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- DirectorLech MajewskiStarsPiotr SkargaDaniel OlbrychskiAndrzej HudziakA tale of medieval quest for a golden harp called "the Knight".“… a haunting, austere parable that has been directed with assurance by Lech Majewski, whose flair for starkly poetic compositions often manages to outshine the elliptical quality of his material.”
(Janet Maslin, New York Times, 1983)
And still, “The Knight (Rycerz)” is criminally underseen, the subtitles unavailability being one of the main reasons. However, this surreal adventure – Majewski’s sophomore flick – can be enjoyed on a purely visual level.
Proving that a picture is worth a thousand words, it looks like some mysterious medieval tapestry brought to life. Accompanied by the brooding ambient music, the characters woven of mostly black, white and crimson threads move against the backdrop of deeply green forests, stone castle walls and sandy dunes and beaches.
Reminiscent of Sergei Parajanov’s masterpieces (to a certain degree), the film follows young knight on his quest for a legendary golden harp with healing powers. From a weird dance of the king’s courtiers to ritualistic orgies akin to an avant-garde performance, Majewski takes us on an arduous, yet enlightening journey that seems like a gloomy dream. - DirectorViktor KubalStarsJela LukesováThe notorious Hungarian Countess Erzsébet Báthory spent years in Čachtice Castle, so the Slovaks were (and are) quite familiar with the horrifying legends about her. Inspired by those tales, the Czechoslovakian director Viktor Kubal spun a nightmarish fairy tale about the most prolific female serial killer.
His pseudo-historical horror-dramedy “The Bloody Lady (Krvavá pani)” is completely dialogue-free, so it communicates via the minimalist imagery and the evocative score by Juraj Lexman. At the beginning, Erzsébet is the antithesis of a ruthless noblewoman – she loves and is loved back by men, plants and animals. However, after (literally) giving her heart to a young lumberjack, she loses control (and soul), whereas her maid’s accidental mistake sets the wheel of madness in motion.
Peppering the story with twisted humor that involves anachronistic jokes and Disney parody, inter alia, the author shifts part of the blame to the Countess’s (male) accomplice. The murders happen off-screen in most cases, but Kubal doesn’t shy away from depicting the “rejuvenating” blood bath.
A peculiar experiment which the experienced audience will appreciate. - DirectorSeijun SuzukiStarsYoshio HaradaNaoko ÔtaniKisako MakishiA surreal period film following an university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.Titled after Pablo de Sarasate’s composition for violin and orchestra, “Zigeunerweisen” brings the story about a suave professor of German, Toyojiro Aochi, his disheveled colleague, Nakasago, and their entanglement in (imaginary?) love triangles with three women, two of them being played by the same actress.
It sounds like the simplest of plots, but it most definitely is not, considering the bunch of enigmatic characters, voices coming out of nowhere, recordings of the aforementioned Spanish virtuoso’s mumblings, and a bizarre fetish best described by the line: “You caress me as if you were sucking my very bones.”
As the basis for this film (the first part of Taishō Roman Trilogy), Seijun Suzuki, famous for being fired from Nikkatsu Studios after finishing “Youth of the Beast”, takes Hyakken Uchida’s novel “Disk of Sarasate”. Together with his screenwriter Yōzō Tanaka, he raises a grandiose construction whose warped elements are welded with the irrational logic of feverish dreams.
From the intellectual angle, he addresses the assimilation of Western culture into Japan and creates a challenging puzzle rife with perplexing symbolism. - DirectorRalph BakshiStarsMews SmallRon ThompsonJerry HollandThe story of four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians whose careers parallel the history of American popular music in the 20th century.Along with “Fire and Ice”, “American Pop” is the pinnacle of Ralph Bakshi’s sophistication, both direction and aesthetic-wise. Simultaneously, it recounts the tale of four generations of immigrant family of musicians and the development of American popular music from the 1900s to the 1980s, while touching upon the social issues and changes.
Anti-Jewish pogroms, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, burlesque and mafia, the world wars, the Kent State shootings, the beatniks’ philosophy, drug abuse and Jimi Hendrix’s performance all find their place in the simple narrative that pulses with irony, black humor and poignancy.
