• Mani Haghighi – Kargaran mashghoole karand AKA Men at Work (2006)

    Arthouse2001-2010IranMani Haghighi

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    A bare bones synopsis of this film might lead you to expect that it is lethally boring. Four middle aged buddies are returning to Tehran from a trip to the mountains, trying to get back in time to watch an important soccer match on TV. Their homeward journey grinds to a halt when they round a curve in the highway and are confronted by a natural monolith, a 10 foot high, narrow rock formation, projecting straight up out of the ground, overlooking the canyon below. They spend the rest of the movie trying to topple it.Read More »

  • István Szabó – Álmodozások kora AKA Age of Illusions (1964)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaHungaryIstván Szabó

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    The Hungarian Age of Illusions was the first feature-film effort by writer/director István Szabó. Andras Balint plays an electrical engineer who hops from bed to bed, never making any lasting commitment with any one woman. All this changes when he falls in love with a local celebrity whom he sees on television (Ilona Beres). Trouble is, he’s never met her; like her other fans, he can assess her only by what he witnesses on the small screen. When he finally does touch base with the girl, he’s in for a few surprises-some pleasant, many others not so. Completed in 1965, Age of Illusions was not given widespread distribution until 1967.Read More »

  • Umit Unal – Dokuz AKA Nine (2002)

    2001-2010DramaThrillerTurkeyUmit Unal

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Scene: A poor neighborhood of Istanbul. A beautiful, young, homeless girl is killed in a brutal and gory murder. Nobody knows where she comes from, although there are many rumors. Six people from the neighborhood are interrogated by the police and the secret history of the neighborhood is thus revealed. 9 is a story about everyday fascism in the lives of ordinary people.

    The movie centers entirely around the interrogation of 6 people about the murder of a homeless girl relatively new to their Istanbul neighborhood. The stories told by each of the characters about their community, neighbors and the murder start out innocently, but bit by bit the oniony layers of the rotten story start to be peeled away revealing that nothing is as rosy as the neighbors would like to believe. Clever editing of the ever changing versions of stories by the different characters provides an often humorous, quick paced, entertaining film that in the end leaves you questioning where the facade ends and the truth really begins.
    Melissa@ImdbRead More »

  • Derek Jarman – Blue (1993)

    1991-2000ArthouseDerek JarmanExperimentalQueer Cinema(s)United Kingdom

    SYNOPSIS:
    Against a plain, unchanging blue screen, a densely interwoven soundtrack of voices, sound effects and music attempt to convey a portrait of Derek Jarman’s experiences with AIDS, both literally and allegorically, together with an exploration of the meanings associated with the colour blue.Read More »

  • Suzan Pitt – El Doctor (2006)

    2001-2010AnimationExperimentalSuzan PittUSA

    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

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    EL DOCTOR is a dark animated poem set in a crumbling Mexican hospital about 1920. Inhabited by surreal characters including the man shot with one hundred holes, the girl who sprouted morning-glories, and the woman who thinks she is a horse, the Doctor prefers to drink. The Saint of Holes and a mysterious gargoyle rearrange the Doctor’s fated demise and send him on a dark and twisted journey.

    The film celebrates the nature of perception and the miraculous. Over five years in production the film was entirely hand painted by artists in Los Angeles and Mexico.Read More »

  • Orestis Laskos – Dafnis kai Hloi AKA Daphnis and Chloe (1931)

    1931-1940ClassicsGreeceOrestis LaskosSilent

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    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Silent film version of the Longus’ classic ancient novel.Read More »

  • Akio Jissoji – Mujo aka This Transient Life (1970)

    1961-1970Akio JissojiAsianJapanPhilosophy

    http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/Kane32/poster-1.jpg

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis
    This Transient Life tells the story of the siblings Masao and Yuri who live in a huge estate near Lake Biwa north of Kyoto. Masao refuses to go to university and is infatuated with Buddhist sculptures. Iwashita, a student who lodges at the house, and Ogino, a young priest and former classmate of Masao, are both in love with Masao’s beautiful sister Yuri, who rejects all proposals from her parents to marry her off. One day, while being alone in the big house and playing with No-masks, Masao and Yuri end up in a passionate embrace. Thus starts their forbidden relation that soon bears fruit. When Yuri gets pregnant the siblings plot a perfidious plan. Yuri seduces Iwashita only to be discovered by her parents, who then force Iwashita to marry her. Masao leaves for Kyoto to become an apprentice to the famous sculptor of Buddhist statues, Mori Takayasu. He starts a relation with the much younger wife of the impotent sculptor, who secretly enjoys watching them make love. A year later Masao briefly returns to his parents’ house.Read More »

  • Michael Verhoeven – O.K. (1970)

    1961-1970ArthouseGermanyMichael VerhoevenWar

    Synopsis:
    A four man US fireteam on patrol seizes a passing young vietnamnese girl and continue to torture, rape and kill her. Only one soldier refuses to take part in it and reports this incident to his superior, who dismisses it as simple wartime incident. As a consequence for his report, the soldier has to fear for his life. Later, the perpetrators are convicted, although subsequent appeals reduce their sentences significantly.
    The plot takes place in a bavarian forest and reenacts a real war crime that happened in the vietnam war. The soldiers wear US uniforms, have authentic names but speak with a pronounced bavarian accent – a conscious directing decision known as Brechtian distancing effect.Read More »

  • Masaru Konuma – Toki niha Shoufu no youni AKA Sometimes Like a Prostitute (1978)

    Drama1971-1980EroticaJapanMasaru Konuma

    Sometimes… Like a Prostitute is a 1978 Roman Porno film directed by Masaru Konuma and starring singer Rei Nakanishi, whose hit song inspired the story.Read More »

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