Ardak Amirkulov’s 1990 historical epic about the intrigue and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan’s systematic destruction of the lost east Asian civilization of Otrar is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The movie that spurred the extraordinary wave of great Kazakh films in the 90s, Amirkulov’s movie is at once hallucinatory, visually resplendent and ferociously energetic, packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail and B-movie fervor, and traversing an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces.Read More »

A man pretends to be married to his ex-wife for the sake of his mother’s sanity. But when he finds love with his secretary, and later a 17-year-old, he ends up lost in confusion.

One of the better films that belongs to the “New Sensitivity” movement which arouse in Israel during the late 60’s till the mid-70’s, and was influenced by the French New Wave.Read More »

Synopsis:
Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi, best-known for the groundbreaking shockumentary Mondo Cane, directed this bizarre and shocking look at slavery in America. Set in the deep South prior to the Civil War, Zio Tom finds Jacopetti and Prosperi travelling back in time aboard a helicopter to investigate the nuts and bolts of slavery as it happened in the United States prior to abolition. Along the way, the filmmakers go aboard a slave ship as frightened Africans are brought to America under inhuman conditions; they witness the dangerous and degrading process by which slaves were made ready for market; and they visit a “breeding farm” for slaves after laws prohibit the importation of slaves from abroad. Read More »

Quote:
Stanisław, a worker at an art museum in Warsaw, is accused of stealing a painting from the store room. His boss gives Stanisław a 24-hour deadline to return it, or face a jail sentence. Since he does not possess the painting, he decides to go into hiding – by dressing up as a woman, Maria. He gets a job as housemaid – despite knowing little about cleaning a house – but a succession of amorous husbands, difficult children, and eccentric bosses drives him from one job to the next. The film, a nudge at Polish society in communist times, is a tragic-comedic reminder of what it was like to live in those times.Read More »

Quote:
“Velvet Vampire is a surreal artsy vampire movie from the hippie era ripe with seventies allusions to counter-culture ideology. Unfortunately this movie never quite lives up to its potential. What could have been a chilling in your face anti-establishment message about the hypocrisy of sanctified virtue and man’s desire to see his wife metamorphose into his own personal holy whore plays more like a timid low budget exploitation flick. Worse, it’s not aged well and may appear to contemporary eyes as more of a farce than the bizarre counterculture homily it is. But it’s still a fascinating movie to watch. Well worth renting if you can find a copy.” – Mise-en-scene CryptRead More »

Synopsis:
In feudal Japan, there is a famous store called Edoya. The store manager Kinbei has no doubt that he will inherit everything some day, since the owner’s family has no children. But suddenly, the owners adopt a ronin Yasujiro, and Kinbei wants to eliminate them. Kinbei kills the sister of Yasujirou’s fiancee and dumps her body in Kagami Pond. Soon a ghostly revenge is upon him…Read More »

Synopsis:
Scotland Yard’s Jim Naboth (Stacy Keach) battled the bottle instead of London’s seedy underworld and lost. But he finds one chance to get out of life’s gutter when the mob kidnaps his ex-wife in a ruthless $1-million ransom scheme. Director Michael Apted tightens The Squeeze into a penetrating study of people under stress – and a walloping bloody, sexy detective caper in the mold of great British gangland thrillers like Get Carter and The Long Good Friday. Read More »

Franca and her husband Antonio decide to sell a yellow rug, which was a gift of Franca’s stepfather. One day, while Antonio is out, a strange man rings, saying he wishes to buy the rug. But the man’s visit becomes a nightmare. He kidnaps Franca and says he killed his wife on that same yellow rug. Then Franca kills the man. But is that really all that has happened? And who was that strange man?Read More »

Synopsis:
During the mid-nineteenth century, Jeremiah Johnson, after a stint in the US Army, decides that he would prefer a life of solitude and more importantly peace by living with nature in the mountains of the frontier of the American west. This plan entails finding a piece of land upon which to build a house. This quest ends up being not quite what he envisioned as he does require the assistance of others to find his footing, and in turn he amasses friends and acquaintances along the way, some who become more a part of his life than he would have imagined.Read More »