The emergence of certain genres and famous songs is credited to fictitious characters – doubles of celebrities such as Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac. Ever ready to experiment and true to his gritty style, Bakshi utilizes a rotoscoping technique, archive footage, sketchy passages, as well as mind-blowing psychedelia. - DirectorDjordje KadijevicStarsAleksandar BercekMiodrag 'Miki' KrstovicVesna MileticAfter being ridiculed by his surrounding, a man who makes the wooden sculptures leaves the village with his best man to live high up in the mountain and devote to his hobby.Treated with disrespect by fellow villagers, a talented cooper Aleksa is unable to devote himself to the art of xylography. Many unfinished orders bring him into difficult financial situation and force him to move out of the leased workshop. After his sculptures (previously left in snow to rot) are burned by a vengeful brawler, he leaves for the woods (of Brueghelian beauty) to mold the largest trunk into his magnum opus… at any costs.
Metaphorizing an artist’s struggle in the reactionary society (and personifying his muse as a mute girl), Đorđe Kadijević depicts with chilling precision the Serbian mentality at its best and at its worst – not only through Aleksa’s surroundings, but through his capricious character as well. More than three decades later, his film hasn’t lost its relevance, given that the creative people are still marginalized, ridiculed and even threatened by the ignorant in power.
Notwithstanding its made-for-TV production values, “A Man Who Ate a Wolf (Čovek koji je pojeo vuka)” is neatly shot, superbly acted, tightly written and strongly directed piece of cinema. - DirectorJoão César MonteiroStarsMaria de MedeirosTeresa MadrugaLuís Miguel CintraThe daughters of a nobleman give shelter to a stranger. After that visit ends with a severed hand, the pilgrim takes on different identities to seek revenge. The nobleman goes missing and his youngest has to pose as a knight to save him.A lovely and gentle nobleman’s daughter, Sílvia (brilliant debut by then 17-yo Maria de Medeiros, later of “Pulp Fiction” fame), is supposed to marry a boorish landowner. Shortly before the wedding, her father goes to visit the king, instructing her not to let anyone in the house. However, she ignores his orders and opens the door to a mysterious stranger – at that point, the story takes a dark turn.
Drawing inspiration from the medieval traditions of his country and resorting to various stylistic “gimmicks”, Monteiro delivers an unorthodox, fairy tale-ish drama of fragmented narrative and outstanding aesthetics. Coded in its own logic, his vivid “picture-book” really does look “the way an illiterate shepherd who’s never seen a movie might visualize a storyteller’s campfire tale”, in the words of Nick Pinkerton of The Village Voice.
“Perverse poet” of the Portuguese cinema, as Monteiro is frequently called, helms with a deft hand and ironic attitude, with the crew in Bressonian mood and action scenes “hidden” in freeze-frames. - DirectorPiotr KamlerStarsMichael LonsdaleWeary immortals inhabit a metropolis in the sky and amuse themselves with constructions as they kill time and await whatever comes next.“Chronopolis” is truly a “rad stuff”, as one of the IMDb users puts it. This unique, philosophically inclined stop-motion SF-phantasmagoria may be the shortest (and the most cryptic) entry on the list, but it is fascinating all the way through.
Following a short introductory epigraph is an abstract “story” told in inarticulate sounds and images of mythical, otherworldly qualities. Whether you understand that “language” or not is completely irrelevant – the immersive, meditative experience is what counts.
Draped in the color of sand, “Chronopolis” is an introspective, thinking man’s film asking many existential and metaphysical questions, but leaving the answers and interpretations to the viewers. Intriguing in its persistent silence, it seems like an enlightening vision of the past, the present and the future colliding in the fateful encounter of refined demigod creators and a man searching for the ultimate truth. - DirectorRené LalouxStarsJean ValmontMichel EliasFrédéric LegrosPiel, a 7 or 8 year old boy, is alone on the desert planet Perdide, only survivor of an attack by giant hornets. Calling for help, Piel's father's friend Jaffar keeps contact with the kid and hurries across space toward Perdide.This may sound very corny, but they really don’t make them like they used to. Laloux (1929-2004) has directed only three feature films and yet, each one of them is extraordinary in its own right.
His sophomore effort opens with the cool synth theme and takes us into the distant future, on the planet Perdide (whose name sounds pretty much like the Spanish word for ‘lost’ and not without a good reason). A vehicle crash renders a little boy alone with a “mike” – a transceiver through which he keeps contact with his father’s pilot friend Jaffar who is his only hope for salvation.
