A group of actresses performing in a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" get caught up in a web of romantic intrigue and revelation.
Monday, October 31, 2016
The Shop Around the Corner/Rendezvous nach Ladenschluß (Ernst Lubitsch,1940)
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.
The Indian Tomb/Das Indische Grabmal (Fritz Lang,1959)
A German architect runs away with the maharajah of Eschnapur's fiancee but is caught and thrown in the dungeon, while his relatives arrive from Europe looking for him and the maharajah's brother is scheming to usurp the throne.
Broken Lullaby/Der Mann,den sein Gewissen trieb (Ernst Lubitsch,1932)
A young French soldier in World War I is overcome with guilt when he kills a German soldier who, like himself, is a musically gifted conscript, each having attended the same musical conservatory in France. The fact that the incident occurred in war does not assuage his guilt. He travels to Germany to meet the man's family.
Als ich tot war (Ernst Lubitsch,1915)
The film depicts the story of a young married couple ( Herr Ernst Lubitsch himself and Frau Louise Schenrich ) who live in the same apartment with their mother-in-law ( Frau Lanchen Voss ), a terrible mistake. At least if the mother-in-law lives far away, her dangerous intentions require more exertion to work. Herr Ernst likes very much to play chess with his pals at the club, a thrilling sport that will bring him a lot of problems ( that’s what happens when you play such weird games ).
The Brig (Jonas Mekas,1964)
A ultra-realistic depiction of life in a Marine Corps brig (or jail) at a camp in Japan in 1957. Marine prisoners are awakened and put through work details for the course of a single day, submitting in the course of it to extremely harsh and shocking physical and mental degradation and abuse.
Une Femme Douce (1Robert Bresson,1969)
A young woman kills herself, leaving no explanation to her grief-stricken pawnbroker husband. We learn in flashback about how they met, married, and how she failed to adapt her lifestyle to his. Disgusted with his attempts to dominate her, she considered murdering him, but found herself unable to do it...
Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer,2013)
A mysterious woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. Events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
The Devil, Probably/Le Diable probablement (Robert Bresson,1977)
Charles drifts through politics, religion and psychoanalysis, rejecting them all. Once he realises the depth of his disgust with the moral and physical decline of the society he lives in, he decides that suicide is the only option...
Public Affairs/Affaires Publiques (Robert Bresson,1934)
A slapstick comedy centered around two neighboring republics, Crogandia and Miremia, and the various disasters that befall the ceremonial unveiling of a statue, the launching of a ship, and the crash-landing of a Miremian pilot in Crogandian territory.
Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson,1966)
The story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
Four Nights of a Dreamer/Quatre nuits dun reveur (Robert Bresson,1971)
The 'dreamer' is Jacques, a young painter, who by chance runs into Marthe as she's contemplating suicide on the Pont-Neuf in Paris. They talk, and agree to see each other again the next night. Gradually, he discovers that her lover promised to meet her on the bridge that night, and he failed to turn up. Over the next couple of nights, Jacques falls in love with her - but on the fourth night her original lover returns...
The Trial of Joan of Arc/Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (Robert Bresson,1962)
A reconstruction of the trial of Joan of Arc (based entirely on the transcripts of the real-life trial), concerning Joan's imprisonment, interrogation and final execution at the hands of the English, filmed in a spare, low-key fashion.
Mouchette (Robert Bresson,1967)
Mouchette is a young girl living in the country. Her mother is dying and her father does not take care of her. Mouchette remains silent in the face of the humiliations she undergoes. One night in a wood, she meets Arsene, the village poacher, who thinks he has just killed the local policeman. He tries to use Mouchette to build an alibi.
Diary Of A Country Priest/Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson,1951)
A young priest taking over the parish at Ambricourt tries to fulfill his duties even as he fights a mysterious stomach ailment.
A Man Escaped/Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (Robert Bresson,1956)
Captured French Resistance fighter Lieutenant Fontaine awaits a certain death sentence for espionage in a stark Nazi prison. Facing malnourishment and paralyzing fear, he must engineer an extraordinary escape, complicated by the questions of whom to trust, and in the absence of options, how to kill?
