Documentary

In an Iranian juvenile detention center, a group of adolescent girls serve their sentence for the grave crime of murdering their father, their husband or another male family member. Filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei built a remarkable relationship with these inmates, whose frank conversations and playful interactions he observes, and who privately open up about the consequences of, and sometimes the reasons for, their action.

Occasionally he leaves them alone with the camera, allowing it to become a tool for them to address both their victims in the afterlife and their accomplices—three of the girls committed their father’s killing together with their mothers, who are now on death row.Read More »

Feature documentary about the life and work of MC Escher.

Letterboxd review
★★★★ Watched by NotASexyVamp 17 Feb 2019

After a slow start, this becomes a seriously satisfying film about a great artist. Escher considered his work “a search for the endless” and this film argues he achieved that. By using the tools of cinema to bring his art to life, we can discover the way it operates, the nuanced construction behind it. By using Escher’s own words (brought to life by Stephen Fry), we see his view on his work. Awe-inspiring.Read More »

The grandmother of filmmaker Yuki Kawamura dies after spending fifty days in a coma; with the whole family we accompany her through this journey.

SYNOPSIS
Grandmother death is an opportunity for each and everyone to reflect upon mourning, and beyond that, upon life, its multiple forms, its disappearance as well as its inexhaustible resources, and the signs of its infinite diversity. Life’s beauty is in water, mist and foam, in lichens and trees, in this grandmother’s dying face, and in her family’s care, affection and joking, in her children’s every word, every breath.Read More »

In “The Soviet Elegy” the long train of photos of the Soviet leaders, dead or alive, stops at the portrait of Yeltsin. At the time of shooting Yeltsin had fallen down from the assembly of the Communist Party deities, and participated in the earthly life through connections of different kinds.Read More »

Quote:
In this “film essay,” director Alexander Kluge handles two different stories with both fictional and documentary aspects. In one story, a foster parent cares for a traumatized young girl who is now an orphan after witnessing a car crash that killed both her parents. After the foster-parent does the right thing and takes the girl to her aunt — her court-appointed guardian — she is shocked to see that neither the wealthy aunt nor her servants are very interested in the girl. An unusual decision follows. In the other story, a director goes blind in the middle of a film project but has to be kept on because of his contract. This situation leads to some philosophizing on the nature of film and art in the modern world. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

Alida Valli is one of the most famous and beloved actresses of the 20th-century, a true legend, and a national treasure. Mimmo Verdesca tells her the extraordinary life through the words of her letters and diaries, read by Giovanna Mezzogiorno, and exclusive testimonies of eminent protagonists of Italian and international cinema and theatre.

‘Alida’ is a gem for many reasons: and the director proves his ability as a storyteller. He takes you on a fascinating journey that allows you to get to know the artist and the woman as well. And the latter is a captivating discovery.Read More »

Quote:
A rehearsal of the Andrzej Kurylewicz quintet is underway in the radio recording studio. The lineup includes: Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski, Andrzej Dąbrowski, Wojciech Karolak, Roman Dylag. A well-arranged whole begins to emerge from the polyphony of voices and sounds.Read More »

Quote:
Giorni di Gloria has been called “the first documentary on the Resistance” (Antonio Vitti) and “the most revolutionary film in existence” (Paolo Gobetti). I prefer the film’s own dedication:

«A tutti coloro che in Italia hanno sofferto e combattuto l´oppressione nazifascista è dedicato questo film di lotta partigiana e di rinascita nazionale»

“For all those in Italy who have suffered and fought Nazi oppression, this film is dedicated to the partisan struggle and national rebirth.”

The film is raw, brutal, humane, outraged and unflagging in its celebration of resistance in the service of political justice. The photography – credited to a dozen cinematographers, including Gianni Di Venanzo’s first film credit – is starkly beautiful.Read More »

Does India have a national cinema? Does it, indeed, require one? Mrinal Sen is not quite sure. Yet, his latest celluloid essay, And the Show Goes On, a British Film Institute-funded tribute to the world’s largest movie industry in cinema’s centenary year, is quite polemically categorical about what India’s filmic output should be.

But can it ever be what it ideally ought to be? Again, Sen, as is his wont, is not forth coming with a clear answer. His prescription, however, is rather unambiguous: cinema should confront social realities, no matter how harsh; it cannot continue being as cavalierly escapist as it is in India and yet expect to be taken seriously on the global stage. As film director and critic Chidananda Dasgupta says on camera: “India lives too much by myth and too little by fact”. That, for Sen, is where the problem begins. And ends.Read More »