Based on Stefan Wul’s novel “The Orphan of Perdide”, “Time Masters (Les maîtres du temps)” is an outré adventure across the vast universe, ending with an unpredictable and paradoxical twist. Wildly imaginative, it brings to life Mœbius’s wonderful designs, including bizarre creatures, mystifying alien vistas, singing water-lilies, retro-futuristic architecture and Arzach’s cameo. More importantly, it subtly conveys all the right messages, stimulating both mind and heart. - DirectorJean-Jacques BeineixStarsGérard DepardieuNastassja KinskiVictoria AbrilHe is a revenge-obssessed stevedore whose sister was brutally raped and murdered. She is a wealthy, elusive woman. They try hard to get together... or do they?A young, burly, revenge-obsessed stevedore, Gérard (Gérard Depardieu), persistently searches for the rapist of his sister who committed suicide with his own razor, after the attack. On a night of the full Moon, he encounters a wealthy, gorgeous, enigmatic woman, Loretta (Nastassja Kinski), whose alcoholic brother may be one of the suspects. As if blinded by the billboard message “Try Another World”, the two of them get involved into an unlikely relationship.
Relying upon Kinski’s and Depardieu’s physical presence and their magnetic performances, as well as on phenomenal studio sets with exquisite tenebristic lighting, Beineix creates the film of sensual, almost tangible atmosphere occasionally reminiscent of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s works.
Part romantic melodrama and part neo(n)-noir mystery, “The Moon in the Gutter (La lune dans le caniveau)” gets progressively weirder, unfolding in a dreamlike fashion, as the unspecified time and place intensify the feeling of otherness. It is a surreal, visually lavish tour de force whose leisurely pace is in perfect sync with the protagonist’s morose, melancholic mood. - DirectorClive A. SmithStarsDon FrancksPaul Le MatGreg SalataA malevolent rock star kidnaps a singer to force her to participate in the summoning of a demon, and her band must help her stop him.In a future far away, on the war-torn Earth, the humans are replaced by anthropomorphic rats, cats and dogs who has built a new world that looks like it’s stuck in the 80s. As a fresh band of four tries to break through, a “superrocker” (and Mick Jagger look-alike), Mok, begins a X-factor search for a distinctive voice in order to summon the Devil…
Simple in plot and archetypal in characterization, “Rock & Rule” applies the rule of cool and charms you with its spunky and cheeky attitude. Originally intended for the youngest audience, it eventually got the features that aren’t quite kid-friendly – drug abuse, Club 666, a bit of nudity and gelatinous monsters, to name a few.
Its astonishing imagery which looks like a cross between a Disney musical and “Heavy Metal” or some “dirty” Bakshi’s fantasy is accompanied by an excellent soundtrack populated by the likes of Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry (of Blondie). If you’re fond of post-apocalyptic movies and/or classic animation, you will probably love this oft-forgotten gem. - DirectorNacer KhemirStarsNacer KhemirSoufiane MakniNoureddine KasbaouiA teacher is assigned to a remote desert village that is obsessed with a mysterious buried treasure and whose children are cursed to wander the desert.A fiction debut for the Tunisian writer and director Nacer Khemir is a spellbinding fantasy rich with arcane symbolism and baffling action. Beginning with the arrival of a young teacher to a remote, ostensibly abandoned desert village and ending with a mischievous boy falling asleep, it feels like an exotic dream one might have after reading Scheherazade’s stories.
Its title (originally, El-haimoune) refers to an ever growing group of cursed men who leave their families to roam in the wasteland, never to return. Their older relatives keep many secrets from the newcomer (attracted to sheikh’s beautiful and mysterious daughter), whereby the children play an odd game of growing a garden of broken mirrors.
In the picturesque ramshackle surroundings accentuated by vibrant colors and patterns of traditional costumes and interior decor, Khemir spins a hypnotic, non sequitur narrative which blends folklore and ancient legends. Inscrutable and compelling in equal measure, his elusive offering seems like a part of Parajanov’s poetic universe or Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life”. - DirectorShûji TerayamaStarsTsutomu YamazakiMayumi OgawaYoshio HaradaA surreal, isolated village sees its inhabitants gradually leave behind their mutual traditions and superstitions as they leave for the city. Among them are two cousins who love each other and who get into a quarrel with other villagers.“People are born half dead, it takes them a whole life to die completely.”
