Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The Treasure/Der Schatz (Georg Wilhelm Pabst,1923)

Der Schatz Poster 

 In and around a bell maker near Marburg (today Slovenia) people tell the story of a treasure that was hidden during the Turki invasion of 1683, the year the Turkish Army was besieging Vienna. Everybody think it's nonsense except for an old worker there, who feels that the treasure must be in the bell maker's house. A young traveling worker who has fallen in love with the bell maker's daughter Beate makes fun of this, but she convinces him that the old worker is not that nuts. So he starts searching for himself, and soon he finds it, as well as the old worker. He tells his master, who decides, that the young one has to disappear. He and Beate are leaving, while the old worker offers his part of the treasure to the master if he allows him to marry Beate. Beate, after coming home, hears of that and leaves together with the young worker.  

Dream Street (D.W. Griffith,1921)

Dream Street Poster 

 Three men in London compete for the love of a dance-hall girl.  

The Battle of the Sexes (D.W. Griffith,1928)

The Battle of the Sexes Poster 

 Gum-chewing frizzy-haired gold-digger Marie Skinner cooks up a scheme with her lover Babe Winsor, a jazz hound, to fleece a portly, middle-aged real estate tycoon, William Judson. Marie moves into Judson's apartment building and contrives to meet and seduce him, plying him with compliments, music, swoons, décolletage, and batted eyes. When his loyal wife (and their two children) see him out catting with Marie at a night club, mom's devastated and confronts him. He moves out. Babe wants Marie to sell Judson worthless bonds. Will mom commit suicide? Will sis shoot the floozy? Will pops figure out he's being a fool?  

The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' (D.W. Griffith,1914)

The Avenging Conscience: or 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' Poster 

 Objected to date his sweetheart by his uncle, a young man turns his thoughts to murder.  

Sehnsucht (Valeska Grisebach,2006)

Sehnsucht Poster 

 A metalworker and volunteer firefighter, who is content with his marriage to his childhood sweetheart, sees his life turn upside down when he falls in love with an attractive waitress from a nearby town.  

Story of My Death/Història de la meva mort (Albert Serra,2013)

Story of My Death Poster 

 Famous lover Casanova now long past his prime, meets Count Dracula during a journey to Transylvania.  

The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino,1953)

The Hitch-Hiker Poster 

 Two fishermen pick up a psychotic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over.  

Ivan's Childhood/Ivanovo detstvo ( Andrei Tarkovsky,1962)1962)

Ivan's Childhood Poster 

  In WW2, twelve year old Soviet orphan Ivan Bondarev works for the Soviet army as a scout behind the German lines and strikes a friendship with three sympathetic Soviet officers. 

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Un conte de Michel de Montaigne (Jean-Marie Straub,2013)

Un conte de Michel de Montaigne Poster 

La Commune (Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins,2000)

La Commune (Paris, 1871) Poster 

 In this war drama blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, the working class and the bourgeoisie of 19th century Paris are interviewed and covered on television, before and during a tragic workers' class revolt.  

Exiled/Fong juk (Johnnie To,2006)

Exiled Poster 

 A friendship is formed between an ex-gangster, and two groups of hitmen - those who want to protect him and those who were sent to kill him.  

Blow-Up/Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni,1966)

Blow-Up Poster 

 A mod London photographer finds something very suspicious in the shots he has taken of a mysterious beauty in a desolate park.  

Water Drops on Burning Stone/Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes ( François Ozon,2000)

Tropfen auf heiße Steine Poster 

 In the 70s Germany, a 50 year old businessman falls in love with a 20 year old boy.  

Two Years at Sea (Ben Rivers,2011)

Two Years at Sea Poster 

 After working at sea, a man realizes his dream of moving to the middle of the forest.  

A Talking Picture/Um Filme Falado (Manoel de Oliveira,2003)

Um Filme falado - Reise nach Bombay Poster 

 Lisbon, Marseilles, Naples, Athens, Istanbul, Cairo, Aden, and Bombay. Along with a university teacher and her little daughter, we embark on a long journey, experiencing different cultures and civilizations.  

Time to Leave/Le temps qui reste (François Ozon,2005)

Time to Leave Poster 

 A fashion photographer with terminal cancer elects to die alone, preparing others to live past him rather than prolong the inevitable with chemotherapy or be smothered in sympathy by those who know him.  

Saturday, November 26, 2016

The Brood (David Cronenberg,1979)

Die Brut Poster 

 A man tries to uncover an unconventional psychologist's therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, amidst a series of brutal murders.  

