Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Inkubo (Leslie Stevens, 1966)

By: börek - October 13th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday October 13, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: INCUBUS (Inkubo) * Directed by Leslie Stevens * 1966 * 78 minutes * In Esperanto with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

Once there was a guy named Zamenhof who lived in Russia. In 1887 he decided to make a second language that could be spoken by everyone. His aim was to make it easier for international communication, by avoiding division which led to war. The language he invented was simple to learn, and it was called Esperanto. It’s High Point perhaps with the 1960s, an era when people wanted to end war and misunderstandings, unlike today. There is only one movie in the history of cinema that was spoken totally in Esperanto, and it’s this one.Holy cow, what planet was this movie made on? Not only is the language exceptional, but the whole mood, story and orientation is so otherworldly and oddly mysterious. We are thrown into a world without a history, with people speaking this familiar but at the same time strangely unidentifiable language. The landscape where everything takes place seems out of context, and perhaps in that way it’s like an early Jodorowsky movie. The film is surreal, pagan and supernatural. In a way, we find ourselves thrown into a bizarre world, one that works by different laws, which pits the human soul against powerful forces of nature.
Another bizarre thing about it is that it has an actor who a year later would become totally famous in the original Star Trek TV series – William Shatner. Yep, it seems he actually spoke Esperanto. Shatner was a strangely committed actor who often did movies that he believed in.
The whole movie is an incredible trip, and even though it was obviously extremely low budget it has great cinematography, and some of the images are absolutely astounding. It was thought to be lost for decades, and only recently has there been a copy discovered in archives in France.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: The Incredible Army of Brancaleone (Mario Monicelli, 1966)

By: börek - September 29th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday September 29, 2024, The Incredible Army of Brancaleone (1966) * Directed by Mario Monicelli * 120 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

How can a group of underdogs, rejected from society, start an epic journey to rescue Jerusalem with an improbable crusade? Set in the Middle Age, spoken in a Italian mixed with vulgar Latin expressions, The Incredible Army of Brancaleone is a parody of knights’ quests in the Middle Age, putting as protagonists common people instead of nobility. The result is a series of sketches where paradox rules with comic effects. With an incredible cast of Italian actors who became famous in their career after this film – in particular Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Spaak, Gian Maria Volonté, and Enrico Maria Salerno – Monicelli succeeded in portraying the grotesque side of the Italian people in such an iconic way that his message becomes universal.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nov Lituania

By: börek - September 3rd, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday September 8, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nov Lituania * 98 minutes * In Lithuanian with English subtitles, doors open at 20:00 * intro & film start at 20:30.

This is a pretty unusual film for when it was made, and actually it’s a pretty unusual movie to be made in America at any time. It presents us with a situation that we are increasingly becoming familiar with – lack of housing, food prices rising like crazy, and not being able to afford anymore to live in big cities. The story takes place in the 1930s during the great depression, a time when the bankers went too far with their wheeling, dealing and money grubbing, causing a disaster.

Our main characters are a couple who have no place to live anymore but are offered a worthless piece of land in the countryside. Their idea is to create their own Eden, but when faced with difficulties they realize that they are city people and have no idea how to do things like farming. The solution to the problem is by inviting other unemployed people to join them, and thereby creating a cooperative.

A film about collectivism and community and alternative societies, I think we are sadly missing these days. It’s been called an anti-cynical film and no matter what you think of it, its enthusiasm whips up a semi-socialist alternative that includes exchange of labor, sharing food, bartering and solidarity. All of this is presented as an alternative to the dog eat dog capitalism and monopolization that was tearing apart the country. Some viewers have even aptly compared it to the early Russian-Ukrainian movies Alexander Dovzhenko.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Extended distended openended revolutionary sunday movie

By: börek - August 18th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 25 August 2024, extended distended openended revolutionary sunday movie. Doors open at 19:30. Intro at 20:00. Film from 20:15 to 23:00. Free entrance, donations welcome.

This is a documentary about the years where the music scene was gearing up to get political as fuck. It is astounding, and beautifully crafted with a wonderfully sharp jazz music score. The problem with a lot of documentaries is they can be flat or stereotypical, and therefore are not actually offering an alternative. This one is something else—it flies and stirs the imagination.

