1990s

  • Murali Nair – Marana Simhasanam AKA Throne of Death (1999)

    1991-2000DramaIndiaMurali Nair

    When Krishnan, a poor Indian laborer, is caught stealing a landowner’s coconuts to feed his family, he becomes a poster boy for various political parties all jockeying for position in local elections. When the party in power frames him for an unsolved murder in order to gain support, Krishnan faces the death penalty. Enter the “throne of death,” the electric chair. The film’s satire intensifies as the rival Communist party takes up Krishnan’s cause, not to win his freedom, but to secure for Krishnan the noble privilege of being the first to experience the glorious, peaceful death afforded by the new American invention.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – La Casa del sorriso aka The House of Smiles (1988)

    1991-2000ArthouseComedyItalyMarco Ferreri

    Synopsis
    In the hippie era, the motto used to be “never trust anyone over 30.” In this geriatric romance, the motto might be amended to read “never trust anyone under 60.” Still sprightly and interested in life though they are in their 70s, the two lovers in this film are confined in an unsympathetic “rest home” by their relatives and are only able to meet rarely in a camper loaned to them by some black immigrant workers. When the staff at the home get wind of their affair, they take vigorous action to try and “calm them down” simply to reassert their deadening control over them. Eventually the two of them end their romance, but the woman escapes the rest home and finds freedom in the company of the immigrants.
    ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville – L’Enfance de l’Art (1993)

    1991-2000FranceJean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie MiévilleShort FilmWar

    A woman, a child, a man and another child, the noise of bombs falling and of planes passing by, in a urban landscape destroyed by war.
    A man dies before he had time to write on the back of La liberté guidant le peuple de Delacroix: that could be the plot, just the enigma consisting of a missing word. A question opened before death, resolved by a child, the shadow and spirit of Gavroche.Read More »

  • Guy Maddin – Archangel (1990)

    1981-1990ArthouseCanadaGuy Maddin

    A surrealistic film in which a strangely assorted group of people come together in the Russian Arctic at the height of the revolution and World War One.

    “At once perplexing and joyous, Maddin has crafted a film that, for all the confusion inherent in the tale, unfolds on its own unique terms.” [Austin Chronicle]Read More »

  • Mitch Davis – Divided Into Zero (1999)

    1991-2000CanadaExperimentalMitch DavisShort Film

    PLOT OUTLINE :
    A non-linear surrealistic horror film documenting a man’s broken descent into isolation, body mutilation, paedophilia and murder.Read More »

  • Anna Biller – Three Examples of Myself as Queen (1994)

    1991-2000Anna BillerCampShort FilmUSA

    A hilarious romp that turns topsy-turvy the old Hollywood standards of female sexuality and pleasure, Three Examples of Myself… brings together three fantasies of how women would run things if they were on the throne of power. Remixing fluffy musical numbers with a definite feminist twist, director Biller creates a rebellious coquette for the 90’s–a kind of Sandra Dee meets Madonna–as she rules a harem in the Arabian Nights, rules over a hiveful of submissive drones, and even finds sexual liberation in the disco era. With a scoreful of delightful musical fantasies, the film delivers a magical twist to the notions of visual pleasure. With lyrics like “She is fertile, she is nice–She gives us good advice. She is everything we need!”, you simply can’t go wrong. — New York Asian American Film FestivalRead More »

  • Ate de Jong – Highway to Hell (1992)

    1991-2000Ate de JongFantasyHorrorUSA

    Quote:
    Charle (Rob Lowe’s affably boyish younger brother Chad) and Rachel (delectable blonde hottie Kristy Swanson, who originated the part of everyone’s favorite bloodsucker-stomping high school cheerleader in the flop movie “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) are a sweetly pure and innocent young couple who make the usual mistake of driving down a remote desert dirt road. When Rachel gets abducted by the pernicious superhuman fiend Hellcop (hulking C.J. Graham; Jason in “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives”), Charlie literally has to go to hell to rescue Rachel within twenty-four hours or otherwise the Devil (a smoothly sneaky and ingratiating Patrick Bergin) will have her soul for all eternity.Read More »

  • Alfonso Cuarón – A Little Princess (1995)

    1991-2000Alfonso CuarónDramaFantasyUSA

    Plot:
    When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara’s creativity and sense of self- worth. Sara’s belief that “every girl’s a princess” is tested to the limit, however, when word comes that her father was killed in action and his estate has been seized by the British government.Read More »

  • Tim Burton – Ed Wood (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyCultTim BurtonUSA

    Ode to a Director Who Dared to Be Dreadful

    “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s very good film about a very bad film maker, has a cheerful defiance that would surely have appealed to Orson Welles, who was Ed Wood’s hero. Late in the film, Welles appears (played deftly by Vincent d’Onofrio, who really looks like him) to advise Wood that independence is everything and that an artist’s visions are worth fighting for. Mr. Burton, currently Hollywood’s most irrepressible maverick, has taken that credo to heart. Read More »

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