Arthouse

Quote:
Robert Bresson plumbs great reservoirs of feeling with Mouchette, one of the most searing portraits of human desperation ever put on film. Faced with a dying mother, an absent, alcoholic father, and a baby brother in need of care, the teenage Mouchette seeks solace in nature and daily routine, a respite from her economic and pubescent turmoil. An essential work of French filmmaking, Bresson’s hugely empathetic drama elevates its trapped protagonist into one of the cinema’s great tragic figures*.Read More »

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A young man takes a journey on a cart through jungles to reach the small hamlet of Bangarwadi, inhabited by a few shepherds, peasants and some members of a criminal tribe known as the Ramoshis. The young man goes there as a teacher. After the initial trauma, he finds the milieu and the environment very inspiring and educative. But then he is transferred to some other school. What remains with him is the memory of the simple folk and their pure nature.Read More »

Synopsis:
A visit to the Louvre in Paris commentated by an actor reading Cézanne.

Review:
Une Visite au Louvre (2004) is a companion film to Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’s Cézanne (1989). The opening title of the later work indicates that it was inspired by Dominique Païni, then film programmer at the Louvre, in 1990. Like the earlier film, Une Visite au Louvre is also based on Joachim Gasquet’s book, Cézanne, specifically on the chapter entitled “Le Louvre,” which recounts Cézanne’s visit to the Louvre, accompanied by the young Gasquet.Read More »

This is one of the best opera films ever, one of the few to intelligently juxtapose image and music. S and H’s minimal visual style allows Schoenberg’s maximal musical style to flourish, and there are even spots where we have a black screen, with music only. Filmed outdoors, in natural locations.

Schoenberg’s opera is one of the landmarks of 20th century music, and is heard and seen at its best in this performance.

‘With Moses und Aron, I have tried to destroy Stravinsky’s quote
saying that music was powerless to express the most abstract, the
most ordinary, the most concrete things.’ (Jean-Marie Straub)Read More »

Quote:
Everyone carries something, some burden that weighs him down.
Some are crushed, others are freed, others just carry on.
Eleven characters cross each others paths, unveiling their fears and desires, during the world weightlifting championship.
A thousand kilos story, light as a summer breeze?

Kάθε άνθρωπος κάτι κουβαλά, κάποιο φορτίο τον βαραίνει.
Άλλοι ισοπεδώνονται απ’ αυτό, άλλοι απελευθερώνονται, άλλοι απλά συνεχίζουν.
Έντεκα χαρακτήρες, που οι διαδρομές τους διασταυρώνονται, αποκαλύπτοντας τους φόβους και τις επιθυμίες τους, στη διάρκεια του παγκοσμίου πρωταθλήματος Άρσης Βαρών.
Μια ιστορία χιλίων κιλών, ανάλαφρη σαν αεράκι…Read More »

Plot Synopsis by Sandra Brennan

The widow of Bach reminisces in this biography. Her life with the great composer was not easy. He seldom spoke to her. When he did, it was only to read letters of complaint. Included are performances of Bach’s works including the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Prelude 6 from the “Little Clavier Book for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Minuet 2 of the Suite in D Minor from the “Little Clavier Book for Anna Magdalena Bach, Sonata No. 2 in D Major for Viola and Harpsichord, Partita in E Minor from the “Little Clavier Book for Anna Magdalena Bach, Trio-sonata No. 2 in C Minor, Magnificat in D Major, “St. Matthew Passion, Prelude in B Minor for Organ, Mass in B Minor, Ascension Oratorio, Clavier-Uebung Italian Concerto, Goldberg Variations, Musical Offering, Art of the Fugue Corale for Organ, and Cantatas No. 205, 198, 244, 42, 215, 140, 82. Read More »

Straub-Huillet’s adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s biting satire Bonn Diary presents the reflections of a reactivated officer who is summoned to the West German capital by the Ministry of Defense to establish an Academy for Military Memories. Straub considered his film to be an intervention against German rearmament in the Adenauer era: “Machorka-Muff is the story of a rape, the rape of a country on which an army has been imposed, a country which would have been happier without one.”Read More »

En Rachâchant is a 7 minute short film made by the esoteric director duo Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. The text is adapted from a children’s story written by Marguerite Duras. It tells the story of a little boy named Ernesto who refuses to go to school because the school teaches things he doesn’t know. Read More »

The film charts the fortunes of two women who loved each other as sisters, but whose paths divulge when the Revolution brings an end to their old way of life in the brothel. IMDB
Two long-time female friends in love with same man form the basis for this Chinese romantic saga. The story begins after the 1949 Communist takeover in China. Prior to that, the two women Xiao and Qiuyi had been prostitutes. Qiuyi was a proud woman with high ideals. Xiao was born and raised in a bordello, the Red Happiness Inn. Whereas Qiuyi is strong and independent, Xiao is nervous and dependent upon others. After the takeover, the women left the brothel and were to be rehabilitated. Qiuyi escapes and begins living with the youthful, wealthy Lao Pu, a former customer. She gets pregnant but is too proud to let on. Instead she cloisters herself in a Buddhist nunnery and ignores Lao’s pleas to come home. The Buddhist discover her pregnancy and evict her. She then miscarries. Meanwhile, Xiao completes her rehab and works in a silk factory. There she meets Lao who has lost all his wealth and now works. They have and affair. She gets pregnant. On their wedding day, Qiuyi appears carrying the yellow umbrella of separation. After the wedding, Lao and Xiao begin having terrible fights. He misses Qiuyi. He chooses a radical solution to his problem.AllmovieRead More »