1990s

  • Jerzy Hoffman – Ogniem i mieczem AKA With Fire and Sword (1999)

    1991-2000EpicJerzy HoffmanPolandWar

    SYNOPSIS:
    by Unkabunk of Cinematic
    Spectacular battles, rollicking humor, and lavish production values frame a sweeping romantic drama that all audiences will enjoy. At the time of its release, this lavish historical epic was the most expensive Polish film ever made. Based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz this grand drama is set in 17th century Poland during the Cossack uprising against the Polish nobility. As the violent confrontation builds, a battle for the heart of a beautiful girl rages between a dashing Pole and a brutish Ukrainian. This is a special full-length version, including footage not in the original theatrical release.

    This is the first film from a trilogy of books on which the movies are based. The second is ‘Potop [Deluge] (1974)’ and the final one being ‘Pan Wolodyjowski [Colonel Wolodyjowski] (1969)’.Read More »

  • Gerd Kroske & Andreas Voigt – Leipzig im Herbst AKA Leipzig in Autumn (1990)

    1981-1990Andreas VoigtDocumentaryGerd KroskeGermanyPolitics

    The most comprehensive documentation of events surrounding the 1989 Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, East Germany. The film team finally got the permission of the state-owned film studio to document these historic events on October 16, 1989 and filmed until the fall of the Berlin Wall. With their heavy 35mm camera equipment, they were the only professional team filming in Leipzig. The film includes interviews with demonstrators, members of the citizens’ rights movement, officials and bystanders in East Germany’s peaceful revolution.Read More »

  • Santiago Lorenzo – Mamá es boba AKA Mom is Dumb (1997)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaSantiago LorenzoSpain

    Palencia (Spain). Little Martin gets pooped every day at school, which is making his life bitter. He feels embarrassed for his parents, Gema and Toribio, two lovers who always smile as if asking for forgiveness for everything and who, moreover, ignore the drama that their poor son suffers every day in class.Read More »

  • Jan Nemec – Jmeno kodu: Rubin AKA Code Name: Ruby (1997)

    Jan Nemec1991-2000ArthouseCzech RepublicDrama

    This controversial feature blends documentary, archival footage and fiction into an elliptical narrative in which two young people in Prague, an ancient seat for the practice of alchemy, follow the trail for the mystical philosopher’s stone. History and future blend as brilliant montage sequences and fanciful leaps of the imagination work to posit questions about the legacy of the past and how it influences the individual’s personal freedom and responsibilityRead More »

  • Manoel de Oliveira – O Convento AKA The Convent (1995)

    Manoel de Oliveira1991-2000ArthouseDramaPortugal

    Quote:
    The story centers on the unconventional American professor, Michael Padovic, and his stunningly beautiful wife, Helene, who journey to an eerie Portuguese convent to prove that Shakespeare was, in reality, a Jewish Spaniard. They journey to the spooky old convent of Arrabida where they are housed by the sophisticated, but rather creepy guardian of the monastery, Baltar, who immediately seems attracted to Helene. In order to spend more time with her, Baltar arranges for Michael to spend all his time in the convent’s great library; he is assisted by a beautiful young librarian. It is the wicked Baltar who tries to tempt Michael (in the way that Mephistopheles tempted Faust) into becoming immortal through his research and writing.Read More »

  • Tracey Moffatt – Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1990)

    Tracey Moffatt1981-1990AustraliaExperimentalShort Film

    “Formally, Moffatt’s movie is a beautifully considered, carefully crafted ‘tour’ across various, symbolically loaded areas of space, wherein John Whitteron’s steadily exploratory camerawork forces our gaze to look at certain, otherwise quite banal, objects and activities and to studiedly contemplate them, in all their sadly arrested beauty, in all their absurd tragi-comedy. Stephen Curtis’ set design, a symphony in scale and perspective blends the saturated ambers and lavender purples of Albert Namatjira’s kitschily redolent watercolours with what, again, might, or might not, constitute a stylised rendition of the living-room interior from the 1955 Chauvel classic. And Phillippa Harvey’s sound-edited noise-scape is probably one of the best uses of ambient aural effects in any local film, so much so that the wonderfully textured wailing and weeping, the strange whistles and screams can stay with the viewing ‘auditeur’ for days afterwards.”
    senses of cinemaRead More »

  • Albert Pyun – Knights (1993)

    Albert Pyun1991-2000CampSci-FiUSA

    Quote:
    Plot: In the post-holocaust wasteland the cyborg warlord Job needs to harvest the blood of 10,000 people and orders his army to capture people. The orphan Nea is the only survivor after the cyborgs slaughter the farming community that has adopted her. She is saved by the mysterious cyborg Gabriel who reveals he has been created to eliminate Job and the other cyborgs. Nea agrees to lead him to Job’s encampment if he will train her how to fight.Read More »

  • Kurt Hoffmann – Ich denke oft an Piroschka AKA I Often Think of Piroschka (1955)

    Comedy1951-1960GermanyKurt HoffmannRomance

    Quote:
    Andreas, a young German student comes to Hungary on an exchange programme. In the Hungarian village he falls in love with the stationmaster’s daughter Piroschka and spends much of his time with her. They have an enchanting summer until Andreas gets an invitation to join another young woman at a nearby resort. Piroschka is jealous and follows him there, causing trouble. It takes a long time for Andreas and Piroschka to even talk to each other again. When Andreas has to leave Hungary at the end of his holiday, he is determined to return some day.Read More »

  • Fred Kelemen – Abendland AKA Nightfall (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFred KelemenGermany

    Synopsis
    A largely plotless, fado-scored journey through the gloomy cobblestone streets, zombie bars, and fetid basements of a sordid harbor town populated by German-speaking sots and Portuguese guest workers, Nightfall is Kelemen’s most polished despair-fest. An unhappy young couple, Leni and Anton, quarrel and split separately into the rat’s ass of the evening. Everyone is looking for love, but no one finds any—although Leni does pick up a trick. With perfect bad timing, Anton wanders by the parked car where she is engaged, and in a frenzy of depression, carves her name on his knuckles. A sympathetic hooker bandages his hand and even gets him to dance before she lets her wig slip and passes out on the bar. Then it’s on through an after-hours club of sodden depravity to the bleary dawn.Read More »

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