• Aleksey Fedorchenko – Pervye na Lune AKA First on the Moon (2005)

    2001-2010Aleksey FedorchenkoFantasyRussiaSci-Fi

    Plot:
    In spring 1938 in the mountains in the north of Chile a fiery UFO, later named “Chilean Sphere “, fell down. The investigation of this episode, made by a film crew, has led to a sensational discovery. It appeared that before the Second World War (in the thirties) in the USSR a secret space program had been developed. The Soviet scientists and military authorities managed to launch the first spacecraft 23 years prior to Jury Gagarin’s flight! “The First on the Moon” tells about everyday life, heroic deeds and tragedy of the first group of the Soviet cosmonauts. It is the first Russian film shot in a very rare genre ‘mockumentary’ or ‘documentary fiction’.Read More »

  • Howard Hawks – Red Line 7000 (1965)

    1961-1970ActionHoward HawksUSA

    Quote:
    The story of three racing drivers and three women, who constantly have to worry for the lives of their boyfriends. Jim Loomis and Mike Marsh drive for Pat Cassarian. Jim expects his fiancée Holly, but before she arrives, he dies in a race. Since she hasn’t got the money to travel back, she stays. The young and very ambitious talent Ned Arp joins the team and immediately starts wooing Pat’s sister Julie. Third in the team is womanizer Dan McCall, who brings with him his current girlfriend Gabrielle from Paris. So the basic theme of this soap is “Who with whom?”Read More »

  • Robin Shouming Weng – Jin bi hui huang AKA Fujian Blue (2007)

    2001-2010ChinaDramaRobin Shouming Weng

    Synopsis
    In the wake of China’s open-door policy in the early 1980’s, Fujian was one of the first Chinese coastal provinces to be opened to the outside world. Many of the male residents opted to go abroad for work, leaving behind their wives and families. Two decades later, Fujian is a microcosm of Chinese modernity: there are palatial suburbs populated by lonely “remittance widows”; neon-lit discotheques frequented by karaoke kids; coastal villages inhabited by impoverished fishermen and city centers dominated by gangs, snakeheads and language schools acting as fronts for organized human trafficking.Read More »

  • Juraj Herz – Habermann (2010)

    2001-2010DramaGermanyJuraj HerzPolitics

    A mill owner in the Sudetenland and his family’s lives are changed as Europe heats up in 1938.

    Habermann (Czech: Habermannův mlýn) is a 2010 Czech-German-Austrian drama film directed by Juraj Herz. In the story, a German mill owner in the Sudetenland and his family’s lives are changed as Europe heats up in 1938.

    Quote:
    The German-Czech-Austrian production “Habermann” is being marketed — with the tagline “War is over; vengeance has begun” — as a look at a corner of history that is little known in America: the expulsion of millions of ethnic German civilians from parts of Europe after World War II. It’s a tricky tale to tell; the film’s opening and closing scenes of Germans in Czechoslovakia being rounded up and loaded onto trains consciously echo the familiar imagery of Jews being sent to Nazi concentration camps.Read More »

  • Paul Vecchiali – Change pas de main AKA Don’t Change Hands (1975)

    1971-1980EroticaFrancePaul VecchialiThriller

    Quote:
    Experimental film mixes genres, styles and even XXX vs. soft-core

    Paul Vecchiali’s work is an acquired taste, as he is a filmmaker who marches to the beat of his own drum, never fashionable or popular. Produced by a famous pornographer of the day (Jean-Francois Davy of “Exhibition” fame) it’s a rare mainstream (sort of) movie that carefully integrates explicit hardcore sex content into a strong story.Read More »

  • Luis Buñuel – Viridiana (1961)

    Drama1961-1970ClassicsLuis BuñuelSpain

    Synopsis:
    After years in Mexican exile, Buñuel returned to his native Spain to make this dark account of corruption, which was immediately banned. A young nun, full of charity, kindness, and idealistic illusions about humanity, visits her uncle and tries to help some local peasants and beggars. But her altruism is greeted with ridicule and cruelty. Pinal gives a superb performance in the title role, and Buñuel’s clear-eyed wit is relentless in its depiction of human selfishness, ingratitude, and cynicism. The final beggars’ orgy – a black parody of the Last Supper, performed to the ethereal strains of Handel’s Messiah – is one of the director’s most memorably disturbing, funny, and brutal scenes. A masterpiece.
    — Timeout.Read More »

  • Terry Zwigoff – Ghost World (2001)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaTerry ZwigoffUSA

    Quote:
    With only the plan of moving in together after high school, two unusually devious friends seek direction in life. As a mere gag, they respond to a man’s newspaper ad for a date, only to find it will greatly complicate their lives.Read More »

  • Urszula Antoniak – Nude Area (2014)

    2011-2020ArthouseNetherlandsQueer Cinema(s)Urszula Antoniak

    Synopsis
    Love doesn’t unfold like a story. Only the first and the last chapter are known. Love starts from Love and ends in letting go. In between there is tenderness and cruelty, waiting and fulfilment, ecstasy and disappointment. If love is a discourse, these are her figures of speech. An adolescent love between two girls. Childish cruelty is mixed with full blown sensuality. Dreams and life reflect and complete each other. The end is known, the story will be told after the love is gone.Read More »

  • Edward Dmytryk – The Caine Mutiny (1954)

    USA1951-1960ClassicsEdward DmytrykWar

    Synopsis:
    During the World War II, the crew of a small insignificant ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet experience an event unlike any event ever experienced by the United States Navy. A Ship’s Captain is removed from command by his Executive Officer in an apparent outright act of mutiny. As the trial of the mutineers unfold, it is learned that the Captain of the ship was mentally unstable, perhaps even insane. The Navy must decide if the Caine Mutiny was a criminal act, or an act of courage to save a ship from destruction at the hands of her Captain?Read More »

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