• Alf Sjöberg – Himlaspelet AKA The Road To Heaven (1942)

    1941-1950Alf SjöbergDramaSweden

    Mats Ersson is engaged to Marit and they plan to get married in the spring. But when the plague comes, the people accuse Marit of witchcraft. She is sentenced to death. Mats can not understand the divine justice and decides to go to paradise and ask God himself. It becomes a journey where he meets the prophets, king Solomon and finally God himself.Read More »

  • Nacho Vigalondo – Los cronocrímenes AKA Timecrimes (2007)

    2001-2010MysteryNacho VigalondoSci-FiSpain

    Nacho Vigalondo’s time-travel thriller opens with Hector, a married commoner, living in the Spanish countryside, spying on a beautiful woman undressing in the woods near his property. Being a time traveller, he finds her assaulted and he, in turn, is attacked by a weird man whose head is swathed in pink bandages. A total disquieting mansion was thus created on the top of a hill. Fleeing, Hector encounters a scientific facility where a scientist persuades him to hide in a time machine. Travelling back in time just a few hours, he observes himself.

    All of them pieces of an unpredictable jigsaw puzzle where terror, drama and suspense will lead to an unthinkable sort of crime. Who’s the murderer? Who’s the victim?Read More »

  • Michael Benveniste & Howard Ziehm – Flesh Gordon (1974)

    1971-1980CampEroticaHoward ZiehmMichael BenvenisteUSA

    Emperor Wang is leader of the planet Porno and sends his mighty “Sex Ray” towards Earth, turning everyone into sex-mad fiends. Only one man can save the Earth, football player Flesh Gordon.Read More »

  • Dito Tsintsadze – Lost Killers (2000)

    Dito Tsintsadze1991-2000ComedyDramaGermany

    Quote:
    Noted Georgian filmmaker Dito Tsintsadze directs this darkly-humorous urban drama about the desperate lives of illegal immigrants in Mannheim, Germany. Lan (Nicole Seelig) is a Vietnamese prostitute whose rotting teeth and odd affliction, which causes her to turn comatose after an orgasm, is impeding her marketability. She soon finds herself in an unlikely romance with Haitian Carlos (Elie James Blezes), who schemes to sell his kidney for enough money to immigrate to Australia. Meanwhile, tyro hitmen Branko (Misel Maticevic) and Merab (Lasha Bakradze) dilly-dally with their assignment to kill a businessman. Merab bores his Croatian counterpart by regaling him with stories about his native Georgia — in between vomiting out of anxiety.Read More »

  • Gaspard Augé, Xavier de Rosnay, Romain Gavras & So-Me – A Cross the Universe (2008)

    Gaspard Augé2001-2010DocumentaryPerformanceRomain GavrasSo-MeUSAXavier de Rosnay

    Synopsis
    Extraordinary things always happen when unexpected. During the 18 months Justice spent touring, “extraordinary” didn’t necessarily mean “amazing”, or “great”, (though it sometimes did) but “surreal”, “weird”, “horrendous”, “fascinating”, “paranormal”, etc. To cut a long story short, it means that without anyone to film you twenty-four/seven, no one will believe or get the essence of every moment you’d like to tell them about. So as Justice were about to tour the USA for the second time, multi-awarded directors and intimate friends of the band Romain Gavras and So-Me taped every second of that 3 week tour that looks like it lasted 3 years. This documentary isn’t a report of a Justice live show (the audio CD is here for that), but is all about the extraordinary things that can happen when a bunch of frogs get dropped in dreamy America.Read More »

  • Leslie Zemeckis – Behind the Burly Q (2010)

    2001-2010DocumentaryLeslie ZemeckisUSA

    Synopsis from allmovie.com:
    In the days before hardcore pornography attained mainstream accessibility in America, a more docile and suggestive form of adult entertainment proliferated in and around big cities, especially Manhattan: the classic burlesque show. Populated by musicians, comedians, and strippers, and cloaked in an overarching gaudiness, “burly” shows typically cost a dime for a single admission. Especially during difficult eras such as the Great Depression, the shows enabled male attendees to temporarily cast their troubles aside. As helmed by Leslie Zemeckis (documentarist wife of Robert Zemeckis), this chronicle examines the burly tradition by interviewing authors, historians, and burlesque participants including former strippers, comedians, and novelty acts. Taken together, the personal reminiscences not only reflect a broad spectrum of emotions, from triumph to tragedy, but add up to a historical chronicle of a unusual, now-extinct subculture that will remain forever tied to the early to mid-20th century. — Nathan SouthernRead More »

  • Harold D. Schuster – Marine Raiders (1944)

    Harold D. Schuster1941-1950DramaUSAWar

    Synopsis:
    A U.S. Marine major tries to keep his captain on the right track through combat on Guadalcanal, training new recruits in San Diego, and a relationship with a WAAAF while on leave in Australia.Read More »

  • Peter Askin & Douglas McGrath – Company Man (2000)

    Douglas McGrath1991-2000FrancePeter AskinUSA

    In the 60’s, Alan Quimp (Douglas McGrath) is a school teacher of English grammar and married with the very demanding woman Daisy Quimp (Sigourney Weaver). In order to avoid the constant mockery in Daisy’s family, Alan says that he is a secret CIA agent. Daisy tells everybody, the CIA acknowledges the lie, but due to a coincidence, Alan has just helped and hidden the professional Russian dancer Petrov (Ryan Phillippe) who wanted to leave Russia. The CIA decides to hire Alan as an agent, to get the credits of bringing Petrov to USA, and immediately decides to send him to a very calm place, Cuba. Again due to a fortunate coincidence, Alan disclosures the identity of a double agent (Dennis Leary). Then, Fidel Castro (Anthony LaPaglia) makes the revolution and deposes Fulgêncio Batista (Alan Cumming). Read More »

  • Denys de La Patellière – Le tonnerre de Dieu AKA The Thunder of God (1965)

    1961-1970Denys de La PatellièreDramaFrance
    Le tonnerre de Dieu (1965)

    Synopsis:
    ‘Léandre Brassac is an ageing veterinary who lives in a large house near to Nantes with his wife Marie, whom he openly despises and frequently abuses. Léandre resents the fact that his wife has failed to bear him any children, and as a result he has become a violent and moody old man, contemptuous of others and all too willing to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Whilst he may loathe people, Brassac shows a remarkable tenderness for animals, especially the dogs who have become his closest companions in his declining years. During one of his night-time excursions to Nantes, Brassac runs into a prostitute named Simone. Concerned by the young woman’s plight, he invites her to live with him and his wife.’
    – James TraversRead More »

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