• Youssef Chahine – Awdat al ibn al dal AKA The Return of the Prodigal Son (1976)

    Drama1971-1980EgyptYoussef Chahine

    In this Andre Gide adaptation, an activist is released after many years in prison and returns home, shaking up established relationships among his family members at the farm governed by his strict father. Demonstrating Chahine’s eclecticism, this is an elegant melodrama, exuberant musical, layered allegory, and profound portrait of personal and political disillusionment. (bam.org)Read More »

  • Jean-Marc Vallée – Café de Flore (2011)

    Drama2011-2020ArthouseCanadaJean-Marc Vallée

    Quote:
    A love story between a man and woman. And between a mother and her son. A mystical and fantastical odyssey on love.Read More »

  • Werner Nekes & Dore O. – Beuys (1981)

    1981-1990ExperimentalGermanyVideo ArtWerner NekesWerner Nekes and Dore O.

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    Beuys 1981
    11 min.
    Format 16 mm colour

    The term ‘visual arts’ that is prevailing in modernity is really a symptom for the reduction of perceptional categories within the human creativity as a whole. An anthropological conception of art – and I have proved for instance in sculptural theory that you hear a sculpture before you see it, that consequently the auditive element is not just an equal part, but a constituent of the perception of plastic art – confronts you with the task of exploring the conception of creativity in all directions, of spreading it out and substantiating it anthropologically. So for instance, the human creativity potential as a whole doesn’t only comprise the recognition criteria in thought, but it also comprises the sensational categories in the middle of the soul, that is, the moving element, and it positively comprises the will potential in human will. It is this interpretation of human creativity potential, beginning with the triple position, the connections of will, sense, and thought categories, which will get you to the more differentiated position of considering the perception, too, and thus the connection of human senses, discovering that for example seeing, the visual sense, the auditory sense, the static sense, the architectonic sense, the haptic sense, can be thought forward into the sense of feeling, the sense of will, the sense of thinking, and many other still to be developed senses.Read More »

  • Takashi Miike – Kenka no hanamichi: Oosaka saikyô densetsu AKA The Way to Fight (1996)

    1991-2000ActionComedyJapanTakashi Miike

    http://img38.imageshack.com/img38/8448/waytofight.jpg

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    Kazuyoshi Tamai, a High School student in Osaka is a street fighter who can do serious damage. So far he has had no trouble wiping up the floor with the competition. One night, he sees several young men getting beaten up on the street. When he finds out the ringleader behind the beating is Takeshi of Tennan High School, he rushes to challenge him. But through a series of events, he is unable to fight him. Years later, Kazuyoshi has become Japan’s bantamweight boxing champ, while Takeshi is the toast of the pro-wrestling world. The two brawlers are about to meet at last in the match of their lives!Read More »

  • Ousmane Sembene – Mandabi AKA The Money Order (1968)

    1961-1970African CinemaDramaOusmane SembeneSenegal

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    A money order from a relative in Paris throws the life of a Senegalese family man out of order. He deals with corruption, greed, problematic family members, the locals and the changing from his traditional way of living to a more modern one.

    From Time Out:

    A political film criticising the type of bureaucracy that has arisen in post-colonial Senegal. A money order is sent to an unemployed, illiterate relative by a hard-working lad seeking his fortune in Paris. But all attempts to cash the money order are frustrated: the man’s illiteracy and ignorance of finance allow him to be exploited by those with education. The power is in the hands of the clerks and intellectuals, who use their knowledge for private advantage. Although the film can be criticised for the relative gentleness of its attack, Sembene succeeds in pointing up the divisiveness created by the colonial heritage. The French-colonised elite are now busy oppressing and colonising their own people. Shot in Wolof, the local language, the film asserts Senegalese culture against the rapacious way of the West. Not surprisingly it proved popular with the ‘people’, but was ignored by the bourgeois when originally released.Read More »

  • Jaume Balagueró – Mientras duermes aka Sleep Tight (2011)

    2011-2020HorrorJaume BalagueróSpainThriller

    SYNOPSIS:
    Caesar is the keeper of an apartment building and would not trade this job for no other, because it allows insight into the movements, the most intimate habits, weaknesses and secrets of all tenants. If you want you can even control their lives, influencing them as God, open wounds and delve into them. And all without raising any suspicion. Because Caesar has a secret peculiar: he likes to hurt, move the pieces needed to produce pain around. And the new neighbor of 5 º B keeps smiling. In and out every day bright and happy, full of light. So soon become the new goal of the game of Caesar. This is a personal challenge of an obsession. (Translated from Spanish)Read More »

  • Harald Braun – Zwischen gestern und morgen AKA Between yesterday and tomorrow (1947)

    Drama1941-1950GermanyHarald Braun

    A group of people gathers back in the post-war ruins of a luxurious Munich hotel they inhabited at one point or another years before; each trying to cope with the tragic consequences of the war and their own actionsRead More »

  • Jens Lien – Sønner av Norge (2011)

    2011-2020DramaJens LienNorway

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    It’s 1978 and 14-year-old Nikolas is living an idyllic existence with his young brother and his archetypal, politicized hippie parents, the energetic Magnus (Sven Nordin) and the angelic Lone (Sonja Richter). When Lone is killed in a car accident, Magnus falls into a deep depression. Nikolas has nowhere to turn until his best friend proudly slaps his latest purchase on the turntable: The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks…. (The film was executive produced by former Pistols leader John Lydon, who plays a pivotal role in the movie.) Soon enough, Nikolas finds a new use for safety pins and buys a guitar. The real rub – and much of the comedy – comes when his father partially snaps out of his depression. Instead of disciplining Nikolas, Magnus encourages him. It may be hard to rebel, but it’s even tougher when your father is listening to the same records as you. Lively, entertaining and insightful, Jens Lien’s Sons of Norway is one of the funniest and most charming coming-of-age stories to come out of the Nordic region since Fucking Amal.Read More »

  • Maïwenn – Polisse (2011)

    2011-2020DramaFranceMaïwenn

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    The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department’s Juvenile Protection Unit – taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day? Fred, the group’s hypersensitive wild card, is going to have a hard time facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit. (~IMDb)
    Read More »

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