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A journalist is assigned to interview an eccentric anthropologist who has exhumed the skeleton of Jörg Jenatsch, a revered freedom fighter who was mysteriously murdered in 1639. Initially disinterested, the journalist begins to uncover unflattering truths about the national hero and experiences visions in which he seems to be witnessing events that transpired over 300 years ago. As he obsessively pursues the investigation, his personal life and his grip on reality disintegrate, drawing him relentlessly toward the fatal carnival at which Jenatsch was killed.Read More »

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A rich but unscrupulous old woman plots with a scientist to have her brain implanted in the skull of a sexy young woman.Read More »

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Not much happens in this film, which is about the disaffected lives of young people in Argentina in the early 60s. They have enough money, but they can’t get no satisfaction if you know what I mean. The strongest statement comes from Roberto, a TV producer, who complains that his bosses won’t let him do what he wants; they call him too young and rebellious. The young people in this film are all rebellious in one way or another, but mostly they are stifled by the social system. So they live somewhat dissolute and listless lives.Read More »

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Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion, with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life dramatically intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.Read More »

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Bergman’s little-seen English-language film starring Elliott Gould and Bibi Andersson, which charts the course of a doomed affair, earned mixed reviews on release in 1971 and was quickly overshadowed by his subsequent works – but it’s time to recognise it as a major entry in the director’s canon.

It’s unsurprising that many myths and misconceptions have arisen surrounding Ingmar Bergman, that of the terminally gloomy Swede being merely the most prevalent. Here, after all, is someone acknowledged as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time yet viewed by those none too familiar with his body of work as a whole as a forbiddingly lofty, aloof philosopher rather than an artist or entertainer. (Even a feature in last month’s Sight & Sound claimed that some of Bergman’s films might today “be considered so wilfully opaque and mired in symbolism as to be past the point of parody”.)Read More »

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Diaz’s contribution to the 2009 Jeonju Digital Project.

Canadian Martha (Lois Goff) returns to the site of her Filipino upbringing, now a depressed ex-mining town. Her childhood friend Willy (Willy Fernandez) still carries something of a torch for her, but the bitter, ambitious Mang Ferding (Dante Perez) soon thrusts him into a test of loyalties.Read More »

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A man chop down trees, organizes the trunks, clean them, stops to defecate, lunch, nap and continues to sell its timber.

Ed Gonzalez for Slant Magazine wrote:
Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad is a penetrating peek into the daily life of a woodcutter from Argentina’s Pampa. Misael Saavedra’s stoic figure marks trees, cuts them down, shaves them, and loads them onto trucks. In between, he finds time to sleep, eat, and defecate. The film brings to mind the humility and minimalism of Iranian cinema, and though Alonso doesn’t seem to use the woodcutter as a political pawn, the film’s long takes and the cyclical, labored nature of the man’s daily grind force the spectator to question the nature of freedom.Read More »

Ivan (1932)
Cinemapoem about building of Dniproges (Dnieper Hydroelectric Station), about the fate of rural fellow which comes together with other boys and girls to build one of most buildings of socialist industrial construction. Narrates the language of the poetic cinema of O. Dovzhenko about the process of alteration of consciousness of rural fellow due to industrialization.
Recipient of an award on ICF in Venice in 1934.Read More »

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Haru’s Journey provides an insider’s look at Japanese culture through its themes of acceptance, endurance and familial commitment. It tells the story of elderly fisherman Tadao and his granddaughter Haru, who live in a small fishing village in Hokkaido. When Haru’s job disappears, she wants to take her stubborn grandfather to live in Tokyo where she will find more opportunities. But Tadao refuses to go to the capital, sparking a search for another family member who will share his life. Thus begins a road movie driven by family dynamics, as the two set out for Japan’s main island, Honshu, to see if one of Tadao’s siblings will look after him. First stop is his even more cantankerous older brother, Shiego, and their testy exchange reveals there’s more to Tadao’s selfishness than just old age. By contrast, selfless Haru takes on responsibility for the pair’s dwindling finances so their pilgrimage can continue…Read More »