2000s

Ya-Chaika! / I am a seagull!..
Georgi Paradzhanov’s sensational tape.
On the screen – the woman-phantom. As at a tragical bird, wings of a white lacy shawl tremble. The image is washed away, persons it is not visible almost. She is the heroine of a film “I am the Seagull” which has been shown on film festivals in Venice and Kiev and now for the first time it is presented the Moscow spectators. The film tells about destiny of actress Valentina Karavaeva, a unique which well-known role and remained “Mashenka” (IMDB).
Solve, about what this film: about a painful narcissism, about fidelity to art, about destiny riddles, about dotage or about not recognised genius.
Distributer VHS Karmen videoRead More »

Quote:
Very often films which are defiant of genre categorisation can easily come across as messy and imprecise, but in Ira Sachs’ “Married Life,” he blends dark comedy, suspense and stylish melodrama into a contemporary throwback, conceptualised from a male perspective, to the film noir facet of the glamour of the 40’s in a wholesome package that keeps the viewer on their toes every step of the way. Audiences will either revel in the manner in which the film strays from a singular course or they will find annoyance in the seemingly directionless film, with an insubordinate mixture of tones and principles, in a way that very much resembles reality. What the film does not manage to do is balance its daring concept will an entirely fulfilling outcome, and perhaps “Married Life” is too modest for its own good.Read More »

Quote:
Soon after extracting a bullet from his brother’s arm, Alex (Konstantin Lavroneko) relocates his family from the city to his father’s old house in the countryside. As the family settles into their rustic existence, Alex’s wife Vera (Maria Bonnevie) reveals that she is pregnant by another man. Enraged by his wife’s announcement, Alex consults with his brother and demands that Vera terminate the pregnancy. When the forced abortion goes horribly awry and Alex’s brother suffers a severe heart attack, a confrontation with the man Alex believes to have seduced his wife send events quickly spiraling out of control.Read More »

Witnessing the Witness: Looking Over a Shoulder at War’s Deprivation

Even if you have never heard of James Nachtwey, the award-winning photojournalist who is the subject of Christian Frei’s new documentary ”War Photographer,” it is likely that you are familiar with his work. For more than two decades Mr. Nachtwey has traveled to places in the world devastated by war, famine and poverty and documented the cruelty and suffering he has found with an devastating, eloquent clarity. He was in Nicaragua at the height of the contra war, in South Africa during the bloody mid-1980’s and in Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide.Read More »

Synopsis:
Abondoned in a park, the two-year-old girl Asia is found by Patti, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park in San Basilio on the outskirts of Rome. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandma in an adjacent container, Patti starts to search for the girl’s mother and gives the girl a new home for an uncertain period of time.Read More »

Synopsis:
Upon entering high school, two best friends named Hana and Alice notice a boy a year older them while waiting for the train, and they both develop a pretty strong crush on him. One day while secretly following him home, Hana witnesses the boy walk right into a wall and pass out. When he wakes up, she lies and convinces him that he must have amnesia, because he doesn’t remember the fact that she was his girlfriend. After this, hilarity ensues as the two girls attempt to run with the lie. Of course, complications soon arise.Read More »

This is a wonderful documentary movie about Butoh-dancer-legend Kazuo Ohno.
It’s a German movie, so there will be some introductory talk and some voiceovers in German, but the other parts of the movies mostly consist of talks in English or in Japanese with an English interpreter sitting next to the people talking in Japanese – so you will be able to understand pretty much without knowing any German. And even if you dont understand anything, the film is just worth it for the wonderful material showing Kazuo Ohno.Read More »

Synopsis:
André, a small-time ex-convict, seems to owe money to everyone in Paris, including a crime boss who promises to kill him if he doesn’t repay him by midnight. After failing to find protection from the American embassy and the French police, a despairing André scrambles onto a bridge over the Seine, intending to leap to his death. He is surprised to see a tall, beautiful girl clinging to a rail on the same bridge, apparently preparing to end her life as well. She jumps, and he jumps too, suddenly resolving to save her life. After scrambling ashore, she tells him her name is Angel-A. Together, they take a cruise on the Seine, repay André’s creditors, visit a Parisian nightspot, and more, as Angel-A helps André.He learns that for this purpose she has fallen out of the sky and into his life. André finds himself falling in love with this mysterious beauty.Read More »

Heinz Emigholz-Loos Ornamental / Photography and Beyond – Part 13 (2008)

The film shows 27 still-existing buildings and interiors by Austrian architect Adolf Loos (1870–1933) in order of their construction. Adolf Loos was one of the pioneers of European Modernist architecture. His vehement turn against ornamentation on buildings triggered a controversy in architectural theory. The development of his “spatial plan” launched a new way of thinking about spaces to be built. His houses, furniture for shops and apartments, facades, and monuments were built between 1899 and 1931. They were filmed in 2006 in Vienna, Lower Austria, Prague, Brno, Pilsen, Nachod, and Paris in their present surroundings.Read More »