Un metteur en ordre (Robert Bresson,1966)
"Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson", a 1966 French TV program about the film "Au Hasard Balthazar", featuring Bresson, Jean-Luc Goddard, Louis Malle, Marguerite Duras and others.
Lancelot of the Lake/Lancelot du Lac (1974)
A million miles away from 'Camelot' or 'Excalibur', this film ruthlessly strips the Arthurian legend down to its barest essentials. Arthur's knights, far from being heroic, are conniving and greedy men who, just before the film starts, have failed miserably to find the Holy Grail. Aimlessly resentful at first, the developing relationship between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere focuses their rage, leading to inevitable tragedy...
L'argent (Robert Bresson,1983)
A forged 500-franc note is cynically passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is - which will have devastating consequences on his life, causing him to turn to crime and murder...
0.5 Mm/0.5 miri (Momoko Andô,2014)
Sawa Yamagishi (Sakura Ando) worked as a nursing-care helper. The family of an old man asked Sawa to sleep with him, which led her to eventually lose her job and house. Now, she has nowhere to go. Sawa finds elderly people in trouble and gets involved in their lives. Meeting them, their lives change and Sawa's own wounds start to heal.
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur,1943)
A Canadian nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.
Kaili Blues/Lu bian ye can (Gan Bi,2015)
A stunning, dreamlike debut, KAILI BLUES is about a country doctor's search for an abandoned child that takes him to a mysterious place where past, present and future become one.
The Deadly Companions (Sam Peckinpah,1961)
Ex-army officer accidentally kills a woman's son, tries to make up for it by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory.
Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville,1970)
After leaving prison, master thief Corey crosses paths with a notorious escapee and an alcoholic former policeman. The trio proceed to plot an elaborate heist.
The Assassin/L'assassino (Elio Petri,1961)
Alfredo Martelli is picked up by the police in his apartment without justification. In the precinct, he slowly discovers what is the investigation about as we find out details about his life.
Secret Defense/Secret défense (Jacques Rivette,1998)
Sylvie, a 30-year-old scientist, has to dig deeper and deeper into her own background.
Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville ,1967)
After killing a night-club owner, professional hitman Jef Costello is seen by witnesses. His efforts to provide himself with an alibi fail and more and more he gets driven into a corner.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Va Savoir (Who Knows?) (Jacques Rivette,2001)
Quick-witted, well-read cultured types revolve around each other in a delightful potpourri of theatre, romanticism and theft.
Out Of The Past (Jacques Tourneur,1947)
A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames.
Out 1:Spectre (Jacques Rivette,1974)
A shorter version of Out 1 (1971), however some of the omitted scenes of the long version are included.
Le Coup du Berger (Jacques Rivette,1956)
When an unfaithful wife receives a fur coat from her lover as a gift, they must figure out a way to keep the husband from discovering the coat's true origins.
La belle noiseuse (Jacques Rivette,1991)
The former famous painter Frenhofer revisits an abandoned project using the girlfriend of a young visiting artist. Questions about truth, life, and artistic limits are explored.
Joan the Maid 2 - The Prisons/Jeanne la Pucelle II - Les prisons (Jacques Rivette,1994)
The second film covers Joan's trial and the end of her life.
Joan the Maid 1/Jeanne la Pucelle I - Les batailles (Jacques Rivette,1994)
A part of Joan of Arc's life. At the beginning, Jeanne (Joan) has already left Domremy, she is trying to convince a captain to escort her to the Dauphin. It ends during Jeanne's first battle, at Orleans. Meanwhile, Jeanne is depicted more as a warrior than a saint (all cliches are avoided), with only her faith for strength.
