Arthouse

  • Salif Traoré – Faro, la reine des eaux AKA Faro, Goddess of the Waters (2007)

    2001-2010African CinemaArthouseDramaMaliSalif Traoré

    Synopsis:
    First-time feature filmmaker Salif Traore follows in the footsteps of master filmmaker Ousmane Sembene with this drama that follows a ‘bastard’ who returns to his rural Mali village after being cast out many years back. Zanga (Fili Traoré) was born out of wedlock, making him a figure of scorn to the locals. Many years after being unceremoniously ejected from the village, Zanga returns wearing theRead More »

  • Wojciech Has – Niezwykla podróz Baltazara Kobera AKA The Tribulations Of Balthazar Kober (1988)

    1981-1990ArthouseFantasyPolandWojciech Has

    Quote:
    An adaptation of the novel by French writer Frédérick Tristan. The work is structurally similar to the famous “The Saragossa Manuscript”. It is an oneiric tale of a teenage Balthazar who, escaping the Inquisition, travels to Jerusalem accompanied by companions from the earthly and otherworldly worlds.Read More »

  • Nicolas Humbert & Werner Penzel – Why Should I Buy a Bed When All That I Want Is Sleep? (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDocumentaryGermanyNicolas HumbertWerner Penzel

    Why should I buy a bed when all that I want is sleep?

    The American minimalist poet Robert Lax (1915-2000) is praised for his originality and spirituality. He was a companion of the painter Ad Reinhardt and the religious philosopher and monk Thomas Merton, who had a strong influence on the poets of the beat generation. After decades of a nomadic life between America and Europe, working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, as a film critic in New York and as a clown in an Italian itinerant circus, he has lived withdrawn for 30 years on the Greek island of Patmos. In his poetry, Robert Lax pursues a maximum compression of language – to the point where only individual words and syllables remain which represent the essence of language. His artistic concept of reduction, in which a pause becomes as important as the things said, makes Lax a kindred spirit of the American composer John Cage. The present films are the outcome of a long-standing friendship between Robert Lax and the filmmakers Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel.Read More »

  • John Cook – Langsamer Sommer AKA Slow Summer (1976)

    1971-1980ArthouseAustriaJohn Cook

    Quote:
    “To live in Vienna, you either have to be cynical or stupid,” says the director’s alter ego at the end of the semi-documentary feature Slow Summer. A summary as temperamental as the film which deals with personal states of mind, the filmmaker’s very own existential entanglements one of which is crucially the stranger’s view of the semi-familiar city of Vienna but yet aims at an insight that goes beyond the private. This is only one of many self-reflective double entendres in a work rather unusual in Austrian cinema.Read More »

  • Seijun Suzuki – Rabu retâ AKA Love Letter (1959)

    Japan1951-1960ArthouseDramaSeijun Suzuki

    A nightclub manager is in love with his pianist. However, she has a ranger boyfriend who’s been permanently stationed in the mountain wilderness. Their only communication is by letter. As time passes the correspondence slows to a trickle. Then nothing. The manager persuades the girl to visit the boy. She does, but she’s totally unprepared for her bizarre discovery.Read More »

  • Mathieu Amalric – Le stade de Wimbledon aka The Wimbledon Stage (2001)

    France2001-2010ArthouseDramaMathieu Amalric

    The fascination of a young French woman for the controversial intellectual Bobby Vohler, who died 15 years earlier, takes her to Trieste in Italy. There, with the aid of his former friends, she tries to reconstruct the man’s life. She is led by the question of why this editor, highly regarded in literary circles, never published his own work. The young woman scours libraries and second-shops, in search of information about the legend she created herself. Her quest takes her finally to Wimbledon in England, where she meets the woman who is supposed to have known Vohler best.Read More »

  • Hugo Santiago – Écoute voir… aka See Here My Love (1978)

    1971-1980ArthouseFranceHugo SantiagoSci-Fi

    Quote:
    Young aristocrat Arnaud de Maule hires female private detective Claude Alphand to investigate a strange cult, the Church of the Final Revival, that tried to recruit his girlfriend Chloé, who then disappeared, and it now stalks him.Read More »

  • Stan Lai – Fei xia a da AKA Red Lotus Society (1994)

    1991-2000ArthouseAsianStan LaiTaiwan

    Ahda drops out of selling language tapes to pursue a quest for someone to teach him the secret of “vaulting”—the art of achieving weightlessness, as described in countless martial arts novels and movies. He’s fortified by the myth that three survivors from the legendary Red Lotus Society have gone to ground in Taiwan: the teacher he needs may be that herbalist, that woman executive or that janitor…Read More »

  • Soo-il Jeon – Saeneun pyegoksuneul keruinda AKA The Bird Who Stops in the Air (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaSoo-il JeonSouth Korea

    Quote:
    Kim teaches at a provincial film school and is no favourite among the students. Different from other professors who help them find contacts and start their film careers, Kim is too focused on film itself and on making his own film, a desire which begins to merge with his longing to fly. He is slowly working on his own screenplay about the life of birds and doesn’t notice that his professional and personal lives are falling apart. Kim’s girlfriend, Young-hie, struggles with her fears about the future and tries to interest her lover in their relationship. Her efforts have as much effect on him as a one night stand or college dance. Yet he does accompany Young Hee on a trip to her hometown, though he is plainly becoming ever more estranged from the human world.Read More »

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