Boštjan Hladnik (30 January 1929 – 30 May 2006) was a Yugoslav/Slovene filmmaker.

Hladnik was born in Kranj. He started with amateur short films after acquiring a projector and a 8mm camera in 1947[1]. From 1949 he studied at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana and made a name for himself with several highly acclaimed short films. In 1957, Hladnik moved to Paris to apprentice under French filmmakers such as Claude Chabrol, Philipe de Broca, and Robert Siodmak. Hladnik’s early-’60s features, Ples v dežju (Dance in the Rain)[2] (1961) and Peščeni grad/Sand Castle[3] (1962), influenced the course of Yugoslav cinema, through integrating influences from the nouvelle vague into it. Read More »

Two strangers share a sweepstakes ticket and then embark on an “imaginary” honeymoon with their “winnings”.Read More »

When he was a boy, Harry idolized Santa Claus, but one Christmas Eve, he witnessed something horrifying that forever shattered his innocent understanding of Santa. Now an adult, Harry wants to embody the pure Santa Claus he grew up loving. He works at a toy factory and keeps records of who’s been naughty and nice, but the spirit of Christmas isn’t what it used to be and he can’t take it. So, garbed in his red suit, Harry decides that the only thing he can do is to become Santa himself and make all of the naughty townspeople pay…in blood!Read More »

In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah’s Witness community is attacked by an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict, the familiar world of Yana, the wife of the community leader, slowly crumbles. Yana’s inner discontent grows as she struggles to make sense of her desires.Read More »

Until the beginning of the 20th century in France, the game of hide and seek was called “cligne-musette”. In a winter landscape, the film follows five kids and a young man who wanders alone between the desolate buildings of the Valibout neighbourhood, located in the province town of Plaisir. They will not cross paths but seem destined to meet the same fate, that of being abandoned to themselves; to hide and not to be found.Read More »

A veil of sadness lies over the oppressively hot summer days. Cleo dives into daydreams with her cousins, the girls share secret signs and rituals. Flowing gently, in impressionistic images, the empty space that the death of Cleo’s sister has left in the family is poetically encircled.Read More »

“allmovie” wrote:
Knightriders may well be the only cycle flick ever to be played out in suits of armor. A hardcase motorcycle gang led by Ed Harris has found itself a neat money-making gimmick. Dressed as the knights of the round table, the cyclists pick up a few bucks at local “renaissance” fairs, selling handicrafts made by the more talented members of the gang. Harris’ great rival is Tom Savini, who has his own band of “black knights.” Keep an eye out for a chucklesome unbilled bit by novelist Stephen King.Read More »

One of the last films directed by the great Elmer Clifton, whose career dates back to the mid-teens and D.W.Griffith, The Judge was also the first production of Ida Lupino’s production company, first called Emerald Productions, later called The Filmmakers.

This is a quirky film which is both hard-boiled and pretentious, raw and artsy. It is also a film that raises as many questions as it answers. Elements are introduced into the story, covered in detail, and then not developed. Dream sequences are introduced, but are unclear. The main character–who is a sleazy defense attorney, NOT a judge–is well-played by Milburn Stone, but his story is not really typical of anyone other than this one oddball character.Read More »

During its presentation at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, Fang and Claw was a sensation. The fruit of labours which spanned over two years, and whose editing amalgamated some 65,000 meters of film and 37 hours of sound, the film was unlike anything from the world of wildlife documentary. Not only was it technically interesting at the time (the construction and transportation of two large high powered spotlights for night scenes, as well as special trucks to carry them), nor the exceptional preparation required to craft each scene, but what all this work is in the service of. Totally without dialogue, with a soundtrack crafted by Michel Fano from natural sounds as well as an electronic instrumentarium, using an editing technique devoted to the rhythm and rhyme between each shot. Between plastic beauty and bloody cruelty, hunting scenes and scenes of rut, stillness, quickness, carnivorous, and nocturnal and diurnal races hound this feral world which becomes savage, becomes fragmented and alien.Read More »