Zoltan Fabri’s 1956 Hungarian feature about the persecution of an educator (played for both laughs and great pathos by Ernö Szabó) whose essay about Hannibal and the Punic Wars in a school bulletin is deemed unflattering to the Mussolini regime. A beautifully shot, modest masterpiece which is, as the cliche goes, as timely today as ever.Read More »
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São Paulo police mistakenly thinks a folk poet and singer is the same man who had stabbed his boss.Read More »
The life of Jewish Expressionist poet and performance artist, Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945), told chronologically in vignettes given context by archival footage of turn-of-the-century Germany, World War I, and the ascent of the Third Reich. Her poetry often comprises the soundtrack. We see her in relation to men: her first husband, whom she leaves after her son is born; artists like Chagall and Franz Marc; an older muse and then a second husband; and, Gottfried Benn (1886 – 1956), physician and poet. Benn’s life is also chronicled: homosexual encounters, his attraction to Else and the Berlin scene, and his politics. Her poems addressed to him define this cultural moment.
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The saga of adolescents living on their own as adults was treated as early as 1961 by Triguerinho Neto in this film set in Salvador, Bahia, under the Vargas dictatorship. Tonio has left home, unable to identify with his parents’ community centered around their African-derived religion. But he finds that, as a mulatto, in the outside world he is rejected by whites who see him as black and by blacks who see him as white. Tonio, who prefers the company of marginals who are as indefinable as himself, settles into the protection of a woman old enough to be his mother and befriends local dockworkers who are on strike. Betraying the former to help the latter, he finds himself alone. In his inability to commit, Tonio may be a proletarian version of the rootless character central to early sixties Cinema Novo in such films as São Paulo S/A.Read More »
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Ferryboat Romance was the feature film directing debut of renowned Finnish actor Thure Bahne, who had been a mainstay in Finnish cinema since the 1930s. The film has the stunning journalist Sanni (Tuija Halonen) visiting the countryside to write about the timber industry. Looking for a room she is immediately thrust into the merry community of loggers, always up for a song, but one of them, Hurma-Jussi, is a little too persistent. Luckily, she is saved from Hurma-Jussi’s claws by the handsome lumberjack Eräs (William Markus). Sanni learns about the community by working as an assistant to cook Marleena (played by Finnish icon Siiri Angerkoski), who is pursued by the jolly oaf Metku (character actor Kalle Viherpuu). Persistently rejected by Sanni, Hurma-Jussi turns to drastic measures and kidnaps her, but he has underestimated her friends in the small logging community. The film is beautifully shot and not only wonderfully portrays the romance between a young couple, but even more so the love between the older Marleena and Metku.Read More »
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The story follows 3 members of a mental asylum, Tsumiji, Coco and Satoru, as they escape from the asylum, and into the real world. On the way, they find a vicar, who changes their out-view on life, by giving them a bible. Tsumiji takes interest and starts believing in god, while Coco believes the world began when she was born. While they look around town, they must walk ontop of the fences and walls to avoid the floor. They read in the bible that the world will end on the 10th July, so they roam around town attempting to find the perfect place for a picnic with the best vantage point to view the final event.Read More »
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Jessica awakens when an alien spacecraft lands nearby. After dispatching a young couple, the alien assumes the identity of the recently dispatched young man. Jessica and her possessive lover Josephine invite “Anders” in when it appears he’s hurt. Soon Jessica becomes suspicious of Josephine’s overbearing ways, and relies more on the alien for support, but his purpose on earth remains unclear.Read More »
Using elaborate recording technology, Johann Lurf breathes life into Austrian arms manufacturers – more precisely, the surface of their architecture, which is visible from a distance and therefor contradicts the information embargo inside. Set to a driving gaming sound, levels shift and signal lights glow in rich contrasts. In our midst and yet seemingly from another worldRead More »
Plot:Based on Marguerite Abouet’s popular graphic novel series about her life in 1970s post-colonial Cote d’Ivoire, this animated film chronicles the story of 19-year-old Aya and her friends Adjoua and Bintou, who live in the working-class neighborhood of Abidjian (renamed Yop City). While Aya would like to become a doctor one day, her friends are more interested in nightclubbing at the local maquis and hunting for a husband. A comedy filled with diverse voices and characters, Aya of Yop City is a portrait of modern urban Africa. (from bam.org)Read More »