• Sondra Locke – Impulse (1990)

    USA1981-1990Sondra LockeThriller

    Plot Synopsis from Allmovie:
    Actress Sondra Locke directed this visceral film noir about undercover cop Lottie Mason (Theresa Russell). A narcotics cop with the LAPD, she works a second shift at night as an undercover vice cop. Lottie works the bars and lures johns into the arms of the law. But her life is in a rut, and she would love to act on impulse like the narcotics and vice personas she adopts daily on the job. During the course of her duties, she begins a romantic relationship with district attorney Stan Harris (Jeff Fahey), who gets her involved with a case he is working on against a drug lord.Read More »

  • Alejandro Amenábar – Mar adentro AKA The Sea Inside (2004)

    2001-2010Alejandro AmenábarArthouseDramaSpain

    Life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. Film explores Ramón’s relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. Through the gift of his love, these two women are inspired to accomplish things they never previously thought possible. Despite his wish to die, Ramón taught everyone he encountered the meaning, value and preciousness of life. Though he could not move himself, he had an uncanny ability to move others.Read More »

  • John Irvin – The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha (2005)

    2001-2010DramaItalyJohn IrvinMystery

    “Laughing Water – Mine Ha-Ha” is based on “Mine-Haha or Physical Education of Young Girls” by German author Frank Wedekind (Spring Awakening, Lulu, Pandora’s Vase). Thuringia, Germany, in the early 20th century. A group of young girls are brought up in a college withinh dark forests and gloomy lakes. Young Hidalla and her friends Irene, Vera, Blanka, Melusine and Rain are brought up in an isolated world: the girls don’t know anything about live outside the college’s high walls. At the age of 16, some of them start asking questions about their origins, their parents and the true purposes of the Headmistresses strict rules. When two of them disappear mysteriously, the initial fairytale atmosphere grows more and more eerie. Will the inspector from the nearby city discover the real purpose of the college? Will Hidalla be successful in her revolt against the destiny assigned to her by the Headmistress?Read More »

  • Georgi Kropachyov & Konstantin Yershov – Viy AKA Viy or Spirit of Evil (1967)

    1961-1970ClassicsGeorgi Kropachyov and Konstantin YershovHorrorUSSR

    This Russian film adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s story was for a long time the only horror film made in the Soviet Union. Khoma (Leonid Kuravlev), a young novice, travels across the countryside and stays for a night in a barn that belongs to an ugly old woman. When she attacks him at night and takes him for a broom ride, the scared novice fatally wounds her, and before she dies, she turns into a beautiful young noblewoman (Natalya Varley). The latter leaves a will, according to which Khoma should pray for her for three nights in the chapel until her body is buried. At night, the witch rises from the coffin and tries to catch Khoma. She flies around but she can’t reach him or see him because he stays inside the circle that he has drawn around himself. During the third and last night, the witch makes the last attempt to scare him out of the circle, and she calls all sorts of ugly creatures to help her… Gogol wrote several stories based on Ukrainian folklore, many of them dealing with the Devil and the supernatural. ~ Yuri German, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Naoto Kumazawa – Oto-na-ri (2009)

    2001-2010AsianDramaJapanNaoto Kumazawa

    Photographer Satoshi has become famous while working among the rhich and famous. His photos are worh a million. But the young man dreams of taking photos of Canadian landscapes instead of working in the studio with the same people all the time. His dreams fall to pieces when he gets a job working with model Shingo. All his anger is targeted at Shingo’s girlfriend, who is staying at Satoshi for some time. Satoshi’s neighbour Nanao overhears their whole converstation. Florist Nanao has a dream herself: She wants to go to France and studies French language very hard. This is then overheard by Satoshi. Little by little the two start listening more and more to the sound of their neighbour.Read More »

  • Timo Vuorensola – Iron Sky (2012)

    2011-2020ComedyGermanySci-FiTimo Vuorensola

    Plot / Synopsis
    In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space program evaded destruction by fleeing to the Dark Side of the Moon. During 70 years of utter secrecy, the Nazis construct a gigantic space fortress with a massive armada of flying saucers. When American astronaut James Washington (Christopher Kirby) puts down his Lunar Lander a bit too close to the secret Nazi base, the Moon Führer (Udo Kier) decides the glorious moment of retaking the Earth has arrived sooner than expected. Two Nazi officers, ruthless Klaus Adler (Götz Otto) and idealistic Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), travel to Earth to prepare the invasion. In the end when the Moon Nazi UFO armada darkens the skies, ready to strike at the unprepared Earth, every man, woman and nation alike, must re-evaluate their priorities. — (C) Official SiteRead More »

  • Agnès Varda – L’une chante, l’autre pas aka One Sings One Doesn’t (1977)

    1971-1980Agnès VardaArthousePoliticsVenezuela

    Quote:
    The intertwined lives of 2 women in 1970’s France, set against the progress of the women’s movement in which Agnes Varda was involved. Pomme and Suzanne meet when Pomme helps Suzanne obtain an abortion after a third pregnancy which she cannot afford. They lose contact but meet again ten years later. Pomme has become an unconventional singer, Suzanne a serious community worker – despite the contrast they remain friends and share in the various dramas of each others’ lives, in the process affirming their different female identities.Read More »

  • Ross Ashcroft – Four Horsemen (2012)

    2011-2020DocumentaryPoliticsRoss AshcroftUSA

    Quote:
    Four Horsemen is the debut feature from director Ross Ashcroft which reveals the fundamental flaws in the economic system which have brought our civilization to the brink of disaster.

    23 leading thinkers –frustrated at the failure of their respective disciplines – break their silence to explain how the world really works.

    The film pulls no punches in describing the consequences of continued inaction – but its message is one of hope. If more people can equip themselves with a better understanding of how the world really works, then the systems and structures that condemn billions to poverty or chronic insecurity can at last be overturned. Solutions to the multiple crises facing humanity have never been more urgent, but equally, the conditions for change have never been more favourable.Read More »

  • Sharunas Bartas – Indigène d’Eurasie (2010)

    2001-2010CrimeDramaLithuaniaSharunas Bartas

    Gena is under no illusions about his situation. In the prologue of the film, he briefly sketches out his life in a monotone voiceover: growing up without parents, receiving an “education” from his criminal uncle, initial protection money rackets in the wake of privatizations in the crumbling Soviet Union, later international drug dealing. His enemies are numerous but not easy to recognize; “life is short, the greater part of it already over”. Although there is only a small chance that Gena will be able to trade in his nomadic existence between Asia and Europe for a “normal life”, he takes the plunge anyway. A frantic chase across Europe thus ensues. Heading west, presumably towards the sun.Read More »

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