1980s

Written and directed by Barr in collaboration with filmmaker James Benning, O Panama features Willem Dafoe as a man confined to his apartment on a winter day as he suffers through an illness.

Only once did the artistic trajectories of James Benning and Burt Barr intersect, but that they did with a Bang!, as O PANAMA is a gem that makes both their oeuvres shine a bit more brightly. In someways, this visit with a deliriously ill man is closer to Barr’s work at the time, like THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR (1984) or THE DOGS (1989), both urban alienation cacophonies done in a very rigorous, reduced style (Barr is now remembered mainly for his minimalist video works showing e. g. an ice cube melting …); then again: O PANAMA shares many a concern with Benning’s early adventures in experimental narrative like HONEYLANE ROAD (1973), 8 1/2×11 (1974) or 11×14 (1977), making this into something like a coda of a development discarded.Read More »

Stefano Vicinelli and his girlfriend Diana fall two weeks behind on their hotel rent and face having their luggage and car impounded until they can pay the bill. Conveniently for them, a distraught woman in the room right above theirs leaps to her death from the window. Using that as a distraction, the lovebirds sneak out and take off. Running low on money, they pool what little cash they do have and go to the racetrack. Stefano encounters a crazed woman wearing sunglasses who demands he give her a key so she can unlock a door. After she calms down, she proposes a deal with him: She’ll help him win money in the horse race if he’ll help her “get past the gate.” Having no clue what she’s even talking about, Stefano reluctantly agrees and bets on her suggestion. After the horse wins and he collects, he feels obliged to accompany the strange woman – who introduces herself as Countess Angela – back to her home.Read More »

Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.Read More »

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A series of five stories told by Rosette about her vacation.

Rosette wrote:
“In the early 80’s, I started shooting Rosette’s adventures in Super 8. They were vacation films made in complete freedom with a family of friends I met in Eric’s world (Arielle, Pascal, Marie, Amanda, Béatrice, Virginie, François-Marie…). Eric, who had a camera, took care of the image and this allowed him to practice while having fun, sometimes he even played a small role. This lightness inspired him, I believe, for films like Le rayon vert or Quatre aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle.”Read More »

The Crime of Cuenca is a Spanish drama film, directed by Pilar Miró and based on historical facts from the early 20th century in the Spanish province of Cuenca. On 21 August 1910, in the small town of Osa de la Vega, in the province of Cuenca, Jose Maria Grimaldos, known as «El Cepa», is seen on the road to the nearby village of Tresjuncos and then disappears. His family fears foul play and reports it to the Guardia Civil (rural police). In the subsequent judicial investigation the family and others express their suspicions that two men, Gregorio Valero and Leon Sanchez had killed him for his money. This first case was closed in September 1911 with no convictions.Read More »

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Agatha is an international lawyer, Jo a filmmaker. The two women are lovers. While Jo is on the road showing her films, Agatha discovers and reads her diaries. Problems ensue as Agatha’s transgressions lead to jealousy and a spiraling cycle of sexual obsession.

Sheila Dabney and Lois Weaver star in this landmark lesbian classic. Revelatory for its representation of a new lesbian desire, She Must Be Seeing Things put forth a politicized eroticism that mirrored the burgeoning butch/femme scene at the time. – First Run FeaturesRead More »

review from Letterboxd
21st century modern love in 80s Japan. carried out with absolute smoothness, confidence, and nuance. The male protagonist: Choosing to leave after having conducted enough inward reflection (this is surprisingly non-masculine, even with a motorcycle). Somewhat radical, really showed a unique “nonconformist’s” ideal of what love relationship can be. Everything done right, beats Tampopo in almost every sense (except food).Read More »

L’Archipel des amours is a French film first released in 1983, directed by Jean-Claude Biette, Cécile Clairval, Jacques Davila, Michel Delahaye, Jacques Frenais, Gérard Frot-Coutaz, Jean-Claude Guiguet, Marie-Claude Treilhou and Paul Vecchiali. The film stars Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Jean-Louis Rolland, Véronique Silver, Christian Rist and France Rousselle.Read More »

The servant boy, a minor, engaged in a middle class family dies mysteriously locked in a kitchen.Read More »