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“Richard, an isolated programmer who made millions with his company, meets a pretty girl in a café. The pretty girl is a drummer; she is also a stripper. Richard wants to live it up and after careful negotiations, takes Florence to Las Vegas for a weekend. He pays her 10,000 dollars and promises to adhere to her conditions, which include no kissing on the mouth, no penetration, and limits their time together to the hours between 10pm and 2am. “Read More »
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An introspective, obsessive-compulsive Japanese expatriate named Kenji (Tadanobu Asano) reflects in voice-over the overt absence of motivation for his desire to end his life as he meticulously arranges the requisite accoutrements for his latest suicide attempt: a hangman’s noose strategically rigged towards the center of the hallway so that his lifeless body is visible upon entering the front door, a neat pile of books to stand on and eventually kick out beneath his feet, an obligatory note cradled on the palm of his hand – facing forward – that enigmatically reads “This is bliss”. It is a carefully orchestrated scenario staged for dramatic effect that would soon be abruptly – and rudely – interrupted by the incessant ringing of the doorbell after which he is greeted by his animated and presumptuous brother, a volatile and ill-mannered yakuza named Yukio (Yutaka Matsushige) lying low from his mob boss after having an affair with his daughter, who then hands him a six-pack of beer, a pair of shoes, and a gift-wrapped box that, as he immediately clarifies, is not intended to be a present for him.Read More »
Synopsis: MTV-worshiping seventeen year old Denise, who is one of the only white people from the poor part of a Dutch city, falls in love with the charming young Arab man Michael who promises her a life she can only imagine. But Michael is a so-called “loverboy” who has a secret agenda and manipulates her into prostitution making her believe that’s the only way to continue their expensive lives together.Read More »
The ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) record label is now in its 42nd year, and remains as mysterious and uncompromising as ever. This is primarily due to the fact that ECM is a nearly total reflection of founder Manfred Eicher. In fact, there has never been a label that has enjoyed such long-term success, while retaining an owner’s hands-on approach as ECM.Read More »
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Michael Haneke’s latest torture mechanism is less funny game than daunting debasement ritual. Isabelle Huppert stars as Erika Kohut, an icy piano teacher who goes masochistic when handsome young Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel) wants to play with her cold ivory. Huppert responds to Haneke with such straight-faced precision that you might just buy into the director’s seemingly shallow provocations. Spousal punishment in Bergman’s Cries & Whispers came in the form of self-mutilation. Haneke, though, has Huppert paint a more squeamish picture of self-love that also contemplates the possibility of pleasure in pain. The director has an uncanny ability to force the spectator’s gaze and takes his time revealing Erika’s many fetishes. Though all-powerful in the classroom, Erika is slapped around by her busybody mother as if she were a constantly misbehaving child.Read More »
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David spends the last of his money on a room at the luxury hotel Waldhaus, where he plans to commit suicide. As part of his final act he invites his unsuspecting brother Gian along, ostensibly to spend his last days with him. Unexpectedly, Gian comes along with his girlfriend Valeria. David’s decision to end his life is constantly with them, and as the trio float through the days at the hotel, they come face to face with their past, unfulfilled dreams and an almost unbearable present. Eventually, Valeria becomes so captivated by David’s suicidal romanticism that the three of them end up in a ménage à trois – either their salvation or the end for each of them.Read More »
Plot Outline: Dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale.Read More »
Sixty one-minute shots of Milwaukee (Wisconsin). No camera movement. Frontal staging of tiny (often funny or made funny) events. The same locations (and same actors ?) 27 years later, changed. The same sound too, unchanged.Read More »
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In 1998, the Festival de Cannes created the Cinéfondation to inspire and support the next generation of international filmmakers. Since then, with the help of the Festival, the Cinéfondation has developed complementary programmes to help achieve its goal.
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Nine years ago the Cannes International Film Festival established Cinéfondation, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the work of student filmmakers. In 2007, an international jury headed by Jia Zhangke (China), and including J.M.G. Le Clézio (France), Niki Karmi (Iran), Dominik Moll (France/Germany), and Deborah Nadoolman Landis (USA), handed out four awards to filmmakers from schools in Argentina, China, Korea, and Serbia.
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