• Kamen Kalev – Iztochni piesi AKA Eastern Plays (2009)

    2001-2010BulgariaDramaKamen Kalev

    Quote:
    Two brothers who have lost all contact are suddenly brought together when they have opposite roles in a racist beating: while Georgi who’s recently joined a neonazi group participates in the violence, Itso witnesses and rescues the Turkish family. Georgi, now being asked to participate in larger events, starts to question his implication in the movement and Itso wonders if the beautiful Turkish girl he saved could be his ticket out from his sad life in Sofia. Only by reuniting will the two brothers be able to assess what they really want from life.Read More »

  • Alberto Lattuada – Il bandito AKA The Bandit (1946)

    1941-1950Alberto LattuadaCrimeDramaItaly

    A contingent of Italian prisoners of war arrive on a train from Germany after World War II to Turin. The city where Ernesto lives has been bombed, his mother is dead and his sister has gone missing.Read More »

  • Greydon Clark – Black Shampoo (1976)

    1971-1980ActionExploitationGreydon ClarkUSA

    A black hairstylist has sex with his female customers, and tries to keep the Mafia from taking over his business.Read More »

  • Pou-Soi Cheang – Gau ngao gau AKA Dog Bite Dog (2006)

    2001-2010ActionCrimeHong KongPou-Soi Cheang

    Plot Synopsis from beyondhollywood.com
    Although many Hong Kong thrillers like to style themselves as being gritty and nihilistic, “Dog Bite Dog” is one of the few with the guts to actually follow through on such claims, being one of the darkest and brutal films of the last few years. As such, it marks a change for director Soi Cheang, previously known for light horror outings such as “Home Sweet Home” and “The Death Curse”, though he certainly takes the subject matter between his teeth and succeeds in producing a film which cuts like a knife through the glossy, choreographed violence usually seen in the genre.Read More »

  • Ramin Bahrani – Plastic Bag (2009)

    2001-2010Ramin BahraniShort FilmUSA

    Quote:
    This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.Read More »

  • Kim Longinotto & Jano Williams – Gaea Girls (2000)

    1991-2000DocumentaryJano WilliamsKim LonginottoUnited Kingdom

    “This fascinating film follows the physically grueling and mentally exhausting training regimen of several young wanna-be GAEA GIRLS, a group of Japanese women wrestlers. The idea of them may seem like a total oxymoron in a country where women are usually regarded as docile and subservient. However, in training and in the arena, the female wrestlers depicted in this film are just as violent as any member of the World Wrestling Federation, and the blood that’s drawn is very real indeed. One recruit, Takeuchi, endures ritual humiliation not seen on screen since the boot camp sequences of FULL METAL JACKET. In DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE, Kim Longinotto cinematically explored the previously unexplored world of the Tehran divorce courts. Working with co-director Jano Williams, Longinotto has been given access to shoot an insider’s verité account of this closely guarded universe.” – Chicago Film FestivalRead More »

  • Kim Longinotto & Jano Williams – Shinjuku Boys (1995)

    1991-2000DocumentaryJano WilliamsKim LonginottoUnited Kingdom

    A film about love and gender. This documentary is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo, Japan – where the hosts are women who have chosen to live as men. They can only make their living as hosts in a nightclub with other ‘wannabes’ like them. The young women who come there often have relationships with them but the underlying fear is whether such a relationship can withstand the pressures on a girl to get married and have children. All three boys deal with this in different ways. These three hosts, the Shinjuku Boys, take us into their lives.Read More »

  • Hartmut Bitomsky – Das Kino und der Wind und die Photographie aka The Cinema and the Wind and Photography (1991)

    1991-2000DocumentaryGermanyHartmut Bitomsky

    DAS KINO UND DER WIND UND DIE PHOTOGRAPHIE
    Sieben Kapitel uber dokumentarische Filme

    The Cinema and the Wind and Photography
    Seven Chapters about Documentary Films

    “That’s how we’ll begin: the street of the first film. This street is located in a suburb of Lyon. That’s where the factory of the Lumiere brothers was. They made the first films for cinema. These were documentary films.”Read More »

  • Robert Bresson – Procès de Jeanne d’Arc AKA The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)

    1961-1970DramaFranceRobert Bresson

    Quote:
    Trial of Joan of Arc opens to the austere, fragmented image of the hurried footsteps of an indistinguishable figure dressed in a black robe. Carrying a parchment into the vestibule of a chapel, an unidentified woman delivers a personal statement on her daughter’s religious upbringing and death at the hands of the church, visibly supported by two sympathetic advocates. The somber and official tone of the grieving mother’s testament is subsequently reflected in the demeanor of the accused, Jeanne d’Arc (Florence Delay), who is first introduced through a shot of her manacled hands as she places them on an opened Bible before beginning her sworn testimony in front of the presiding judge, Bishop Cauchon (Jean-Claude Fourneau). Read More »

Back to top button