once revolutionary-minded husband now prefers his more comfortable lifestyle in his villa with his children and he is the one who writes letters to his wife seeking a reconciliation, but she herself is thrown into a turmoil because choosing between her estranged husband and the Turkish architect is very difficult, if not impossible. —allmovie guide”Read More »