Nainsukh is a 2010 film directed by Amit Dutta based on the life and works of Nainsukh, an 18th-century Indian miniature painter.The film contains meticulous recreations of Nainsukh’s paintings through compositions set amidst the ruins and environs of Jasrota palace. where the artist was retained.

The film premiered at the 67th Venice film festival, where it was received by Film Comment as one of top 10 films shown. It’s North American premiere was at the San Francisco International Film Festival of 2011.Read More »

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“Les Blank made A Poem Is A Naked Person during 1972-74, while living at the Russell/Shelter records recording studio compound on Grand Lake Of The Cherokees in NE Oklahoma. While the film has had few public showings as, apparantly, Mr. Russell is not keen on sharing it with his public.Read More »

In a rural scenery in the throes of difficult changes lives a humble but promising young farmer girl called Mari Pataki. Her father forbids her from seeing the man she loves. The father, above all preoccupied by work on the fields and prospective wealth, decides to give his daughter in marriage to an old but rich man with whom he does business. Land marries land, he says. This seems to be the unyielding rule of the Hungarian peasantry. But the young lover is ready to stand up to any challenge to keep Maris love.Read More »

Three couples deal with the sticky issue of infidelity in this comedy-drama from Spanish filmmaker Ventura Pons. Silvio (Jose Coronado) is a well-to-do business executive who is seemingly happily married to Marcia (Cecilia Rossetto). However, Silvio is convinced Marcia is cheating on him, and frequently spies on her — ironically enough, he usually does so during assignations with his mistress, posh interior designer Claudia (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon). Meanwhile, Daniel (Marc Cartes), who works with Claudia, is enjoying a vacation with his wife Irina (Cristina Plazas), a front desk clerk at the hotel where Silvio usually romps with Claudia. Daniel is hoping the getaway will help put the spark back into their marriage, but he soon discovers Irina’s head has been turned by a trainer from a nearby health spa.Read More »

In her long-gestating first feature, Adina Pintilie uses bodies of all types to explore the boundaries of intimacy and challenge notions of beauty, which clearly wouldn’t be possible without a significant display of naked flesh. Whether she’s achieved that goal, however, will very much depend on the individual, as “Touch” is a divisive film that aims to address more issues than it can persuasively handle. Seamlessly blending fiction with reality, Pintilie invents a story about an Englishwoman grappling with intimacy issues and weaves in real people guiding her toward being comfortable with her body and the bodies of others.Read More »

The third collaboration between the Swiss director Tanner and the English writer John Berger follows a group of young people in Geneva who are searching for new directions in their lives after the failure of the revolutionary hopes of the 1960s. A former labor activist takes a job as a gardener and handyman with some free-spirited farmers, setting up a school in a greenhouse for the neighborhood kids, while his wife continues to work in a factory. A disillusioned radical turns to gambling, while having interesting conversations with his girlfriend, an adventurous student of Tantrism. A history teacher uses radical methods in the classroom to foster socialist ideas in his students. He hooks up with a grocery store cashier who undercharges poor people and steals food from the store to help her aging friend, a veteran of the Resistance.Read More »

Tale of a self-centered actor preparing to direct his first film, but who is struck down by illness, recalls everything from Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz” to Denys Arcand’s “The Barbarian Invasions” with a friendly ghost thrown in for good measure.Read More »

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The enigmatically titled Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana [Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana] is Kaurismäki’s take on the road movie. It represents something of a contradiction for non-Finnish viewers, being one of the director’s most accessible films but also one whose subtleties are unlikely to be fully understood by a foreign audience, and I’m including myself in that sweeping suggestion.Read More »

Bruno Bozzetto’s parody and spin-off of Disney’s Fantasia is a collection of animated sketches accompanying classical music pieces (by Debussy, Dvorak, Ravel, Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Vivaldi), with live-action slapstick sequences featuring cowriter Maurizio Nichetti (The Icicle Thief). It’s not only a hilarious send-up of Disney’s excesses but a splendid cartoon feature in its own right–funny and imaginative and lively. The “restored” version of this 1976 Italian picture includes more Nichetti footage and a stereo sound track.Read More »