Except for a few brief evocations of Debord’s “art” during the first ten minutes or so, most of this “antitelevisual” video consists of television clips illustrating the extreme degradation and delirium of the present society. It’s a powerful denunciation, but not so deft and subtle as Debord’s films, perhaps because it was made during the worsening stages of his final illness. Presumably intended as a parting shot at the society he detested, it was completed shortly before his death in November 1994 and shown January 9, 1995, on a French cable channel along with La Société du Spectacle and Réfutation de tous les jugements (whence the video copies that have since circulated). Read More »

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An adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel, set in modern Helsinki. Slaughterhouse worker Rahikainen murders a man, and is forced to live with the consequences of his actions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s narrative directorial debut. He chose this project after reading François Truffaut’s interview with Alfred Hitchcock, where Hitchcock claimed Crime and Punishment was the one book he would never adapt, because “it would be to difficult.” Kaurismäki later admitted it was too difficult.Read More »

Shinsuke Ogawa began his career in filmmaking in the early 1960’s, directing industrial films for Japanese public relations firms, but he had a desire to make films of greater consequence, and left his job to become an independent documentarian. Ogawa examined the rise of the Student Left in Japan in 1966’s Sea of Youth and 1967’s The Oppressed Students, and in 1968, as protest among the young became an international phenomenon, Ogawa and a handful of like-minded young filmmakers set up a collective house in rural Sanrizuka. A growing number of young activist filmmakers joined Ogawa in their new home, where they made documentaries focusing on the battle between the builders of Toyko International Airport and the farmers who would be displaced by the project and refused to leave. Read More »

A couple deals with the aftermath of an adoption that goes awry as their household falls apart.Read More »

The idea is simple: A married woman and a single man meet. They love, they argue, fists fly. A dog strays between town and country. The seasons pass. The man and woman meet again. The dog finds itself between them. The other is in one, the one is in the other and they are three. The former husband shatters everything. A second film begins: the same as the first, and yet not. From the human race we pass to metaphor. This ends in barking and a baby’s cries. Read More »

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Shortly after Muzamil was born, the village’s holy man predicts that he will die at age 20. Muzamil’s father can’t stand the curse and leaves home. Sakina raises her son as a single mother, overly protective. One day, Muzamil turns 19.Read More »

In the 13th century there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars, who quested for eternal life by drinking human blood and committing sacrifices. Executed for their unholy deeds, the Templars bodies were left out for the crows to peck out their eyes. Now, in modern day Portugal, a group of people stumble on the Templars abandoned monastery, reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land.Read More »

“Memoria del saqueo” – literally, “Memory of the looting”, but it’s worth stopping here for a second because there’s an intention there that’s lost in translation. During the 2001 crisis, sensationalist media loved to show images of common looting taking place (people taking stuff out of supermarkets – if it’s a big TV, all the better). The title of the film subverts this common usage of the word “looting” in this context, to direct it to the systematic looting of the national riches by the ruling classes, as explained below.

Part of a sequence of four documentaries: Memoria del saqueo, La dignidad de los nadies, Argentina latente and La tierra sublevada.Read More »

A crazed scientist planning to rule the world decides to destroy the city of Paris with his lightning/ray gun.Read More »