Loosely based on Gabriel García Márquez’s acclaimed novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Farewell to the Ark (Saraba hakobune)” is the cult director Shūji Terayama’s testament film. As in other works by the Japanese provocateur, the storytelling tends to be pretty obscure, but its very inconspicuousness, along with the technical creativity, is what makes this romantic mystery-drama so inviting.
With his trademark filtered cinematography (featuring many brightly colored details in almost every frame), DP Tatsuo Suzuki gives an unearthly quality to already strange proceedings which involve an incestuous couple and their regressive village of eccentric inhabitants. And J.A. Seazer adds another layer of surreality through his experimental music.
Mainstream audience will probably be bewildered by some stylistic “excesses” and subplots, such as the one with the boy who falls into an ever-growing hole (leading to the Netherworld), only to come out grown-up and become a serial widow-pleaser. There’s also a certain dose of Zulawski-esque madness that will test the impatient, as the themes of sex, guilt, loss, time, superstition and the clash between modern and traditional are contemplated. - DirectorShûichi HirokawaYoshiaki KawajiriStarsToshio FurukawaMami KoyamaChikao ÔtsukaA farmboy stumbles upon the Lens, an artifact which grants him fantastic powers and contains vital information that may allow the Galactic Fleet to defeat the evil Boskone Empire.Inspired by the original “Star Wars” trilogy and by Edward Elmer Smith’s character of the same name, “Lensman (SF Shin Seiki Lensman, lit. Lensman: Secret of the Lens)” is one of the dustiest showpieces in the museum of forgotten anime. Available (unfortunately) only in non-Japanese dubs, this wonderfully cheesy space opera deserves a better status.
Being a condensed version of TV series “Galactic Patrol Lensman”, it does have some noticeable narrative jumps, yet the authors barely allow you to breathe between non-stop chases, explosions, fights and rescue missions.
Focusing on the never-ending clash of good (a pilot hero, Kimball Kinnison) vs. evil (a despotic archvillain, Lord Helmuth), Hirokawa and his more famous colleague Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D) take you on the 25th century intergalactic adventure of epic proportions.
The superb visuals, then novel combination of traditional and computer animation, set “Lensman” apart from the similar anime of the time. Madhouse Inc. team does its best to fascinate and entertain you with their designs, whether it’s high-tech gadgetry or human brain-like spacecrafts. - DirectorSteven HahnStarsJoe ColliganCarmen ArgenzianoNoelle NorthSet on the subterranean Mine-World, a band of human worker are treated like slaves under the power of the evil overlord Zygon until one, Orin, unearths the hilt of a mythical sword that only he can master. Escaping the planet, he runs into the rogue smuggler Dagg and a pair of helpful droids and the princess, who all team up to return to the Mine-World with a plan to defeat Zygon and free Orin's enslaved people.Yet another example of the 80s camp glory, “Starchaser” is set in the dystopian Mine-World where humans are subjected to the evil overlord (and Mola Ram’s animated counterpart) Zygon. After one of the young miners, Orin, discovers a mythical sword and teams up with the princess Aviana, the smuggler Dagg and a couple of droids, the battle for freedom begins.
As you’ve probably noticed just by reading the synopsis, this film borrows plenty of elements from other sci-fi and fantasy works, but it comes in a package that is so pretty and amusing, you probably (most certainly, if you’re nostalgic for the era) won’t be able to resist it.
Regardless of the cliché trappings and easily predictable epilogue, there’s a lot to enjoy in Orin & Co. trials and tribulations, from top-notch old-school artwork, through synth tracks and exuberant orchestrations, and all the way to the likable protagonists, such as the seductive fembot Silica. - DirectorAttila DargayStarsAndrás KernJudit PogányHilda GobbiIn the turmoilous 18th century, young poor Hungarian aristocrat Jonas helps Szaffi, a young pretty gypsy Romani girl and the illegitimate daughter of a Turkish pasha, get the treasure that's owed to her by the right of inheritance.If Walt Disney had been Hungarian admirer of Albert Uderzo of “Asterix” fame, his animated films would have looked like “The Treasure of Swamp Castle (originally, Szaffi)” – a loose adaptation of Mór Jókai’s novel “The Gypsy Baron”.
Set in the 17th century, it revolves around the search for the buried treasure of Ahmed Pasha and the romance of his lost daughter Szaffi and Jónás Botsinkay, an impoverished aristocrat who returns home from exile.
