2001-2010

synopsis

Richard Linklater returned to the semi-improvised approach and philosophical themes of his debut feature Slacker while embracing a new and groundbreaking visual technology in his sixth feature film, Waking Life. Linklater and cameraman Tommy Pallotta shot the film on location in Austin, TX, using digital video equipment. Linklater and digital animator Bob Sabiston then used newly developed computer software to transform the images through a process called “interpolated rotoscoping”; the result merges the naturalism of live action with a stylized look that resembles a cartoon or a painting in motion. Waking Life’s flexible, non-narrative approach follows a young man (Wiley Wiggins) who arrives in Austin and hitches a ride with a stranger, who engages him in a conversation about rarely considered facets of existentialism. As the visitor drifts through the city, he encounters a variety of people and finds himself absorbing their views on art, philosophy, society, and numerous other issues of contemporary life. Linklater’s cast is dotted with well-known actors (Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg, Nicky Katt) and pop-culture notables (filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, Martin Scorsese associate Steven Prince, comic Louis Black), alongside a large number of relatively little-known players. Waking Life received its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival; Linklater’s next film, Tape, was also screened at the same festival.by Mark DemingRead More »

Quote:
Jean-Luc Godard, pioneer of the New Wave, has always delighted in breaking rules. Even with almost 90 features to his name, the long an established master still shows the same glee thumping his nose at convention as he did over thirty years ago, when he burst on the scene with “Breathless.”
His latest film, “Notre Musique,” is a unqiue blend of almost abstract cinema, fiction, and documentary. It opens with a montage entitled “Hell,” which shows real and fictional footage of carnage: soldiers, atrocities, war. As brief as it is, the relentless and strangely beautiful barrage of violence is enough to make anybody despair of the human race.Read More »

Reviews:
Although Eric Rohmer’s fresh, unadorned style rarely sits heavily on his films, The Romance of Astrée et de Céladon, his adaptation of 17th century writer Honoré d’Urfé’s 5th century fable of affronted love, not only features an usual absence of intellectual banter, but is more importantly the lightest and silliest the director has been in ages. These are not pejorative descriptions—the film’s wholesome delight in d’Urfé’s modest whimsy amongst the 5th century Gauls of druids, nymphs and many amorous declarations of assured sincerity and flighty infidelity, the director’s own sweet, unexpected eroticism, and the film’s gentle spirit simply make a work that is light, lovely, and strange.
– D. Kasman (D-kaz.com)Read More »

Plot:
Andrés is 33 and has been living for 10 years in Berlin, where he works as a travel writer. When he returns to his native Chile on holiday, at a friend’s birthday party he rediscovers the world he left behind, including his old love, Beatriz. “My idea was to tell the story as simply as possible and follow Andrés through his process. I wanted to tell the story in an emotional way, using the camera to penetrate deeply into the characters. The dialogue is very important in this film, but in some cases, what is not said – the silences and looks – are even more important.” (Matías Bize)Read More »

Quote:
This provocative and insightful film is the first in a series of documentaries that will reveal the secret knowledge embedded in the work of the greatest filmmaker of all time: Stanley Kubrick. This famed movie director who made films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, placed symbols and hidden anecdotes into his films that tell a far different story! than the films appeared to be saying.In Kubrick’s Odyssey, Part I, Kubrick and Apollo, author and filmmaker, Jay Weidner presents compelling evidence of how Stanley Kubrick directed the Apollo moon landings. He reveals that the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey was not only a retelling of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s novel, but also a research and development project that assisted Kubrick in the creation of the Apollo moon footage. In light of this revelation, Weidner also explores Kubrick’s film, The Shining and shows that this film is, in actuality, the story of Kubrick’s personal travails as he secretly worked on the Apollo footage for NASA.

“Weidner produces devastating proof that the landing was shot in a studio on Earth.”
–David IckeRead More »

Description
Tokyo’s Valentine Call is a special kind of phone club. Older salarymen pay to wait for calls from teenage girls, discreet meetings are arranged, and handfuls of yen are exchanged for a quick session of enjo kosai, or paid sex with a high school girl. Plenty of girls are doing it—some to make money for fancy, fashionable clothes and accessories, others to set a trap to rob and brutalize the old perverts. But the Valentine Call staff, horny young Ogisu and the vaguely sinister, makeup-coated Mr. Kuni, have a nasty plan of their own. Listening in on the enjo kosai calls, they conspire to trick the girls into giving them free sex. Mr. Kuni even has a twisted concept behind this scheme. He calls it enboku, his campaign to humiliate the teenage girls, drive them away from prostitution and purify Japan. The enboku plan goes great at first, but then the girls start to wise up to the pair’s tricks and plan their revenge, while Mr. Kuni sets out to take his cruel campaign to even more diabolical extremes…Read More »

Fourth lecture from the ‘Notes Towards a Definition of Communist Culture’ Masterclass Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, 17. June 2009, 3:00pm

A two hour, wide ranging, and topical talk.Read More »

Quote:
Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N’Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the “war effort”, giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son…. Read More »

A friendship started in childhood in Selanico firstly turned into comrade in arms and then a half century brotherhood and fraternity following the same ideals until the death upon proclamation of the Republic. It was so immense brotherhood that when one passed away, the other heartedly wished the same.

The story of a generation challenging the death! The film is not merely about the life of Ataturk; instead, it is a torch enlightening a particular period and it is very humane in that it also analyzes the brotherhood, war, love and affection. “Veda” is the story of a brotherhood, portrayal of milestones in Ataturk’s life and the story of a commander commanding a generation that challenged the death to save the homeland. Salih Bozok, the number one witness of the time, narrates this story.
Read More »