• Noboru Tanaka – Hitozuma shudan boko chishi jiken AKA Rape and Death of a Housewife (1978)

    1971-1980DramaExploitationJapanNoboru Tanaka

    There’s a Nobura Tanaka masterpiece lurking behind this lurid title. Today many critics feel Tanaka was the best director in Nikkatsu’s pink film stable, but in the 70s his work was constantly overshadowed by other studio masters like Chusei Sone and Tatsumi Kumashiro. This film was his first major “break-through.” Despite the “objectionable” necrophilia scenes, the movie was applauded by the mainstream press, praised for Hideo Murota’s remarkable performance , and honored by the Japanese Academy of Films and Motion Pictures and Kinema Jumpo as the best film of 1979.Read More »

  • Steven Okazaki – White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)

    2001-2010DocumentaryHiroshima at 75Steven OkazakiUSAWar

    Synopsis
    As global tensions rise, the unthinkable now seems possible. The threat of nuclear weapons of mass destruction has become frighteningly real. WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: THE DESTRUCTION OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI, by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki, looks at the reality of nuclear warfare with first-hand accounts from those who survived and whose lives were forever changed by the atomic bomb.Read More »

  • Franc Roddam – Quadrophenia (1979)

    1971-1980DramaFranc RoddamMusicalUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    London, 1965: Like many other youths, Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially his parents and his job in a company’s mailing division. Only when he’s together with his friends, a ‘Mod’ clique, cruises London on his motor-scooter and hears music such as that of ‘The Who’ and ‘The High Numbers’, he feels free and accepted. However, it’s a flight into an illusionary world.Read More »

  • Antoine d’Agata – White Noise (2019)

    2011-2020Antoine d'AgataArthouseDocumentaryFrance

    Quote:
    The acclaimed work of photographer Antoine d’Agata has mostly been a journey into the heart of darkness, dealing with random and nightly encounters, sex and prostitution. So it’s no surprise that the monumental White Noise leads again to the underworld of sex workers, from Cambodia to Norway, from Ukraine to USA. Built around more than 20 monologues, this films delivers trance-like visions of women in rapture induced by sex or narcotics.Read More »

  • Juliano Dornelles & Kleber Mendonça Filho – Bacurau (2019)

    2011-2020BrazilDramaJuliano DornellesKleber Mendonça Filho

    Set in the near future, the film follows Teresa (Bárbara Colen), who comes home to Bacurau, a village in Brazil’s semi-arid sertão, to attend her grandmother’s funeral. Upon her arrival, Teresa immediately observes signs that Bacurau is in dire straits. Basic amenities are in short supply, mobile-phone coverage is fading, clean water supply is dammed and the truck that brings potable water arrives riddled with bullet holes. It soon becomes apparent that the corrupt government has forsaken the village completely: not only has Bacurau been literally erased from the map, but its citizens are under attack. As the responsible close in, the villagers must prepare an organized resistance to avoid greater damage.Read More »

  • David Lynch – The Grandmother (1970)

    1961-1970AnimationDavid LynchShort FilmUSA

    Synopsis:
    An imaginative lad of about ten has a couple of problems: he wets his bed, and his parents are abusive and disgusting. In a spare room, he finds a bag of seeds, which he plants in soil that he’s placed in the middle of a single bed. The seed sprouts and grows into a grandmother, who’s loving and approving. Life with his parents and with his imagination continues. Is a smiling grandmother enough to get him through?Read More »

  • Janusz Majewski – Sprawa Gorgonowej aka The Gorgon Case (1977)

    1971-1980CrimeJanusz MajewskiMysteryPoland

    Dramatic reconstruction of the case of a Polish woman named Emilia Margerita Gorgonowa who was tried for the murder of Elzbieta Zarembianka, the sixteen year old daughter of a successful architect in Lvov at the beginning of the 1930’s. Based on material in the Cracow archives, pertaining to the two trials as well as the diaries and notes of people closely connected to the case. The film attempts to discover why Gorgonowa was vilified and condemned by the public which had an effect on the outcome of the trial. It aims to present a faithful and documented picture of the events accompanying both trials.Read More »

  • Don Siegel – The Verdict (1946)

    1941-1950Don SiegelFilm NoirMysteryUSA

    Synopsis:
    Mr. Grodman was a respected superintendent at Scotland Yard until a mistake in an investigation caused the execution of an innocent man. He takes the blame and is dismissed, replaced by the obnoxious, gloating Buckley. Feeling vengeful, Grodman would like nothing more than to see Buckley look foolish on the job. His friend Victor Emmric, an artist with macabre tastes, wouldn’t mind either and soon a mysterious murder occurs that may provide them with the chance.Read More »

  • O.W. Fischer & Georg Marischka – Hanussen (1955)

    1951-1960DramaGeorg MarischkaGermanyO.W. FischerPolitics

    In Germany during World War II, a well-known psychic decides to collaborate with the Nazis. (IMDB)

    Klaus Kinski stars in this World War II tale of a well-known clairvoyant who is forced, not altogether unwillingly, to collaborate with the Nazis. (Brian Gusse, www.allmovie.com)Read More »

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