Quote:
Wim Wender’s deliberately paced, hauntingly realized contemporary masterpiece, Wings of Desire is, all at once: a political allegory for the reunification of Germany, an existential parable on a soul’s search for connection, a metaphor for the conflict between, what Friedrich Nietzsche defines as, the Appolinian intellect and the Dionysian passion, a euphemism for creation. A dispassionate angel stands atop a statue on a winter morning, watching over Berlin. His name is Damiel (Bruno Ganz): a spiritual guide for the desperate, an eternal spectator of life. The world is gray through his eyes, unable to experience the subtlety of the hues and textures of physical being. Read More »

Quote:
A convoluted and cloudy murder mystery, The American Friend succeeds because of, and in spite of, its myriad ambiguities. Ripley (Dennis Hopper) drops by Derwatt (Nicholas Ray), a painter who’s faked his own death so that he can sell his works at a premium. This is a lucrative partnership since Ripley passes on the pictures in Europe while Derwatt lives his life out in peace. In a Berlin auction house Derwatt’s latest work is snapped up for a mighty sum, pleasing Ripley. On the way out he briefly chats with the happy purchaser and his colleague Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz), who plys his trade as a restorer/frame-maker. Jonathan appears quite aggressive, hinting that he “knows” about Ripley and mentioning that the blues of the picture are subtly different from those of earlier works. Back at his ostentatious villa, Ripley is asked to fulfil a debt by shifty-looking Raoul Minot (Gérard Blain). He requires someone totally innocent to undertake a contract killing, leaving no ties to Raoul.Read More »

From Imdb:
The young Limburg cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman, and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky’s past, set in motion a chain of events with farreaching consequences. BULLHEAD is an exciting tragedy about fate, lost innocence and friendship, about crime and punishment, but also about conflicting desires and the irreversibility of a man’s destiny. Written by AnonymousRead More »

Streetwalkers tired of being harassed by thugs stand up for their rights in this drama from sexploitation titan Barry Mahon. Madame Sue is the leader of a group of prostitutes working in New York City in 1964. Business is good, and thanks to the influx of tourists coming to the Big Apple for conventions and the World’s Fair, there are plenty of customers while cops are too busy to harass working girls. But while the upswing in business doesn’t attract the law, it does attract the attention of Carney Bill, a small-time gangster who wants in on the prostitution racket. Carney Bill demands that Madame Sue and her girls pay his mob a ten-percent protection fee, and his gunmen kill a few of Sue’s hookers to show he means business. Fearful but not about to be pushed around, the working girls form a vigilante group to protect themselves and get revenge for their fallen comrades, with Bill meeting an especially grim fate. — Mark Deming (AMG)Read More »

A collection of Wenders essays discussing all his film work up to Until the End of the World. Imaginative, very accessible, never dry, Wenders reveals a lot of interesting background to his films. Definitely a treat if you’re a Wenders fan.Read More »

‘Bobby Fischer Against the World’ is the first documentary feature to explore the tragic and bizarre life of the late chess master Bobby Fischer. The drama of Bobby Fischer’s career was undeniable, from his troubled childhood, to his rock star status as World Champion and Cold War icon, to his life as a fugitive on the run. This film explores one of the most infamous and mysterious characters of the 20th century.Read More »

Synopsis
He is a Parisian and author of a series of best selling crime novels. She is a blonde bombshell, convinced that she is the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. When they meet at Mouthe, the coldest town in France, he is suffering from a bad case of writer’s block and she is dead, believed by the police to have taken an overdose of sleeping tablets. David Rousseau is unconvinced and begins his own investigation into the mysterious past of Candice Lecoeur, certain that this will provide him with the inspiration for his next novel…Read More »

Plot/Synopsis:
Metin dreams of becoming a script writer. But no one is interested in his works. When he one evening returns frustrated from a bar, where yet again another on of his scripts was rejected, he meets Duygu. He takes the drunk woman who can barely stand on her legs, to his home where she can stay for the night.Read More »

Our first film was Pina, the documentary on contemporary dancing directed by Wim Wenders. I’m so glad to have chosen Wim over Bono, though, because Pina is an impressive and audaciously original piece of filmmaking.
Pina is an essay on the life and work of renowned choreographer Pina Bausch. Pina appears in some archival footage, and several members of her dance troupe testify to her ingenuity and artistic inspiration. The spirit of Pina, however, lives on in her dances: the film offers four of Bausch’s famed dances in their entirety, but dispersed and intercut throughout the film. The opening dance, The Rite of Spring, is a mesmerizing and penetrating ballet through a field of earth. The film’s hindrance may be that the first number is the strongest, but all four dances are sharp and provocative, and they alternate between soundstages and exterior settings.Read More »