1990s

“PAndroid” wrote:
I originally just got this film for it’s rarity as an online friend of mine managed to acquire a copy through a trade. When I put the VHS into the player I was presented with challenging slice of art-house genius that greatly exceeded my pretty much non existent expectations. Like the great works of lynch and jodorowsky it is a completely unstreamed celluloid capture of an artists consciousness,abandoning logic to assault the viewers senses with the directors own unique vision. This isn’t like any of other schiffs other films, which whilst highly enjoyable are ultimately extremely tacky gorefests. This is a stunning observation of a lonely mans descent into being unable to decipher relaity and fantasy. Words cannot do it justice in the slightest. It one of the most different and personal films I have ever seen, layered in gruesome yet poetic psychosexual imagery to portray the main characters(who remains nameless throughout the film)ever slipping mask of sanity. Whilst very open ended I partially see the film as a commentary on perception and how we see things. It simply defies genres and conventions, this is true art film-making. Made from real raw emotion and a daring mind it is perhaps unsurprising it has not seen an official release ever. But for anyone who likes bold underground cinema this is an absolute must see, and possibly the most underrated film of all time. A sublime,macabre masterwork of dream logic cinema.Read More »

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 »

Surrealist short feature about common tricks of uncle Pepin and the young Bohumil Hrabal. The harum-scarum young man pays his looney uncle a visit and his life changes at once. We can find out, where the snowmen lives in summer, what Franz Joe’s favorite food was, how to sell one half of a pair of shoes and fly in a cage.Read More »

Dave McDougall at MUBI.com

Last Monday night, MoMA played two installments from the series “Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge…”, a series of one-hour television episodes “in which French directors were asked to contribute films based on their recollections of adolescence” (BFI). The first episode shown was Chantal Akerman’s Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the 1960s in Brussels.

Akerman’s episode is an achievement of an entirely different level. It moves beyond being one of the great coming-of-age films; it is simply one of the great films. A moving, multifaceted, and magical hour, presented with honesty and subtle artistry.Read More »

Synopsis
Jack and Julie live in a bare flat in Paris. At night, Jack drives a taxi while Julie wanders around the city, and in the day they make love. One day Julie meets Joseph, the daytime driver of the taxi, and soon Julie is spending her nights with Joseph and her days with Jack..Read More »

Quote:
Paris, 1995. On the cutting table in a modest office building in central Paris lie Juliette Binoche and William Hurt in Un Divan à New York. Chantal Akerman Par Chantal Akerman is also almost finished. It’s a self-portrait for the series Cinéma de Notre Temps by order of La sept Arte and producer Thierry Garrel. Because who can tell more about Chantal Akerman than Chantal Akerman herself. Through the open windows we can hear shreds of sounds from other cutting tables gathering in the inner courtyard. Fall is still warm. An interview on too much and not enough cinema.Read More »

Quote:
She’s a beautiful gifted performer, but her work is not the sort that invites popular acclaim. Despite the fact that she is unlikely to become famous, she enjoys her life as a performer who lives just outside the mainstream. Awaiting her backstage one evening is a Spanish painter who has seen her show and wants to make her acquaintance. They walk around Paris getting to know one another, and then the painter returns to Spain. Something about the man has moved Lady M to passion: she flies to meet him in Barcelona and he shows her his beloved Catalonia. Read More »

Synopsis:
Set on the hottest day of August, with no one on the deserted streets besides a few extras, the story stretches from noon to midnight as French writer Paul (Francis Frappat) waits for an appointment with “a ghost”. He whiles away the day meeting long-dead friends from his memories, who materialize out of nowhere with complete naturalness. Pierre (Andre Marcon), a poet with whom he had a girlfriend (Myriam Szabo) in common, takes him to eat in a local restaurant (recipe details are furnished by the cook). In one of the more curious apparitions, his father appears as a young sailor (Alexandre Zloto) and demands that Paul recount the way he died. The legendary Pessoa – never named, but the well-read viewer is supposed to guess who he is – reflects on life and literature over dinner.Read More »

Godard’s meditation on things Russian and cinematic, featuring JLG himself as “The Idiot” My own not very good quality VHS recording from a NTSC TV broadcast, but I know of no other source for this. With some English narration and French dialog with subtitles. Video collages of Russian films, in the style of Histoire(s) and other Godard films of this period.Read More »