2000s

A woman uncovers some unsettling truths about her country and its history in this drama from Spain. Lola (Ariadna Gil) is a writer who feels creatively stifled and hasn’t been able to work out a new idea in months. Looking for something to clear her creative block, She takes an assignment to write a piece about Rafael Sanchez Mazas (Ramon Fontsere), a writer who sided with the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. While legend has it Mazas was killed by Republican troops, the truth is he was given protection and shelter by Friends of the Forest, a group of men who lived in the woods. As Lola tries to search out Joaquim Figueras, one of the last surviving Friends of the Forest, she discovers a soldier who captured Mazas and was prepared to shoot him, but opted to let him go at the last moment. As Lola’s writer’s block dissolves, she digs deeper in search of the truth about this elusive man and his mysterious actions during the war. Soldados de Salamina was based on a true story and the real-life Joaquim Figueras appears in the film, along with several other people who took part in the shelter and capture of Mazas. From AllMovieRead More »

Synopsis:
A string of bank robberies sets off a public panic. In order to appease the residents of the city and fulfill his own ambitions, the newly appoints chief of police decides to hold an anti-bank robbery drill to demonstrate the effectiveness of the police. He secretly appoints a naïve traffic cop to disguise as a robber, overlooking the fact that the inflexible, by-the-book officer will go all out in accomplishing any assigned mission-even when it’s robbery.Read More »

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Beeswax is Bujalski’s third feature and the first to be conceived and shot since Funny Ha Ha (2002) and Mutual Appreciation (2003) turned him into a rising indie star. For the most part, it’s just as insular and homogeneous as any of the films Taubin rapped in Film Comment. It takes place in Austin, Texas, the little countercultural cocoon that launched Bujalski’s career, and most of the action centers on a funky little vintage clothing boutique favored by college students and the like. Its primary characters are all young, straight, white, middle-class, and college educated. And like so many other mumblecore movies, Beeswax is largely preoccupied with sexual and romantic maneuvering, as a young couple who’ve broken up circle each other tentatively and get back together.Read More »

Quote:
Diaz’s contribution to the 2009 Jeonju Digital Project.

Canadian Martha (Lois Goff) returns to the site of her Filipino upbringing, now a depressed ex-mining town. Her childhood friend Willy (Willy Fernandez) still carries something of a torch for her, but the bitter, ambitious Mang Ferding (Dante Perez) soon thrusts him into a test of loyalties.Read More »

Quote:
A man chop down trees, organizes the trunks, clean them, stops to defecate, lunch, nap and continues to sell its timber.

Ed Gonzalez for Slant Magazine wrote:
Lisandro Alonso’s La Libertad is a penetrating peek into the daily life of a woodcutter from Argentina’s Pampa. Misael Saavedra’s stoic figure marks trees, cuts them down, shaves them, and loads them onto trucks. In between, he finds time to sleep, eat, and defecate. The film brings to mind the humility and minimalism of Iranian cinema, and though Alonso doesn’t seem to use the woodcutter as a political pawn, the film’s long takes and the cyclical, labored nature of the man’s daily grind force the spectator to question the nature of freedom.Read More »

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Los rubios focuses on the directors search for her dissappeared parents. Is it possible to get to the truth or they are only fictions, imaginary characters from everyone who rememebers them?Read More »

This 2003 documentary by Francis Girod revisits the town of Sardent, the location for LE BEAU SERGE as well as the site of director Claude Chabrol’s introduction to cinema as a young man. It features interviews with Chabrol and actors Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernadette Lafont.Read More »

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Sending shock waves through the Mexican film industry and the world, this blistering feature debut from Alejandro G. Iñárritu brought the director’s electrifying visual style and bravura multistrand storytelling to the screen with the heart-stopping impact of a primal scream. In Mexico City, the lives of three strangers—a young man mixed up in the gritty underworld of dogfighting, a glamorous woman who seems to have it all, and a mysterious assassin who is desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter—collide in a tragic twist of fate that forever alters their personal journeys. A tour de force of violence and emotion captured in a rush of kinetic handheld camera work, Amores perros is an unforgettable plunge into a world of brutality and aching, interconnected humanity.Read More »

SYNOPSIS
Jessica (Cécile de France) has moved from the provinces to Paris to start a new life, inspired by her grandmother, Madame Roux (Suzanne Flon), who “always loved luxury”. In Paris, she gets a job waitressing in a small café, the Bar des Théâtres, in spite of the fact that the café has never hired female waitstaff. The owner hires Jessica only because he is expecting large crowds soon and needs staff. The café is in an area of Paris close by several artistic venues, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and a concert hall, on Avenue Montaigne. One of the backstage staff at the theatre, Claudie (Dani), helps to welcome Jessica to Paris. Read More »