While escaping from the clutches of her sexually warped uncle, Toshiko meets Samehada who pos up in front of her in his underpants. The dude is also escaping from the gangsters he has stolen a pile of loot from, and the two make a daring escape together with the gangster thugs and the little weird guy the uncle sends on their trail. Ultra-violence, bizarre sex, and killer costumes ensue.Read More »
Synopsis
One of Satyajit Ray’s greatest early films, full of sensuality and ironic undertones, Devi is sufficiently critical of Hindu superstition that it was banned from foreign distribution until Nehru interceded. The plot concerns a wealthy and devout landowner in the 19th century who believes his daughter-in-law (Sharmila Tagore) is the reincarnation of the goddess Kali and convinces her that he’s right. With Soumitra Chatterji and Chhabi Biswas.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago ReaderRead More »
Quote:
During the most brutal days of World War I, Apostol Bologa (the extraordinary Victor Rebengiuc), a Romanian serving as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army, is part of the Court Martial that punishes deserters and other problem soldiers. Gradually the horror of his routine builds up inside of him, forcing a choice between his military duty and greater feelings of humanity. Ciulei’s most ambitious and masterfully realized film, particularly striking in its impressionistic landscape photography, the Forest of the Hanged earned Ciulei the Best Director prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and became the first Romanian feature to attract widespread international attention. It remains one of the cinema’s greatest studies of the dehumanizing effects of war. Screening introduced by critic Magda Mihailescu.Read More »
Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The Emerald Forest is based on a true story, as related by Los Angeles Times correspondent Leonard Greenwood. Powers Boothe stars as Bill Markham, a US engineer working on a dam project in the Amazonian jungles. Bill’s young son, Tomme (played by director John Boorman’s son Charley Boorman) is kidnapped in the rain forest by a tribe called “The Invisible People” because of their skills at camouflage – a group that has reportedly never experienced contact with Caucasians. Read More »
Quote:
Grisebach’s graduation film – her first full-length feature Mein Stern (2000), co-produced by the “Konrad Wolf” Academy of Film & Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg, ZDF and 3sat – met with immediate international recognition. It tells the story of a boy and a girl, both about 15, both played by inexperienced actors, who go through the canon and rituals of a first relationship, exploring each other’s bodies and experimenting with meaningful words. It is a marvelous interwoven picture of uncertain longing and the desire for adulthood. Mein Stern ran at festivals in Berlin, Locarno, Toronto, Chicago, London, Istanbul and Rotterdam in 2001, winning numerous prizes.Read More »
Classic movie with Herman Brood, who plays a bankrobber trying to go straight by becoming a rock’n’roll star. Takes place in and around Amsterdam’s punk/new wave scene, with appearances by Nina Hagen, Les Chappell, and Lene Lovich. Includes the marriage between Herman Brood and Nina Hagen, in the church at Ruigoord.Read More »
Scott B and Beth B, successful makers of short, experimental films made The Vortex an attempt at a “camp” film with a pessimistic “noirish” atmosphere. The detective Lunch (Lydia Lunch, a popular underground musician and poet) investigates a band of corporate businessman who seek government defense contracts through real “corporate wars” and the manipulation of politicians. Though a bit confusing, this film does have an excellent performance by Lunch, as the detective. – AllMovieGudeRead More »
Quote:
A storm rages over Tokyo. Meanwhile, inside a high-rise apartment block, the bodies of four people are discovered – apparently the victims of a brutal crime. At first, the victims are all thought to be members of one family, but then it transpires that they were not related to each other at all. Investigations run aground. Who were the victims? Who was responsible for – it has to be said – having slaughtered them in such a way? And why on earth were the murders committed? What could possibly have been the motive? Innocuous citizens who do not normally have anything to do with such horrific crimes are dragged onto the case. And the more testimonies that are collated, the closer the case moves towards a surprising conclusion.Read More »
Quote:
Hong Kong, 1980. The Vietnam War has been over for five years and the ethnic cleansing of Chinese has begun. As the “boat people”, refugees of Vietnam, flood out of the country, Hong Kong becomes know as “port of first asylum”. Among these boats is Wu Yiet (Chow Yun-Fat), a former South Vietnamese soldier still recovering from the ravages of war. For him, Hong Kong is the first step for life in the United States, and he soon falls for fellow immigrant Sum Ching (Cherie Chung). Yet the promise of a new beginning doesn’t come easy: the refugee camps have been infiltrated by murderous Viet Cong agents, and an act of violence forces Wu Yiet on the run and deeper into a vortex of crime and brutality. Read More »