Arthouse

Is being hit by lightning a random natural occurrence or a predestined event? Accidents, chance, fate and the elusive quest to make sense out of tragedy underpin director Jennifer Baichwal’s captivating new work, an elegant cinematic meditation on the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. To explore these profound questions, she sought out riveting personal stories around the world–from a former CIA assassin and a French storm chaser, to writer Paul Auster and improvisational musician Fred Frith. The philosophical anchor of the film, Auster witnessed his friend get struck dead by lightning as a teenager, and has been wrestling with its import on destiny ever since. In a neurological experiment, Frith improvises with his guitar to demonstrate the ubiquity of electricity in our bodies and the universe. Visually dazzling and aurally seductive, Act of God singularly captures the harsh beauty of the skies and the lives of those who have been forever touched by their fury.Read More »

This four hour documentary looks for the exotic in the everyday life observed in just one city, the filmmaker’s own Amsterdam.Read More »

Synopsis:
Seven hypnotic and erratic fugue-like miniatures search for answers.Read More »

Quote:
With the brilliant Vietnamese summer as a setting Vertical Ray of the Sun is beautiful from beginning to end. The plot centres around three sisters, two of whom are happily married (or so it appears). The youngest sister is single and living with her cute older brother, whom she is desperately in love with. A second sister is married to a man who has another woman and child elsewhere whom he loves just as much as his wife -with a few conditions, she agrees to carry on with the marriage. The third sister and her husband are overjoyed to discover she is pregnant, and though he is tempted, her husband remains loyal to her. Charming, slow-paced, face value, family saga film.Read More »

Yumi, an exceptionally beautiful call girl, has a close call with death when a client forces her to die with him. An old cop pities her and agrees to be her guarantor so that she could join a Nishijin weaver workshop. Yumi wishes to put her dark past behind her, but she’s exposed by an ex-client. Despite the unwavered support of the old cop, she sees no way out and uses her seductive body again to get what she wants. Hiroyuki, her co-worker at the weaver workshop, is a pure-hearted young man who may redeem Yumi from her deadly path as a femme fatale.Read More »

The first snow has fallen over Seoul. Munho, a young art professor, is catching up with his friend Hunjoon, a broke filmmaker who has just returned from the United States. After a few drinks, they decided to track down Sunhwa, a young girl they were both in love with a few years earlier.Read More »

IMDB:
It depicts the sadness of a man who tries to transform himself into a good woman and is flirted with her who has gone beyond her hopes. Generally, men are women.Read More »

In 1961, a group of young speleologists mapped one of the world’s deepest caves in the Calabrian mountains. In this fictional story about them, Frammartino constructs a slow but entirely gripping rhythm; we see the cave explorers in extreme long-shot as they prepare tools and each day embark on a perilous journey, venturing further into uncharted crevices. Much of this action is viewed from the perspective of an old, grizzled shepherd moving his herd across the mountains. Almost entirely without discernible dialogue, but featuring arguably the year’s richest sound design, Il Buco unfolds at a spellcasting pace – shifting back and forth between the shepherd and adventurers, and punctuated by glimpses of life in a remote mountain village where the two briefly intersect. This is unique, singular filmmaking from Frammartino. And a film made for the big screen.Read More »

Quote:
“Fade Into Nothing” brings together the musician Paulo Furtado / The Legendary Tigerman, the photographer Rita Lino and the filmmaker Pedro Maia on a road trip through the Californian desert. A road-movie in a format of a false diary shoot in Super 8, with texts from Paulo Furtado, music from The Legendary Tigerman and photography by Rita Lino. The joining of three visions on a man’s voyage that, more than just disappear, he aims to be nothing, to become nothing.Read More »