Fantasy

  • Roberto Rossellini – La vispa Teresa (1939)

    1931-1940ArthouseFantasyItalian Cinema under FascismItalyRoberto Rossellini

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    Quote:
    Scalera had obtained backing for a series of animal shorts and needed someone to make them. Roberto plunged in enthusiastically. He arrived at Ladispoli with animals of all sorts distributed among pockets and cages and started sixteen documentaries, no less, all at once. A slew of titles were annouced. La foresta silenziosa (“The quiet forest”), Primavera (“Spring”), Re Travicello, and La merca; and perhaps ll brutto idraulico (“The ugly plumber”). Fellini recalls finding Roberto at Scalera kneeling under small reflectors. “Inside a small enclosure made of nets and rope were a turtle, two mice, and three or four roaches. He was shooting a documentary about insects [La vispa Teresa?], doing one frame a day, very complex and laborious, with great patience.”
    “He kept shooting for months,” Fellini adds, probably with his customary exaggeration. For in fact Roberto’s enthusiasm flagged quickly.Read More »

  • Johannes Grenzfurthner – Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (2014)

    2011-2020AustriaComedyFantasyJohannes Grenzfurthner

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    Instant Cult Film from Austria.

    Allegedly on a €5.000 budget!

    Brilliant commentary on the Euro Crisis, international politics, internet and DIY culture … see farmers worshipping EU application forms as “holy scripture” and the NASDAQ crowd talking about dark energy!Read More »

  • Aleksandr Ptushko – Skazka o poteryannom vremeni aka A Tale of Lost Times (1964)

    1961-1970Aleksandr PtushkoComedyFantasyUSSR

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    Quote:
    One day, four sorcerers appeared out of the blue in the streets of a small town. These evil old people had long been dreaming of getting back their former vigor and youth. But to do that, they had to find people who would aimlessly waste their time. And they were very lucky: four schoolchildren had proved ideal guinea pigs for the magicians. The kids and the old people changed their roles for a while. You can’t even imagine what happened! The schoolchildren had to hide for some time in an abandoned house on the outskirts of the town – they just couldn’t appear before their parents as bearded, bent, old persons. Meanwhile, the sorcerers had their fun at school in the guise of their victims. And only on a certain day and at a certain hour, time could be turned back again…
    ruscicoRead More »

  • Terry Gilliam – Tideland [+Extras] (2005)

    2001-2010ArthouseCanadaFantasyTerry Gilliam

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    Quote:
    After her mother dies from a heroin overdose, Jeliza-Rose is taken from the big city to a rural farmhouse by her father. As she tries to settle into a new life in a house her father had purchased for his now-deceased mother, Jeliza-Rose’s attempts to deal with what’s happened result in increasingly odd behavior, as she begins to communicate mainly with her bodiless Barbie doll heads and Dell, a neighborhood woman who always wears a beekeeper’s veil.Read More »

  • Peter Yates – Krull (1983)

    1981-1990CultFantasyPeter YatesUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    In the face of total annihilation by the omnipotent Beast’s unstoppable hordes of Slayers, the young aristocrats of two hostile neighbouring nations–the brave Prince Colwyn and the fair Princess Lyssa–are about to come into union, and form an alliance against the common enemy. However, the otherworldly adversary is all-powerful, and before long, a fateful abduction will trigger a desperate quest to the evil entity’s grim Black Fortress, as Colwyn and a handful of mismatched defenders are willing to dice with death to ensure the land’s future. In this suicide mission, the magical, five-edged weapon known as the Glaive is their only chance of survival. Can Prince Colwyn slay the Beast, save Lyssa and Krull, the small planet in the middle of the vast galaxy?Read More »

  • Jonas Middleton – Through The Looking Glass (1976)

    1971-1980EroticaFantasyJonas MiddletonUSA

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    Without question one of the true classics of hardcore, Through the Looking Glass is yet another perfect example (like Café Flesh or even Thundercrack) of how porn can be used to craft and/or embellish a film so it works as erotica as well as a legitimate movie. Also released in a highly successful ‘R’ rated version, without the hardcore sex, “Glass” is a genuinely engaging and nightmarish supernatural/possession story with some superbly crafted sequences. The film is just alive with decadence and taboo, eroticism and depravity.

    The effective music score, of harpsichord ditties and female harmonies, is co-credited to Harry Manfredini of all people, who would go on to do the classic Friday the 13th score. And this period sounding music works perfectly in highlighting the decadence of the movie…one of the most powerful and unusual hardcore films ever to be produced, and as such is nothing less but essential viewing for any fan of Exploitation, and extreme Underground cinema.” – Beardyfreak.comRead More »

  • John Carl Buechler – Troll (1986)

    1981-1990CanadaFantasyHorrorJohn Carl Buechler

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    An evil troll, Torok, the transformed state of the ex-husband of an old friendly witch named Eunice St. Clair, has chosen her apartment building to be the heart of the restoration of the world he once knew. To do this he uses an Emerald ring, and takes possession of a little girl named Wendy, whose brother Harry immediately suspects something wrong. Torok, often in the form of the little girl, goes into each occupant’s apartment, hideously transforming people into plant pods.Read More »

  • Andrew Bogle – Haunters of the Deep (1984)

    1981-1990Andrew BogleFantasyMysteryUnited Kingdom

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    “Haunters of the Deep” takes us to Cornwall with a tale of a haunted mine. The American CEO of Aminco Mining Corp. wants to re-open the tin-rich Strangles Head Mine, despite the dire warnings of old local miner Captain Tregellis (Andrew Keir, who himself started his working life in a mine at the age of 14) whose childhood friend had lost his life there many years before. Warnings are ignored (there’s local employment to think of too) and its is up to Josh, whose older brother has taken a job in the mine, and Becky, the CEO’s daughter, to set aside their initial animosity and bring about a rescue when the mine walls begin to let in the sea. With its Cornish coastal setting and elements of the supernatural – Spriggans and Jack o’Lanterns and the ghost of young miner lost decades before – “Haunters of the Deep” makes effective use of its distinct local setting.Read More »

  • Wojciech Has – Sanatorium pod klepsydra AKA The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973)

    1971-1980DramaFantasyPolandWojciech Has

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    Set in pre- World War II era. A young man is on a strange train to see his dying father in a sanatorium. But the place is going to ruin and recalls a lot of memories from the past. He is beset by soldiers from the past, colonial black mercenaries, girls from his early life, and his parents. It is an interior adventure, with unusual atmospheric flair and extraordinary sets.Read More »

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