• Ken Loach – Jimmy’s Hall (2014)

    2011-2020DramaKen LoachUnited Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    In the 1920s, political activist Jimmy Gralton built a dance hall in rural Ireland. As the hall grew in popularity its free-spirited reputation brought it to the attention of the church and politicians who forced Jimmy to flee and the hall to close.
    A decade later, at the height of the Depression, Jimmy returns from the US. The hall stands abandoned but as Jimmy sees the poverty and growing oppresion in the village, the leader and activist within him is stirred. He decides to reopen the hall, and so takes on the established authorities of the church and the government.Read More »

  • Ivan Pyryev – The Idiot (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaIvan PyryevUSSR

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    SYNOPSIS: Upon Prince Myshkin’s return to St. Petersburg from an asylum in Switzerland, he becomes beguiled by the lovely young Aglaya, daughter of a wealthy father. But his deepest emotion is for the wanton, Nastasia. The choices all are forced to make lead to great tragedy.

    IMDB wrote:
    In the period 1955-60 some absolutely incredible movies were made in the Soviet Union. This is no exception. Based on the classic novel, the script of course holds masterpiece quality. Visually, it’s also a masterpiece. The music is one of the most dramatic soundtracks I’ve heard. And not least, Yuliya Borisova in the role of Nastasia Philippovna gives the most charismatic acting performance I’ve ever seen. Throughout the movie I simply couldn’t wait for her to get into the frame again whenever absent. I’ve never ever been this hypnotised by an actor or an actress before (and I’ve actually given that careful thought). The other actors also give stellar performances. As the events unfolded, I felt this movie pushed the script to its ultimate limits. At the end, you will find yourself filled up with uncontrolled emotions that you don’t even know the name of. The movie is so dramatic that some people may find it unrealistic, but I assure you: these characters are out there in the real world, and this play may have relevance to anyone’s life. At some point, most people with brains will seek out this story. My tip is, don’t read the book. Don’t see any theatre play or movie based on it but this one. Though the movie may take a lifetime to find – *it’s worth it*!Read More »

  • Elaine Constantine – Northern Soul (2014)

    2011-2020DramaElaine ConstantineUnited Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    The storyline cleverly blends all the ingredients that defined the Northern Soul scene in the 1970s – from the obsessive record collecting, dancing and drug taking to the deeper aspects such as… well, the consequences of all of the above.

    If you went to all-nighters at the time, it’s an emotional roller coaster ride that will hit you with the highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies all over again. If you didn’t go, it’s the closest you’ll get to ever understanding.Read More »

  • Mathieu Amalric – La chambre bleue (2014)

    2011-2020Film NoirFranceMathieu AmalricThriller

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    A man and a woman, secretly in love, alone in a room. They desire each other, want each other, and even bite each other. In the afterglow, they share a few sweet nothings. At least the man seemed to believe they were nothing. Now under investigation by the police and the courts, what is he accused of? Read More »

  • Nabil Ayouch – Ali Zaoua, prince de la rue AKA Ali Zoua: Prince of the Streets (2000)

    1991-2000CrimeDramaMoroccoNabil Ayouch

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    A movie from Morroco about street kids in casablanca.
    Some voices from IMDB.

    From Morroco
    This movie brings back memories of growing up in morocco, although the movie puts you in the front seat of the realities in real life much of this goes ignored by the rest of the populace. The feeling is of numbness to the harsh realities that these vagabonds have to go through. Most of these kids never make it to adulthood and if they do they are seriously psychologically ill. After watching this movie you will undeniably feel resentment to society and blame yourself for being part of it. Overall I think the movie was well directed, the characters were AMAZING (I hope that they get some type of recognition) some of the scenes are beautifully shot. Vote 10+ from my partRead More »

  • Jack Clayton – The Innocents (1961)

    1961-1970HorrorJack ClaytonQueer Cinema(s)ThrillerUnited Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Jack Clayton’s celebrated screen adaptation of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898) is a brilliant exercise in psychological horror. Impressionable and repressed governess Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) agrees to tutor two orphaned children, Miles and Flora. On arrival at Bly House, she becomes convinced that the children are possessed by the perverse spirits of former governess Miss Jessel and her Heathcliffe-like lover Quint (Peter Wyngarde), who both met with mysterious deaths.

    The film’s sinister atmosphere is carefully created – not through shock tactics, but through its cinematography, soundtrack, and decor: Freddie Francis’ beautiful CinemaScope photography, with its eerily indistinct long shots and mysterious manifestations at the edges of the frame; an evocative and spooky soundtrack; and the grand yet decaying Bly House.

    Deborah Kerr gives the performance of her career and makes The Innocents an intensely unsettling experience. Are the ghosts the products of Miss Giddens’s fevered imagination and emotional immaturity, or a displacement of her shock at the sexually precocious behaviour of ten-year-old Miles? Is she the protector or the corrupter?Read More »

  • Mike Leigh – Naked (1993)

    1991-2000DramaMike LeighUnited Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Mike Leigh’s brilliant and controversial Naked stars David Thewlis as Johnny, a charming, eloquent, and relentlessly vicious drifter on the lam in London. Rejecting all those who would care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself into a nocturnal odyssey through the city, colliding with a succession of the desperate and the dispossessed, and scorching everyone in his path. With a virtuoso script and raw performances from Thewlis and costars Katrin Cartlidge and Lesley Sharpe, Leigh’s panorama of England’s crumbling underbelly is a showcase of black comedy and doomsday prophecy, and was the winner of the best director and actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.Read More »

  • Stephan Geene – After Effect (2007)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaGermanyStephan Geene

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Carl Celler (CC) Culture Institute specializes in selling art projects to big companies: Carl Celler, the dynamic boss with an inherent melancholic drift towards failure, feels that his first project proves to be a difficult one. For the project, he invited a young elite group of artists and curators to Berlin to realize a project: videos, photos, campaigns, and art objects about a specific topic, namely brand logos and animals. The invited artists are furnished with a sufficient budget and insight into Berlin’s arts milieu. Furthermore there are two male (anti-)models, Kai and Jork, arbitrarily chosen, non-styled, people from the street. Kai is over 30 and he confronts this world with nonchalance. He feels his late juvenile attitude is in anger and the ambition he encounters in CC takes him by surprise. Rena Yazka, one of the invited artists, catches his attention. Their little flirt is the background for Kai’s experience to become an object, to be regarded as a body. Is he in love – or only eroticized in this dazzling experience? Is he exploited and abused by the creative industry? The mood of this bizarre, tightened coolness gives way slowly to an existential problem. What kind of life are they working for, or, if they live for their work, what kind of life is that? (IMDb)Read More »

  • Aleksandr Sokurov – Avtomobil nabiraet nadezhnost AKA The Automobile Gains in Reliability (1974)

    1971-1980Aleksandr SokurovDocumentaryShort FilmUSSR

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    This film was created by Sokurov before or during his VGIK student years for the regional TV of Gorki. He does not consider it a part of his filmography. For its creators, it was just a TV program, and the people who worked on it most often were being given no distinction in the credits. This document of the very origins of Sokurov gives us a notion of his “pre-stylistic” period, where the personality of the future great filmmaker reveals itself in spite of means and circumstances. [from the catalog of Torino Film Festival]Read More »

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