Arthouse

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This movie is black satire of Japanese imperial ambitions in the 20th century. In Meiji era Japan (1868-1910), the Japanese state sought to establish itself as an empire as a way to both catch up to and remain free from the West. These activities also lay the foundation for the disasters to come mid-century. This movie satirizes those efforts from a mid-1980s perspective, giving it an obvious subtext of being a commentary on the efforts of late 20th century Japanese businessmen abroad as well. The “hero” is a businessman who, realizing that the Japanese armed forces will likely soon be advancing across Asia, decides that they will require brothels wherever they go as well and so sets up shop in Southeast Asia. A very black comedy from one of Japan’s finest film satirists (cf. “Pigs and Battleships,” “The Pornographers”) best known abroad ca. 1999 for “The Eel” and “Black Rain” (the film based on the novel about Hiroshima, not the Michael Douglas flick).Read More »

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In a village on the Galician coast, life has slowed to a crawl. All that moves is the light over the bay, the swell around the shore, the fronds of weed swirled along by the river, the animals that now wander unheeded through the dark houses. Their inhabitants stand motionless, each trapped in a different stance, on the mudflats, in the streets, by the dam, next to the mysterious rock whose form is that of the wave that sank Rubio’s boat and pulled the fisherman under, thus ushering in the curse. They speak in voiceover and their accounts overlap, their words revolve more around their own predicament than telling a linear story, they keep talking of Rubio, of past warnings, of the red moon, the beast, the sea. Read More »

A day in the life of Malek, a young man who suffers from sleep disorders and is obsessed with thoughts of his ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, his overprotective mother struggles with the disappearance of her husband, who was kidnapped more than 15 years ago during the civil war.Read More »

Synopsis:
The thoughts and dreams of a group of people riding a subway in Paris provides the springboard for Jean-Claude Guiguet’s drama Les Passagers/The Passengers. As the train rolls along, various characters either talk among themselves or address the camera on a variety of subjects. A mathematician (Bruno Putzulu) speaks with one of his students (Stephane Rideau) about the statistical implications of the spread of AIDS. A nurse (Fabienne Babe) meets with a security guard she’s infatuated with (Philippe Garziano), while her friend enjoys a daydream about the joys of life as a rural housewife. A man rants about problems with sex and the virtues of masturbation, while another person debates the relative merits of the films Savage Nights and The Mother and The Whore. Les Passagers/The Passengers was screened as part of the “Un Certain Regard” series at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie GuideRead More »

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The adventures of a young Senegalese, Abdoulaye Faye, who comes to Paris to try his luck as a boxer. His dream of winning the championship and conquering women – especially Michèle Morgan – whom he worships, his his adaptation to Paris life, the cold and fog which astonish him, occupy his thoughts. He meets a Japanese woman in the Bois de Boulogne, consults a medium. And then comes the championship fight.

Critique award, Venice Film festival, 1962.
Cameo of Jean-Paul Belmondo, as a member of the audience during the fight of the young Abdoulaye Faye.
Music by Michel Legrand and Georges Delerue.Read More »

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Nadine is obsessed by a memory linked to a haunting tune she can no longer sing — until she hears someone else singing and everything falls back into place again. A melancholy observation of two young couples having difficulties trusting one another. They are full of skepticism and searching for a purpose in life.Read More »

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Marisa, a 38 years old woman, tells a strange story to her daughter while they’re walking through a level crossing in Madrid. An anthropologist, Jaime, is chased by a mysterious jeep. In the course of the chase, he takes shelter in a small motel. When he settles down, he keeps writing in his personal diary, reflecting his impressions about his work in it.Read More »

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A treatise on love and desire tainted by harsh reality of capitalism, in which submission to the laws of lust-as-commerce is played out by five prostitutes and their pimp, who pits them against one another so that they are incapable of standing up to him collectively.Read More »

Kwon (Seo Young-hwa) returns to Seoul from a restorative stay in the mountains. She is given a packet of letters left by Mori (Ryo Kase), who has come back from Japan to propose to her. As she walks down a flight of stairs, Kwon drops and scatters the letters, all of which are undated. When she reads them, she has to make sense of the chronology… and so must we. Alternately funny and haunting, Hill of Freedom is a series of disordered scenes based on the letters, echoing the cultural dislocation felt by Mori as he tries to make himself understood in halting English. At what point did he drink himself into a lonely stupor? Did he sleep with the waitress from the “Hill of Freedom” café (Moon So-ri) before or after he despaired of seeing Kwon again?Read More »