Un conte de Michel de Montaigne (Jean-Marie Straub,2013)

Un conte de Michel de Montaigne Poster 

Redemption (Miguel Gomes,2013)

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Le streghe, femmes entre elles (Jean-Marie Straub,2009)

https://img3.doubanio.com/lpic/s3727611.jpg 

Scanners (David Cronenberg,1981)

Scanners - Ihre Gedanken können töten Poster 

 A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.  

Schakale und Araber (Jean-Marie Straub,2011)

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/9xPy1dvoarXthmNyj6MDyP8hiSq.jpg 

The Red Turtle/La tortue rouge (Michael Dudok de Wit,2016)

The Red Turtle Poster 

 The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.  

La madre (Jean-Marie Straub,2012)


Inspired by a Cesar Pavese’s short story, this film has as its main question the relationship with the mother. After killing someone, Meleagros is killed by his own mother, from whom he had never disconnected.

L'inconsolable (Jean-Marie Straub,2011)

L'Inconsolable (programme de 4 courts-métrages) 

L'aquarium et la nation (Jean-Marie Straub,2015)

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A film in three parts: An aquarium, a man sitting at a table reading various text passages, and a sequence from Jean Renoir’s film LA MARSEILLAISE. This is all from a film by Jean-Marie Straub – about fate, the soul and the cosmos, about the evident nature in which man lives, just like in the aquarium surrounding him. And finally, there’s the nation as a symbol for the community of free people. A Straub film represents a gift that isn’t based on exchange, but rather the opposite of communication. And what could be more beautiful and liberating in life? ×

Man with No Name/Wu ming zhe (Wang Bing,2010)

 

Man with No Name is an intimate portrait of an anonymous man living in a deserted wasteland in an unnamed part of China. He lives in an underground cave, in a harsh and otherworldly landscape that seems to be entirely cut off from civilization.

The Intruder/L'intrus (Claire Denis,2004)

The Intruder Poster 

 Louis Trebor, a man nearing 70, lives alone with dogs in the forest near the French-Swiss border. He has heart problems, seeks a transplant, and then goes in search of a son sired years before in Tahiti. Told elliptically, with few words, we see Louis as possibly heartless, ignoring a son who lives nearby who is himself an attentive father to two young children, one named for Louis. He leaves his bed one night - and his lover - to kill an intruder; he dreams, usually of violence. Will his body accept his heart? Will his son accept his offer?  

Death in the Land of Encantos/Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga engkanto (Lav Diaz,2007)

Death in the Land of Encantos Poster 

 A Filipino poet named Benjamin Agusan (Roeder Camanag) is the hapless native who returns to his hometown Padang to witness the aftermath of the super typhoon. For the past seven years, Benjamin had been living in an old town called Kaluga in Russia. With his grant and residency, he taught and conducted workshops in a university. The poet published two books of sadness and longing in the process. In Russia, Benjamin was able to shoot video collages, fell in love with a Slavic beauty, buried a son, and almost went mad. He came back to bury his dead-father, mother, sister and a lover. He came back to face Mount Mayon, the raging beauty and muse of his youth. He came home to confront the country that he so loved and hated, the Philippines. He came back to die in the land of his birth. He wanders around the obliterated village meeting old friends and lovers.  

Melancholia (Lav Diaz,2008)

Melancholia Poster 

 Three people engage in a strange therapy to get away from their agonies.  

The Man Who Sleeps/Un homme qui dort (Bernard Queysanne,1974)

The Man Who Sleeps Poster 

 A 25-year-old male student in Paris becomes indifferent to the world around him, and subsequently feels a strong sense of alienation and hopelessness.  

Friday, November 25, 2016

The Arch/Dong fu ren (Shu-Hsuan T'ang,1968)

Dong fu ren Poster 

The Rest Is Silence/Restul e tacere (Nae Caranfil,2007)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ro/c/c9/Afi%C8%99_Restul_e_t%C4%83cere.jpg 

 In 1911-12, the Romanian movie director Grigore Brezianu and the financial tycoon Leon Popescu made together the 2 hours long movie "Romania's Independence" - an as faithful as possible screen adaptation of the real Independence War that had been fought in 1877. Now, "Restul e tacere" tells us, in a loose and half-fictionalized way, the story of this movie making.  

