Cinema of the World

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More sombre, controlled and abstract than Bene's earlier work, this is a baroque, ironic and claustrophobic avant-garde 'restatement' of the opera's incest episode. Accompanied by Mozart's score, this compulsive, cubist fragmentation of conventional plot in favour of a more profound exploration also utilizes complex, subtle montage, varying from minimal cinema to a sustained staccato rhythm. Bene is reconfirmed as one of the true iconoclastic talents of contemporary cinema.

Synopsis
Ni Vu, Ni Connu (Neither Seen Nor Recognized) is built around the talents of rubber-faced Gallic comedian Louis De Funes. Our hero is a poacher in a small provincial village, who always manages to stay one step ahead of the Law. Through a fluke, De Funes finds himself the town's Leading Citizen when he is falsely arrested on another charge, forcing the village elders to bend over backwards making amends.

Blaireau, un braconnier très adroit, ravitaille tout le pays en gibier. Un soir, son ennemi de toujours, le garde champêtre Parju, se fait rosser. Ce dernier, persuadé, à tort, d'être la victime de Blaireau, le fait arrêter. Néanmoins, grâce à un directeur de prison compréhensif et aux attentions de la belle Arabella, son séjour en cellule ne sera pas trop rude. D'autant plus que « l'erreur judiciaire » sera découverte, Parju ridiculisé et le retour de Blaireau au village sera triomphal.

From IMDB
This original sexual comedy by the director Joël Séria, who also made the popular TV-series "Nestor Burma", is full of unexpected situations between a man and women. A salesman of umbrellas, Henri Serin (a magnificent Jean-Pierre Marielle), is having sex with all the women of which he paints a portrait and which he encounters during his travels. While one is cooking in her kitchen, he is painting. Once he is invited but immediately expelled when he wants to unfold her traditional ribbon. Henri Serin falls for a very young woman which he can seduce while making a portrait of her. His only friend is a modernist priest (Romain Bouteille) who likes to talk with him in the local bar. Henri Serin does not think of tomorrow and lives "la vie d'artiste". Life is beautiful and sex is life.

Synopsis:

'The life of an ordinary factory worker Marcel is completely transformed when he manages to acquire an expensive new American car, a Cadillac convertible, for the price of a second-hand motorcycle. His apparent initial stroke of good fortune is swiftly followed by a run of bad luck, as he loses his job and then endures the revenge of the car’s previous owner. Fortunately, his friends are on hand to help him out, seduced by the glamour of his American car…'
- Films de France

Brief synopsis:
When people from all walks of life are invited to a special screening in an isolated movie theatre they are soon involved in a real life horror movie. In an orgy of bloodshed, violence and madness no one can escape their walled in nightmare. Stylish, gory, bleakly funny and reminiscent of George A. Romero's films, Demoni is a hugely entertaining horror movie.

Plot:
The internationally produced Zorro is set in South America instead of the California locales of the series.
Alain Delon stars as the newly appointed governor who immediately butts heads with corrupt Colonel Huerta. To rescue the peasants from Huerta's despotry, the governor becomes the caped-and-masked do-gooder Zorro.
The film never really takes itself seriously, not even during the final, well-staged duel between Zorro and Huerta. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

What do the films Casablanca, Blazing Saddles, and West Side Story have in common? Besides being popular, they have also been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," by the Library of Congress and listed on the National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures.

For more than two decades, since the passage of the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the Librarian of Congress [sic]--with input from the public and advice from the National Film Preservation Board--has selected 25 films every year to add to the Registry. The current list of 550 films includes selections from every genre: documentaries, home movies, Hollywood classics, avant-garde, newsreels, and silent films; and these movies tell us much about ourselves and the American experience--shining light on not just what we did, but what we thought, what we felt, what we imagined, what we aspired to...and the lies we told ourselves.

In 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann's circle of friends in the 30's, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and “make a name” for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story. As both women arrive in Kabul, the Second World War breaks out and puts an end to their plans.
Une Suisse rebelle, Annemarie Schwarzenbach 1908-1942

"Ruth Stoops is a poor indigent drug-user (a huffer - inhaling glue and paint for a high) whose down and out existence is complicated once more by becoming pregnant (she has had and lost four children already). When a judge orders that she gets an abortion or face a felony charge, she is befriended by Gail Stoney, a pro-lifer whose husband is president of the local 'Babysavers' group. Suddenly Ruth is thrust into the middle of the pro-choice/pro-life struggle, with each side wanting her to take their side as a 'message' to others - and the situation escalates..."

A model marries a struggling engineer; but he won't let her keep her job, and they can't pay the bills, while she is wooed by a wealthy drinker.

Michael Martin (Gene Raymond) tells Paul Dodson (Ned Sparks) he knows of a better job, and they get fired. Michael asks modeling Carolyn (Barbara Stanwyck) to marry, but she wants to keep her job. After work they go dancing. Michael now earns $35 a week; but Carolyn makes $50. They get married during his lunch hour. Carolyn cries and quarrels with Michael. He hits an officer and is put in jail. In court the drunk Hugh McKenzie (Robert Young) is fined and meets Carolyn. She pleads for Michael, and he gets 30 days or $50. Hugh loans them the money. Michael's electricity is off. Hugh is paid and reluctantly leaves. Michael carries Carolyn in.

From the AFI Catalog:

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The working title of this film was Marry the Girl. MPH's "In the Cutting Room" adds Sidney Jarvis to the cast, and HR production charts add Eric Blore, Rose Coghlan, Lloyd Ingraham and Jack Adair to the cast. Eric Blore's participation in the final film is doubtful, while the participation of the others has not been confirmed. RKO borrowed Robert Young from M-G-M for the film. The Bride Walks Out was Edward Small's first production for RKO. Small was formerly the production head of Reliance Pictures.

