Description:
Two teenage girls, both named Marie, decide that since the world is spoiled they will be spoiled as well; accordingly they embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world about them. This freewheeling, madcap feminist farce was immediately banned by the government.Read More »
From Imdb:
Richard Martini’s “Camera” is an ambitious – yet, addictive independent film encompassing intrigue, comedy and adventure. An inside look into the lives of several people – via the one digital camera they all buy – it’s a compulsively magnetic piece that shows flair and creativity on behalf of the helmer. It’s got no budget and it’s got no buzz – but “Camera” is a rare delight, and especially interesting to see Martini can draw in some fine cameos by people like Jack Nicholson, Oliver Stone, and Angie Everhart.
Bravo Martini – we look forward to your next project.Read More »
Synopsis:
An indifferent man with an unusual outlook on life embarks on a strange journey while carrying a large bag of rice. Mr. Mao is playing a game of hide-and-seek with his wife when he uses the opportunity to run away from home. Upon arriving at the home of his friend Xiao He in the nearby town of Liaocheng, Mr. Mao’s new life begins. Gradually, Mr. Mao and Xiao He are drawn into a mysterious love affair. In the end, mysterious drifter Mr. Mao takes his bag of rice and disappears into the hills to find his true fate.Read More »
The Dogma 95 film movement appeared out of the need to make low budget films that will be concentrated on the storytelling and the acting. No long preparations, no stylish million-dollar bullshitting. Just film. For many years most of the filmmakers in the Balkan have been doing exactly the same. It is just that they haven’t made a manifesto and most of them have never even heard of Dogma 95. Does it hurt? The First Balkan Dogma is a no budget mockumentary shot on HDV according to the dogma rules.
Synopsis:
A Macedonian filmmaker wants to make the first official Balkan Dogma film in Macedonia. She lies to her friends that she got financial support from the Zentropa producers. The film starts from the moment that she gathers her closest friends and asks them to join her in the quest for finding the right story for the film. She has decided to film the whole process from the very beginning and use it later for the making off. Following the four characters in their quest we discover Macedonia and the Balkans in 2006. The camera captures visual sequences of the absurdity, humour and survival techniques of a land and people in transition. The making of project ultimately becomes the true subject of the film.Read More »
The first feature film from acclaimed independent African American filmmaker Charles Burnett, this intensely emotional drama concerns a man who makes his living at a slaughterhouse as he struggles for economic and emotional survival and tries to patch up his often strained relationship with his family. Shot on weekends over a period of several years and first shown publicly in 1977, Killer of Sheep slowly but surely began to develop a potent reputation among film enthusiasts; in 1981, it won honors at the Berlin International Film Festival and an enthusiastic reception at the Sundance Film Festival. It was added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1990. Read More »
Acquarello @ Strictly Film School wrote:
An off-camera psychiatrist (Mikijiro Hira) overseeing a processed batch of prosthetic appendages describes his fragile role of diplomatically treating – not a patient’s physical imperfection – but rather, the psychological insecurity that underlies his seemingly superficial malady. The curious, fragmented shot of randomly floating, artificial body parts is subsequently reflected in an X-ray profile of a smug and embittered burn victim named Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai) as he recounts to the quietly receptive psychiatrist his own culpability in the fateful industrial accident that had permanently disfigured him and now estranges him from his co-workers and family. The clinically disembodied images are then commuted into the equally cold and sterile Okuyama household through a dissociating, close-up shot of a human eye that zooms out to reveal his beautiful and mannered wife (Machiko Kyô) busily occupied in her hobby of polishing gemstones as the acerbic and insecure Okuyama attempts to test her affection and fidelity with vague and allusive casual remarks and open-ended questions. Spurned by his wife after a spontaneous and awkward attempt at intimacy, Okuyama returns to his psychiatrist and agrees to participate in the testing of the doctor’s latest experiment: a prosthetic mask molded from the facial characteristics of a surrogate donor. Now liberated by a sense of faceless anonymity and relieved of personal and professional entanglements, Okuyama takes up residence at a modest boarding house and begins to test the limits of his traceless identity.Read More »
Synopsis: A woman who is about to die calls the town’s priest and hands him a scapulary, saying that she knows of its great powers. Anybody who does not believe in them will end up dead.
In the times of Mexican Revolution, a dying woman sends for the young priest of the village, she confesses to him that she has a miraculous scapular which has the power to protect the life of the owner; before she dies, she tells the skeptical priest how the scapular saved the life of her four children, thus reviving four incredible crossed stories.Read More »
Quote:
Scalera had obtained backing for a series of animal shorts and needed someone to make them. Roberto plunged in enthusiastically. He arrived at Ladispoli with animals of all sorts distributed among pockets and cages and started sixteen documentaries, no less, all at once. A slew of titles were annouced. La foresta silenziosa (“The quiet forest”), Primavera (“Spring”), Re Travicello, and La merca; and perhaps ll brutto idraulico (“The ugly plumber”). Fellini recalls finding Roberto at Scalera kneeling under small reflectors. “Inside a small enclosure made of nets and rope were a turtle, two mice, and three or four roaches. He was shooting a documentary about insects [La vispa Teresa?], doing one frame a day, very complex and laborious, with great patience.”
“He kept shooting for months,” Fellini adds, probably with his customary exaggeration. For in fact Roberto’s enthusiasm flagged quickly.Read More »
Quote:
The demands of her family and the stress of daily life drive the mind of a woman into permanent fantasy as a way to cope. Normande St. Onge works as a clerk in a pharmacy and takes dance classes with the dream of being a cabaret dancer. Her mother, Berthe, has been confined to a mental institution by Normande’s uncle. But Normande, who does not believe her mother is insane, kidnaps her from the institution and brings her home.Read More »