2000s

  • Seth Price – Redistribution (2007)

    2001-2010ExperimentalSeth PriceUSAVideo Art

    People often want to hear what the artist has to say, what lies “behind” the work, yet at the same time it’s taken as a performance.

    But Seth Price’s Redistribution (2007 – ) isn’t an artist talk. It uses the artist’s talk as a form and turns it into a video: the artist is at a lectern, giving an overview of his practice, but his explanations are called into question by the constructed nature of all the graphic effects, repeated sequences, voice-overs, or background music. After all, a video is just material in a chain.

    When an image is filtered, you’re mostly seeing the filter.Read More »

  • François Ozon – Swimming Pool (2003)

    2001-2010FranceFrançois OzonMysteryThriller

    Quote:
    Sarah Morton is a famous British mystery author. Tired of London and seeking inspiration for her new novel, she accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload to stay at his home in Luberon, in the South of France. It is the off-season, and Sarah finds that the beautiful country locale and unhurried pace is just the tonic for her–until late one night, when John’s indolent and insouciant French daughter Julie unexpectedly arrives. Sarah’s prim and steely English reserve is jarred by Julie’s reckless, sexually charged lifestyle.Read More »

  • Thunska Pansittivorakul – Boriven nee yu pai tai karn kuk kun AKA This Area Is Under Quarantine (2009)

    2001-2010DocumentaryExperimentalQueer Cinema(s)ThailandThunska Pansittivorakul

    Quote:
    It doesn’t look spectacular at first. Two boys each talk separately about their experiences. In the end also on the sexual level. In the end they are also in the room together. In the end they don’t leave it at talking. Remember that homosexuality on film is banned in Thailand and so this film maker has been very daring.

    Europeans on sex holidays to Thailand and transvestites who work in tourist areas may give a different impression, but this country is far from liberal in regard to homosexuality. A candid film maker like Thunska Pansittivorakul is therefore sure to come into contact with censorship sooner or later. So anyone who wonders why the two kids in this film keep their pants on right up to the end now knows the answer.Read More »

  • Genjiro Arato – Akame shijuya taki shinju misui AKA Akame 48 Waterfalls (2003)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaGenjiro AratoJapan

    A man is trying to flee from his past, and he ends up in an underworld filled with strange characters. He finds a job skewering meat in a dirty old room in a shabby old house filled with prostitutes, gangsters and a weird old tattoo master. He clearly doesn’t fit in to this new world, and the inhabitants of it immediately despise him.Read More »

  • Francis Ford Coppola – Tetro (2009)

    2001-2010DramaFrancis Ford CoppolaUSA

    The week of his 18th birthday, Bennie, who’s a waiter on a cruise ship, has a layover in Buenos Aires. He seeks out his older brother, Tetro, whom he hasn’t seen in years. Tetro, who lives with Miranda, is a burned-out case; he’s hot and cold toward his brother, introducing him as a “friend,” refusing to talk about their family, telling Bennie not to tell Miranda who their father is. Thoughts of their father cast a shadow over both brothers. Who is he, and what past has Tetro left behind? Bennie finds pages of Tetro’s unfinished novel, and he pushes both to know his own history and to become a part of his brother’s life again. What can come of Bennie’s pushing?
    -Introduction from imdb.-Read More »

  • Nour Eddine Lakhmari – Casanegra (2008)

    2001-2010ActionAfrican CinemaArthouseMoroccoNour Eddine Lakhmari

    Synopsis:
    Two childhood friends, Adil and Karim, try to make a living as small-time crooks on the streets of modern day Casablanca. But when both men decide to make a better life for themselves, they are hired by a local mobster to perform one last job to earn their ticket out of Casablanca, and their friendship faces the ultimate test. Casanegra is an ode to the hopes of a city and a generation.

    Awards: 10 wins and Morocco’s official submission to 82nd Academy Award’s Foreign Language in 2010.Read More »

  • Gjergj Xhuvani – Slogans (2001)

    2001-2010AlbaniaComedyDramaGjergj Xhuvani

    quote from IMDb review:
    Low budget movies need something to draw attention to them, lacking big stars and great effects. Slogans has those somethings in spades! We get to know an Albanian teacher arriving at a country school, around 1984. He seems to be a sympathetic guy.Read More »

  • Patric Chiha – Domaine AKA Domain (2009)

    2001-2010DramaFrancePatric ChihaRomance

    A drama centered on the relationship between a teenager, Pierre, and Nadia, a woman in her thirties.Read More »

  • Jonás Cuarón – Año uña AKA Year of the Nail (2007)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaJonás CuarónMexico

    What could be more austere than the first film directed by Alfonso Cuarón’s young son Jonás, who also takes credits for script and photography? Like Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée (the only other example that springs to mind), this is a moving picture that doesn’t move, being told only through still photographs. Moreover the first 20 minutes are in black and white and it is even longer before we hear any music, playing (briefly) on a car radio. Yet this story of the tentative cross-cultural romance between horny Mexican teenager Diego and oversensitive American college student Molly turns out to be, against all the odds, as charming as it is challenging. Indeed, for long stretches I simply forgot that the images were still, so engrossing was the plot and so endearing the characters.Read More »

Back to top button