Quote:
Taking a breather from the Paris, Texas shooting, Wim Wenders hopped a plane, camera in hand, to look for the Tokyo enshrined by the late Yasujiro Ozu (whose work Wenders dubs “the sacred treasure of the cinema”). What he found instead, documented in this filmic journal, was an urbanized dislocation not far from the forlorn emptiness he coached out of German and American vistas. Whether abstracting businessmen teeing off atop skyscrapers or the rigorous, artisanal craft of building a wax sandwich display, Wenders scrambles for humanity seeping through neon and steel — a humanity linked, inevitably, to the old Japan of Ozu’s films (rebellious tykes, cherry blossoms, tranquil countrysides).Read More »

from MOMA:
Nagy Shaker was studying stage design in Rome and Paolo Isaja ran a ciné-club that specialized in experimental cinema when they met at the Rome Film School. They decided to collaborate on their respective film projects, and with the help of friends, they launched into production, casting an American nurse of Italian descent who was in Rome at the time. The film, a meditation on freedom at the turn of the 1970s, utilizes the full vocabulary of experimental cinema to evoke youthful experimentation and energetic abandon. The two alternated between directing, filming, and recording sound. Jamil Suleiman authored the musical score and Renzo Rossellini financed the print.Read More »

Three episodes from three Baltic nations, all about lost love. In Estonia a political prisoner is set free. Meanwhile his best friend had stolen his girl and now defends his political cowardice: “Some of us must be left outside the prisons to pursue the political fight.” – In Latvia a Russian soldier has a Latvian girlfriend. Her Latvian friends accept her boyfriend. But his two closest soldier friends beat him up, tear the clothes of his girl and threaten to rape her. The loving couple understands that they cannot continue their relationship. – In Lithuania a priest student and an Estonian stripper fall in deep love. The student’s uncle is an enlightened priest who says: “I bless you whatever road you choose to go.” The couple sleep together and agree to meet at the railway station the next morning and go to Estonia. But when the student comes home his uncle has died… (written by Max Scharnberg)Read More »

from wikipedia::
The plot follows a country doctor’s hapless struggle to attend a sick young boy in the cold winter night. A series of surreal events occur upon the journey including a mysterious groom’s appearance in a pig shed.

The story begins with a country doctor having to urgently attend a sick patient. But his sole horse has died the night before, so he fetches his maid (Rosa) to look for a horse. The maid returns empty-handed, but, as the doctor expresses his total loss of hope by kicking the sty door, a mysterious groom appears from nowhere and supplies the doctor with ethereal horses. The groom boorishly kisses the maid and runs after her to her house. The doctor wants to help Rosa, but the horses quickly transport him to his sick patient’s courtyard, as if the courtyard opens just outside his gate (in reality it’s 10 miles away).Read More »

Single mother Dounia lives with a Serbian architect in Tangiers—a scandalous relationship in the eyes of her Moroccan family. The couple supervises a construction project, where earthmovers uncover 4th century Christian tombs decorated with ornate frescoes. Dounia embarks on a lucrative but illegal trade in the hope of making some quick money so she can leave Morocco with her son and her lover. But one of the construction workers disappears…Read More »

Call Girl is set in the late 1970s – a time time of women’s liberation, sexual revolution, Swedish neutrality, nuclear power and social security. The film takes us on a trip from the very bottom of society, along dark back streets, through glitz and glamour, to the corridors of power which are a labyrinth of secrets. The story is inspired by a Swedish political scandal known as Bordellhärvan which linked underage prostitution with powerful customers believed to come from the highest levels of society.Read More »

A chronicle of Terri Hooley’s life, a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast’s punk-rock scene.

IMDB user comment: It’s the morning after the night before, and I’m feeling more than a little fragile as I may have overdone the celebrating a bit. I very rarely drink at all, but I got caught up in all the reminiscing and nostalgia last night. My head is splitting and I’m croaking like frog, yeah! As you’ve probably already guessed it was a killer night.

The’Good Vibrations’ movie has been a longtime coming – jeez, the film has been in the pipeline for around 13 years and it’s been over two years since the excellent 10 minute fund raising pilot film was made and then screened one Sunday afternoon in Feb 2010 at the ‘QFT’. Understandably I couldn’t wait to see this film.

I’m absolutely delighted that the ‘Good Vibrations’ film is here at last, and not only is the movie making its high profile red carpet debut it’s also launching the ‘Belfast Film Festival. For the first time ever there’s a big screen erected especially for the premiere in the historic Ulster Hall which is celebrating its own 150th birthday this year. There was TV coverage all through the glorious day on the local news bulletins. which is not surprising as this is the true (ish) story of a most unlikely Belfast anti hero & the hottest ticket in town for quite some time. Requests to attend the premiere far out stripped supply so two more screenings were quickly arranged (& sold out) to cope with the overwhelming demand.Read More »

Very curious old movie. The quality is not that great, of course, but it’s interesting to see things flow and some animation appearing on an 1909 film.Read More »

The opening sequence of Zero Kelvin scrolls across a bleak, vast Norwegian wilderness that is virtually inhospitable for men and most beasts. This white, magnificent landscape exudes tremendous beauty, but it also represents death for those foolish enough to fight its dominance. What happens to a civilized human being when he spends enough time is this environment? In this tightly constructed character study, director Hans Petter Moland explores the effect of this land on the fragile human psyche.

Gard Eisvold is a restless, poor young writer living in Oslo who decides to get a little more worldly by joining an Arctic fur-trapping expedition. Leaving behind his girlfriend, Eisvold travels to Greenland, where he’s confronted with the dual harshness of the elements and his profane station-captain, played with brilliant malevolence by the great Stellan Skårsgard. The captain doesn’t take kindly to having a violin-playing, poetry-writing college boy around the cabin, and he begins to torture Eisvold in a cunning if none too subtle fashion. Soon, of course, they’re at each other’s throats despite each needing the other’s help to survive the wilderness.
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