Polytechnique is an audio-visual collaboration between Italian ambient/drone musician, Easychord and UK filmmaker, Scott Barley.
The film is best viewed in a dark room with a quality sound system or headphones.
Guided by Easychord’s haunting, bodily piece, the visuals attempt to explore and invoke the concepts of prisoner’s cinema, stream of consciousness, repetition, the primordial body, fundamental entities, and astral planes.Read More »
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Scott Barley – Polytechnique (2014)
2011-2020ExperimentalScott BarleyUnited Kingdom -
Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi – What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
2011-2020ComedyHorrorJemaine ClementNew ZealandTaika WaititiOne of the funnest films of 2014 is misfit-vampire-roommate mockumentary “What We Do In The Shadows”
Quote:
Follow the lives of Viago (Taika Waititi), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), and Vladislav (Jemaine Clement) – three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life’s obstacles-like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding that beyond sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection-modern society has them struggling with the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.Read More » -
Chantal Akerman – Je, tu, il, elle aka I, You, He, She (1975)
1971-1980ArthouseChantal AkermanDramaFranceCriterion wrote:
In her provocative first feature, Chantal Akerman stars as an aimless young woman who leaves self-imposed isolation to embark on a road trip that leads to lonely love affairs with a male truck driver and a former girlfriend. With its famous real-time carnal encounter and its daring minimalism, Je tu il elle is Akerman’s most sexually audacious film.Read More » -
Stanley Kubrick – Spartacus [+Extras] (1960)
1951-1960ClassicsDramaStanley KubrickUSA
Review from the Criterion website :
Stanley Kubrick directed a cast of screen legends—including Kirk Douglas as the indomitable gladiator that led a Roman slave revolt—in the sweeping epic that defined a genre and ushered in a new Hollywood era. The assured acting, lush Technicolor cinematography, bold costumes, and visceral fight sequences won Spartacus four Oscars; the blend of politics and sexual suggestion scandalized audiences. Today Kubrick’s controversial classic, the first film to openly defy Hollywood’s blacklist, remains a landmark of cinematic artistry and history.Read More » -
Anders Walter – Helium (2014)
2011-2020Anders WalterDenmarkDramaShort FilmA young boy Alfred is dying, but through the stories about HELIUM – a magical fantasy world, told by the hospital’s eccentric janitor Enzo, Alfred regain the joy and happiness of his life, and finds a safe haven away from daily life.
IMDB Review wrote:
The special begins with Anders Walter’s “Helium,” a Danish short that follows the life of a young boy named Alfred (Pelle Falk Krusbæk), a terminally-ill young boy who is wasting away in a children’s hospital. Alfred, however, has his mind temporarily taken off his illness when he meets Enzo (Casper Crump), a janitor who tells him of a place called “Helium,” an alternative place to go rather than Heaven. The idea of Heaven is unexciting to Alfred, and the idea of “Helium” even owes itself to the fact that Alfred loves balloons, blimps, and all sort of objects that fly thanks to air. Enzo makes him a red balloon dog, which he informs Alfred will allow the airship that will eventually pick him up to know where he is at and that he wants to go to “Helium” rather than Heaven.Read More » -
Ruben Östlund – Force Majeure (2014)
2011-2020ComedyDramaRuben ÖstlundSwedensynopsis
A Swedish family visit the Alps on a skiing vacation, but when an avalanche strikes, the father of the clan will make a shocking choice that will reverberate through his clan forever.Read More »
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Julien Temple – Never Mind the Baubles Xmas ’77 With The Sex Pistols (2013)
2011-2020Julien TempleMusicalTVUnited KingdomThe Sex Pistols’ last UK gig – a benefit for the children of striking firefighters at Ivanhoe’s nightclub in Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977 – remains their most implausible.
“It’s footage I filmed on a big old crappy U-matic low-band camera,” explains director Julien Temple, who dodged flying cake and pogoing punks to record the two performances (an afternoon children’s matinee and an adult evening show) from 25 December 1977. “But it’s right in their face. I’m right up there with them. It’s probably the best footage of the Pistols on film but it’s never been seen.”
This aired on the BBC on Boxing Day 2013 – more at the guardian. Done in the Temple style, with lots of wacky old footage from the 70’s.Read More »
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David Cronenberg – Eastern Promises [+Extras] (2007)
2001-2010CrimeDavid CronenbergDramaUnited KingdomPlot Summary :
The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London’s most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon, whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family’s fortunes are tested by Semyon’s volatile son and enforcer, Kirill, who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father.But Nikolai’s carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby’s lineage and relatives. The girl’s personal diary also survives her; it is written in Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna’s mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna’s irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan urges caution.Read More »
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Walerian Borowczyk – Goto, l’île d’amour aka Goto, The Isle Of Love [+Extras] (1969)
1961-1970DramaFrancePoliticsWalerian BorowczykSynopsis:
Walerian Borowczyk’s second feature was just as original as his first. Almost entirely live action this time, it is situated on the archipelago of Goto, which has been cut off from the rest of human civilisation by a massive earthquake and has consequently developed its own arcane rules. Melancholic dictator Goto III (Pierre Brasseur) is married to the beautiful Glossia (Ligia Branice), who in turn is lusted after by the petty thief Gozo (Guy Saint-Jean) as he works his way up the hierarchy. Read More »







