• Lucio Fulci – Murderock – uccide a passo di danza AKA Murder Rock (1984)

    1981-1990GialloItalyLucio FulciMystery

    SYNOPSIS
    The brutal worlds of murder and dance school competitions are thrown together in yet another lurid Lucio Fulci giallo. When an insane hatpin murderer terrorizes a prestigious New York dance school, mercilessly poking nubile young women deep into their competitive little hearts. Is it one of the students, jealous of competitive placement? Is it the voyeuristic headmaster, who watches the students through his many lurid security cameras? Perhaps it’s even a jealous boyfriend? (DVDActive)Read More »

  • Lucio Fulci – I Maniaci aka The Maniacs (1964)

    1961-1970ComedyItalyLucio Fulci

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    Plot Synopsis by Robert Firsching
    A minor comedy from Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci (Zombi 2; L’Aldila), this anthology is of interest primarily to cult devotees for marking the notorious director’s only collaboration with legendary “scream queen” Barbara Steele (La Maschera del Demonio). Lushly photographed and filled with popular comedians of the era (including Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, who made several of their “Franco and Ciccio” comedies with Fulci), the film’s sketches spotlight various manias. As might be expected, nymphomania gets an extended treatment, with all the requisite mugging, leering, and smarmy asides common to Italian comedies of the period, as well as a lengthy parade of songs, many scored by Ennio Morricone, and some international burlesque performers. Enrico Maria Salerno and Walter Chiari lead a cast which includes Lisa Gastoni, Gaia Germani, Umberto d’Orsi, and Raimondo Vianello.Read More »

  • F.J. Ossang – L’affaire des divisions Morituri aka The Case of the Morituri Divisions (1985)

    1981-1990ArthouseExperimentalF.J. OssangFrance

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    Synopsis
    The story about gladiators against a German background. One of them, Ettore, has become a star of the underworld. He ends up breaking down, caught in a role he can no longer fulfill. His last betrayal is to spill the beans to the press.Read More »

  • Ed Pincus – Diaries (1982)

    1981-1990ArthouseDocumentaryEd PincusUSA

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    200 minutes of cinema-verite on the life of documentarist Ed Pincus and his immediate family from 1971 to 1976.

    Director of Black Natchez, Ed Pincus now lives with his wife Jane in Vermont and owns a flower farm. He recently returned to filmmaking for a documentary about Katrina, and thinks about new projects.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Bonchi (1960)

    1951-1960AsianDramaJapanKon Ichikawa

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    Where Ichikawa skewered patriarchal family values in Her Brother, in this savage satire he hoists the matriarchal system on its own apron strings. Raizo Ichikawa (“in his best role yet”-Variety) is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as wife after wife is thrown out of the house for producing sons. Driven to a life of dissipation-his mistresses also fail to produce daughters-in the end he is just too tired to care. Ichikawa’s frighteningly funny picture of the matriarchy’s efforts to perpetuate itself was received as antifeminist, if not downright misogynistic, but Joan Mellon suggests that the target once again is “the institution of the family [which] places its own survival ahead of the needs and feelings of individuals.” If this looks forward to The Makioka Sisters, so does Donald Richie’s comment, “We find this cruel matriarchal story…told in terms of the most transcendental beauty.”Read More »

  • Albert Serra – El cant dels ocells AKA Birdsong (2008)

    2001-2010Albert SerraArthouseExperimentalSpain

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    The sublime and the mundane run hand-in-hand in Birdsong, Albert Serra’s stunningly photographed, intensely contemplative re-telling of the biblical journey of the Magi. Much of the sublimity derives from the film’s visuals, superbly tactile black-and-white images alive to the textures of the rocky landscape, which, along with the precise gradations of lighting (each scene seems shot at the one exact moment of day when its creation was possible) and the rustling of wind on the soundtrack, imbues the barren land with a richness of meaning commensurate with the Magi’s divine mission.Read More »

  • Jenifer Malmqvist – Födelsedag AKA Birthday (2010)

    2001-2010Jenifer MalmqvistQueer Cinema(s)Short FilmSweden

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    Sara prepares a surprise for her wife Katarina’s birthday with the help of their daughter Johanna and their friend Fredrik. But on this early summer day, Katarina has something to tell her that will change their lives forever.
    Read More »

  • Abel Ferrara – Cat Chaser (1989)

    1981-1990Abel FerraraActionUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    An American veteran (Weller) of the Dominican Republic intervention (LBJ era) is running a hotel in Miami, and is trying to put the memories of the intervention behind him. He gets involved with a former Dominican Republic general’s wife (McGillis). He then gets duped through a series of intricate plot twists into helping a group of people trying to rip the general off. Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard (IMBD)Read More »

  • Peter Adam – Omnibus: Signs of Vigorous Life: New German Cinema (1976)

    1971-1980BBCDocumentaryPeter AdamUnited Kingdom

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    Pithy half-hour documentary concerning New German Cinema (when it was on fire), focusing on and featuring interviews with “the big five”: Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff & Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

    Most notable being the rare interview with a young Herzog, and behind-the-scenes footage of him at work.
    Read More »

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