1991-2000

In this satiric road movie from Cuba, Yoyita (Conchita Brando), a well-known singer living in Havana, travels with her niece Georgina (Mirta Ibarra), a college professor, to the village of her birth, where Yoyita is reunited with Candido (Raul Eguren), whom she loved as a young woman. When Yoyita and Candido meet for the first time in 50 years, they’re thrilled to discover that the flame of passion still burns within them; unfortunately, Yoyita is so thrilled that it gives her a heart attack, and she dies on the spot. Yoyita’s body must be transported back to Havana for burial, but while logic would dictate that Georgina should simply hire a hearse to make the journey, her husband, Adolfo (Carlos Cruz), a bureaucrat with more enthusiasm than common sense, has another idea — by transferring the body from one vehicle to another at the border of each province, the cost of fuel will be distributed more evenly along the route. No one much cares for this idea except Adolfo, but he has the law on his side, so Georgina, Candido, and Adolfo begin a long, slow journey back to Havana accompanied by truck drivers Ramon (Pedro Fernandez) and Mariano (Jorge Perugorria), who was Georgina’s student years ago. At every stop, the group meets a few of the people in each town (especially Mariano, who seems to have a girlfriend in every village in Cuba) and they share their thoughts on faith, politics, and love. Guantanamera was the final work from veteran Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea; he died before the film could be completed, so co-screenwriter Juan Carlos Tabió finished the film in his stead.Read More »

Very funny documentary by Dayton filmmaker Jim Van Bebber about two hard-core weed addicts who operate heavy machinery and actually believe they do a better job if they’re totally stoned by the time they get to work, get stoned again at lunch time, and spend every night drinking beer and doing more dope. At the factory where they work, Van Bebber interviews little old ladies who go on and on about what “good kids” they are and how great their work is. The two stars are Bill, a guy who got kicked out of the Marines for doing dope steadily for six years (I’m not gonna do it forever–or maybe I will, who knows?) and Barry, a forklift-driving doper who wins the Employee of the Month plaque while stoned (Live for yourself– live today and then worry about tomorrow when it gets here– that’s the way I go). – Joe Bob BriggsRead More »

Kairat, the first feature film from „Kazakh new wave“ film director Darezhan Omirbaev, tells the story of a young man from a village in Kazakh steppe and his initiation into life in the big city.

KAIRAT
Darezhan Omirbaev, Kazakhstan, 1991; 72m
“This 34-year-old filmmaker has invented an entire universe,” wrote Jean-Michel Frodon in Le Monde, and he was right. Darezhan Omirbaev may well have been inspired by Bresson and Hitchcock, but he has indeed created his very own universe in the five films he’s made since the late 80s. The disconnected events of his films are simple – a boy travelling on a train from the steppe to the city, riding on a bus, going to a movie and brushing bare arms with his date, wandering through a train yard. But every form, every movement, every gesture seems to have found its precise poetic place, and the emotional terrain contained within his first feature feels as vast as an ocean. Kairat is the name of Omirbaev’s autobiographically inspired hero, who moves through life exactly as many of us do when we’re adolescents – awkwardly, in bewildered confusion, guarding a wealth of emotions deep within us like a buried treasure. One of the best films of the 90s.Read More »

amazon.com:
The one book, Nov 11 2002Reviewer: “anticinema” (Hollywood, CA
Hollywood, CA United States)

It is a new century, a new reality… Hail the new art form! one that will only 100 years of life awaits to be fully and beautifully exploited by new kinds of filmmakers, artists, philosophers, dreamers and siners!

This is the one book you need to read to fully understand the capabilities of Cinema as a true art form, not an obscene business.

Thank you Mr. Geuens, blessings to your creatively anarchic mind.Read More »

Sir Remy lives in his fabulous castle, where he is haunted by the memory of his former wife, Mathilde and believes he can still smell her perfume wafting through the castle. Remy marries a young and pure virgin who is secretly provided by some of his friends. Eva, his new bride-to-be decides to do whatever she can to lift up the spirits of the master of the castle. But Remy has other plans and soon will take his revenge on all those who seduced Mathilde in the past. French starlet Draghixa plays dual roles as the young virgin about to marry the lecherous [Remy] Christoph Clark as well as the role of his first wife, Mathilda, who mysteriously disappeared. Dorcel co-directed with Jean Rollin to create beautiful imagery along with steamy sex scenes in a well developed story. Dorcel also plays the uncle.Read More »

User at Imdb: This movie gives a eyeopening glimpse of the 1930’s and a hidden agenda of a very moralistic time. It is a charming story of the maid’s attempt to walk the line between her own natural inclinations and the societies expectations for her. Laura Dern offers a very realistic and convincing performance that marks her as a great character actress. The interaction with her own mother, in the supporting cast, shows a natural adaptation to a role that is rare in such a young actress. Duvall is wonderful in a role that demands a vast understanding of human emotion and character study of his part. The set and old automobiles lend a real authenticity to this period in history. It takes you back to a simpler time, but underscores all of the attitudes of the time. This is a movie to be enjoyed again and again at each opportunity. I highly recommend itRead More »

Edited by John Boorman and Walter Donohue
Projections is a forum for practitioners of the cinema to write about their work. The first issue includes a journal compiled by John Boorman which records his responses to the events and trends of 1991, and their implications for the future of cinema. Like his Emerald Forest diary, Money into Light, it is a fascinating mix of anecdote, personal reflections, thoughts on the nature of cinema, and comments on the practical business of making films.Read More »

Contents
Foreword by John Boorman, vi
Introduction by Michel Ciment, vii

1 Robert Bresson: L’Argent, I
2 Eric Rohmer: Conte d’ete, 13
3 Claude Chabrol: La Ceremonie, 18
4 Alain Resnais: On connait la chanson, 26
5 Louis Malle: Au revoir les enfants, 33
6 Alain Cavalier: Therese, 51
7 Claude Sautet: Un Coeur en hiver, 64
8 Maurice Pialat: Van Gogh, 70
9 Bertrand Tavernier: Un Dimanche ala campagne, 83
10 Claude Miller: Garde a vue, 93
11 Patrice Leconte: Ridicule, 103
12 Marcel Ophuls: Hotel Terminus, 111
13 Otar Iosseliani: Les Favoris de la lune, 123
14 Olivier Assayas, 132
15 Catherine Breillat: 36 fillette, 138
16 Jean-Pierre Jeunet: Delicatessen, 144
17 Robert Guediguian: Marius et Jeannette, 152
18 Arnaud Desplechin: La Sentinelle, 160
19 Manuel Poirer: Western, 167
20 Jacques Audiard: Un Heros tres discret, 175
21 Mathieu Kassowitz: La Haine, 183Read More »

[Amazon.com]:
Moving Places is the brilliant account of a life steeped in and shaped by the movies–part autobiography, part film analysis, part social history. Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of America’s most gifted film critics, began his moviegoing in the 1950s in small-town Alabama, where his family owned and managed a chain of theaters.Read More »