Wittily, skillfully and dynamically told by Attila Dargay, this pseudo-historical fairy tale (or rather, a social satire in a clever disguise) is filled with lively (and chatty) characters – kudos to exquisite voice actors. They all have an important part in creating a jovial atmosphere, alongside the music by Johann Strauss II (whose operetta is also based on Jókai’s book) and lush animation which opens the door to the magical world. - DirectorKonstantin LopushanskiyStarsRolan BykovIosif RyklinViktor MikhaylovIn the aftermath of nuclear holocaust, a group of intellectuals crave to find hope in the pale and colorless new world. Among them, a history teacher tries to contact via letters his missing son.“Dead Man’s Letters (Pisma myortvogo cheloveka)” focus on a group of people in the basement of a dilapidated museum who try to survive the aftermath of nuclear catastrophe caused by a human and a computer error. All the while, one of them, a Nobel-laureate scientist, “writes” the letters that will never be read, as they’re addressed to his dead son.
A poetic SF-story is shrouded in deep melancholy – hope and faith are in the throes of death. Grim, leaden and pessimistic, Lopushansky’s post-apocalyptic drama is shot in dreary, Tarkovskian sepia-tones, with a few grayish scenes serving as a bitter “refreshment”. Gorgeous in its desolation, the imagery of despair, such as the “mountains” of tattered books in a flooded library, reflects the Ultimate End.
Immaculately directed, expressively acted and poignantly written, particularly when it comes to the protagonist’s “mind letters”, the film is imbued with symbolism the old-school Russian cinema is known for. - DirectorWerner SchroeterStarsMagdalena MontezumaMostefa DjadjamAntonio OrlandoA mentally unstable woman and her son move to a sprawling mansion in Portugal to grow roses.A darkly romantic melodrama “The Rose King (Der Rosenkönig)” is Werner Schroeter’s last goodbye to his muse, Magdalena Montezuma, who died shortly after the shooting ended. In her last role, she portrays a mentally unstable widow, Anna, who moves to a coastal town in Portugal to grow roses together with her adult son Albert (Mostefa Djadjam).
Their already tense relationship cracks soon after the arrival of a young servant, Alberto (Antonio Orlando, one of the scapegoats from “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom”), whom Albert kidnaps, glorifies and eventually deifies.
Schroeter uses a simple plot as an excuse for the series of pompous, dreamlike vignettes in which Baroque art meets Poe’s verses. As the lyrical dialogue intertwines with religious and homoerotic iconography, the soundscapes are formed by fado, opera and Arabian traditional music.
The portrait of mother’s overprotective love and her boy’s rituals of passion is enriched with oft-cryptic symbols and the signs of inexorable decay which Montezuma boldly defies. Her lisping and piercing gaze are hard to resist as much as the striking aesthetics of her heroine’s kingdom of roses inhabited by the ghosts of longing. - DirectorKaizô HayashiStarsMoe KamuraShirô SanoKoji OtakeAn aging silent film actress hires a private eye and his wacky but helpful assistant to track down her missing daughter, Bellflower. The two follow a succession of bizarre, obscure clues, until they track down the location of the kidnappers and the daughter.In his feature-length debut, Kaizō Hayashi pays a loving tribute to the silent films and to Japanese narrators called Benshi who once provided live narration during the screenings. “To Sleep So as to Dream (Yumemiru yōni nemuritai)” is not entirely voiceless, but it is fascinating.
Starting as a detective mystery spiced with a pinch of humor and turning into a meta-fantasy with a touching finale, it is like a missing link between “Sunset Boulevard” and “Millennium Actress”; a meditation on loss, memories, identity, the nature of cinema and the transience of time.
The basic plot involves a private eye, Uotsuka (whose favorite food are hard-boiled eggs) and his whacky, yet skillful assistant, Kobayashi, trying to track down an aging actress’s missing daughter. However, the things are not at all what they seem to be (as the obscure clues suggest) and the girl, Kyoko, is actually a personified metaphor which can be interpreted in at least three different ways.
