• Derek Jarman – The Last of England (1987)

    1981-1990ArthouseDerek JarmanQueer Cinema(s)United Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Jarman is a tough filmmaker to recommend, but he occasionally rewards. As we’ve seen from practically the first film on, he sets out to make pictures entirely for himself; with each one intellectually structured, creatively shot, but almost always a reflection of his personal thoughts and feelings, his sexuality, and England in decline. Here we have a film that combines all of these preoccupations, told in a combination of wordless images and narrated prose, with little or no clarification given as to what is actually going on. Jarman has said that he wanted the film to feel like a visual poem, but really, this is far from poetic. Instead, this seems more like something that Godard would have directed in the 1970’s; angry, venomous and always seething with contempt. The images here are violent to the extreme and the approach that Jarman brings to the editing room is visceral and heavily kinetic. Here we see the use of various colour filters, tints and distortions used alongside a multitude of film stocks and spliced-in video footage. The images of middle-class households rounded up, driven into the depths of a post-apocalyptic wasteland and detained at gunpoint must have had a shocking relevance at the time, when terrorist attacks and IRA bombings were as common as they were incomprehensible.Read More »

  • Louis Feuillade – Lagourdette, gentleman cambrioleur (1916)

    1911-1920ComedyFranceLouis FeuilladeSilent

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    With the help of Lévesque and Musidora, Feuillade creates a light-hearted meta-fiction, self-parodying his own work.

    Perdue dans la lecture des « Vampires », le séduisante Mlle Musi rêve de forfaitures et de crimes. Mais la visite qu’elle reçoit dans son salon est celle du triste Honoré Lagourdette qu’elle compte congédier rapidement. Celui-ci est en effet laid et ennuyeux. Mais pour tenter de la séduire, Lagourdette prétend être un habile voleur. Elle le met au défi de le prouver. Il s’assure de la complicité de ses domestiques, qu’il envoie à l’Opéra, et les détrousse devant les yeux médusés de Musi. Pris en flagrant délit par le commissaire, il avoue sa manipulation.Read More »

  • Claire Denis – Beau travail AKA Good Work (1999)

    1991-2000Claire DenisDramaFranceQueer Cinema(s)

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    This film focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in Africa.Read More »

  • William Dieterle – The Devil And Daniel Webster aka All That Money Can Buy [+Extras] (1941)

    1941-1950ClassicsFantasyUSAWilliam Dieterle

    Quote:
    Jabez Stone is a hard-working farmer trying to make an honest living, but a streak of bad luck tempts him to do the unthinkable: bargain with the Devil himself. For seven years of good fortune, Stone promises “Mr. Scratch” his soul when the contract ends. When the troubled farmer begins to realize the error of his choice, he enlists the aid of the one man who might save him: the legendary orator and politician Daniel Webster. Directed with stylish flair by William Dieterle, The Devil and Daniel Webster brings the classic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét to life with inspired visuals, an unforgettable Oscar-winning score by Bernard Herrmann, and a truly diabolical performance from Walter Huston.Read More »

  • Sergei Solovyov – Chuzhaya belaya i ryaboy AKA The Stray White and the Speckled (1986)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaSergei SolovyovUSSR

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    In a poor provincial town, the ragamuffin boys are frenziedly drilled for combat, and at nights the local elite, gathered in a pool room, boasts of fictitious biographies, while bands of boys amuse themselves with bloody fights on trashy vacant plots… One of the most vivid staples of the postwar childhood were pigeons. They could be bought, sold or stolen. One day a beautiful white dove appeared over the town. Risking his life, Ivan caught the White. And immediately became the target of the “pigeon” mafia…Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Je t’aime je t’aime AKA I Love You, I Love You (1968)

    1961-1970Alain ResnaisArthouseFranceSci-Fi

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    “Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime,” which opened yesterday at the New Yorker Theater, was shown at the eighth New York Film Festival. The following is from Roger Greenspun’s review, which appeared Sept. 15, 1970, in The New York Times.

    Like most of the previous films of Alain Resnais, “Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime” is science fiction of a sort. And like virtually all of Resnais’s previous films, its concern is for the past recaptured. To support this concern it proposes a story, the most fragmented of all Resnais’ stories, dealing with, perhaps intense but nevertheless transitory love affair.Read More »

  • Amy Berg – An Open Secret (2014)

    2011-2020Amy BergDocumentaryUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot
    An Open Secret is an American documentary directed by Amy J. Berg. Berg decided to make the documentary after she was approached by Matthew Valentinas in 2011. Valentinas and Gabe Hoffman wanted to make a film about victims of sexual exploitation. Valentinas said, “We chose Amy because we didn’t want it to be exploitative or tabloid. We wanted it to be empowering for the victims.

    A feature documentary from Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg follows the stories of five former child actors whose lives were turned upside down by multiple predators, including the convicted sex offenders who owned and operated the now infamous Digital Entertainment Network (DEN).Read More »

  • Abel Ferrara – Searching for Padre Pio (2015)

    2011-2020Abel FerraraDocumentaryItalyTV

    A documentary directed by Abel Ferrara for the series ‘BOATS – Based On A True Story’ about the Padre Pio di Pietrelcina. Read More »

  • Nicholas Ray – A Woman’s Secret (1949)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirNicholas RayUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    Susan is laying in the hospital with a bullet near her heart. Marian has told the police that she shot Susan in a rage as Susan was giving up her singing. Marian and Luke found Susan when she was a failure. A singer with a limited range, she was a diamond in the rough to which Marian and Luke taught how to walk, dress and talk. With the singing lessons, Marian had hoped that she would have the career that Marian would have had if she had not lost her voice. Even thought Susan is a scatterbrain girl, Luke does not believe that Marian would or was capable of shooting her. Luke hopes that Detective Fowler will be able to find out the truth and free Marian.Read More »

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