• Eduard Tisse – Frauennot – Frauenglück AKA Women’s Misery – Women’s Happiness (1976 edition) (1930)

    1921-1930DocumentaryEduard TisseGermany

    Quote:
    First feature produced in Switzerland. Film deals with abortion, in two parts: first, fictional part addresses the social aspects; second, documentary part addresses the dangers of clandestine abortions. Film concludes with a eulogy to maternity.Read More »

  • Fernando E. Solanas – Argentina latente AKA Dormant Argentina (2007)

    2001-2010ArgentinaDocumentaryFernando E. SolanasPolitics

    Part 3 of the series preceded by Memoria del saqueo & La dignidad de los nadies, and followed by La tierra sublevada.

    Quote:
    Two years ago I very favorably reviewed the Argentinian documentarian Fernando E. Solanas’ Dignity of the Nobodies, shown at the 2006 SFIFF. This new work by Solanas deals with exploitation of his country from outside and how Argentina can get out from under that and become a strong, rich, independent country. My heading for Dignity was “Chaotic and grainy, but for some of us, essential viewing.” This one isn’t so grainy, and it’s still essential.Read More »

  • John Gianvito – The Mad Songs of Fernanda Hussein (2001)

    2001-2010ArthouseJohn GianvitoPoliticsUSA

    Quote:
    Self-funded, 16 mm and six years in the making, this politically-engaged, heartfelt and pantheistic three-hour exploration of American responses to the Gulf War is effectively unique in its decision to commit this conflict to celluloid. Written and directed by John Gianvito, programmer of the Harvard Film Archive, it weaves three fictional strands alongside documentary footage, interviews and a singular concert performance to create a multi-stranded, many-layered text that is fueled as much by (focused) anger as it is by the prerogatives of aesthetics.Read More »

  • Robert Breer – Bang! (1986)

    1981-1990AnimationExperimentalRobert BreerUSA

    An experimental film in which a photograph of an airplane turns into a wire diagram, then into an animated plane in flight, and then it explodes into words.Read More »

  • Paul Sharits – Bad Burns (1982)

    1981-1990ExperimentalPaul SharitsShort FilmUSA

    16mm, color, silent, 6 minutes, print from Anthology Film Archives Preserved by Anthology Film Archives

    “Film is a fragile medium, and some artists push its fragility to the breaking point. Paul Sharits (1943–93) was a pusher.‘I think of [film] as a sort of a primitive, vulnerable medium,’ said Sharits. ‘I know it’s going to disappear, and I almost look upon it with a certain empathy.’ He moved his films out of the theater and into the gallery, creating multiscreen environments that exploited the qualities that made film different from the other visual arts. The projectors, with their clatter and flickering light, became protagonists, and the strips of celluloid, agents of ephemeral beauty.Read More »

  • Aki Kaurismäki – Kauas pilvet karkaavat AKA Drifting Clouds (1996)

    1991-2000Aki KaurismäkiArthouseComedyFinland

    Synopsis:
    A married couple struggles with the repercussions of unexpected unemployment in this wry comedy drama from Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki. Ilona, the wife, works as restaurant hostess and her husband Lauri drives a tram. Though the couple has recently lost a child, they both seem at peace and happy. One night Ilona comes home and finds that Lauri has purchased a beautiful television on credit. Shortly thereafter disaster strikes when Ilona’s workplace closes and Lauri gets caught in a maelstrom of downsizing. Neither is able to find suitable work right away and as time crawls by, they become humiliated and testy with each other. Read More »

  • Bertrand Blier – Buffet froid (1979)

    1971-1980Bertrand BlierComedyCrimeFrance

    Black comedy about solitude and dishumanization of the modern world, through the adventures of three men. First introduced is Alphonse Tram, an unemployed young man. His only neighbour is the police chief-inspector Morvandieu. Then a third man appears : he is Alphonse’s wife’s murderer… Bizarre and unreal.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – Il Seme dell’uomo aka The seed of man (1969)

    Arthouse1961-1970ItalyMarco FerreriSci-Fi

    Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

    During a Post-Apocalyptic period in the near future the majority of the European population has been wiped out by some sort of undefined plague. Cino and Dora, a young couple, are rounded up by what constitutes the authorities on an isolated temporary base. They are examined and given antibiotics which will protect them for six months, told to pick out a deserted house to live in the area, and use that time to conceive a child. They are later visited by an enigmatic group of black-clothed, initially threatening vigilantes who are evidently satisfied with the couple when they hear that a child is contemplated. However, despite her evident fondness for Cino, Dora is reluctant to try to conceive a baby. Then their domestic tranquility is interrupted by a beautiful French interloper who seems as if she is more than willing to fill in for Nora and conceive Cino’s children.Read More »

  • Hirokazu Koreeda – Going My Home (2012)

    2011-2020DramaHirokazu KoreedaJapanTV

    Ryota, a timid salaryman who has difficulties fitting in at home and work has his average life changed after his estranged father falls ill. Along with his wife Sae and their only child Moe, he travels to his father’s country town, where he begins to uncover his father’s mysterious past spent searching for a mythical creature.Read More »

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