Synopsis
This famous Chinese scroll painting traces the Emperor Kangxi’s second tour of his southern empire in 1689. Painted by Wang Hui (1632-1717) and assistants, it was executed before Western perspective was introduced into Chinese art. Hockney contrasts the more fluid spatial depictions of this scroll with a later scroll painted by Xu Yang and assistants, The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour (1764-1770), scroll four. This scroll illustrates the same tour, but now taken by the Qianlong emperor, grandson of the Kangxi emperor. Read More »

Plot Synopsis:
For a studio specializing in glossy soap operas, costume pictures and musicals, MGM made an inordinate number of “B”-grade crime thrillers in 1937. The first on the docket that year was Under Cover of Night, starring Edmund Lowe as intrepid sleuth Christopher Cross. This time the killer is an overachieving psychopath who strikes only at night, and is unaware that he is a murderer. Thus, the question here is not “who done it,” but rather — when will Christopher Cross catch on to what the audience knows almost from the beginning. The best performance is rendered by Henry Daniell as the respectable college professor who literally moonlights as the killer. MGM would resurrect the “Christopher Cross” character as a female private eye (played by Joyce Compton) in 1939’s Sky Murder. by Hal EricksonRead More »

“What secrets lie deep in the buried forest? Veteran filmmaker Oguri Kohei, the director of such films as The Sting of Death and Sleeping Man, helms The Buried Forest (a.k.a. Umoregi), one of a select group of Japanese films entered in competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. With a cinematic look seemingly pulled straight from yesteryear, the film kicks off by focusing on a high school girl named Machi (Karen). To break up the monotony of summer, Machi decides that she and her friends should have some fun and start telling each other stories.Read More »

Quote:
A group of students decides to camp on a desolate Caspian region which runs a competition of kite flying during the winter solstice. Not far from the camp, live Babak and Saeed, two grim cooks. Armed with sharp knives, they roam the forest in search of meat to serve the decrepit restaurant they run nearby…Read More »

The story of two outlaws and a bounty hunter in 1940s Manchuria and their rivalry to possess a treasure map while being pursued by the Japanese army and Chinese bandits.Read More »

It is July 1st of 1997, and Hong Kong is bright in celebration. The United Kingdom handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China leaves Ga Yin, and his fellow soldiers without work. Which leads them to find employment and money any way they can get it. Without much success, Ga Yin decides to join his brother Ga Suen in the triad gang world.Read More »

Quote:
At some point beating and ravaging others becomes a routine pastime when two kids go on a rampage. Taira picks his target of men and goes for broke, while Kitahara puts down his camera long enough to instead go after women. There is enough blood shed during the course of one night to paint a mural of red for the whole city to see.Read More »

This film by the Marxist collective Cine de la Base urges Argentine workers to rise up and take control of the country, echoing the rubric: “Workers of the world, unite! You have only your chains to lose.” One premise of this complex political film is that the American CIA worked with Juan Peron to corrupt the Argentine trade-union movement. A unionist known only as Barrera, (who in reality was assassinated in 1969) is here shown accepting bribes from American-owned companies and otherwise undermining the legitimate activities of his union. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More »

Quote:
Lockhart began by constructing a portrait studio in a small rural community, and extending an open invitation to local children, and then by immersing herself in their environment and noting the complexity of their interactions. Her highly descriptive, almost painterly portraits, taken over the course of several years, abjure narration for the pleasure of the gaze and the notion of temporality. The studio remains a constant, its black backdrop, cement floor and natural lighting a theatrical setting that allows the children to develop a different kind of relationship to the camera. Those stills stand in stark contrast to the pictorialism of a series showing the community’s majestic natural surroundings, and to the portraits on 16mm film that accompany them, which are both literally and figuratively moving.Read More »