Arthouse

This film is a collection of static portraits. It`s a one long pause. No words, silence. Read More »

Synopsis
The story of an aging writer who bitterly recollects his passionate, lost youth. A portrait of today’s Rome.
imdb.com

Reviews
Rome in all its splendor and superficiality, artifice and significance, becomes an enormous banquet too rich to digest in one sitting in Paolo Sorrentino’s densely packed, often astonishing “The Great Beauty.” A tribute to, and castigation of, the city whose magnificence has famously entrapped its residents in existential crises, the pic follows a stalled author gradually awakening from the slumber of intellectual paralysis. Very much Sorrentino’s modern take on the themes of Fellini’s “La dolce vita,” emphasizing the emptiness of society amusements, “Great Beauty” will surprise, perplex and bewitch highbrow audiences yearning for big cinematic feasts…
Jay Weissberg, Variety
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Subway Riders is an epic NoWave/NY noir-melodrama,
in which a nocturnal saxophonist morphs into a bewitching
serial killer. With transcendant performances by John Lurie,
Cookie Mueller, Glenn O’ Brien, Robbie Coltrane, Bill Rice,
Charli Kaleina, Emilio Cubera and Susan Tyrrell, it captures
the colorful junkie landscape of downtown Manhattan in the
late 70’s with fearless bravado.

– Amos Poe-
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What first appear to be photographs of elderly Russian peasants and farmers, becomes an evocative meditation on old Russia and new, a snapshot of a disappearing way of life. As they stand in their work clothes, often with tools by their side, looking into the camera, this remarkable film with poetic rigor, captures a people, a world, that is quickly vanishing.Read More »

A classic of Russian documentary film he also stamps his typical hallmark on his latest film. Long shots fragmented with fade-outs, a sophisticated composition and the effective use of 35 mm black-and-white film. Loznitsa is able to raise seeming banality to the status of an artistic testimony indirectly reminiscent of the classics of Russian cinematography. On this occasion, he takes his camera along to record an attempt to catch fish in a frozen lake in the middle of the snowy Russian plains. In this harsh natural environment, four young men try to rip from the frozen depths of nature something which will provide them with a livelihood.Read More »

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Jane Arden’s The Other Side of the Underneath is a seriously disturbing film. It is also an uncharacteristically bold one. I think that in a lot of ways it is quite similar to Bernardo Bertollucci’s Partner (1968), a film about a young revolutionary, played by Pierre Clementi, whose life changes dramatically when a double appears and foils his plan to commit suicide. In the opening scene of The Other Side, a schizophrenic woman (Sheila Allen, The Legend of Spider Forest) is pulled out of a lake and placed in an asylum.

The film is based on director Arden’s “A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets and Witches”, a play she staged with the Holocaust women’s theatre troupe. It is comprised of a number of different episodes, each exploring a specific theme – female exploitation, voyeurism, sexual deprivation, etc. The Other Side is also a reflection of its creator’s brush with madness.

The key concept behind The Other Side is intriguing. The film argues that madness is part of a cycle that leads to sanity. It also stresses that this complex process is often misunderstood by those who have never experienced madness. Cultural and societal taboos are cited amongst the main reasons for its existence.Read More »

From allmovie.com
What makes an athlete compete? How can he be made to endure the gruelling training most sports require? In this image-rich combination documentary and poetic drama, participants in sports including foot-racing, wrestling, speed-skating, swimming and gymnastics are seen in their daily lives and in all stages of training and competition. Their regimens are contrasted with the efforts of ordinary people to train some life into their limbs as they exercise to lose weight, or, as aging people, in order to stay active. In one episode, a marathon runner competing on a hot summer day in Philadelphia literally runs himself to death, and in a later dramatic re-enactment, medieval warriors hold a competitive joust. As one image piles upon another in this unique film, answers to questions about competition begin to suggest themselves.Read More »

Russian master Aleksandr Sokurov has produced another majestic achievement with ALEXANDRA. In a rare instance of working from his own original script, Sokurov tells the simple tale of a woman in the twilight of her life who embarks on a special journey. As the story unfolds, Sokurov’s deeper purpose is revealed, resulting in a work that speaks profoundly about the corrosive nature of war. Opera star Galina Vishnevskaya is Alexandra. She hasn’t seen her grandson in seven years and, understanding that her life is coming to an end, she decides to visit him at his army camp in war-torn Chechnya. Read More »

Sam (Joe Swanberg) has feelings for Juliette (Josephine Decker), the lead actress in a sexually explicit drama centered on a couple’s one night stand. He must maintain a professional relationship while directing her. All is going well until Juliette and her co-star Eric (Kent Osborne) develop feelings for each other that they explore off-camera. Sam is happy that his actors have such great chemistry, but simultaneously feels jealous. Juliette senses Sam’s shifting moods and does her best to show him affection, but his own inner struggles threaten to derail the production.Read More »