This is an ‘essay film’, a special style that was born with French filmmaker Chris Marker in the 60s, and was jazzed up by Adam Curtis in England in the 90s, A whirlwind of thoughts and information, executed with intelligence and exhilaration.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Our Daily Bread (King Vidor, 1934)

By: börek - August 5th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 11, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: OUR DAILY BREAD * 1934 * Directed by King Vidor * 80 minutes * In English * free screening * doors open at 8.30 * intro and film start at 9:00.

This is a pretty unusual film for when it was made, and actually it’s a pretty unusual movie to be made in America at any time. It presents us with a situation that we are increasingly becoming familiar with – lack of housing, food prices rising like crazy, and not being able to afford anymore to live in big cities. The story takes place in the 1930s during the great depression, a time when the bankers went too far with their wheeling, dealing and money grubbing, causing a disaster.

Our main characters are a couple who have no place to live anymore but are offered a worthless piece of land in the countryside. Their idea is to create their own Eden, but when faced with difficulties they realize that they are city people and have no idea how to do things like farming. The solution to the problem is by inviting other unemployed people to join them, and thereby creating a cooperative.

A film about collectivism and community and alternative societies, I think we are sadly missing these days. It’s been called an anti-cynical film and no matter what you think of it, its enthusiasm whips up a semi-socialist alternative that includes exchange of labor, sharing food, bartering and solidarity. All of this is presented as an alternative to the dog eat dog capitalism and monopolization that was tearing apart the country. Some viewers have even aptly compared it to the early Russian-Ukrainian movies Alexander Dovzhenko.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Chocolat (Claire Denis, 1988)

By: börek - July 1st, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday July 14, 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: CHOCOLAT * 1988 * Directed by Claire Denis * 105 minutes * In French with English subtitles * free screening * doors open at 8.30 * intro and film start at 9:00.

French Director Claire Denis grew up in west Africa, where her father was a civil servant. The family moved to a different country in Africa every several years because they wanted her to understand culture and geography. This is why much of her work deals with the spiritual and psychological impact of colonialism, especially in West Africa. This was her debut film, and it is about a French woman reflecting on her childhood in a colonial outpost in French Cameroon as a 7-year old girl.
So as you might expect the film is largely autobiographical, recounting her own memories and emotions while she was growing up, and in this case the film has a special focus on her relationship with her family’s African servant.
This film isn’t restless, like so many movies today. It sinks into the world of west Africa, and moves at an ambient pace… allowing sensuality to surface. The film is about identity, memories, and a romance that tries to navigate racism and complicated social structures. This is different from a Hollywood film also because it doesn’t try to exploit our emotions and treat us like children by making things black-and-white. Instead it is a film full of mystery.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Fantozzi (Luciano Salce, 1975)

By: börek - June 12th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 23 June 2024, FANTOZZI (1975) * Directed by Luciano Salce * 103 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

A cult film that entered the Italian pop culture, Fantozzi is a sharp critique of white collar’s alienation in modern capitalism, and how the only way to escape is breaking the rules, but, even then, success is far from being guaranteed. Structured in ten episodes, it rotates upon the misadventures of Ugo Fantozzi, his relations with his wife, his colleague Filini, Miss Silvani and others, in situations like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, a trip on the Alps, and so on. A distorted portrait of Italy during its industrialization and the paradoxes of modernisation, which has something to say outside Italy and to contemporaries too.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Death of a Bureaucrat (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1966)

By: börek - June 4th, 2024  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 9 June 2024, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Death of a Bureaucrat (La muerte de un burócrata) * by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea * 1966 * 85 minutes * In Cuban Spanish with English subtitles * free screening * doors open at 8.30 * intro and film start at 9:00.

A key black comedy in Cuban film history, directed by one of its maverick filmmakers Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Memories of Underdevelopment, Strawberry and Chocolate) who chose to stay in post-revolutionary Cuba and supported its socialist cause but never thought twice about criticizing the regime’s shortcomings.

In this film director Alea lampoons the stuffy and insane world of bureaucratic red tape. The journey begins when a widow realizes there was an important document in the pocket of her deceased husband who has already been buried, and needs an official permit to have the body exhumed. This starts an absurd chain of events with a razor-sharp Buñuelian sense of black humor.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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