• Robert Florey – Danger Signal (1945)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert FloreyUSA

    Quote:
    A mysterious artist – and psychopath – named Ronnie Mason, steals a dead woman’s wedding ring and money and leaves a fake suicide note. The woman’s husband, Thomas Turner, when questioned by the local police, believes his dead wife might have been seeing Mason behind his back. He also believes his wife was murdered, but in the absence of other evidence, the police list it as a suicide and drop the case.Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Sabotage [+Extras] (1936)

    1931-1940Alfred HitchcockMysteryThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Mr. Verloc is part of a gang of foreign saboteurs operating out of London. He manages a small cinema with his wife and her teenage brother as a cover, but they know nothing of his secret. Scotland Yard assign an undercover detective to work at the shop next to the cinema in order to observe the gang.Read More »

  • Jesper Jargil – De ydmygede AKA The Humiliated (1998)

    1991-2000DenmarkDocumentaryDogma FilmsJesper Jargil

    Quote:
    Rarely is a making-of doc so perfectly matched in tone or storyline as the subject of its gaze, but The Idiots and The Humiliated are furiously intertwined, in a mindgame kind of way that seems quite — Von Trier-ian? Filmmaker Jesper Jargil accepted an assistant director post on The Idiots under the condition that he be allowed to make his own film about the film, and the result is as personal and scarring as Von Trier’s masterwork. Using the same DV cameras as Von Trier was using, Jargil covers the actors and director living in the same communal space (much as the film’s characters do), and as Lars pushes his actors to the brink of emotional endurance, he himself goes bonkers in a paranoid, hypochondriachal fit — and the viewer is left feeling as if the whole production is the brainchild of a semi-mad cult leader intent on instantly capturing on tape every neurosis he wishes to purge in the real world. Unprecedented and ultra-rare, The Humiliated is an intimate meta thrill ride.Read More »

  • Alfred Hitchcock – Saboteur (1942)

    1941-1950Alfred HitchcockClassicsThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    Los Angeles aircraft worker Barry Kane evades arrest after he is unjustly accused of sabotage. Following leads, he travels across the country to New York City trying to clear his name by exposing a gang of fascist-supporting saboteurs led by apparently respectable Charles Tobin. Along the way, he involves Pat Martin, eventually preventing another major act of sabotage. They finally catch up with Frank Frye, the man who actually committed the act of sabotage at the aircraft factory.Read More »

  • René Clair – Quatorze juillet AKA Bastille Day (1933)

    1931-1940ComedyFranceRené ClairRomance

    Quote:
    René Clair, the most distinguished of the French motion-picture directors, is one of the great men of the cinema. His triumphant photoplays, Sous les toits de Paris, Le Million and, the finest of them all, A nous la liberté, stand among the genuine classics of the films. Now M. Clair, who has tried cheerful sentiment in Sous les toits, farce in Le Million, and brilliant social satire in A nous la liberté, gives up some of his adventurousness and returns to the quiet romantic mood of his earliest success in the new work called Quatorze juillet (“Fourteenth of July”). Read More »

  • Felix de Rooy – Desiree (1984)

    1981-1990ArthouseCaribbean CinemaDramaFelix de RooyNetherlands

    Set in Brooklyn, New York this Dutch film is based on a true story that appeared on a New York newspaper in 1980. Desirée lives in the past. A series of flashbacks expose us to her psychologically troubled childhood very much affected by a promiscous mother. Her present life evolves around three people: her employer Mrs. Resnick, Freddy, her lover and Father Siego, leader of the church “The True Confessors”. Desirée’s relationship with each one of these characters is at the origin of her falling apart. Freddy is an insecure black man who finishes their love affair with a sad note, Father Siego is the leader of a rigid narrow-minded religious sect and Mrs Resnick is a racist, prejudiced white woman who feels black people are inferior and incapable of living their own live. Rejected by all because of her pregnancy, Desirée blames her child as the source of evil. She is then possessed by evil and wants to exorcise it. The only way is to get rid of her daughter…Read More »

  • Katsuhito Ishii – Samehada otoko to momojiri onna AKA Shark Skin Man And Peach Hip Girl (1998)

    1991-2000AsianCultJapanKatsuhito Ishii

    While escaping from the clutches of her sexually warped uncle, Toshiko meets Samehada who pos up in front of her in his underpants. The dude is also escaping from the gangsters he has stolen a pile of loot from, and the two make a daring escape together with the gangster thugs and the little weird guy the uncle sends on their trail. Ultra-violence, bizarre sex, and killer costumes ensue.Read More »

  • Satyajit Ray – Devi AKA The Goddess (1960)

    1951-1960DramaIndiaSatyajit Ray

    Synopsis
    One of Satyajit Ray’s greatest early films, full of sensuality and ironic undertones, Devi is sufficiently critical of Hindu superstition that it was banned from foreign distribution until Nehru interceded. The plot concerns a wealthy and devout landowner in the 19th century who believes his daughter-in-law (Sharmila Tagore) is the reincarnation of the goddess Kali and convinces her that he’s right. With Soumitra Chatterji and Chhabi Biswas.
    Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago ReaderRead More »

  • Liviu Ciulei – Padurea spânzuratilor AKA Forest of the Hanged (1964) (HD)

    1961-1970DramaLiviu CiuleiRomanceRomania

    Quote:
    During the most brutal days of World War I, Apostol Bologa (the extraordinary Victor Rebengiuc), a Romanian serving as a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army, is part of the Court Martial that punishes deserters and other problem soldiers. Gradually the horror of his routine builds up inside of him, forcing a choice between his military duty and greater feelings of humanity. Ciulei’s most ambitious and masterfully realized film, particularly striking in its impressionistic landscape photography, the Forest of the Hanged earned Ciulei the Best Director prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and became the first Romanian feature to attract widespread international attention. It remains one of the cinema’s greatest studies of the dehumanizing effects of war. Screening introduced by critic Magda Mihailescu.Read More »

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