• Luchino Visconti – Lo straniero AKA The Stranger (1967)

    1961-1970DramaItalyLuchino Visconti
    Lo straniero (1967)
    Lo straniero (1967)

    A man faces a trial for murder. The court is biased because of his personal qualities.Read More »

  • Tony Rayns – Jang Seonu byeonjugok AKA The Jang Sun-Woo Variations (2001)

    2001-2010DocumentarySouth KoreaTony Rayns
    Jang Seonu byeonjugok (2001)
    Jang Seonu byeonjugok (2001)

    Description from International Film Festival Rotterdam premiere:
    Tony Rayns has followed up the Jang Sun-Woo retrospective he curated for the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1997 by making an intimate portrait of Korea’s most iconoclastic director as he prepares two new films: the live-action cyber-action thriller The Resurrection of the Little Match Girl and the animated buddhist/shamanist feature Princess Bari. Divided into chapters, the documentary examines Jang’s career and films from many different angles and includes the voices not only of those who have worked with Jang but also of numerous ordinary Koreans who have been touched/shocked/excited/offended by his work.Read More »

  • Chloé Robichaud – Les Jours Heureux AKA Days Of Happiness (2023)

    2021-2030CanadaChloé RobichaudDrama
    Les Jours Heureux (2023)
    Les Jours Heureux (2023)

    In order to unlock the future she has dreamed of, a young up-and-coming orchestra conductor must learn to harness her past and long-repressed emotions.

    Emma, a talented rising star on the Montreal stage, has a complicated relationship with her father, and agent, Patrick. Aware she is not reaching her full potential, she must decide if she is willing to do what it takes to succeed by facing her past and tapping into her emotions. If saving her career wasn’t enough pressure, she must also save a budding romantic relationship with Naëlle, a newly separated cellist and mother of a young boy.Read More »

  • Min-suk Kim – Cho-neung-ryeok-ja AKA Haunters (2010)

    2001-2010ActionMin-suk KimSci-FiSouth Korea
    Cho neung ryeok ja (2010)
    Cho neung ryeok ja (2010)

    Cho-In can control other people’s minds when they are within his field of sight.Except one man.Read More »

  • Michelangelo Antonioni – L’Avventura aka The Adventure (1960)

    1951-1960ArthouseDramaItalyMichelangelo Antonioni
    L'avventura (1960)
    L’avventura (1960)

    Quote:
    This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn’t fit in with the wealthy jet-setters’ dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro’s emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and — when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever — become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L’avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection.Read More »

  • Wolfgang Becker – Schmetterlinge AKA Butterflies (1988)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaGermanyWolfgang Becker
    Schmetterlinge (1988)
    Schmetterlinge (1988)

    Synopsis by Dan Pavlides:
    When young Kaja (Lena Boehncke) is found dead, Andi (Bertram von Boxberg) is questioned by authorities. The two had spent time together along the railroad tracks where Kaja was promised by Andi that he would take her to the place where beautiful butterflies congregate. Andi is told that the girl died of injuries suffered in a fall as the police try to discover if Andi was involved. Peter Franke plays the father, with Uwe Helfrich as the police inspector.

    Quote:
    It won the Golden Leopard at the 1988 Locarno International Film Festival.Read More »

  • Mehmet Ada Öztekin – 7. Koğuştaki Mucize AKA Miracle in Cell No 7 (2019)

    2011-2020DramaMehmet Ada ÖztekinTurkey
    Yedinci Kogustaki Mucize (2019)
    Yedinci Kogustaki Mucize (2019)

    A story of love between a mentally-ill father who was wrongly accused of murder and his lovely six year old daughter. Prison will be their home. Based on the 2013 Korean movie 7-beon-bang-ui seon-mul (2013).Read More »

  • Raúl Perrone – Favula (2014)

    Raúl Perrone2011-2020ArgentinaArthouseSilent
    Favula (2014)
    Favula (2014)

    Quote:
    “Hypnotic” is the best word to describe Favula, the latest work from director Raúl Perrone, which comes with a recommendation from none other than Apichatpong Weerasethakul – though he used the more Joe-like epithet, “bliss.” Somewhat of a secret outside of his native Argentina, Perrone has made more than 30 movies, and in recent years has reinvented his cinema, by looking back to the past, and in doing so pointing to the future. Standing apart from any other film made this year, with its magical handmade aesthetic, Favula recalls Méliès, or silent Fritz Lang, but at the same time evokes recent silent, stage-bound aesthetics like Raya Martin’s Independencia. Loosely based on an African fable, and shot employing rear-projections techniques, Favula’s simple events take place mostly in an isolated house and a nearby jungle: a marginal family’s life is interrupted by the arrival of a teenaged girl. On top of the minimalist, pulsating images, Perrone layers a maximalist soundtrack that encompasses both the sounds of the jungle and non-diegetic music (indelible contemporary songs that appeared in his last work, the cumbia punk opera P3ND3JO5). The result is a wholly unique, mythical universe of danger, passion and magic.Read More »

  • Laurent Achard – Le dernier des fous AKA The Last of the Crazy People (2006)

    Laurent Achard2001-2010ArthouseDramaFrance

    Based on the 1967 novel by Canadian author Timothy Findley, THE LAST OF THE CRAZY PEOPLE is a French naturalist drama from director Laurent Achard. Martin is a young boy growing up in a family on the brink of collapse, the story is presented from his perspective as he passively watches it slowly crumble around him.Read More »

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