• Manoel de Oliveira – Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo AKA Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997)

    1991-2000ArthouseManoel de OliveiraPortugal

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    Quote:
    One of the most beautiful films ever made about aging. Voyage To The Beginning Of The World brings together 90-year-old Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira and Italian icon Marcello Mastroianni, in what would be his last film. Playing a filmmaker clearly based on Oliveira, Mastroianni takes three actor friends on a driving tour of a mountain village, where one of the actors (Jean-Yves Gautier) is united with the elderly aunt he has never met.

    Family becomes the link between the past and present, in a film of great simplicity, dignity and wisdom. Through Mastroianni, Oliveira speculates on beginnings and endings. The village is in the north (where the Portuguese nation began) on what remains of the past (a primitive wooden statue, the meaning of which has been lost) and on what disappears (the ruins of a hotel). The cinematography, by Renato Berta, is at once radiantly clear and surrealistically devoid of detail – as if what were seeing was already a recollection. (-Dave Kehr, NY Daily News – DVD Backcover)Read More »

  • Zivko Nikolic – Bestije AKA Beasts (1977)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaYugoslaviaZivko Nikolic

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    Synopsis:
    A Pasolini-esque mythical tale that is probably a metaphor for Serbian-Croatian Yugoslavia of old and its politics. On an island that floats, the leader is an old captain constantly awaiting death who always holds up a picture of himself as a young man, there are dozens of black-clothed crones always hovering in the background, there’s a priest, a sailor, an older woman with desperate lusts, a young man, and various other characters that all seem to represent something. There’s also a law that says that people are not responsible for their actions during a depressing storm. When a beautiful and mysterious woman arrives by boat, she creates havoc, with all the men lusting after her, the women chasing and hating her, as she stirs up dark secrets like greed and lust in the priest’s home, a pregnancy, and deep confused desires from the dying captain. She only seems to get along with the laid-back young man who plays with her. The natives sing traditional song, the atmosphere is earthy and mythical, all leading to a violent metaphorical climax.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – I Love You Again (1940)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyScrewball ComedyUSAW.S. Van Dyke

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    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Those popular MGM co-stars William Powell and Myrna Loy take a break from their usual Thin Man duties to star in the zany comedy I Love You Again. The film opens with Loy prepared to divorce her dull businessman husband Powell. A blow on the head causes Powell to remember his former life as a notorious con man. No one in town has any knowledge of Powell’s criminal past, a fact he hopes to use to his advantage. Loy, astounded at Powell’s sudden surge of amorous ardor, reconsiders her divorce. When she learns of his true identity, she is even more fascinated. Another blow on the head restores the non-criminal Powell–at least, that’s what he and Loy would like you to believe. The film’s highlight is a screamingly funny sequence in which Powell plays scoutmaster to a group of surly youngsters (including Our Gang veterans Carl Switzer and Mickey Gubitosi, aka Robert Blake).Read More »

  • Hito Steyerl – November (2004)

    Documentary2001-2010GermanyHito SteyerlPolitics

    Quote:
    My best friend when I was 17, was a girl called Andrea Wolf. She died in 1998, when she was shot as a Kurdish terrorist in Eastern Anatolia. There was a warrant out for her in Germany, as she was suspected of having participated in terrorist activities, for example the complete destruction of the deportation prison in Weiterstadt. She was also suspected of having been an associate to the Red Army Faction.
    In 1996, she chose to go to Kurdistan in order to join the womens army of the PKK, the Workers Party Kurdistan. She took on the name “Ronahi”, trained and lived with the womens army for a few months, mostly in camps in Northern Iraq. Then in October 1998, her unit was tracked by the Turkish army close to the border. A heavy firefight took place. Only a few of the units members remained alive. They were under heavy fire by Army helicopters. Most of the survivors took refuge in what is being described as an earth hole. As surviving earwitnesses who remained in the hole say, she was shot by either army members or Kurdish village keepers after having been dragged out as a prisoner. Her case is only one of the many extralegal executions which structure this war.Read More »

  • Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell – Film Art – An Introduction (8th ed) (2006)

    2001-2010BooksKristin Thompson and David BordwellUSA

    Quote:
    To quote Martin Scorsese, “Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson have turned Scorsese’s maxim into a career. The husband-wife team of film critics and scholars teach at the University of Wisconsin, publish books, maintain an indispensable and routinely astonishing blog, and lecture regularly at film festivals around the world. They’re strangers to the general public, but well known (if not always properly appreciated) by aficionados of film history and technique…Read More »

  • Carlos Saura – Stress-es tres-tres AKA Stress Is Three (1968)

    1961-1970Carlos SauraDramaSpain

    Synopsis:
    ‘Fernando, with his wife and life-long friend, Antonio, set out on a weekend together. Fernando begins to suspect his wife and Antonio of being in love, and his jealousy grows as he observes them in a situation he, himself, created.’
    – BFIRead More »

  • Patrick Brice – The Overnight (2015)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaPatrick BriceUSA

    Alex, Emily, and their son, RJ, are new to Los Angeles. A chance meeting at the park introduces them to the mysterious Kurt, Charlotte, and Max. A family “playdate” becomes increasingly interesting as the night goes on. -imdbRead More »

  • Calum Waddell – 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Street (2015)

    2011-2020Calum WaddellDocumentaryUnited Kingdom

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    Quote:
    The story behind the rise and fall of New York`s 42nd Street. The cinemas, the films, the people, the crime and the rebirth of the block as “New 42nd Street“ – this is the document of the world`s most notorious movie strip.Read More »

  • Mercedes Álvarez – Mercado de futuros (2011)

    2011-2020DocumentaryMercedes ÁlvarezSpain

    Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

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    Quote:
    The abandonment and demolition of an old house, with all its furniture, its plentiful library and its full load of personal memories, becomes the starting point for this film, which tries to portray some of the aspects of the new world. The camera peeps into the real state furore, turned into a showroom and promise of financial gain or of the paradise; into financial investment brokers, gurus and preachers of success and mythology. Personal and collective memory, dreams and desires will be ultimately transformed into pure merchandising. Written by Mercedes Alvarez.Read More »

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