2001-2010

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The revered and celebrated Alain Robbe-Grillet’s supernatural drama C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle (AKA That is Gradiva Who Calls You) – a French-Belgian co-production – concerns John Locke, an art historian immersed in Asian research on the Marrakeshi casbah, accompanied by Belkis, his servant and mistress. Amid his studies of Eugene Delacroix, Locke repeatedly encounters a lithe, ethereal female presence in the city’s medina (or Arabic quarter) who draws him seductively through the city’s mazelike streets, again and again, but repeatedly vanishes. He then encounters Anatoli, a self-professed antique dealer and curator of Oriental artifacts for beginners itching for a challenge. Belkis persuades Locke to keep his distance from these individuals, but Locke blatantly ignores her admonitions and forges ahead – never quite realizing that the spirits are toying with him, and drawing him into a dead-end psychosexual black hole.Read More »

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It’s too long into “Before Sunset” that we see Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) reunited after nine years…and it’s only two or three minutes into the movie. In 1995, Hawke and Delpy starred as the characters in “Before Sunrise,” a film co-written and directed by Richard Linklater (“School of Rock,” “Waking Life”) about two 20-something students who meet on a train travelling across Europe, and spend an evening in Vienna just talking, making a connection that transcends mere physical attraction, though clearly one exists. At the end of “Sunrise,” they promise to meet up again in six months.Read More »

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A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hope of pursuing freedom while falling in love with his mistress, the famous philosophy and mathematics professor Hypatia of Alexandria.Read More »

Synopsis
Titta di Girolamo apparently has a regular and tedious life with nothing strange a part from his own name (as he uses to say). He lives in a Hotel in Lugano (Switzerland) since almost ten years, spending his days waiting for something we don’t know. His life is too rigid, too detached following a flat routine. Titta ignore everyone and probably he has no emotions at all. Basically there is no story. But one day he decided, breaking all his personal rules, to exchange some words with Sofia, the hotel’s barmaid. Incredibly all the situation change, emotions, love, mafia, death come back violently into Titta’s life.Read More »

Review
‘A vivid series of insights into the little-known world of Muslim Asian cinemas, where issues of gender and religion come harshly together, where women’s lives and sufferings are a constant focus for male directors, but where – outside Iran – there is next to no scope for women directors to express their views. This excellent book – lucidly written, and based on close firsthand experience – is highly recommended to all who want to understand the realities of world cinema.’ Roy Armes, Emeritus Professor of Film, Middlesex University, LondonRead More »

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First-time director Ronald Bronstein describes his extraordinary film as “a rotten egg lobbed with spazmo aim at the spotless surface of the silver screen.” Be forewarned: audience response has been intensely divided. Frownland has garnered both passionate raves and scathing denunciation, while festival screenings have ended in screaming matches between patrons. It is strong stuff, yes, but none of its notorious reputation does justice to its savage dark humor, emotional heft and stylistic audacity. Read More »

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Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.

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Cannes Palmes d’Or winner ‘The Class’ follows a year in the lives of a class of junior high students who present a microcosm of society.

A fully sustained immersion in the academics, attitudes and frequent altercations of a group of junior high school students, “The Class” marks Laurent Cantet’s return to the sharply observed social dynamics and involving character drama that distinguished his 1999 debut, “Human Resources.” Talky in the best sense, the film exhilarates with its lively, authentic classroom banter while its emotional undercurrents build steadily but almost imperceptibly over a swift 129 minutes. One of the most substantive and purely entertaining movies in competition at Cannes this year, it will further cement Cantet’s sterling reputation among discerning arthouse auds in France and overseas.Read More »

Private Fears in Public Places, (French: Cœurs (“Hearts”), is a 2006 French film directed by Alain Resnais. It was adapted from Alan Ayckbourn’s play Private Fears in Public Places. The film won several awards, including a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Synopsis:
In Paris, six people all look for love, despite typically having their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn.

For the second time in his career Alain Resnais turned to an Alan Ayckbourn play for his source material (having previously adapted another play for Smoking/No Smoking), and remained close to the original structure while transferring the setting and milieu from provincial England to the 13th arrondissement of Paris (contrary to his usual preference).Read More »

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Welcome to the world of the Fuccon Family, aka Oh Mikey!, a bizarre and amazing mannequin drama that has taken Japan by storm. Based on a popular independent film, OH! Mikey is the bizarre and hilarious story of the Fuccon family, who have come from America to live in Japan, despite the fact that they are mannequins.
Some episodes of the series were a little too spicy to air, and determined unfit for airing and were cut from the broadcast version. However, these cut scenes have been restored in HARDCORE where you get to see cut scenes from 8 different episodes.Read More »