Fantasy

Quote:
One time you find yourself in a park, on a bench, looking into space, and for a second you forget which country you are in, whether it’s morning or evening; you are pierced by a pang of loneliness, your heart becomes light and sad, what is important separates out from all the noise of the world, and the slipping, sliding shadows fill with meaning profound… Words come to mind…

“South. Border” is my present to myself, a little window to the house I will never be able to build, a house of silver and light.Read More »

Quote:
In ancient Kerala, where Tantra/Maya held sway, Thevan, a novice singer from a caste of folk singers (Paanan), narrowly escapes from slavers and finds himself lost. While fleeing, he stumbles upon an eerie household in the middle of a forest with a seemingly benevolent master and his servant. The master welcomes him, but it soon becomes clear that he is a malevolent goblin from folklore known as Chaathan, who has taken on the master’s identity. The creature from darkness ensnares anyone who enters the house as its lifelong servants. The story delves into whether Thevan and the current first servant can break free from the goblin’s control.Read More »

Synopsis: Daniel and Clara are on a vacation in Italy. In the form of the mysterious “Sandman” Coppola, a figure from Daniel’s childhood, returns to haunt him, while he succumbs to an obsessive love with an enigmatic woman of strange beauty: Olympia, who might be far more than she first appears to be…Read More »

Shanks is not so much a movie as an hallucinatory experience. World-renowned mime Marcel Marceau plays a dual role as a mute puppeteer and an eccentric inventor. The inventor dies, passing along his secrets for reviving corpses to the puppeteer. With the help of an enigmatic little girl, Marceau activates several dead bodies and goes on a robbery spree. Costarring with Marceau are fellow mime artists Tsilla Chelton and Phillipe Clay. Shanks had cult potential, but was released with a surprisingly lackluster ad campaign–all the more surprising in that the film was directed by that master huckster William Castle (whose last film this was).Read More »

Quote:
In the 19th century, a fortress is under siege from the Turkish Army. While the attack is going on, the town’s people are in the theatre, watching a play based on the life of notorious tall tale teller Baron Munchausen.

The real Baron Munchausen arrives at the theatre and claims not only to have started the war, but also to be able to save the town from the siege. He encounters only mockery from an incredulous townsfolk who dismiss the Baron and his stories.Read More »

Synopsis:
The Thirty Years’ War is seen from the point of view in this satirical slapstick comedy that combines engravings, old cartoons, montages, special effects, and film. The positions of both sides of the religious war are fair game for biting satirical jabs. Petr (Kostka) plays a peasant who is pressed to join one side before being captured by the enemy and mistaken for a Duke. Matej (Miloslav Holub) can change sides quickly with his reversible cloak. Lenka (Emilia Vasaryova) disguises herself as a jester to avoid the conflict and gives her comments about the pompous futility on both sides of the conflict.Read More »

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Gulliver washes ashore on Lilliput, the inhabitants of which are no more than six inches tall. He later travels to Brobdingnag, a country populated by giants.Read More »

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Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved director’s own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the master’s imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams is both a showcase for its maker’s artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.Read More »

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A young woman becomes the eighth wife of the wealthy Bluebeard, whose first seven wives have died under mysterious circumstances.Read More »