• Shin’ya Tsukamoto – Rokugatsu no hebi AKA A Snake of June (2002)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanShinya Tsukamoto

    Quote:
    When suicide hotline counselor Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) receives explicit photos of herself from a mysterious caller, she is thrown into a depraved game of hidden fantasies and unrestrained sexual desire. As the voyeuristic stalker becomes determined to alter her passionless life, Rinko’s compulsively clean husband Shigehiko (Yuji Koutari) attempts to hunt him down and the three disillusioned soul’s paths will inevitably intertwine.Read More »

  • János Xantus – Eszkimó asszony fázik AKA Eskimo Woman Feel Cold (1984)

    1981-1990DramaHungaryJános Xantus

    Eskimo Woman Feel Cold is the debut feature film of director János Xantus. It won best newcomer director and best male actor awards on the Magyar Filmszemle, Hungary’s national film awards and many other international awards.

    The film is about a piano player who falls in love with Mari, a beautiful blond woman, who happens to be the wife of a deaf-mute animal caretaker. Both men adore Mari, as she loves both of them. Albeit all of them know this way won’t stand.Read More »

  • Xiaogang Feng – Ji jie hao AKA Assembly (2007)

    2001-2010ChinaDramaWarXiaogang Feng

    Plot summary: (from anutshellreview.blogspot.com)
    Feng Xiaogang’s Assembly was the opening film at last year’s Pusan International Film Festival, and tickets were sold out in record time once they were made available online. Such is the faith (or curiosity) of the new film from the director who brought us movies like World Without Thieves, and martial arts Hamlet The Banquet. When you think of Chinese directors making a movie based out of Chinese history, you can’t help but imagine the massive amount of propaganda that get so blatantly infused into the story and especially the dialogue. But here, Feng managed to bring about a movie which goes beyond the usual ra-ra, and shows us that a movie with universal themes can also come out from what is essentially a war movie based upon China’s tumultuous era after WWII.Read More »

  • David Neves – Mauro, Humberto (1975)

    1971-1980ArthouseBrazilDavid NevesDocumentary

    Documentary about Humberto Mauro, his work and its importance.Read More »

  • Kenneth Anger – Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965)

    1961-1970CultKenneth AngerQueer Cinema(s)Short FilmUSA

    A guy and his dream object, his car.Read More »

  • Kenneth Anger – Fireworks (1949)

    1941-1950ExperimentalKenneth AngerQueer Cinema(s)Short FilmUSA

    Quote:
    A wordless film, save for a voice-over introducing us to the imagery of dreams. A shirtless young man dreams of awakening to finds photographs of a muscular sailor carrying him in his arms. He goes to a bar where the sailor from his dream displays his muscular upper torso. A gang of sailors, swinging chains, enters menacingly. He watches, smoking. They surround him and an assault begins. Surreal touches accent the dream-like qualities. A phallic firework, a flaming Christmas tree, and the burning photographs provide climax and closure as the young man, back in bed, is beside the sailor.Read More »

  • Jean-Paul Nogues – Rosée nocturne (2006)

    2001-2010FranceJean-Paul NoguesShort Film

    On a scorching summer night, a quiet feminine slumber enchanted by the womb fluids of the earth and the flesh.Read More »

  • Agnès Varda – Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma AKA A Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema (1995)

    1991-2000Agnès VardaComedyFrance

    Criterion wrote:
    A celebration of cinema’s centennial, One Hundred and One Nights finds Agnès Varda at her most playful. It is also perhaps her unlikeliest project: a star-studded comic fantasy with an extravagant sense of style and an adoring but slightly off-kilter perspective on the magic of filmmaking. French New Wave icon Michel Simon is a mysterious aging impresario named Simon Cinéma who has hired a young film student, Camille (Julie Gayet), to simply sit with him at his mansion and talk about movies. Skeptical yet increasingly enchanted, Camille bears witness to cinema itself coming to life, allowing Varda to wittily integrate a mind-boggling parade of appearances by screen legends (Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anouk Aimée, Robert De Niro, and many others), and attest to the vigorous health of the movies at the close of the twentieth century.Read More »

  • Agnès Varda – Les créatures AKA The Creatures (1966)

    1961-1970Agnès VardaArthouseFantasyFrance

    Criterion wrote:
    One of Agnès Varda least-seen films is also one of her most fascinating: an eccentrically imaginative science-fiction fantasia that touches on human nature, free will, and the creative process. Working with major stars for the first time on a feature film, Varda casts Michel Piccoli as a writer and Catherine Deneuve as his silent wife, a couple who relocate to the island of Noirmoutier (a longtime second home for Varda and her husband, Jacques Demy) where strange goings-on hint at a sinister force controlling the minds and actions of the residents. Slipping between “reality” and fiction, genre spectacle and avant-garde experimentation, Les créatures is a beguiling, endlessly inventive exploration of the mysterious alchemy that transforms life into art.Read More »

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