• Dalibor Matanic – Fine mrtve djevojke AKA Fine Dead Girls (2002)

    2001-2010CroatiaDalibor MatanicDramaQueer Cinema(s)

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    Quote:
    Dalibor Matanic directs the fast-paced Croatian film noir Fine Dead Girls. Looking for a small place to live together, medical student Iva (Olga Pakalovic) and her girlfriend Marija (Nina Violic) move into an apartment building in Zagreb filled with addicts, abusers, prostitutes, and other creepy characters. Landlords Olga (Inge Appelt) and Blaz (Ivica Vidovic) are no more friendly than the rest of their neighbors, and their delinquent son, Daniel (Kresimir Mikic), is overly attracted to Iva despite his homophobia. Eventually, Marija’s intolerant father tries to sabotage the two girls, leading to a violent conclusion.Read More »

  • Gilbert Cates – Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973)

    1971-1980DramaGilbert CatesUSA

    Plot Synopsis by Michael Betzold
    American GI Harry Walden (Martin Balsam) emerged from a harrowing experience in WWII to find himself living an outwardly-happy but inwardly-empty and tedious existence in the post-war U.S. He is an eye doctor, successful in his work, but unfulfilled spiritually and emotionally. He and his wife Rita (Joanne Woodward) have a boring existence, with their biggest issue being what kind of wallpaper to choose when they redecorate their apartment. They are dysfunctional, materialistic, and utterly lost. Rita is neurotic and unhappy, especially after her mother (Sylvia Sidney) dies. They decide to visit France and go to the battlefield where Harry once spent a night in the company of three dead German soldiers. The trip is intended to reawaken their deadened humanity. Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams is a challenging, slow and thoughtful depiction of the corroding effects of a materialistic lifestyle.Read More »

  • Alex Ross Perry – Listen Up Philip (2014)

    2011-2020Alex Ross PerryArthouseDramaUSA
    Alex Ross Perry - Listen Up Philip (2014)

    Anger rages in Philip as he awaits the publication of his second novel. He feels pushed out of his adopted home city by the constant crowds and noise, a deteriorating relationship with his photographer girlfriend Ashley, and his own indifference to promoting the novel. When Philip’s idol Ike Zimmerman offers his isolated summer home as a refuge, he finally gets the peace and quiet to focus on his favorite subject: himself.Read More »

  • Bruno Dumont – P’tit Quinquin AKA L’il Quinquin (2014)

    2011-2020Bruno DumontComedyFranceMystery

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    Synopsis:
    A clueless police inspector stumbles his way through a provincial murder investigation, in this shocking — and shockingly funny — change of pace from premier French auteur Bruno Dumont (L’humanité, Hadewijch).
    Originally conceived and broadcast as a four-part miniseries, Bruno Dumont’s P’tit Quinquin works seamlessly when screened in its cinematic version.
    Dumont has again chosen to shoot his new film against the countryside of his birthplace, the Boulonnais region around Calais; apart from that, the film marks a notable change in tone for this immensely creative filmmaker. (Well, it does share one other thing in common with his earlier films: like L’Humanite, the film centres on a police detective investigating a murder.)
    P’tit Quinquin is — believe it or not for those who have been following Dumont’s career — a comedy. Little prepares you for the adventure, rollicking and slapstick, in this idiosyncratic screwball of a film. Chuckles abound — at times you can’t quite believe what you are seeing — but, not surprisingly in the hands of a director who has always managed to keep a firm, controlling hand on his material, the film never spirals into silliness. Wit and intelligence prevail.Read More »

  • Jean-Luc Godard – Week End AKA Weekend (1967) (HD)

    1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtArthouseComedyFranceJean-Luc Godard

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    Quote:
    The master of the French New Wave indicts consumerism and elaborates on his personal vision of Hell with this raucous, biting satire. A nasty, scheming bourgeois Parisian couple embarks on a journey through the countryside to her father’s house, where they pray for his death and a subsequent inheritance. Their trip is at first delayed, and later it is distracted by several outrageous events and characters including an apocalyptic traffic jam, a group of fictional philosophers, a couple of violent carjackers, and eventually, a gross display of cannibalism. By the time the film concludes, their seemingly simple journey has deteriorated into a freewheeling philosophical diatribe that leaves no topic unscathed. With Week End, Jean-Luc Godard reaches an impressive plateau of film originality, incorporating inter-titles, extended tracking shots, and music to add an entirely new grammar to film language. The result is a deeply challenging work that will most certainly invigorate some viewers just as much as it will as frustrate others.Read More »

  • Hans W. Geissendörfer – Die gläserne Zelle aka The Glass Cell (1978)

    1971-1980DramaGermanyHans W. GeissendörferThriller

    The architect Phillip Braun is framed by his former employer Lasky that embezzles the money that should be used to buy suitable material of a construction that collapses, killing a person. Phillip is wrongly imprisoned and for five years his lawyer David Reinalt is not capable to prove that Lasky is the responsible for the accident. When Phillip is released, he meets his beautiful wife Lisa Braun and then his son Timmie. Soon Lasky seeks Philip out to poison the relationship of his wife with David. Lisa is very close to David and Phillip becomes suspicious of their friendship. David finds a job for Phillip with a friend of him and he tells that Lasky is pressing him because he is still trying to prove Phillip’s innocence. Soon Lisa confesses to her husband that she had a brief two-week love affair with David a long time ago when he was in prison, but now they are only friends.Read More »

  • Jean Dréville – Copie conforme (1947)

    1941-1950ClassicsFilm NoirFranceJean Dréville

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    From IMDB:
    Another Louis Jouvet’s tour de force., 8 March 2003
    Author: dbdumonteil
    Some movies do not need a director at all:when Louis Jouvet is the lead,he carries everything on his shoulders.Here he’s got two parts: a crook and an honest man ,who is his perfect double. Jouvet is so good,a perfectionist extraordinaire ,that you do believe there are really TWO different actors on the screen,one self-assured,smart and tricky,the other one a born-sucker. Nevertheless, best scenes are to be found at the beginning:Jouvet selling a castle on the historical register to a couple of nouveaux riches: his crook becomes a true noble ,and when he says to these bourgeois he despises “call me excellency as everybody does”,his behavior compels respect.Read More »

  • Boris Barnet & S. Mardanin – U samogo sinego morya AKA By the Bluest of Seas (1936)

    1931-1940Boris BarnetBoris Barnet and S. MardaninDramaRomanceUSSR

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    Synopsis:
    The sea is at first quite dark for the sailors Aliosha and Yussuf. Adrift, they reach an island where they meet Mashenka, a beautiful girl they both immediately fall in love with…

    seagullfilms.com

    One of the films revered by French filmmakers such as Godard and Otar Iosseliani, this marvelous picture, a spontaneous and joyful romantic comedy shot at eye-popping locations, stars the delicious Elena Kouzmina as a bouncy island beauty wooed by two young shipwrecked Caspian fisherman. And it’s more fun than Alexander Nevsky.Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Bon Voyage (1944) (HD)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockShort FilmUSAWar

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    A young Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from occupied territory, and in particular one person who may or may not have been a German agent. Read More »

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