As we try to solve her riddle, reality, illusions and dreams collide in stark B&W. - DirectorHisayuki ToriumiStarsHiroyuki OkitaMasako KatsukiOsamu SakaThe expendable crew of a corporate space vessel must stop a murderous shape-shifting alien organism that somehow got on board.The second and last piece of Japanese gorgonzola on the list is one of more competent “Alien” imitators from the 80s, considering its direct-to-video production values and economic running time of less than 70 minutes.
“Lily C.A.T.” is the brainchild of Toriumi and his screenwriter Hiroyuki Hoshiyama who dare to borrow some elements from another horror milestone (The Thing), only to incorporate a fresh concept of “time-jumpers” and add a distinctively Japanese flavor to the rip-off proceedings.
Modernizing the myth of bakeneko (a cat demon), the aforementioned duo takes us on a space trip that doesn’t go quite as planned. During the 20-year-long period of cryogenic hibernation, the crew and the passengers are joined by a mysterious alien bacteria. When they awaken, the “stowaway” goes into a predator mode…
… and it’s really terrifying once it absorbs the throwaway characters and starts destroying the ship. The famous illustrator Yoshitaka Amano does a great job at freaking you out with the monster, while his colleague (and then a rookie) Yasuomi Umetsu, provides a distinct design for the racially diverse cast. The artwork for dread-inducing backgrounds is commendable as well. - DirectorGoran MarkovicStarsMustafa NadarevicAnica DobraMilorad Mandic-MandaPiano teacher is deeply traumatised by the events of his childhood, as well as by political oppression in his youth. Decades later, all those traumas lead to carnage.An introvert piano teacher, Mihailo (Mustafa Nadarević’s unforgettable performance), works in an educational center for adults and leads a solitary life. But, his humdrum existence changes forever with the arrival of a young, capricious modeling instructor, Olgica (Anica Dobra, excellent), at his collective. The two of them start an awkward relationship which opens Mihailo’s old wounds and leads to bloodshed…
As its clever title suggests, “Déjà Vu (Već viđeno)” doesn’t bring anything novel in the terms of the deeply-traumatized-child-becomes-psychopath plot, yet it remains fresh to this day, considering the social circumstances in Yugoslavia of the time and in Serbia now. The film covers a few decades without ever feeling convoluted, seamlessly merging a thoughtful character study, deliberately paced psychological horror-drama and the metaphor of a crumbling country.
In addition to being expertly acted, knowingly directed and meticulous in its attention to details, it features the eerie score and elaborate cinematography which establish the unnerving atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife. Undeniably, it is not only one of Marković’s best, but one of the most exemplary works of ex-YU cinema. - DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsAleksei AnanishnovEskender UmarovIrina SokolovaDays of Eclipse is filmed in a psychedelic manner close to stream of consciousness using unusual cinematographic techniques. The action is set in Middle Asia.Cryptic and genre-defying, “Days of Eclipse (Dni zatmeniya)” centers on Dmitry Malyanov – a young and ambitious doctor stationed in a remote Turkmen village. His attempts at research are thwarted by the series of bizarre events which could be caused by some invisible higher force or heat-induced hallucinations.
With the looks of a blonde mannequin, Aleksei Ananishnov (who will later appear in Sokurov’s oneiric drama “Mother and Son”), is perfectly suited for the role of a newcomer whose ideas and principles are conflicted with the locals’ primitive customs. Socially limited to his dispirited sister, paranoid friend and suicidal erudite neighbor, Dmitry falls into a state of existential disorientation.
Elusive narrative threads are intertwined into a dead-end nightmare, as the misty soundscapes and bleak cinematography dominated by sepia-tones establish a heavy atmosphere of despair, inanity, alienation and numbness (of spirit and society).
Like a designer of dreams, Sokurov depicts reality from a distorted angle and delivers a layered work of brutal, yet hypnotic beauty. - DirectorToshio MatsumotoStarsYôji MatsudaShijaku KatsuraHideo MurotaA young man kills his bride on the day of his marriage and goes insane. He wakes up in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity.“O fetus, why do you undulate? Is it the knowing of your mother’s heart that fills you with dread?”
Based on the novel of the same name by Yumeno Kyūsaku (known for an avant-garde approach to writing), “Dogra Magra” is Matsumoto’s third and, unfortunately for the surrealism aficionados, last feature. It is an impenetrable psychological mystery created around a young, amnesiac man, Ichiro Kure, who might have killed his mother and fiancé and who is left at the mercy of two eccentric, possibly crazy doctors, Masaki and Wakabayashi.
