• Eran Riklis – Ha-Kala Ha-Surit AKA The Syrian Bride (2004)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaEran RiklisIsrael

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    In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border, the Druze bride Mona is engaged to get married with Tallel, a television comedian that works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Mona’s father Hammed is a political activist pro-Syria that is on probation by the Israeli government. His older son Hatten married a Russian woman eight years ago and was banished from Majdal Shams by the religious leaders and his father. His brother Marwan is a wolf trader that lives in Italy. His sister Amal has two teenager daughters and has the intention to join the university, but her marriage with Amin is in crisis. When the family gathers for Mona’s wedding, an insane bureaucracy jeopardizes the ceremony.Read More »

  • Nikos Nikolaidis – Evridiki BA 2O37 AKA Euridice BA 2O37 (1975)

    Drama1971-1980ArthouseGreeceNikos Nikolaidis

    Synopsis:
    Euridice lives imprisoned inside a metaphorical hell-house, in a country ruled by a dictatorship regime.
    Having already served her time, she is waiting to be transferred “somewhere else”. However, the State Processor in charge of the prisoners transfers has been mocking her for days… maybe even years.
    A long lost lover (Orpheus), contacts her asking to see her again. Euridice accepts, hoping that something will change yet she is also afraid of any changes.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Hi no tori AKA Firebird: Daybreak Chapter (1978)

    1971-1980AsianFantasyJapanKon Ichikawa

    This extraordinarily complex film is not only a send-up of every samurai film ever made, it is also an extrapolation of the value of life. The Yamatai, represented by Prince Susano-O and elderly advisor Sumuke, hire Yumihiko of Matsuro to hunt the phoenix so that Queen Himiko, sister of Susano-O can have eternal life.Read More »

  • Rainer Werner Fassbinder – In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden AKA In a Year of 13 Moons (1978)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaGermanyRainer Werner Fassbinder

    Quote:
    Elvira Weishaupt, once a burly working-class butcher named Erwin, has made an enormous sacrifice for love. She has undergone a sex change for a romantic interest who has abandoned her, and she now must struggle to reconcile her past life with her present identity. The emotionally fractured Elvira visits influential acquaintances and old haunts in hopes of putting the pieces of her life back together — and of confronting her lost love.Read More »

  • Pedro Costa & Thierry Lounas – Où gît votre sourire enfoui? AKA Where Does Your Hidden Smile Lie? (2001)

    2001-2010DocumentaryFrancePedro CostaPoliticsThierry Lounas

    Documentary about Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. While Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub assemble the third version of “Sicilia!”, Pedro Costa films a “reassembly comedy.” Behind their patience at work, tender and violent, the two filmmakers reveal a certain idea of the cinema, their cinema and their married life. Pedro Costa takes us to the center of his own cinema, in a unique space-time trip, and offers cinephiles the most beautiful gift he can dream of: participating in the interior, in the act of cinematic creation.
    Read More »

  • Patrice Leconte – Tandem (1987)

    Drama1981-1990ComedyFrancePatrice Leconte

    Michel Mortez is going to and fro France to compere a radio game he created 25 years ago. He is famous among the average Frenchmen. But he is also a poker. Rivetot, his assistant and technician, always goes with him. He is the only one to know what really lies under Mortez’s appearance of playful don Juan. When the programme is condemned by the managers, Rivetot delays as long as possible the moment he will have to announce it to Mortez… Both malicious and tender, this bitter comedy also shows nostalgia.Read More »

  • Thomas Schamoni – Ein großer graublauer Vogel AKA A Big Grey-Blue Bird (1970)

    1961-1970ArthouseGermanySci-FiThomas Schamoni

    This critically well-received independent German film production was made and first seen in 1970, but did not receive general release until 1971. A group of five scientists have invented a machine which will unravel the whole fabric of time and space but have managed to blot the full memory of their achievement from their minds. They did this to prevent the complete destruction of space-time as we know it. However, they also programmed themselves to remember everything if someone uses the key words “a big grey-blue bird.” Gangsters bent on world domination and a young documentary film-team track down these scientists, each attempting to learn their secrets for completely different reasons.Read More »

  • John Boulting – Lucky Jim (1957)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyJohn BoultingUnited Kingdom

    Plot
    Jim Dixon (Ian Carmichael) feels anything but lucky. At the university he has to do the bidding of absent-minded and boring Professor Welch (Hugh Griffith) to have any hope of keeping his job. Worse, he has managed to get entangled with boring and neurotic Margaret Peel, a fellow teacher. All-in-all, the pub is the only friendly place to be. His misery is completed at a dreadful weekend gathering of the Welch clan by the arrival of son Bertrand (Terry-Thomas). Betrand is loud-mouthed and boorish, but has as companion the delightful Christine Callaghan, the sort of marvellous and unattainable woman Jim can only dream about.Read More »

  • Gerry O’Hara – The Spy’s Wife (1972)

    1971-1980ComedyGerry O'HaraShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    An enjoyably whimsical short with British sex farce overtones, directed by Gerry O’Hara and starring Tom Bell, who plays a British spy (named, perhaps a little unimaginatively, Tom) who nips off on a mission to Prague, leaving his wife Hilda (Dorothy Tutin) to carry on her secret affair with his Czech counterpart (the inimitable Vladek Sheybal). Their tryst is repeatedly disrupted, however, first by Tom’s parting suggestion that their flat is bugged, then by a pair of unexpected visitors, but unbeknown to her, Tom has his own mysterious rendezvous to keep. Insubstantial perhaps, but well made and rather fun, particularly in its refusal to reveal the full extent of just what’s going on until the final scene.Read More »

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