1990s

Molom, the shaman, takes Yonden, a child lost among wolves, under his protection, and walks with him through the Mongolian steppe.Read More »

During the 1960s and 70s, Turkish-born Erje Ayden served as house pulp fiction writer to the New York School of painters and poets. Friend and sometime bodyguard to the artist Willem De Kooning, Ayden self-published 7 pop novels, written in rapid amphetamine bursts in borrowed apartments and rooming houses. Sadness at Leaving, re-published by Semiotext(e) in 1998, is Ayden’s most autobiographical work — if one accepts, as he claims, that he worked as a spy for the Turkish government throughout those years.East Berlin, 1959: Following the erection of the Berlin wall, special agent Carl Halman is assigned by East German intelligence to move to New York where he’ll “sleep” as a writer until he is called. Using the code-name “April 23,” Carl successfully infiltrates the uptown-downtown literary world in 1950s New York. He edits a magazine, follows the Knicks, and marries Melinda, the socialite wife of best-selling jock novelist Hubert Cleaver, Ayden’s hilarious Norman Mailer pastiche. Through Carl’s eyes, we see New York City change from an outpost of Europe to the new capital of an anarchistic, post-ideological world. But then, when Carl least expects it, he’s called.Read More »

Stéphane, a young French man from Paris, travels to Romania. He is looking for the singer Nora Luca, whom his father had heard all the time before his death. Wandering along a frozen road, he meets old Izidor, a member of the Roma (Gypsy) and tells him of Nora Luca. Izidor seems to understand and takes him to his village. Stéphane believes that Izidor will take him to Nora Luca when the time has come. So, he lives in the Roma(Gypsy) village for several months. The other inhabitants dislike him at first (as he comes from those who call them thieves and attack their folks) but when they as they get to know him better, they grow to like him. In summer, the ice between him and beautiful Sabina finally cracks, and a secret is revealed. – Written by Julian ReischlRead More »

The Storm Riders is a 1998 Hong Kong wuxia fantasy film based on the manhua series Fung Wan by artist Ma Wing-shing. Directed by Andrew Lau, it starred Ekin Cheng as Wind and Aaron Kwok as Cloud. The plot involves two children, Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud, who become powerful warriors under the evil Lord Conqueror’s tutelage. The sequel to the film, titled The Storm Warriors and directed by the Pang brothers, was released in 2009.Read More »

A father, a retiring mailman, walks his son over his job in the mountainous regions of Hunan province.Read More »

A 1994 biographical film about the life and career of the Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time. It stars Stefano Dionisi as Farinelli and was directed by the Belgian director Gérard Corbiau.
Although Dionisi provided the speaking voice, Farinelli’s singing voice was provided by the Polish soprano, Ewa Malas-Godlewska and a countertenor, Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato.Read More »

Two schizophrenics meet during therapy and fall passionately in love. Ahead of them lies the inevitable road to disaster – one they share to the end.Read More »

In seductive central Paris, an undernourished gendarme willing to go to great lengths to feed himself hatches a desperate, yet utterly cunning plan.Read More »

A songwriter in love with his demanding boss’s secretary enters an alternate, wacky world where a much-needed hit tune may be created from his heart.Read More »