• Konstantin Lopushansky – Pisma myortvogo cheloveka AKA Letters from a Dead Man (1986)

    1981-1990ArthouseKonstantin LopushanskySci-FiUSSR

    Quote:
    Letters from a Dead Man is another film that deals with the theme of the nuclear nightmare. It falls into a mini-genre of nuclear holocaust film along with others such as On the Beach (1959), Dr Strangelove or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Fail-Safe (1964), The War Game (1965) et al. But what makes Letters from a Dead Man unique in this case is that the treatment is one that comes from the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. Every single other treatment of the nuclear holocaust theme was made in the West and comes based on the speculation (or at least implication) of what would happen if the bombs falling were coming from the Soviet side; this is one which shows everything from the other perspective. In both cases though, the films are almost identical in their treatment of the subject matter and are certainly agreed upon what an horrific experience the nuclear holocaust would be.Read More »

  • Ben Rivers & Ben Russell – A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013)

    Ben RiversBen Rivers and Ben RussellBen RussellDocumentaryExperimentalFrance

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    Synopsis:
    A Spell follows an unnamed character through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in isolation in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland; and during a concert as the singer and guitarist of a black met al band in Norway.

    Marked by loneliness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest sort, A Spell is a radical proposition for the existence of utopia in the present.

    Starring musician Robert AA Lowe (best known for his intense live performances under the name Lichens) in the lead role, A Spell lies somewhere between fiction and non-fiction – it is at once a document of experience and an experience itself, an inquiry into transcendence that sees the cinema as a site for transformation.
    Read More »

  • Hiroshi Shimizu – Kaze no naka no kodomo AKA Children in the Wind (1937)

    1931-1940DramaHiroshi ShimizuJapan

    Two young boys are usurped from being the head of their gang of children. Their father is fired and arrested for this, and they are sent to live with their uncle, only to spend their time thinking of ways to escape back home.Read More »

  • Hiroshi Shimizu – Kodomo no shiki aka Four Seasons of Children (1939)

    1931-1940DramaHiroshi ShimizuJapan

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    Quote:
    A follow-up to Children in the Wind, Four Seasons of Children is also based on a Tsubota Joji novel. The film is divided into two chapters, following the young protagonists’ minor adventures and real-world awakenings over spring and summer, then autumn and winter.Read More »

  • Jean Delannoy – Notre-Dame de Paris AKA The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956)

    1951-1960DramaFranceJean Delannoy

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    Synopsis:
    ‘Paris, 1482. Today is the festival of the fools, taking place like each year in the square outside Cathedral Notre Dame. Among jugglers and other entertainers, Esmeralda, a sensuous gypsy, performs a bewitching dance in front of delighted spectators. From up in a tower of the cathedral, Frollo, an alchemist, gazes at her lustfully. Later in the night, Frollo orders Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer and his faithful servant, to kidnap Esmeralda. But when the ugly freak comes close to her is touched by the young woman’s beauty…’
    – Guy Bellinger (IMDb)Read More »

  • Manuel Mur Oti – Cielo negro AKA Black Sky (1951)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaManuel Mur OtiSpain

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    Quote:
    Emilia, a modest employee of a fashion house, is in love and does not hesitate to steal your business suit to accompany her boyfriend to the festival. But everything goes wrong, discovered the theft, is fired from her job and that’s not the worst.

    Mur Oti was born in Vigo in 1908, the son of a prison warden who struck lucky in the spirits business and moved the family to Cuba when Manuel was 13. There the young Mur Oti developed strong relationships with his mother and two sisters, and learned to work the land as a cowboy. The former would come to influence his powerful, fully rounded women characters throughout his filmography; the latter fed into his depiction of the extremity of the Castilian climate in Orgullo – essentially a Spanish western.Read More »

  • Ala Eddine Slim – Akher Wahed Fina AKA The Last of Us (2016)

    2011-2020Ala Eddine SlimArthouseSilentTunisia

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    With no dialogue, The Last of Us tracks a Sub-Saharan man through the desert to North Africa where he steals a boat. When it breaks down in the middle of the sea, he begins an imaginary surrealistic odyssey where he meets an older man, who might be an altered version of himself, and, in a wild landscape, rediscovers his relationship with primary nature. “A philosophical fable on being lost” (Giona Nazzaro).

    Awarded with the Lion Of the Future in the 73rd Venice Film Festival (2016)Read More »

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer – Glomdalsbruden (1926)

    1921-1930Carl Theodor DreyerDenmarkDramaSilent

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    Birgit Granhøj, CarlThDreyer.dk wrote:

    Quote:
    Tore takes over the rundown family farm. Applying his youthful energy, he intends to make it into a big farm like Glomgården on the other side of the river, where beautiful Berit loves. Tore falls in love with her, but her father has promised her to rich Gjermund. As her wedding to Gjermund draws near, Berit runs away and seeks refuge with Tore and his parents. She soon falls deathly ill but recovers, asking for, and getting, her father’s permission to marry Tore. Jealous Gjermund is determined to prevent their wedding, however, in a dramatic climactic scene playing out around the rushing river.Read More »

  • Lino Brocka – Macho Dancer (1988)

    1991-2000CrimeDramaLino BrockaPhilippines

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    Macho Dancer is a 1988 Philippine film, directed Lino Brocka, which explores the harsh realities of a young, poor, rural gay man, who after being dumped by his American boyfriend, is forced to make a living for himself in Manila’s seamy red-light district. Based on a true story, the film frank depiction of homosexuality, prostitution, drag queens and crooked cops, porno movie-making and sexual slavery, and drugs and violence caused the Filipino government censors to order extensive edits of the film, forcing an uncensored edition to be smuggled out of the Philippines and shown to a limited number of international film festivals. This print is now part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York [Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. 1994. Raymond Murray]Read More »

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