Tagged: Art-house
Mini-Review: Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) Biopic
Kaspar Hauser (Bruno S.) has lived imprisoned in a cellar for all his life. He can’t walk, he can’t talk and he has had no contact with any human being. One day whoever is doing this to him decides to free him. He teaches Kaspar how to write his name, a few words and how to stand on his feet. The people of Nuremberg (Germany) find him standing in the middle of their town. A family decides to take him in. They try to teach him everything they think is important, but Kaspar’s existence remains a mystery. Continue reading
Review: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) is the Ultimate Arthouse Jesus Film
Mary (Margherita Caruso) is pregnant. Joseph (Marcello Morante), her fiancé is worried, because they’re not married yet. God sends His angel (Rossana Di Rocco) to reassure him: She is still a virgin. The Lord himself made her pregnant with His Son, Jesus (Enrique Irazoqui). Flash-forward thirty years: Jesus is now an adult. He is preaching the Lord’s word to the people of Israel, gathering followers, healing the sick and making, casting out evil spirits and doing all kinds of miracles. Most people seem okay with that: But not the pharisees. He’s taking away their power, so they want him dead. Continue reading
Film Analysis: Interpreting Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman (2013) or Die Trying
Introduction
I am usually not very interested in understanding a film one hundred percent. I like a little mystery and certainly I prefer movies that don’t spell out everything for you. However with Alex van Warmerdam’s Borgman I feel that I just didn’t get anything at all and that rarely happens. So I decided to do a little bit of research, okay I basically just read some discussions on IMDb, and it turns out that I got more than I thought. Continue reading
Mini-Review: Faith, Hope and Love in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet (1955)
The Borgen’s are a peasant family living in rural Denmark. They love their pigs, smoking their pipe and God. One day Anders Borgen (Cay Kristiansen), Morten Borgen’s (Henrik Malberg) youngest son announces that he wants to get married with Anne Petersen (Gerda Nielsen). Unfortunately, the Petersen’s don’t share the Borgen’s religious views and ascribe to a slightly different group of Christians, so that’s a no-go. Things however escalate when Morten’s daughter Inger (Birgitte Federspiel) gets sick. Meanwhile her younger brother Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye) thinks he’s the second coming, prancing around the house speaking of resurrection and making crazy faces. Who are these people? Continue reading
Three Reasons: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979)
Believe it or not: Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker is not part of the Criterion Collection, so they can’t do one of their famous Three Reasons videos, but I can. Why? Because I’m above the law. Just kidding. I only watched this classic masterpiece the other day for the first time and since I’m sure there are thousands of reviews about it on the web, I decided to just mention three reasons why I loved it so much. If you enjoy the Three Reasons series you can find more in the new blog section called The Reasons (under Lists). Thanks & Enjoy. Continue reading
Mladen Djordjevic’s The Life and Death of a Porno Gang (2009)
Marko (Mihajlo Jovanovic) is a struggling filmmaker who can’t raise money for his high-concept sci-fi horror adventures. One day out of the blue he meets a vicious porn producer who introduces him to the world of adult filmmaking. Not satisfied with the unsurprising lack of artistic interest in the pornographic community Marko decides to hire a colorful group of adult film actors and set up a traveling sex show. The first porn cabaret, as he likes to call it, turns out to be quite the fiasco. Nobody in Serbia cares about watching a bunch of people fucking each other, while unsubtly promoting some sort of social commentary. The porno gang is struggling. There is no food. They live in the woods. Drugs keep their minds off things. Then one day, Marko meets a snuff film producer. He offers him a deal he can’t refuse: To film murder. Naturally they’re going to kill only people who agree to die and some of the money will go to the deceased’s family. Still, this is the beginning of the end of the porno gang. Continue reading
Five Reasons: Werner Herzog’s Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970)
Welcome to another edition of Five Reasons, where I give you five very valid reasons to check out a film if you still need some convincing. If you have seen the film you get to peek inside my brain and find out why I love the movie so much. If you’re okay with peeking inside my brain, because there is all kinds of crazy shit going on there. Moving on: Here are five reasons why I highly recommend checking out Werner Herzog’s 1970 art film Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen, which is just one of his many masterpieces. Continue reading
Second Trailer for Kim Ki-duk’s Moebius
One of my favorite auteurs, a big inspiration for me personally and someone I feel sees storytelling just the way I do. Twisted stories that is. I’m talking of Kim Ki-duk of course. Moebius, his newest film, looks insanely creepy and intense. While not much happened during the first teaser, this second one really brings it.
As always I can set it up as much as I want to and I can try to make it appealing to you, but you just have to see for yourself. The film is currently playing at the 70th Venice Film Festival (out of competition) and I just can’t wait for this film to be released in some way shape or form that we can all have access to it.
Remember that after cutting it several times, Kim is now finally allowed to show the film in Korea, which makes me happy for him and everyone involved in the making of the film. I do hope we get a director’s cut at some point and I do hope (Swiss) cinemas will show this film, because so far there’s no news on that.
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Kim Ki-duk’s 3-Iron (2004)
Tae-suk (Jae Hee) is a lonely biker breaking and entering other people’s houses. He is not a thief: He just lives in their homes and when it’s time to move on, he does. That usually means the owners are back or the place just got old. So whenever that happens he just looks for a new apartment. One day however he decides to crash at a place where one of the inhabitants is still there, only he doesn’t notice her. Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon) is an equally lonely, but lovely, housewife living in a luxurious house with an abusive husband (Kwon Hyuk-ho). Sun-hwa is intrigued when she notices that Tae-suk isn’t there to rob her. She decides to join him in his adventurous lifestyle. What could possibly go wrong? I don’t know, but according to some guy’s law “Anything that can go wrong usually goes wrong”. Continue reading
black is white 