Synopsis
The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell.Read More »
The institute that this film is about existed twice. Once as the top-secret Institute for Physical Problems as part of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was in operation from 1938 to 1968, and a second time as the largest film set in Europe, which was destroyed at the end of the project. The DAU Institute in Kharkiv was an experiment designed by director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy in which leading mathematicians, artists, philosophers and mystics lived and worked between 2009 and 2011. Among other things, they explored the foundations and limits of intellectual understanding and human action, working towards the creation of a “new human being” and beyond, to the bloody end. Read More »
This is a snapshot of the global state of the movie industry with a special feature on fims about pandemics and a look at what’s available to stream online “beyond the mainstream”.Read More »
Natasha and Olga work in the canteen of a secret Soviet research institute. This is the beating heart of the DAU universe, everyone drops in here: the institute’s employees, scientists and foreign guests, like Luc Bigé. Natasha begins an affair with him, but not before she and Olga have a lengthy talk about love which puts them at loggerheads. In her bathtub and during jovial drinking games, Natasha ponders her lovers and describes the Frenchman as being “gentle”. But the secret service, headed by Vladimir Azhippo, intervenes. For Natasha (and us) this is an “ungentle” experience. Even those who know nothing about Ilya Khrzhanovskiy’s DAU project – a large-scale simulation of the totalitarian system under Stalin and after – will be able to recognise in the artistic and political dimensions of DAU. Read More »
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Napoli, Napoli, Napoli, Abel Ferrara’s new project, is not only a portrait of the city itself, but a deep sight into its humanity, vital and brutal, passionate and cruel at the same time. While interviewing a group of female convicts in Pozzuoli State Prison, Ferrara was deeply impressed by their statements, so harsh and fatalistic. He then decided to base on their life experiences three different screenplays, written by Peppe Lanzetta, Maurizio Braucci and Gaetano Di Vaio. Di Vaio’s episode is inspired by his actual experience as a convict; Braucci’s depicts a sad and brutal adolescence; Lanzetta’s a family melodrama of violence, expectations and vengeance. By interweaving reality and fiction, this innovative docu-drama is a complex and compelling mosaic; like the city of Naples, so fascinating and indecipherable at the same time.Read More »
A renowned actress (Ellen Barkin) abandons her successful career for a secluded life in the hills. But before long, she begins to fear she has only lived through the characters she has played. Reality becomes inseparable from unhinged obsessions in a hallucinatory struggle to reclaim herself. With a tour de force by Barkin, Cam Archer’s (Wild Tigers I Have Known) confirms him as one of the most distinct voices in American cinema.Read More »
In the new film from acclaimed writer/director Jim Jarmusch, which won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, Bill Murray stars as Don Johnston. The resolutely single Don has just been dumped by his latest lover, Sherry (Julie Delpy). Don yet again resigns himself to being alone and left to his own devices. Instead, he is compelled to reflect on his past when he receives by mail a mysterious pink letter. It is from an anonymous former lover and informs him that he has a 19-year-old son who may now be looking for his father. Don is urged to investigate this “mystery” by his closest friend and neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), an amateur sleuth and family man. Hesitant to travel at all, Don nonetheless embarks on a cross-country trek in search of clues from four former flames (Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, and Tilda Swinton). Unannounced visits to each of these unique women hold new surprises for Don as he haphazardly confronts both his past and, consequently, his present..Read More »