Christina is a good looking 23 year-old girl from a working-class family. She works as a sales assistant in a classy hand-bag emporium, and belongs to what the Greeks call “the 700 euros generation” – the young people who work for the minimum wage and live with their parents, because they can’t afford to move out. But Christina has enough of that. She decides to rent a place of her own where she can find herself away from her mother’s watchful gaze. Overstretching herself financially, she moves into a 45m2 flat: the rent’s a bargain because the area’s full of foreigners. A foreigner in their midst, she takes her first steps towards freedom.

Plot / Synopsis

Two close friends, Aris and Stelios, have their minds on a mutual goal; they "immigrate" to the south of Greece and together they begin a banana greenhouse business in Crete. There they live secluded in a house by the countryside, with a magnificent view of the Libyan Sea having as their sole amusement Angeliki's nearby tavern. This is a place where mostly foreign tourists arrive; drown like magnets by the magic of the unknown, red African horizon. Determined to keep women out of their lives, they, and mostly Aris, are unfriendly towards the newly arrived Cordoba, a friend of Aris' sister who lives and works in Germany. Stelios, after going on a casual stroll with her in the island's market, will end up going to bed with her. In a mood of recklessness that "suits" summer affairs. But this "one night stand" will develop into a relationship and lead to Cordoba moving in the house the two friends share. Feeling antagonistic, mostly towards Stelios, Aris finds himself flirting with Cordoba. In his own way, being quite the opposite of Stelios's, he fascinates her and finally wins her erotic interest as Cordoba finds in each one of them elements she is looking for in a man's personality.

The Bonnie & Clyde story is re-told from a contemporary viewpoint. Clyde in this movie is a high school nerd working in the local burger joint. Urges to steal things are inflamed when he runs into Bonnie, the bored daughter of the local police commissioner, who is running with a street gang led by Kirk. Clyde immediately senses a kindred spirit in Bonnie. Initially she ignores him, but he rescues her from a shop-lifting charge and offers her a ride in a stolen van. Soon the two have taken guns from her father's home and go off on a bloody crime spree... Written by John S.

Via Lutherb:

"A documentary showing Uganda in the 1970s to 1980s through the relationship between John Akii-Bua, the first African athlete to win a gold olympic medal in an event under 1000 metres, and Idi Amin, the cruel dictator of Uganda in the 1970s. It's an exciting documentary for those who are interested in the 20th century history of Africa, with a lot of new information and insights."

The film follows Ben, who is traveling from Israel to New York to marry his girlfriend but misses his connection in Prague. There he meets Emma, an attractive free spirited girl. During the next 24 hours a friendship develops between the two and they find themselves reconsidering their original travel plans and re-evaluating their lives and relationships.

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Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin

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Take a look inside the poetic and haunting world of a 10-year-old girl who is left home alone during the holidays and discovers the space between the world of adults and the world of children.

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Officially in the care of an ill-disciplined aunt who has other matters on her mind, the girl finds herself free to wander the leafy neighbourhood and explore both adult and childhood worlds around her. We watch through her curious eyes as she takes in the self-indulgent and debauched behaviours of the grown ups and the precocious antics of the neighbourhood kids. Director Frederick Edfeldt combines an outstanding performance from the waif-like Blanca Engstrom with a dialogue sparse script and powerful visual storytelling to examine the space between innocence and responsibility.

The bond of friendship between a worldly-wise Army Master Sergeant and his naive worshiper.

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In Liliana Cavani’s scintillating drama, a concentration camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling) discovers her ex-torturer/lover (Dirk Bogarde) working as a night porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them. Operatic and disturbing, The Night Porter deftly examines the cruelty and decadence of Nazi culture.

Alex takes on a poignant journey that examines his relationships with lover, brother and mother on his way to an emotional reconciliation with his father. Alex's take on life is surprisingly crystal clear for a man who has lived life to the full. It is only in the moment of death that one can truly grasp the meaning of life. ~imdb

DVD extra = 43 minute Q&A with Werner Herzog at the UK premiere in Brixton, in march 2011.

Three guys are living in a Dagestan aul, and all three are in love with the blue-eyed Serminaz. According to a mountaineers’ tradition, a young man seeking the hand and the heart of a beloved girl has to make her a present that she would remember for the rest of her life. The friends set out in search of the special gift…

This comedy chronicles the experiences of Juliette, a young woman who undergoes a deep exploration of her sexuality as she is given a series of special lessons in sex and philosophy by the extremely decadent Dolman. During the course of an evening Dolman helps demolish Juliette's conservative ideology and replaces it with his own libertine perspectives. Juliette becomes an enthusiastic convert in this bicentennial production of the Marquis de Sade's classic book. ~ WorldCat

Plot summary from M-Line Distribution:

Eighteen year-old Tae-hoon and Mi-jung have been going out for 100 days. During winter break they decide to take a trip to the beach to celebrate their anniversary. When they are back home after a few days, they have to confront a harsh situation – Mi-jung’s parents don’t allow them to see each other until they become college students.

Tae-hoon struggles to keep their love and wanders around Mi-jung but she is eventually changed and avoids him as her parents wish. Winter turns to spring, and Tae-hoon and Mi-jung both turn nineteen.

Portrait of an artist as a young manic. First, a montage of still photographs of an artist's face. Then motion. He stirs in sleep; he paints and expresses frustration. He looks for a light for his cigarette. He sketches, wads it up; makes tea; stares at his face in a mirror, then looks at canvas after canvas of self-portraits. He becomes agitated and defaces the work. He rips and tears, punches and kicks the art. Then he destroys mirrors. The catharsis over, he rests and begins again to paint. (IMDb)