According to the latter shrink, the title refers to “a chant used by a secret Christian sect in Nagasaki”, but that seems to be just one of many red herrings in the film that plays like a dizzying nightmare (maybe, of an unborn child?). It’s easy to get lost in the knotty narrative labyrinth where it’s impossible to tell what is reality and what is a schizophrenic hallucination.
Told from the perspective of a fractured mind, “Dogra Magra (or Dogura Magura, as the Japanese pronounce it)” mesmerizes you with cacophonous music and poisonously greenish images (Tatsuo Suzuki, brilliant as ever), as it pulls you deeper into the whirlpool of madness. - DirectorAgustí VillarongaStarsMaribel MartínLisa GerrardEnrique SaldanaAdopted by a treacherous semi-scientific cult where extraordinary mental powers are common, extraordinary 12-year-old David begins an archetypal journey across two continents to find his destiny as Child of the Moon.“Nothing existed yet, but his heart had opened to receive a solitary moonbeam which then fell on the mother’s lap.”
David, a cherub-faced orphaned boy, firmly believes that he is a titular hero from an African tribe’s prophecy. When he gets adopted by a Nazi-like, semi-occult and pseudo-scientific organization, he learns that the legendary child is yet to be born. A strange thought (of a second birth) comes to his mind and triggers an escape and a journey to Africa…
Fans of Dead Can Dance are certainly already aware of this peculiar film, since the band provides the haunting (and unobtrusive) score, whereby the singer, Lisa Gerrard, plays a big part in the story – ambiguous and magical in equal measure.
Visually inspired, occasionally geometrical in frame composition (especially during the first half), “Moon Child (El niño de la luna)” blends childlike fancy and esoteric concepts into a mildly sinister and mystical fantasy, as viewed through the prism of autism.
Intimate, mystical, blue as David’s eyes and unapologetically hermetic, it depicts the lengths one will go to achieve their dream. - DirectorPere PortabellaStarsCarme EliasFrancisco GuijarJordi DauderA female professor, a writer, and an orchestra conductor -three characters, two couples- attend a grand literary cocktail party. The writer has just won the prize for his book "Warsaw Bridge". The winner answers the journalist's questions one after another, but he is unable to come up with a synthesis of the plot of his book. They will simply have to read it.“I write to be read, and I can continue writing because I am read.” – says the author of the fictive, award-winning and probably unfilmable novel “Warsaw Bridge (Pont de Varsòvia)” that might be the basis for Portabella’s highly experimental narrative.
However, the surreal “story” is not about this book, nor it is about solving the mystery of a scuba diver (the writer’s friend) found dead in a burnt forest (although a darkly comical answer to how he ended up there is the epitome of a wonderfully deadpan, intentionally anticlimactic epilogue).
The film is a witty, intellectual ode to literature, sculpture, architecture and (dying?) nature, as well as an enigmatic exploration of creative process in the series of neatly organized sequences bridged by a few musical interludes of weird juxtapositions.
In a non-linear, stream-of-thoughts fashion, Portabella makes digressions that are amusing in their high-brow seriousness and simultaneously puzzling and rewarding, such as the dead fish married to an aria-lip-syncing couple or an orchestra who performs from the balconies above the busy street, with a video-monitored conductor standing on a high platform. - DirectorFrantisek VlácilStarsJirí SchwarzVeronika ZilkováMarta VancurováA poet find inspiration in nature and solitude.A melancholic swan song by František Vláčil (Marketa Lazarová) is dedicated to the early deceased Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha (1810-1836) who achieved fame only after his death.
Several chronologically scattered episodes from Karel’s youth are interconnected by his foreboding visions and gloomy passages from his epic poem “May” (in the original transcription, Mág) recited by the veteran Rudolf Hrusínský (Kopfrkingl from J. Herz’s darkly humorous drama “Cremator”).
This idiosyncratic biopic of autumnal atmosphere is primarily focused on a turbulent, jealousy filled romance with Eleonora (Lori) Somková, as well as on the animosity towards Josef Kajetán Tyl, a dramatist who frequently criticized Mácha’s style for being chaotic and confusing.
It provides the poet’s lyrical portrait rendered with assured strokes, especially in the scenes which depict him as a solitary man enamored with nature. In the starring role, Jirí Schwarz shows deep understanding of his complex, somewhat contradictory character.