1991-2000

Rhythmic pumping, reminiscent of steamboat pistons, accompanies the huge mechanical glass doors as they swing open and shut to accommodate a steady stream of people. Welcome to the machine! – the words beat the same rhythm in my head. And indeed, the world we have just been invited to enter does in fact resemble a futurist machine. It is a colossus of concrete and glass, with a heart deep inside, a computer heart pulsating with an endless stream of data, while hundreds of beings in its labyrinthine veins are busy or trying to keep the coursing data under control, the effort – invoking a curious language: cis, Cas, keeping and – in ocs, Tkna… (from press sheet)Read More »

Narcissistic male model manipulates and exploits others for wealth and hedonism, committing murder without remorse, believing himself invincible and able to control anyone.Read More »

Sam Shepard’s revisionist 1994 Western, the final release featuring late actor River Phoenix, combines elements of baroque Japanese ghost films like Onibaba with traditional stylistic conventions of John Ford.

Storyline:
It’s 1873, Indian Territory. Talbot Roe is going mad with grief over losing his Indian wife, Awbonnie. In an effort to save him, his father, Prescott Roe, seeks to purchase the dead wife’s sister, Velada, from the same traveling carnival he acquired Awbonnie. The girls’ father, carnival master Eamon McCree, is willing to do business, but her step-brother, Reeves, protests, putting an end to the negotiation. Desperate, Prescott kidnaps Velada and promises her the means to be rid of her father in return for comforting Talbot out of his obsession. In Talbot’s madness, he guards his wife’s corpse, preventing her from passing to the beyond. As a result, Awbonnie’s ghost begins haunting and cursing everyone involved in the transaction of selling her as a wife. Meanwhile, Reeves and Eamon search the prairie for Velada…Read More »

Synopsis:
Berlin, the German capital again, a few years after the fall of the Wall. The city in upheaval is also changing the lives of its inhabitants. A young photographer experiences these changes as a rupture, he looks into an unclear, unsettling future and increasingly feels like a stranger in his old city. He and his friends from the generation of the children of the Wall try to find a new identity without losing the old one. Young artists who fail the profitability test of the market economy. In his search, Robert Paris ends up far away, in India. Back in Berlin, he starts developing photos again – the first in years…Read More »

Quote:
Hisayasu Sato’s THE BEDROOM is a bold, yet flawed film which manages to create an utter sense of depersonalization and loneliness, while still telling a great story. The visuals are great; blue and red light coat the bodies of the comatose girls of The Sleeping Room while giant TVs with constant static decorate the background. Sato’s spare use of music also helps to create tension in the film; the soundtrack features immense buildup that never actually climax, keeping the viewer aurally on edge. Despite the fact that the film may seem confusing at first, if the viewer is willing to actively watch the film and engage with the way Sato is telling his story, the viewer will be rewarded at the end.Read More »

Quote:
Acclaimed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas follows up on the international success of Fin Août, Début Septembre and Irma Vep with this sweeping adaptation of the sprawling three-volume tome by Jacques Chardonne. Set in three chapters spanning from the beginning of the 1900s to after WWI, the first section takes place in the fictional village of Barbazac, located in the Cognac region. Protestant pastor Jean Barnery (Charles Berling) learns of his wife Nathalie’s (Isabelle Huppert) infidelity from the village grapevine and sends his daughter away. At the same time, 20-year-old Pauline (Emmanuelle Beart) returns to the village after the death of her father. Pauline and Jean are almost immediately attracted to each other when they first meet at a ball. Soon Jean installs Nathalie and their daughter in an apartment, files for divorce, and resigns as minister. Read More »

Major James Prentis VC (Sir Alan Bates) is a British spy of World War II and war hero who goes under the code name of “Shuttlecock.” Alienated from his family and children, he ends up in a mental institution in Lisbon, Portugal.Read More »

The first film in the history of cinema to dare to address the problem of cockroaches from the perspective of religion and sexuality.Read More »

In April 1895, the talented young Rentaro Taki comes to Tokyo from his home in Kyushu to enrol in the prestigious National Academy of Music. Hoping to become a pianist, he meets another student there, Yuki Nakano, who shares the same aspirations. With his elder classmate Suzuki’s encouragement, Rentaro practices furiously to perfect his technique, but loses his health in the process. Over the years, his health, as well as his devotion to and achievement level in music, fluctuates, as two friends adjust to the varying roles they can each potentially play in his life. Yuki receives the Japanese government’s first music scholarship to study in Berlin. At the same time, Rentaro composes wonderful music and songs like Bloom in the Moonlight which are still very popular in today’s Japan, while Suzuki quits the music school and becomes a hard labourer due to family crisis.Read More »