1981-1990

Cinepad.com wrote:
The deadpan comic buzz you get from Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy is practically narcotic. The movie heightens your senses and mildly anaesthetizes them at the same time, like a potent mixture of stimulants and depressants. One of the most invigoratingly original American comedies since Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, Drugstore Cowboy follows druggie, irregular rhythms all its own. Whether in a heavy-lidded daze or wired with giddy, post-high paranoia, Drugstore Cowboy displays an uncanny alertness to detail and texture — yellow-white bus headlights that barely penetrate the slate-grey, late-afternoon gloom on a rain-drenched north-western road; the surreal surge of blood into a hypodermic syringe as it enters a vein in intensified close-up… But the film’s vibrant aliveness to such minute sensations is submerged beneath a cold, clammy complexion: the blue-grey pallor of a day-old corpse.Read More »

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Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, who gained a reputation for his short subjects, makes his feature-film debut with Neco z Alenky, a grotesque look into the darkest, wildest recesses of a child’s mind. A surreal adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic Alice in Wonderland, the film stars Kristyna Kohoutov? as Alice, the only human character in the film. The other roles, which are voiced by Alice, are filled by an odd menagerie of animated clay, puppets, and meat. After falling asleep beside a stream, Alice follows a stuffed rabbit into a magical world where she encounters several grotesque-looking characters, including a caterpillar and The Mad Hatter. Also released under the title Alice, Neco Z Alenky was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award at the 1989 Fantasporto Film Festival.Read More »

Standard Gauge
1984, 16mm, colour, sound, 35 min

“While on one level, Standard Gauge is Fisher’s homage to 35mm and to the diverse cinematic world it made possible, the irony of its having been filmed in 16mm reveals a conceptual paradox central to the film, and which unites it with the webs of irony and paradox evident in his earlier work. (…) As Fisher explains in his program notes, the thirty-two minute shot “is virtually the maximum length of a scene in 16mm, and is longer by far than 35mm is capable of.” For all its potentials and accomplishments, standard gauge is limited, and in ways that a non standard gauge-a gauge quite marginal to mainstream film history-is not”. (Scott MacDonald)Read More »

synopsis
Oliver Stone’s first directorial effort for a major studio (and his second horror film after the 1974 Seizure) came shortly after the phenomenal success of Midnight Express, which was based on Stone’s Oscar-winning screenplay. The director turned to Mark Brandel’s obscure thriller “The Lizard’s Tail” as source material for what is essentially a silly psychosexual variant on low-budget horror films like The Crawling Hand. The title appendage belongs (for a while, anyway) to smug, conceited artist Joe Lansdale (Michael Caine), who owes his success to a popular comic strip featuring a macho, Conan-type hero. After Lansdale’s drawing hand is sheared off in a grisly car accident, his career, dignity, self-control and even his sanity soon begin to abandon him as well. His tenuous relationship with his wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) falls apart as she takes steps to improve her own self-worth — something she had never had the strength to do before the accident. Bitter and paranoid, Joe begins to lash out in anger at everyone around him … and becomes convinced that his severed hand has come back, wandering in fields and dark alleys and squeezing the life out of everyone it comes in contact with.Read More »

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Animation by Anatoly Petrov, The first of 4 Greek mythological stories with an erotic character about Aphrodite and Eros he made between 1989 and 1996.
The style is quite experimental on the first two, as he strived for a 3 dimensional effect using just handcrafted cel-animation means.

For animating it means he drew 2 layers for each animation sequence, which doubles the amount of animation drawings.and he drew them all by himself, showing his extraordinary skills and speed as animator.
There are many switches in style in the animation, sometimes using sketch material,at other times fully worked out animation, and from black and white to colour, etc. It gives the animation a quit experimental character. A sort of deconstructed style
The nudity and erotique character of the 4 animations is unique for soviet animation. With every animation of the serie the erotism gets more explicit. The 4 are the only Russian erotic animation art known to meRead More »

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This suspense thriller about a bad relationship concerns Lola (Angela Molina), who is working hard for a living but becomes caught up in a sado-masochistic affair with the vicious Mario (Feodor Atkine). Finally breaking away from her own neurosis and a punishing lifestyle, Lola meets and marries Robert (Patrick Bauchau) and starts a new life with him in Barcelona. They have a young daughter but after a few years, Mario suddenly bursts into their lives claiming that the daughter is really his. Nothing but trouble lies ahead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, RoviRead More »

In 1940, the actor Louis Jouvet held seven masterclasses at the Conservatoire National de Paris, in which he coached a student, Claudia, in the role of Elvire from Molière’s Dom Juan.

The notes from these lessons later formed the basis of a stage play by Brigitte Jaques at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, with Philippe Clévenot in the role of Louis Jouvet and Maria de Medeiros as Claudia.

This is Benoît Jacquot’s telefilm adaptation of the play, with the same cast. It is in monochrome (as broadcast).
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At his execution, Jesus is tempted by an alluring image of a peaceful and pleasant life with Mary Magdelene to try to get him to refuse the sacrifice he must make. The carpenter Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for him. But as his mission nears fulfillment, he must face the greatest temptation: the normal life of a good man. Based, not on the Gospels, but on Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel of the same name. One of my favorite movies. I like the role of Judas in this portrail when he get angry with Jesus and tells him: Traitor….I loved you so I betrayed you…etc. Without Judas’ betrayal no resurection.Read More »

Synopsis
A film within a film. Two teenage girls watching a horror film about a killer controlled by his mother are disturbed by the excessive violence. As they, and the rest of the audience, leave the theater, characters, etc. from the film they were watching confront them.Read More »