Celine and Julie Go Boating/Celine et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette,1974)
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
I Only Want You to Love Me/Ich will doch nur, daß ihr mich liebt (Rainer Werner Fassbinder,1976)
A man is interviewed by a sympathetic woman. His tale unfolds, of hard work that never pleases his parents, of a father who denigrates his efforts, of an indifferent mother. He builds them a house. Instead of offering their flat to him and his bride, they give the flat up, so he goes to Munich to work in construction, bringing his wife who is soon pregnant. They buy things on credit; he works overtime. He shows up with flowers and expensive gifts. When construction slows and he works less overtime, he cannot adjust his spending habits: he needs to be loved. Pressures mount. When he snaps, and violence ensues, who will be his victim?
Chinese Roulette/Chinesisches Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder,1976)
Both the parents of a young teen who walks with crutches, goes on each their secret meeting with lovers, both surprising each other at the family's county home. The daughter arrives and initiates a guessing game of "Chinese roulette".
Paris s'en va (Jacques Rivette,1981)
Before Le Pont du Nord Rivette films Paris s’en va, a short film of approximately 25 minutes. He works with the same actors and the same technical team on both films. Henry Chapier who produced the short: “At the beginning of the ’80s nobody was interested in Rivette’s highly imaginative project Le Pont du Nord. Therefore Rivette came up with a kind of ‘transposition’ of the themes of Le Pont du Nord in the shape of Paris s’en va. Just like a painter in the Renaissance who does a sketch for a future project.”
Paris Belongs to Us/Paris nous Appartient (Jacques Rivette,1961)
Anne Goupil is a literature student in Paris in 1957. Her elder brother, Pierre, takes her to a friend's party where the guests include Philip Kaufman, an expatriate American escaping McCarthyism, and Gerard Lenz, a theatre director who arrives with the mysterious woman Terry. The talk at the party is about the apparent suicide of their friend Juan, a Spanish activist who had recently broken up with Terry. Philip warns Anne that the forces that killed Juan will soon do the same to Gerard. Gerard is trying to rehearse Shakespeare's "Pericles", although he has no financial backing. Anne takes a part in the play to help Gerard, and to try to discover why Juan died.
Noroît (Une vengeance) (Jacques Rivette,1976)
On an island beach a woman vows to avenge her brother's death at the hands of a pirate leader. With help the woman spies on the pirates and then gets a job as bodyguard to the pirate leader .
Duelle/Duelle (une quarantaine) (Jacques Rivette,1976)
The Queen of the Night battles the Queen of the Sun over a magical diamond that will allow the winner to remain on Earth, specifically in modern day Paris.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Nobody Knows/Dare mo shiranai (Hirokazu Koreeda,2004)
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Treasure Island (Raoul Ruiz,1985)
Raoul Ruiz's surrealistic modern-day riff on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel.
Three Lives and Only One Death/Trois vies et une seule mort (Raoul Ruiz,1996)
Take a walk into the weird world of filmmaker Raul Ruiz as he takes us to Paris for a twisted ride. A man which shares four names and four personalities (which is the real one?) is the link between four different, yet similar, stories involving love, lust, crime, and time.
City of Pirates/La ville des pirates (Raoul Ruiz,1983)
A surreal odyssey in which a melancholic maidservant crosses paths with a homicidal little boy, travels to a tiny island of pirates and encounters a man with multiple personalities.
I Wish/Kiseki (Hirokazu Koreeda,2011)
Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.
The Blind Owl/La chouette aveugle (Raoul Ruiz,1987)
Recorded almost 20 years ago from a cable broadcast, and obviously poor quality.Much of the film is very dark, but what we see is Ruiz at his most visually imaginative. Transferred from a Betamax recording.
That Day/Ce jour-là (Raoul Ruiz,2003)
A father (Michel Piccoli) is scheming to have his slightly mental daughter from an earlier marriage (Elsa Zylberstein) killed by allowing a murderous psychopath (Bernard Giraudeau) to be released from the asylum and led to his house. However, the psychopath and the daughter fall for each other.
After Life/Wandafuru raifu (Hirokazu Koreeda,1998)
After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.
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