When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife’s pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real. When the root takes life they seem to have gained a child; but its appetite is much greater than a normal child.Read More »
Fantasy
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Jan Svankmajer – Otesánek AKA Little Otik (2000)
1991-2000Czech RepublicFantasyHorrorJan Svankmajer -
Jan Svankmajer – Prezít svuj zivot (teorie a praxe) AKA Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2010)
2001-2010Czech RepublicDramaFantasyJan SvankmajerEugene, an aging man, leads a double life: one real – the waking life he spends in the company of his wife of many years, Milana – and the other in his dreams, his sleeping hours being devoted to a recurring evolving dream of a beautiful young woman, Evgenia. Seeking to perpetuate his dream life, he goes to see a psychoanalyst, who attempts to provide an ongoing interpretation of his experiences. On the wall there are portraits of Freud and Jung, which become animated, alternately applauding, disapproving or fighting over her interpretations. The latest film from practising surrealist animator Jan Svankmajer is a mix of cut-out animation from photographs and live action segments, combining real actors with their animated photographs, against black and white backdrops of photographed Czech buildings. Read More »
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Shimako Sato – K-20: Kaijin niju menso den AKA K-20: Legend of the Mask (2008)
2001-2010AdventureFantasyJapanShimako SatoImdb:
Holy Steampunk, Sherlock Holmes! Screen idol Takeshi Kaneshiro is back and this time hes showing his respect for Lupin, Raffles and all the great thieves and masked penny dreadful heroes of the turn-of-the-century in this massive steampunk blow-out directed by Shimako Sato, one of the few female directors in the big budget end of the Japanese film industry.Read More » -
Frank Lloyd – Berkeley Square (1933)
1931-1940FantasyFrank LloydRomanceUSA -
Nobuhiko Obayashi – Futari aka Chizuko’s Younger Sister (1991)
1991-2000DramaFantasyJapanNobuhiko Obayashi

Synopsis
The Kitao family is coping with the loss of the eldest daughter, Chizuko, who was killed in a freak accident the year prior. When the other daughter Mika is suddenly in a dangerous situation, Chizuko returns as a ghost to save her; reunited with her sister, Mika begins spending time with Chizuko again.Read More » -
Edward A. Blatt – Between Two Worlds (1944)
1941-1950Edward A. BlattFantasyFilm BlancMysteryUSA

Synopsis:
Passengers on an ocean liner can’t recall how they got on board or where they are going yet, oddly enough, it soon becomes apparent that they all have something in common.Read More » -
Issa López – Vuelven AKA Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)
2011-2020FantasyHorrorIssa LópezMexicoQuote:
A dark fairy tale about a gang of five children trying to survive the horrific violence of the cartels and the ghosts created every day by the drug war.Read More » -
Jean-Claude Brisseau – À l’aventure (2009)
2001-2010DramaFantasyFranceJean-Claude BrisseauQueer Cinema(s)

Quote:
In cinematic enfant terrible Jean-Claude Brisseau’s latest outing, “A l’aventure,” the explicit eroticism of his recent oeuvre topples over into outright porn — not because of graphic sex scenes, but rather due to a plot of unalloyed ludicrousness. Granted, levitating 14th-century Flemish nuns rep an inventive step up from randy milkmen, but Brisseau’s humorless intellectual pretentions founder in very shallow waters. Skedded for an April 1 release in France, pic was pre-bought by IFC Stateside, where its Playboy-ish presentation of elegantly writhing naked women brought to ultimate orgasm, combined with disquisitions on the more cosmological Big Bang Theory, might attract horny eggheads.Read More » -
Claude Autant-Lara – Marguerite de la nuit AKA Marguerite of the Night (1955)
1951-1960Claude Autant-LaraDramaFantasyFrance
Quote:
Truffaut and Godard gave a bad name to the “quality” French cinema that preceded them. This film was one of their pet examples of what they saw as staid, boring, unadventurous cinéma de papa. Without an axe to grind, it is actually a breathtakingly bold modernization of the Faust legend, ravishing to look at with its highly stylized sets (Trauner on LSD) and containing multi-layered undercurrents, including a message on the unthinking destructiveness of youth which seems almost like a prescient reply to its New Wave critics.Read More »




