Arthouse

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A Slavonic Mass by Leos Janácek plays as historical figures, biblical characters, and mythical creatures gather in the pleasure dome. Aphrodite, Lilith, Isis, Kali, Astarte, Nero, Pan, and the Great Beast and the Scarlet Woman are part of a visual feast of images superimposed, hallucinations, and the spirit of decadence of the “Yellow ’90s.” Mythological images from Aleister Crowley, cabalistic symbols, artifice, and magic combine to render the pleasure dome both as prison and as celebration.Read More »

Quote:
Guatemala, 2018. The whole country is immersed in the trial of the soldiers who sparked the civil war. Victim statements come one after another. Ernesto is a young anthropologist working for the Forensic Foundation; his job is to identify the missing. One day, while hearing the account of an old woman, he thinks he has found a lead that might guide him to his father, a guerrillero who went missing during the war. Against his mother’s wishes, he flings himself body and soul into the case, looking for truth and resilience.Read More »

Praunheim’s first big feature film was produced in 1970: „Die Bettwurst“ became a cult movie.
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The touching story of Dietmar and Luzy, two not so young lovers in the drastic world of Rosa von Praunheim.

Incredible, truly incredible. What Rosa von Praunheim has done is far beyond description.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Teresa and Pedro have been married for five years and are settled in a routine, and a rather sterile home. He manages – and possibly owns – a factory, while she is a lady of leisure. The arrival of a collection of furniture from Teresa’s childhood family home triggers a nightmare and subsequent sleepwalking, followed by regressive and childish behaviour. Teresa replaces their furniture (in keeping with the modern – verging on Brutalist – architecture of their house) with what has arrived, which is distinctly different in style (dark wood and richly coloured fabrics). The film then settles into a series of extended role play ‘games’ between husband and wife that gradually get out of hand.’
– Rebecca NaughtenRead More »

The pleasure, where it does not end

Love is also time suspended by the word, the language – Portuguese in this case – which invites itself into the body, which hypnotizes them and returns them to a happy flesh. All of Bressane’s staging can be found there, all of this surprising and obvious invention, that is to say alive. In its rhythm, in its editing, in its ruptures, its winks and even its obscurities which we know all come out of the same passion …
A triangle – three beings – suspended in desire, a desire that hangs on all their gestures.Read More »

War Requiem is a 1989 film adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s musical piece of the same name.

It was shot in 1988 by the British film director Derek Jarman with the 1963 recording as the soundtrack, produced by Don Boyd and financed by the BBC. Decca Records required that the 1963 recording be heard on its own, with no overlaid soundtrack or other sound effects. The film featured Nathaniel Parker as Wilfred Owen, and Laurence Olivier in his last acting appearance in any medium before his death in July 1989. The film is structured as the reminiscences of Olivier’s character, the Old Soldier in a wheelchair, and Olivier recites “Strange Meeting” in the film’s prologue.Read More »

Viktor is a prime example of passivity, he “lives as if he had everything already behind him”. Břéťa is a “charged solar battery, that keeps on charging energy”. Between these two men there enters a woman, Edita, who is uncompromisingly career oriented.Read More »

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night. Alive as you or me. Says I, but Joe you’re ten years dead. I never died says he.

In the early 1900’s, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates with his brother to the United States. But after a short time, he loses touch with his brother. Joe gets a few jobs but is struck by all the injustice and tragedy going on. He becomes active in the forbidden union IWW, a union for workers without trades. It is forbidden to demonstrate and to speak in public but Joe gets around that by singing his manifests with the Salvation Army. He manages to get more and more people to get on strike with him but he also makes powerful enemies doing that. Finally he gets connected with a murder and during the trial he fires his lawyer and takes upon himself to become his own defender.Read More »

IMDB says:
“Love at Twenty” unites five directors from around the world to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson. The directors create their peculiar scenarios with Truffaut revisiting Antoine Doinel, this time finding some meaning to his life while getting involved with a girl; Renzo Rossellini’s episode about an abandoned mistress; Ishihara’s tale about an obsessive love; Ophüls’ story about a pregnant woman trying to plot against the baby’s father; and Wajda presenting a confusing relationship between people from different generations.Read More »