• José Luis Guerín – En la ciudad de Sylvia AKA In the City of Sylvia (2007)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJosé Luis GuerínSpain

    Synopsis
    It’s summer and a young foreigner saunters through the streets of this city of street cars and canals.
    A lone wanderer, the hypotheses surrounding him will be changing: An artist, at leisure, a simple tourist, a parasite, paranoid, in love…?
    Lodged at an old, family-run hotel, he walks through the city, observing, writing and drawing –sketching gestures and expressions caught at random on the street.
    In the evenings he haunts a night club called “Les Aviateurs”.
    He peers through the open windows of certain façades.
    He revisits one of them at different times of day, here and there making out minor domestic contents, more insinuated than seen.
    A certain mystery floats over the nature of his intentions, with attitudes reminiscent of those of a voyeur or even a psycho-killer…Read More »

  • Peter Strickland – Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

    2011-2020HorrorPeter StricklandUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    A sound engineer’s work for an Italian horror studio becomes a terrifying case of life imitating art.Read More »

  • Abbas Kiarostami – Like Someone in Love (2012)

    2001-20102011-2020Abbas KiarostamiArthouseJapan

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    Synopsis
    An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty-four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
    Festival de Cannes.com

    Reviews
    According to Martin Scorsese, “cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame, and what’s out.” The Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami applies this axiom with particular rigor. In the first scenes of Mr. Kiarostami’s latest feature, “Like Someone in Love,” we are very much aware of what is not in the frame. We are in a Tokyo bar, listening to a series of conversations that involve a woman we cannot see… he structure of the film is, by Mr. Kiarostami’s standards, fairly straightforward, even conventional: it has a teasing start, an expository middle and a startlingly (though not unpredictably) dramatic end. And yet every shot — everything you see, and everything you don’t — imparts a disturbing and thrilling sense of discovery.
    Read More »

  • Marcel L’Herbier – Le vertige (1926)

    1921-1930DramaFranceMarcel L'HerbierSilent

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    Based on a play by Charles Méré, the 1926 French production Le Vertige was released in the U.S. two years later as “The Living Image”, or “The Lady of Petrograd”. The film opens with the overthrow of the Czar during the 1917 Russian revolution. The family of General Count Svirsky (Roger Karl) cower in their home, certain that the mobs of angry peasants will tear them apart. But even in this moment of crisis, Svirsky can find time to murder the young officer who has been having an affair with Countess Svirska (Emmy Lynn). The Countess knows what has happened, but she loyally remains with her husband as they escape to the safety of the French Riviera. It is here that the Countess meets Henri de Cassel (Jaque Catelain), the “living image” of her dead lover. Once again, the General prepares to shoot the Countess’ paramour in cold blood — but this time, the outcome is quite different.From Hal EricksonRead More »

  • Peter Maxwell – Impact (1963)

    1961-1970CrimePeter MaxwellUnited Kingdom

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    Crime reporter Jack Moir is framed by crooked nightclub owner, ‘The Duke’. In prison, Moir
    plans his revenge.Read More »

  • Paul Morrissey – Dracula cerca sangue di vergine… e morì di sete!!! AKA Blood for Dracula [+Extras] (1974)

    1971-1980CultHorrorItalyPaul Morrissey

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    Plot Synopsis by Cavett Binion

    The second of two horror films shot in a single production term and bearing the name of pop-art icon Andy Warhol (whose participation pretty much ended with the use of his name), this film is slightly superior to its higher-profile predecessor, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein. Direction is credited to Warhol factory filmmaker Paul Morrissey, though there still exists a very vocal camp who insist that the real credit should go to Italian director Antonio Margheriti. Euro-horror leading man Udo Kier assays the title role, playing the count as a pale, anemic-looking blood junkie with an overwrought accent. Finding the supply of “weer-gin” blood diminishing rapidly in Romania, Dracula is forced to seek a fix in a predominantly Catholic Italian province, where he is certain a few virgins still exist. He travels with his assistant (Arno Juerging) and his coffin-sealed sister to the decrepit, crumbling mansion of the financially-strapped Marquis DiFore (a tour-de-force performance from Bicycle Thief director Vittorio de Sica) who welcomes the affluent Count with open arms, hoping to marry off any one of his four daughters. Dracula clearly has other intentions for the girls… but his plans are rudely thwarted by beefy, socialist handyman Mario (Joe Dallesandro), who has been dutifully divesting the young maidens of their — ahem — virtue, thus tainting their blood and making it unsafe for vampiric consumption. Very unsafe, it turns out — as we are treated to protracted scenes of the death-pale Count vomiting up gallons of blood. Rated “X” at the time of its release (and subsequently re-rated “R” ten years later), this outrageous catalogue of depravity features wildly campy performances, inane dialogue and an outrageous climax.Read More »

  • Agnieszka Holland – Kobieta samotna AKA A Woman Alone (1981)

    1981-1990Agnieszka HollandDramaPoland

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    A story of a middle-aged woman, Irena, living alone on the outskirts of Wroclaw with her 8-year old son. They live in a drab apartment. She is a mail carrier and her son is her only pride and joy. She hardly communicates with anybody else in a humanly open and natural way. She also cares for a sick relative. One day when delivering a monthly pension to a crippled young miner Jacek, she faints at his doorsteps. Even though she is determined to live alone after divorcing her drunken first husband, she also knows that her boy needs a male figure to correct his bad habits. She also needs a man badly. The love affair between Jacek and Irena begins however their first physical encounter shatters them both. Irena has a lot of problems: her son makes a lot of trouble at school, and at work her supervisor wants to take her route and give it to somebody else. Finally, the sick relative dies, and she is hit with the funeral bill instead with the expected inheritance. She steals pensioners’ money she should be delivering. Tells Jacek that she indeed has received inheritance, places her son in a boaring institution and buys a used car for a trip to West Berlin, opting to immigrate. Now the accident happens… Written by Polish Cinema Database link (link)Read More »

  • Michel Ocelot – Princes et princesses (2000)

    1991-2000AnimationFranceMichel Ocelot

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    Synopsis from AMG:
    In this episodic animated fantasy from France, an art teacher interprets a series of six fairy tales (each involving a prince or princess) with the help of two precocious students. Princes et Princesses was created using a special style of cutout animation, with black silhouetted characters performing the action against backlit backdrops in striking colors. Produced in 1989, Princes et Princesses was first released in Europe in 2000 and received its first screening in North America at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. — Mark DemingRead More »

  • Nando Cicero – Il gatto mammone (1975)

    1971-1980ComedyItalyNando Cicero

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    Imdb:
    Typical Italian comedy from the 70’s, 17 February 2005
    7/10
    Author: garypayton20 from Italy

    A classic Italian comedy from the 70s, when the sexuality was getting more explicit and usually mixed with funny misunderstandings. It’s the story of a man (Lando Buzzanca) whose wife cannot get pregnant, so they decide to “adopt” a mother girl and to ask her to help them…you can imagine how. It’s a funny comedy overall, not better and not worst from the Italian comedies of the time, whose cultural and social contents typical from the 50s-60s were replaced by explicit (and sometimes unappropriated ) sexuality. What i can tell you is, it’s 4.44 am here in Italy, i am watching this movie in the TV. If you ever find yourself in my situation, without sleep and without nothing to read, watch this movie….it’s OK for a night like this.Read More »

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