Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary 1922 silent film Häxan uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious; instead, it’s a witches’ brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.Read More »
New technologies are transforming a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland. Josephine, a young factory worker, produces the unrest wheel, swinging in the heart of the mechanical watch. Exposed to new ways of organizing money, time and labour, she gets involved with the local movement of the anarchist watchmakers, where she meets Russian traveller Pyotr Kropotkin.Read More »
With her radically anarchic Czechoslovak New Wave landmark DAISIES, director Věra Chytilová set out, in her own words, “to make a film that is aesthetically pleasing and interesting, yet [which] is an image of destruction,” one in which “the idea of ‘destruction’ is present in everything, in every move of the camera.” In this edition of Observations on Film Art, Professor Kristin Thompson breaks down the complex visual motifs—in particular the use of plant and food imagery—that Chytilová employs to advance this aesthetic of annihilation, ultimately creating a film that threatens to literally self-destruct.Read More »
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In the last decades of the 19th century, Karl May (1842-1912) was the most successful author in Germany. For 30 years he turned out 40 pages a day, constructing a staggering body of kitsch adventure-fiction that may originally have owed a certain debt to James Fenimore Cooper but that, finally, created a mythology quintessentially German.
In his most popular stories, written in the first person, May recalled his adventures in the American West with his idealized white blood-brother, Old Shatterhand, and the equally idealized Indian warrior, Winnetou. Seeking a change of locale, May also wrote similar first-person tales about adventures in the Near and Far East.Read More »
Nursing homes in Holland have a long waiting list. It has become customary to register as early as possible to ensure future placement.
Impressive is Rob Houwer’s film which casts its eye on an old peoples’ home. Filmed in colour, it contains the haunting image: an eerie, disquieting shot of numerous residents all peering out of their windows simultaneously, all silent, all looking heartbreakingly lonely. Were this a horror film it would be terrifying, as it is it strikes a more melancholy chord.Read More »
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In a confined section of a psychiatric ward in Northeast China, patients of schizophrenia, mania, depression, compulsive sexual behaviour and alcohol addition receive the mandatory treatment. As soon as their heads are cleared, they try to break free but always fail. Under the control of drugs and unquestionable discipline, they begin to reflect on their souls, will, desire and thoughts.Read More »
A ghostwriter hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister uncovers secrets that put his own life in jeopardy.Read More »
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The leading clown role in a renowned theatre troupe passes on, and is welcomed into the Underworld. As he relives his vivid memories one last time before entering the afterlife, 50 years of art, struggle and love play out against …Read More »
Set in post war Japan, the film tells the tale of a woman (Martha Hyer) looking for her missing brother. Her brother operated a small export business and has suddenly disappeared. Strangely his business partner has also vanished. Japan is portrayed as a hotbed for smugglers and snoopers all trying to make a buck anyway they can.
Hyer soon comes in contact with the Japanese police who are somewhat sympathetic but they are also hunting for her brother because they believe he was involved in some smuggled opium. In steps an American ex-serviceman (Byron Mitchie), who works the black market and agrees to help Hyer find her brother.Read More »