Too Late/Prea târziu (Lucian Pintilie,1996)

Too Late Poster 

The Lorry/Le camion (Marguerite Duras,1977)

The Lorry Poster 

In this most talky and personal of films, director Marguerite Duras and actor Gerard Depardieu do an on-camera read-through of a movie script. Occasionally, the director comments about the characters or their motivations, and sometimes the actor does. That's all -- there is no action, there are no location shots, no one pretends to be anything else. The script itself tells about an encounter between a blank-slate of a woman hitchhiker, and a communist truck driver. As the reading progresses, Duras comments bitterly about the failed ideals of communism and the glorious revolution that will probably never happen.

Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson,1997)

Event Horizon - Am Rande des Universums Poster 

  A rescue crew investigates a spaceship that disappeared into a black hole and has now returned...with someone or something new on-board.



The Oak/Balanta (Lucian Pintilie,1992)

Baum der Hoffnung Poster 

 A description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become as her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucarest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing of everything.  

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Two People/Två människor (Carl Theodor Dreyer,1945)

Två människor Poster 

 Set entirely in one room, an innocent young man is accused of plagiarising the work of an old professor. Later, he will be blamed for the professors murder.  

Faithless/Trolösa (Liv Ullmann,2000)

Die Treulosen Poster 

 An imaginary woman recollects the painful experience of adultery to a storyteller.  

The Naked Dawn (Edgar G. Ulmer,1955)

The Naked Dawn film poster.jpg 

 In Mexico, at the dawn of the automobile, modern bandit Santiago burglarizes train freight cars and falls in love with a poor farmer's wife.  

Thunderbolt (Josef von Sternberg,1929)

Thunderbolt Poster 

 A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl. Thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing his girl.  

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (F.W. Murnau,1931)

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas Poster 

 On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.  

Sarabande/Saraband (Ingmar Bergman,2003)

Sarabande Poster 

 Marianne, some thirty years after divorcing Johan, decides to visit her ex-husband at his summer home. She arrives in the middle of a family drama between Johan's son from another marriage and his granddaughter.  

Stone Wedding/Nunta de piatra (Dan Pita,Mircea Veroiu,1973)

Steinhochzeit Poster 

 Two bleak stories about absent love. In the first, a widow is working hard in a desperate attempt to save her dying daughter. The second tells the story of two wandering singers who kidnap a bride from her wedding.  

Prison/Fängelse (Ingmar Bergman,1949)

Prison Poster 

 A movie director is approached by his old math teacher with a great movie idea: the Devil declares that the Earth is hell. The director rejects the idea, but subsequent events in the life of a writer, a friend of the director's, and a young prostitute he loves seem to prove the math teacher's idea.  

The Emigrants/Utvandrarna (Jan Troell,1971)

The Emigrants Poster 

 In the middle of the 19th century, Kristina and Karl-Oskar live in a small rural village in Smaaland (southern Sweden). They get married and try to make a living on a small spot of land. However, the small size of their land, the infertile soil, and some bad harvests make it tough. One of their children even starves to death. Thus, they decide to emigrate to the U.S. They meet a group of farmers with their families planning the emigration under the leadership of a banned priest. They sell everything and embark for the U.S. The journey on the sailing ship is long and tedious. Some of the emigrants will never reach the New World.  

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors/Tini zabutykh predkiv (Sergei Parajanov,1965)

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors Poster 

 In a Carpathian village, Ivan falls in love with Marichka, the daughter of his father's killer. When tragedy befalls her, his grief lasts months; finally he rejoins the colorful life around him, marrying Palagna. She wants children but his mind stays on his lost love. To recapture his attention, Palagna tries sorcery, and in the process comes under the spell of the sorcerer, publicly humiliating Ivan, who then fights the sorcerer. The lively rhythms of village life, the work and the holidays, the pageant and revelry of weddings and funerals, the change of seasons, and nature's beauty give proportion to Ivan's tragedy.  

The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis,1960)

The Bellboy Poster 

 In Miami Beach, the mute bellboy Stanley works at the luxurious Fontainebleau Hotel. In spite of being a serviceable and friendly employee, the clumsy Stanley gets successively into trouble with his mistakes.  

Daisies/Sedmikrásky (Vera Chytilová,1966)

Daisies Poster 

 Two girls try to understand the meaning of the world and their life.  

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence/En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (Roy Andersson,2014)

Eine Taube sitzt auf einem Zweig und denkt über das Leben nach Poster 

 Sam and Jonathan, a pair of hapless novelty salesman, embark on a tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy that unfold in a series of absurdist episodes.