• José María Elorrieta – La llamada del vampiro (1972)

    1971-1980EroticaHorrorJosé María ElorrietaSpainSpanish cinema under Franco

    A small rural Spanish village of the present is haunted by vampires. Dr.Dora Maeterlick is called to a nearby castle to cure the father of Baron Carl von Rysselbert who suffers from a strange blood disease. Erika, assistant to Doctor, falls in love with Carl. But Carl is a vampire and pretty soon he makes Erika his vampire bride. From now on Dr.Maeterlick plunges into a nightmarish whirl of dark happenings…Read More »

  • Nuri Bilge Ceylan – Ahlat Agaci Aka The Wild Pear Tree (2018)

    2011-2020DramaNuri Bilge CeylanTurkey



    Sinan is passionate about literature and has always wanted to be a writer. Returning to the village where he was born, he pours his heart and soul into scraping together the money he needs to be published, but his father’s debts catch up with him… Read More »

  • Anne Émond – Nelly (2016)

    2011-2020Anne ÉmondDramaEroticaFrance



    Quote:
    A film inspired by the life and work of Nelly Arcan. The portrait of a fragmented woman, lost between irreconcilable identities: writer, lover, call girl and star.Read More »

  • Panagiotis Karagiorgas – December Seeds (2009)

    Documentary2001-2010GreecePanagiotis Karagiorgas


    A semi-documentary, semi-fictional film of the days following the cold-blooded murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, a 15 years old boy, by the police at Athens, in December 2008. In the film -among other things- are presented many original street scenes and media stuff of those days. Read More »

  • Hiroshi Shimizu – Kanzashi aka Ornamental Hairpin (1941)

    1941-1950AsianDramaHiroshi ShimizuJapan


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    Synopsis
    Based on an Ibuse Masuji short story, this delightful escapist drama is set at a hot spring resort providing sanctuary to people of vastly different backgrounds and personalities bounded by one thing: their common desire to not leave. The resort’s patrons include a Tokyo woman (Tanaka Kinuyo) with a mysterious past who develops a brief relationship with a wounded soldier (Ryu Chishu). A comedic piece filmed and set during wartime Japan, Kanzashi makes a statement with its lightness.Read More »

  • Mohammad Rasoulof – Keshtzar haye sepid AKA White Meadows (2009)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaIranMohammad Rasoulof

    Quote:
    In this dreamlike yet earthbound film, Rahmat the boatman navigates the increasingly brackish waters of a coastal land, collecting the heartaches and tears of its inhabitants. But he remains powerless against their misguided attempts to appease the gods and make the land green again, whether by offering a bride to the sea or forcibly “treating” the eyes of a painter who sees in different colors. Drawing first-hand on the challenges faced by Iranian artists today, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s deeply atmospheric and poetical film is a gorgeous allegory of intolerance, brutality, and mystified routine that resonates far beyond any one state’s borders.Read More »

  • Dave McKean – Luna (2014)

    Drama2011-2020Dave McKeanFantasyUnited Kingdom



    Quote:
    Grant and Christine are still struggling with a storm of grief following the death of their baby. They visit an old friend, Dean, with his new girlfriend, Freya, in an isolated house by the sea. Dean tries but fails to control his drinking. Freya worries about the age difference between her and Dean. Christine confesses her secrets to Dean, upsetting his comfortable world of escapist fantasy and children’s books. Over a long weekend, old loves, losses and resentments are revisited and the life of the dead child is lived out in a series of strange dreams.Read More »

  • Hans H. Zerlett – Zwei Frauen (1938)

    1931-1940DramaGermanyHans H. ZerlettThird Reich Cinema



    Here’s a film so rare and forgotten, it isn’t even listed the German Lexikon des Internationalen Films, so it’s unlikely that it ran anywhere after the war. The overly bright but quite good copy of unknown provenience has Dutch and French subtitles burned in.
    The story is about a theater star (Olga Tschechowa) who finds herself suddenly a mother again after her daughter (Irene von Meyendorff) who lived with her father for 16 years got thrown out by him because she wants also to become an actress. Naturally the mother isn’t too pleased because she fears to be recognized as a mother losing some star appeal, so they present themselves as aunt and niece. However the young girl soon proves to be a competitor in love and career …Read More »

  • Zenzo Matsuyama – Na mo naku mazushiku utsukushiku aka Happiness of Us Alone (1961)

    1961-1970AsianDramaJapanZenzo Matsuyama



    The directorial debut of longtime screenwriter and frequent Masaki Kobayashi
    collaborator Zenzo Matsuyama, Happiness of Us Alone is a tour de force of humanist
    cinema that stands as a landmark of the changing attitudes towards people with
    disabilities in Japan. A sympathetic portrayal of the suffering of a deaf couple (played by
    Matsuyama’s own wife, Hideko Takamine, and frequent co-star Keiju Kobayashi) at the
    hands of a shell shocked postwar society that treats them like wayward children to be
    at turns pitied or exploited, the film prefigures the wave of activist documentaries of the
    1970s exploring mistreatment of the disabled by such filmmakers as Kazuo Hara, Noriaki
    Tsuchimoto and Mariko Miyagi. Amidst a culture that traditionally sought to hide those
    with disabilities from public view, Happiness of Us Alone charts the often disastrous
    consequences of attempting to live an independent life in a society that isn’t yet prepared
    to accommodate those who are different. Read More »

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