1980s

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A monumental work of scholarship on one of the most important and neglected areas of film history, Richard Abel’s massive study is already clearly destined to occupy a position of deserved pre-eminence in relation to all foreseeable future work done on this seminal period in French cinema. At once a work of critical synthesis and a compendium of infor-mation containing much original research, it remains indispensible less for its overall critical argument than for its wealth of data, making it more valuable as a reference source than as a “definitive” history. The book is divided into four sections, any one of which contains enough important material to constitute a significant book in its own right: “The French Film Industry,” “The Commercial Narrative Film,” “The Alternative Cinema Network”and “The Narrative Avant-Garde.” — Jonathan RosenbaumRead More »

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It was a dark and stormy night…. at the turn of the century and Bielarecki (Boris Plotnikov), a young ethnographer seeks shelter at Marsh Firs, a gloomy baronial manor set amidst Byelorussian marshes, while he conducts research into the myths and legends of the region. He discovers from the castle’s young and tragic owner, Nadzieja Jankowska (Yelena Dimotrova), that the place is haunted by two ghosts-the Little Man of Marsh Firs and the Lady in Blue-and that her family line was accursed centuries ago when ancestor Roman Jankowska denied the hand of his daughter to King Stach, whose ghost now rides with those of thirteen horsemen to drag Jankowska offspring and their servants to death in the surrounding marshes…Read More »

Set in Costa Rica and touched with dark humor, this stylistically imaginative documentary illuminates the social climate and cultural traditions which nurture machismo and allow the domination of women to flourish in Latin America.

‘An amazing work that successfully reveals the genuinely funny elements of male posturing and its potentially serious consequences. It will be appreciated by general audiences as well as teachers interested in stimulating discussion on sex roles.’ -Malcolm Arth, Margaret Mead Film FestivalRead More »

A young couple separates under pressure from vicious Triad gangsters–she becomes a mobster’s unwilling moll, and he travels abroad to work as an assassin. But their love stays strong, and when the two are reunited, their rekindled emotions lead them into extreme danger.Read More »

A drifter on a motorcycle happens to be passing through a town immediately after a young school girl has been run over and killed by an unknown person on a motorcycle.Read More »

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An advertising executive dies and goes to hell… except nothing changes. Well, his daughter is buying drugs with sexual favours from her brother, and the number of cancer-causing products is on the increase. But the notes he writes to himself to prove he hasn’t gone insane are getting more disjointed, and he runs off with an ex-prostitute called Honey Barbera.Read More »

Arnold Hohmann wrote:
Peter Lorre achieved international fame for his performance in the myth-making role in M. This character has held a peculiar fascination for generations of cinephiles. However, at the time, whilst such success meant recognition, it also weighed on the Hungarian actor as a constrictive burden. Using photographs and film extracts, Das doppelte Gesicht reconstructs the ups and downs of Lorre’s career, taking into consideration the economic imperatives and workings of the film industry at the time.Read More »

In this surreal take on Pygmalion set in 1900s St. Petersburg, Russia, a time known in art as Russian Decadence, a famous artist and decorator, Platon Andreevich, strives to find the secret to eternal life through the beautiful mannequins he creates, and his latest masterpiece, more perfect in his hubristic mind than anything that God had ever created, is based on a young dying girl. However, years later, he meets the wife of a rich merchant, who looks just like the now supposedly long time dead girl he used as model for his perfect mannequin. The artist becomes obsessed with uncovering the woman’s mysterious past, which puts him in grave danger.Read More »

Synopsis:
Two friends who haven’t seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.Read More »