• Groupe Dziga Vertov & Paul Burron & Jean-Luc Godard – Pravda (1970)

    Documentary1961-1970FranceGroupe Dziga VertovJean-Luc GodardPaul BurronPolitics

    Co-directed by Godard with the Dziga Vertov group in 1969, ‘Pravda’s a direct attack to revisionism and socialist imperialism. With his usual collage of images taken from real life, the film’s structured as a letter which a man writes to a woman called Rosa.Read More »

  • Aco Petrovski – Dervishi (1955)

    1951-1960Aco PetrovskiDocumentaryMacedoniaYugoslavian Cinema under Tito

    Movie from 1955, in duration of 11 minutes.
    The movie is created in standard technique, with sound, in black and white

    Content:
    The film describes the religious rites of the dervishes, from the Moslem religious sect

    “Rifai”.Read More »

  • Albert Maysles – Iris (2014)

    2011-2020Albert MayslesDocumentaryUSA

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    “Iris (2014).IRIS pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even in Iris’ dotage, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. IRIS portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art and people are life’s sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment. Despite the abundance of glamour in her current life, she continues to embrace the values and work ethic established during a middle-class Queens upbringing during the Great Depression. “I feel lucky to be working. If you’re lucky enough to do something you love, everything else follows.”Read More »

  • Alain Cavalier – Le paradis (2014)

    2011-2020Alain CavalierArthouseExperimentalFrance

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    The experience of living through two periods of depression and the quiet expectation of a third has endowed a filmmaker with the capacity to perceive the true beauty of life and to capture it on film. He films everything he sees, without favour and without preference, providing it awakens within him a feeling of love. His only worry is that he feels he may have lost some part of that essential quality of his art: innocence…Read More »

  • Tony Conrad – The Flicker (1965) DVD

    1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtExperimentalTony ConradUSA

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    Quote:
    The film starts with a warning message, which reads:

    WARNING. The producer, distributor, and exhibitors waive all liability for physical or mental injury possibly caused by the motion picture “The Flicker.” Since this film may induce epileptic seizures or produce mild symptoms of shock treatment in certain persons, you are cautioned to remain in the theatre only at your own risk. A physician should be in attendance.

    The film then goes on to a frame that says “Tony Conrad Presents,” and then to a frame that says “The Flicker,” at which point it starts. The screen goes blank, then after a short while, the screen flickers with a single black frame. This is repeated again and again until it creates a strobe effect, for which the film is titled. This continues until the film stops abruptlyRead More »

  • Cristina Alvarez Lopez and Adrian Martin – Phantasmagoria of the Interior (2015)

    2011-2020Cristina Alvarez Lopez and Adrian MartinDocumentaryShort FilmSpain

    PHANTASMAGORIA OF THE INTERIOR is an audiovisual essay devoted to Walerian Borowczyk’s film THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE. Utilising the materials of the complete, restored version of the film, and its French language soundtrack, the film offers a new way of looking at, understanding and appreciating Borowczyk’s intensely cinematic art. Particular attention is paid to a painting by Vermeer of a pregnant woman, introduced early into Borowczyk’s film, and reappearing at key moments. Beginning from this painting – its content, style, and historical background – particular aspects of the film are explored: its unusual pictorial compositions; the mingling of sexuality with violence; and the association of men and women with (respectively) open and closed spaces. The film argues that Borowczyk brings a surrealist sensibility to his free adaptation of the Jekyll and Hyde story, especially emphasizing the transgressive, revolutionary role of the free-spirited Lucy Osbourne.Read More »

  • Doris Wishman – Let Me Die a Woman (1978)

    1971-1980DocumentaryDoris WishmanExploitationUSA

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    Christopher J. Jarmick wrote:
    A fairly serious pseudo-documentary, which captures the lifestyles of several transsexuals in various stages of changing their gender. Dr Leo Wollman M.D. was a legitimate practicing doctor who is our guide through this one of a kind, once shocking film that features some footage of operations that are not completely revealing but not for the squeamish. There are some scenes of probing of a constructed vagina and shots of men with artificially developed breasts. Then there are several staged soft-core scenes thrown into the film to add to the hodgepodge. Dr Wollman occasionally makes statements like “not all dildos are used for medical purposes.” Note: actual on screen credits were not available to verify credits. From the advertisements: “All True! All Real! See a man become a woman before your eyes!”, “Born a Man . . . Let Me Die A Woman”, “Torn from Today’s Headlines.”Read More »

  • Roy Andersson – En kärlekshistoria aka A Swedish Love Story (1970)

    Drama1961-1970Roy AnderssonSweden

    Fifteen year-old Pär and fourteen year-old Annika fall in love…
    Quote:
    Summer with Annika: A Swedish Love Story (1970)
    Jean A. Gili
    Author of very few works – four films in thirty-seven years, including Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and You, the Living (2007) – Roy Andersson made his first film in 1970, a tale of adolescent love set against the backdrop of a cruel tableau of the petite bourgeoisie wedged between conformity and frustration. Rediscovered now, A Swedish Love Story (En Kärlekshistoria) shows the inauguration of a critical gaze that has never deviated from its just distance.Read More »

  • John Huston – Key Largo (1948)

    1941-1950ClassicsFilm NoirJohn HustonUSA

    Quote:
    Frank McCloud travels to a run-down hotel on Key Largo to honor the memory of a friend who died bravely in his unit during WW II. His friend’s widow, Nora Temple, and wheelchair bound father, James Temple manage the hotel and receive him warmly, but the three of them soon find themselves virtual prisoners when the hotel is taken over by a mob of gangsters led by Johnny Rocco who hole up there to await the passing of a hurricane. Mr. Temple strongly reviles Rocco but due to his infirmities can only confront him verbally. Having become disillusioned by the violence of war, Frank is reluctant to act, but Rocco’s demeaning treatment of his alcoholic moll, Gaye Dawn, and his complicity in the deaths of some innocent Seminole Indians and a deputy sheriff start to motivate McCloud to overcome his Hamlet-like inaction.Read More »

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