1990s

  • Vladimir Kobrin – Tretya Realnost 1 AKA Third Reality I (1995)

    1991-2000ArthouseExperimentalRussiaVladimir Kobrin

    Film is dedicated to the ontological problems of adaptation of the human spirit in the mental world.
    Quote:
    In his films, Kobrin elaborates a special, metaphoric style that is “a fully achieved work of imaginative filmmaking, in which special effects, pixilation, and reverse or speed-up motion abound, a philosophical avant-garde film, entirely unexpected in terms of its country of origin”.Read More »

  • Jacques Doillon – Le petit criminel AKA The Little Gangster (1990)

    1981-1990DramaFranceJacques Doillon

    Marc, a troubled teenager, becomes aware of the existence of a sister he has never met. Armed with a pistol his mother found, he goes out to find his sister. After stealing from a shop, he is stopped by a policeman. Marc threatens him with his gun and demands that he helps him in his search.Read More »

  • Kaizo Hayashi – Wana AKA The Trap [+Extras] (1996)

    Drama1991-2000Film NoirJapanKaizo Hayashi

    Quote:
    The 3 Part of the Maiku Hama Triology is the best and probably darkest of all the films. In fact, this episode is more of a horror-like thriller reminiscent of a Takashi Miike film. “The Trap,” which is the final film of the trilogy was preceded by the more semi-comical episodes of “The Most Terrible Time In My Life,” and then followed by “Stairway To The Distant Past,” and finally concluding with this film, “The Trap.” In the previous episodes of the trilogy, Maiku Hama (Masatoshi Nagase) is not the aloof private detective he was originally portrayed as; but a much more intelligent and calm detective.Read More »

  • Leo Regan – Don’t Get High on Your Own Supply (1998)

    1991-2000DocumentaryLeo ReganUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    How far will the artist go? Photojournalist Lanre Fehintola decides to experiment with heroin while working on a book about drug addicts. What starts out as an attempt to understand the plight of his subjects, ends up totally consuming and threatening his life. After five years of addiction, the documentary follows Lanre through a chaotic year as he struggles to complete his story, break his heroin addiction and find a publisher for his book.Read More »

  • Ömer Vargi – Her sey çok güzel olacak AKA Everything’s Gonna Be Great (1998)

    Drama1991-2000ComedyÖmer VargiTurkey

    A small-time crook digs himself deeper into trouble the harder he tries to get out in this comedy from Turkey. Altan (Cem Yilmaz) is a low-level criminal severely lacking in both luck and skill, and his wife (Ceyda Duvenci) has had just about enough of his life outside the law. In desperation, Altan strikes upon an idea for one big score — his brother (Mazhar Alanson) is the manager of a pharmaceutical warehouse, so Altan grabs his bother, nabs a large cache of drugs, and heads to the seashore where he can sell his ill-gotten wares. However, just as business starts to pick up for Altan, a gang of rival drug dealers decide they would also like a piece of the action. Her Sey Cok Guzel Olacak /Everything’s Gonna Be Great was a major box office success in Turkey, partly due to the presence of Mazhar Alanson as Altan’s brother, who is a major Turkish pop star.Read More »

  • Giuseppe Tornatore – Una pura formalità AKA A Pure Formality (1994)

    1991-2000CrimeGiuseppe TornatoreItalyThriller

    Synopsis:
    Onoff is a famous writer who hasn’t published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, out of breath and running madly, without clear memory of recent events, the Inspector is suspicious. Through interrogatory dialectic, the head of this lonely, isolated, broken-down police station tries to establish what has happened, by delving into the mind of his writer-hero, and clearing up a mysterious killing.Read More »

  • Julio Medem – Tierra aka Earth (1996)

    Drama1991-2000Julio MedemSpain

    Tierra (Earth, Julio Medem, 1996) opens with a hypnotic journey through space, as the camera soars through the ethereal atmosphere, descending towards an agricultural area, then focusing in on a lone traveler who is having a motivational conversation with himself. A remote village has been infested with woodlice, imparting an earthy taste to the locally produced wine. An exterminator, a self-described “complex” man named Ángel (Carmelo Gómez), has been hired by the town mayor to fumigate the region. Ángel’s inner voice, the figurative angel of his subconscious who has died but continues to exist (and interject opinions) within his corporal self, believes that he has been sent down to earth for a divine mission.Read More »

  • Mikhail Belikov – Raspad AKA Decay (1990)

    1981-1990DocumentaryDramaMikhail BelikovPoliticsUkraine

    Quote:
    RASPAD is a hard-hitting Ukrainian film that details the horrors and aftermath of the Russian Chernobyl nuclear-reactor incident.

    In April 1986, Soviet journalist Alexander Zhuralev (Sergei Shakurov) returns from assignment in Greece to his home in Kiev, only to discover, via an anonymous note, that his wife Ludmilla (Tatiana Kochesmasova) has been having an affair with his bureaucrat friend Shurik (Alexii Gorbunov). To consol himself, Alexander plans a visit with his friend Anatoli Stepanovich (Georgi Drozd), but before they can meet, a fiery explosion rips through one of the Chernobyl reactors, where Anatoli works, and he is one of the first victims. However, no announcements are made by the government, and life continues normally.Read More »

  • Richard Kerr – Cruel Rhythm (1991)

    1991-2000CanadaExperimentalRichard KerrShort Film

    Shot during the opening stages of the First Gulf War, Kerr’s “Cruel Rhythm” revisits the American desert for a cinematic tone poem in the vein of ‘The Last Days of Contrition’ A canopy of sound bites of media coverage on the build-up toward the war is juxtaposed with the alienness of windmills in the desert, and a startling sequence of drifting faces of a crowd coming towards the camera in slow motion. A thought-provoking piece on media’s construction of societal paranoia “Cruel Rhythm” is an attempt to make a public, shared feeling intimate, or conversely, to make a subjective feeling of floating anxiety and dread into a shared representation.” Unsettlingly, its ambiance is as poignant today as ever.Read More »

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