• Shin’ya Tsukamoto – Akumu tantei 2 AKA Nightmare Detective 2 (2008)

    2001-2010AsianHorrorJapanShinya Tsukamoto

    Yukie and two of her girlfriends are being haunted by the ghost of a classmate, they once heavily bullied. When the other two die under mysterious circumstances, Yukie sees only one chance for herself. With the help of the Nightmare Detective (Ryuhei Matsuda) she hopes to escape her hopeless situation.Read More »

  • Shinya Tsukamoto – Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)

    1991-2000HorrorJapanSci-FiShinya Tsukamoto

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot: A Tokyo Businessman with his wife and son are walking the high street when his son is kidnapped by a group of street thugs. While in pursuit of his son the father is shot by one of the thugs with a strange device. After the thugs oddly return his son, the father starts to notice odd changes with his body that occur in moments of anger. Only to be terrorized constantly by this, the father decides to locate the gang and kill them all.Read More »

  • Akira Kurosawa – Something Like An Autobiography (1983)

    1981-1990Akira KurosawaBooksJapan

    Something Like an Autobiography
    by Akira Kurosawa

    Published by Vintage | 1983 | 205 pages

    Description:

    Quote:
    Among Japanese film makers, no one is perhaps as universally known as Akira Kurosawa.

    “Something like an Autobiography” is an account of the legendary director’s early life. It is only a partial account, encompassing his childhood, adolescenct years, the early years of his film career, up to the point of Rashomon. Nonetheless, the book benefits anyone keen for understanding the man behind such remarkable films as Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Rashomon, and Dersu Uzala among others. Kurosawa’s films were – Stuart Galbraith IV writes in the introduction to his book “The Emperor and the Wolf” – first and foremost, deeply humanist pictures, films which effortlessly transcend cultures and centuries. Something like an Autobiography helps one understand the evolution of the artist Kurosawa, the influences that shaped his vision.Read More »

  • Lionel Barrymore – The Unholy Night (1929)

    1921-1930Lionel BarrymoreMysteryThrillerUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    On a dark foggy London night, someone tries to strangle Lord Montague, but he escapes. Only to discover the four other men who did get killed were old regimental comrades in Gallipoli. When Scotland Yard gets Monty to gather the other nine surviving officers at his home, one of them is murdered, and no one else has entered the house. Now, they must determine who the murderer is. Written by Kathy Li Read More »

  • Paul Schrader – Adam Resurrected (2008)

    2001-2010DramaGermanyPaul SchraderWar

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    Quote:
    While the Holocaust is certainly a legitimate topic of inquiry for the committed filmmaker, most contemporary treatments of the Nazi camps betray their mission by allowing the viewer to feel altogether too comfortable as they take in the on-screen atrocities. Whether through the establishment of a mitigating historical distance, the adoption of standard genre tropes or the repetition of an established catalog of horrors, films like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and A Secret tend to overly familiarize the events of World War II, allowing the viewer to safely assimilate that conflict’s genocidal horrors. But whatever the flaws of Adam Resurrected, and despite the fact that no physical violence is perpetrated on screen, Paul Schrader never allows the viewer to get comfortably situated, relying on an absurdist central conceit and a rapidly shifting array of intellectual and moral concerns—whose superficial treatment unfortunately leads to a certain diffuseness in the work—to continually de-familiarize his subject.Read More »

  • Abel Gance – Lucrezia Borgia (1935)

    1931-1940Abel GanceClassicsDramaFrance

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Episodes from the life of Lucrecia Borgia’s. Spoiled and willful, she has many love affairs and tries to resist her ruthless and scheming brother César Borgia’s plans to marry her off for political advantage.

    Episodic and hard to follow to those not familiar with Italian geography and with the political situation of the time. Nice sets and costumes but the 16 millimeter print I saw did not show them well.

    The kind of movie the French New Wave rebelled againstRead More »

  • Anton Corbijn – Linear (2009)

    2001-2010Anton CorbijnArthouseMusicalUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    “Late May 2008 – at a band meeting I was introduced to the new songs. The reason for letting me in so early on this sonically and lyrically different U2 record is that the band have this idea for me to make some kind of moving imagery to go with the record. The thinking is that as a lot of people buy music from the internet and are likely to hear this on a computer or mp3 player, their listening pleasure could be heightened by visuals. Instead of just seeing a pack shot of the record sleeve, or a still photograph of the band for 45 plus minutes, as is often the case now, why not have a moving image for the duration of the record? It is not essential to the record, you can either watch it or ignore it. Brilliant! As always, U2 are thinking ahead, not so much having one foot in tomorrow’s door, as having built the house to which that door is the entrance.Read More »

  • Selim Demirdelen – Kavsak AKA The Crossing (2010)

    2001-2010DramaSelim DemirdelenTurkey

    Guven works in an accounting company. He is well liked in the office. He is a hard-working man. He has a happy marriage and a daughter whom he loves more than his own life. At the end of an ordinary workday, Guven leaves the office and goes home. He enters his flat, undresses, washes his face, and sits on the couch in the living room. There is no one else in the flat. Guven’s family life is a huge lie… (Written by Selim Demirdelen)Read More »

  • Yoshishige Yoshida – Onna no mizuumi aka Woman of the Lake (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaJapanYoshishige Yoshida

    Quote:
    Eight years into her marriage, Miyako Mizuki (Mariko Okada) looks happy on the outside, but in fact she is not satisfied with her husband, Yuzo (Shinsuke Ashida), who cares about nothing but his career. Miyako has been having an affair with a young interior designer named Kitano (Tamotsu Hayakawa), who in turn has a fiancée named Machie (Keiko Natsu). One night in a hotel, Miyako lets Kitano takes some nude photos of her. On her way back, she is followed by a stranger (Shigeru Tsuyuguchi), and loses her handbag with the film negatives inside while trying to escape. Later at home, Miyako receives a call from the stranger. He uses the negatives to threaten her to follow his instructions and take a train to the north. The stranger is named Ginpei. He was a teacher in a girls’ school, but was expelled because of a scandal with one of his students. As Miyako meets up with Ginpei, she develops a strange attraction towards him.
    Read More »

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