This art-house movie is a good example of a mix between the interest in the magical aspects of Buddhism and the dissolute nature of the jungle (in contrast to and as a reflection of the contemporary world). There have been many influences cited here, from Satyajit Ray and Hiroshi Teshigahara, to Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The last name in particular is definitely a good reference, though Khyentse Norbu lacks the particularly tender, yet realistic way in which the Thai director understands the jungle.Read More »
Arthouse
-
Khyentse Norbu – Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2016)
2011-2020ArthouseBhutanKhyentse NorbuMystery -
Toshiaki Toyoda – Yomigaeri no chi AKA The Blood of Rebirth (2009)
2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanToshiaki ToyodaQuote:
Based on a well-known Japanese legend, the story concerns the sage-masseur Oguri (Tatsuya Nakamura), who is summoned by ailing King Daio (Kiyohiko Shibukawa). Despite receiving superlative treatment, the king is insulted by Oguri’s casual attitude toward death, so he poisons the healer. In the afterlife, Oguri chooses to come back to this world—as an infant. Growing up quickly, he meets Terute (Mayu Kusakari), a concubine who has escaped from the king, and together they seek the Waters of Resurrection.Read More » -
Oumarou Ganda – Le wazzou polygame AKA The Polygamous Wazzou (1971)
Drama1971-1980African CinemaArthouseNigerOumarou GandaA practicing Muslim takes title of al-Hajj on his return from Mecca. However, this doesn’t stop him from lusting after the young Satou, promised to Garba. Furious, Garba feels he has no choice but to leave the village for the town. Yet a more serious tragedy is afoot.Read More »
-
Andrzej Wajda – Panny z Wilka AKA Young Girls Of Wilko [+Extras] (1979)
Drama1971-1980Andrzej WajdaArthousePolandQuote:
Set in the late ’20s. A thirtyish young man, who heads a small factory, faints at the funeral of a close friend. He decides to go home to his aunt and uncle for a while, but gets involved with a family of five women who had been in love with him at one time though he had apparently loved only one, who, unknown to him, has died since his departure. The women are mainly disillusioned with life or estranged from husbands while the youngest has a crush on him.Read More » -
Toshiaki Toyoda – Monsutâzu kurabu AKA Monsters Club (2011)
2011-2020ArthouseDramaJapanToshiaki ToyodaQuote:
Having abandoned modern civilization, Ryoichi lives an isolated, self-sufficient life on a snow-covered mountain and sends mail bombs to the CEOs of corporations and TV networks. One day, he encounters a mysterious creature in the forest. That night, his older brother, who had committed suicide, appears before him at his cabin. The apparition takes Ryoichi beyond a door, where Ryoichi learns the truth about his family.Read More » -
Shelly Silver – A Tiny Place That is Hard to Touch (2019)
2011-2020ArthouseDocumentaryJapanShelly SilverIn a faceless apartment in Tatekawa, Tokyo, an American woman hires a Japanese woman to translate interviews about Japan’s declining birthrate. The two women grate, fight, and then crash together in love or lust, at which point their story gets hijacked into science fiction territory, as the translator interrupts their work sessions with stories from a world infected with the knowledge of its own demise.Read More »
-
Groupe Dziga Vertov & Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Pierre Gorin – Vladimir et Rosa (1971)
1971-1980ArthouseFranceGroupe Dziga VertovJean-Luc GodardJean-Pierre GorinPoliticsQuote:
Vladimir and Rosa was in many ways the last true product of the experimental revolutionary filmmaking cooperative the Dziga Vertov Group: the final film produced under the group’s banner before Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin went on to make the feature Tout va bien and the short Letter To Jane under their own names, before parting ways for good. Taking its title from Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, this film is typical of Godard and Gorin’s late 60s/early 70s collaborations. That is to say, it’s shrill, antagonistic, messy and often intentionally grating, as dense and complex as it is difficult and polemical. Read More »
-
Edgar Reitz & Ula Stöckl – Geschichten vom Kübelkind AKA Tales Of The Dumpster Kid (1971)
1971-1980Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtArthouseEdgar ReitzExperimentalGermanyUla StöcklA woman screams, a newborn baby cries. A nurse leaves the hospital and dumps a bucketfull of slimy afterbirth into a bin.Moments later, Kubelkind (“Dumpster-kid”, an Austrian insult) emerges fully grown from the slime. “Frau Dr. Welfare”, a cold, upper middle-class do-gooder discovers Kubelkind in the dustbin and plans to “save” her. But such “polymorphous-perverse, infantile monsters” have no place in normal society….Read More »
-
Jean-Marie Straub – Nicht versöhnt oder Es hilft nur Gewalt wo Gewalt herrscht AKA Not Reconciled (1965)
1961-1970ArthouseGermanyJean-Marie StraubShort FilmJONATHAN ROSENBAUM:
Quote:“Far from being a puzzle film (like Citizen Kane or Muriel), Not Reconciled is better described as a ‘lacunary film’, in the same sense that Littré defines a lacunary body: a whole composed of agglomerated crystals with intervals among them, like the interstitial spaces between the cells of an organism”. Jean-Marie Straub’s description of his second film and second Heinrich Böll adaptation (after Machorka-Muff) helps to explain why, although it has more plot than any of his other works — containing even more characters and intrigues than Othon — it is virtually impossible to paraphrase in the form of a synopsis. Read More »