2001-2010

“A mysterious doctor travels through a surreal landscape of paranoia and despair in director Thomas Nöla’s of his own novel. Haunted by his seemingly dead former patient Miss Marilla Huxley (Lindsay Todd) and mournful over the death of his deceased wife (Melissey Castevet), the doctor is locked in a constant state of fear as a result of the pierrots and constables who hold an iron grip on his homeland. As madness begins to take hold, the frightened doctor will attempt to break the invisible chains that bind him and look inward to discover the secrets of death and nature.”Read More »

Perhaps just as integral to Nazi film history as Leni Riefenstahl was largely forgotten “Jew Suss” director Veit Harlan. This documentary explores the life and career of Harlan, the expert film artisan responsible for the controversial 1940 feature still regarded as the most anti-Semitic production ever made. Includes home movies, archival footage, and interviews with family members who grapple with Harlan’s dark legacy.Read More »

An epic about anthropologists who hunt and capture pygmies for study back in Europe, in an attempt to illustrate the missing link between man and ape.Read More »

This is not only a sequel to the “Second Heimat”, but also a chronicle of a very decisive decade for Germany (1989 to 200). The main couple of the mini-series released in 1992, Hermann Simon and Clarissa Lichtbau (played by the same actors), reunite after almost exactly 29 years. Their last night of love in November 1970 closed the previous series. Now, on November 9th, 1989, when the Berlin Wall falls, Hermann and Clarissa meet each other again by mere chance. Surrounded by celebrations, the former lovers bring each other up to date, and reestablish a relationship. Hermann has become a well known maestro and Clarissa, a respected singer, but both lead solitary lives. Clarissa takes Hermann back to his birthplace, Schabbach where he can revisit his brothers, Ernst and Anton (the same actors from Heimat 1), who stayed on there, and extended family and friends.Read More »

Spread over three time periods (Summer 10 Years Ago/Summer 5 Years Ago/This Summer), Lost Virgin tells the tale of good-time girl Chisato (Sasaki), hungry for new experiences yet ultimately in search of emotional fulfillment.Read More »

Plot / Synopsis
Wesley, is responsible for handling all the incidents that relate to extraterrestrial life on Earth. One day, Wesley meets Fong (Rosamund Kwan) when he is looking at a blue human bone in an antique shop. Fong is an alien from the Blue Blood Planet, she left her home 600 years ago to look for the Blue Blood Bible. Wesley tries to stop Fong going away, the Double X Unit lead by Wai and So is ordered to handle the case. At the same time, Kill and Rape arrive Earth from Blue Blood Planet. They come here to take Fong back to the Blue Blood Planet.Read More »

A restaurant opens for the night. The diners include: A man dining alone, who orders a plate of spaghetti that becomes his dining companion. A couple; the woman talks endlessly (and unintelligibly), as her head mutates into a variety of shapes. Her ravenous companion refuses to pay, and the restaurant reclaims its food. A family with two children; they play, rather elaborately, with their food.Read More »

Quote:
‘We can’t easily tell night from day during the summers here,” observes one character early on in Hong Sang-soo’s Paris-set Night and Day—a nearly throwaway line that circumscribes the sense of physical and spiritual dislocation felt by the film’s protagonist. Like most of the director’s leading men, Kim Sung-nam (Kim Yeong-ho) is a hangdog, self-absorbed, soju-guzzling Hong alter ego—a fortyish Korean artist who flees to the City of Lights after an episode of recreational drug use leads him to believe he is under police investigation. There, he rents a room in a crowded boarding house and resolves to lay low until he can safely return home to his wife, Sung-in (Hwang Su-jeong), or else find a way to bring her to France. But resolutions aside, it isn’t long before Sung-nam finds himself navigating Hong’s trademark gauntlet of awkward seductions, casual betrayals, and ghosts of girlfriends past.Read More »

Quote:
Following up on his acclaimed debut feature, Kichiku Dai Enkai — an intense portrait of a band of 1970s radicals who descend into morass of fratricidal blood lust — Kazuyoshi Kumakiri shifts gears completely by offering this understated romantic drama. Ichio (Takeshi Kitano regular Susumu Terajima) runs a rundown eatery on a Hokkaido highway. One day, a couple gets into a spat resulting in the guy — an overly tanned self-satisfied clod — hopping in his red sports car and driving off without her. The woman, Taeko (Rinko Kikuchi), returns to order a meal. When she tries to dash without paying, Ichio nabs her but lets her off with a warning. Ichio soon finds himself similarly stranded when his horseracing-mad father — and owner of the restaurant — swipes Ichio’s car for a crazed gambling road trip with his buddies. Later that night while camping out, Taeko inadvertently burns down one of the restaurant’s sheds. This time around, Ichio puts Taeko to work. Soon, in spite of themselves, a relationship is born.
~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie GuideRead More »