Movie night: The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)

Broken_Circle_BreakdownSunday November 20th 2016, Movie night: The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix Van Groeningen, 2012, 111 minutes. In Flemish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

The Broken Circle Breakdown is a portrait of the great love affair between tattoo artist Elise (Veerle Baetens) and bluegrass musician Didier (Johan Heldenbergh). After bonding over their shared enthusiasm for American music and culture, they dive headfirst into a sweeping romance that plays out on and off stage – but when an unexpected tragedy hits their new family, everything they know and love is put to the test. […Lees verder]

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992)

fuck_off_guysSunday November 13th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Fuckoffguysgoodday (1992).
(Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutntág). Directed by Věra Chytilová, 120 minutes, In Czech with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

After the so-called velvet revolution, when Czechoslovakia made a transition from Communism to American-style capitalism, many of the rebellious filmmakers who had caused a stir under the old regime became softies and lost all of their critical edge. But two directors didn’t… Věra Chytilová (Daisies) and the animator Jan Švankmajer.

This was Věra Chytilová’s first film after the revolution and its a sharp critique of the blossoming of consumer capitalism. In this film the wild actor Bolek Polívka portrays a young Moravian villager who suddenly becomes a millionaire overnight from a mysterious inheritance. He’s brilliant in the role. In this black comedy we watch as he is transformed from a lazy countryside simpleton into an outright asshole because of his newly acquired wealth and power.

Fuckoffguysgoodday was received with a storm and has remained one of the most popular Czech comedies of all time. It was able to dig deep down and touch the poetic Czech soul, and many people still recite lines from it 20 years later. A fantastic dark comedy, with a biting message that is more important today than ever. It has basically never been shown in the west, so this is yet another extraordinarily rare screening!

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Movie night: Los Viajes del Viento (2009)

Sunday October 30th 2016, Movie night: Los Viajes del Viento / The Wind Journeys. Directed by Ciro Guerra, Colombia, 2009. 117 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles. Door opens at 20:00. Film starts at 21:00. Free admission.

Los Viajes del Viento (The Wind Journeys), written and directed by young Colombian director Ciro Guerra (1981), it’s a donkey road movie where music and folk traditions show the rugged majesty of the Colombian Caribbean landscape. Ignacio Carrillo, a famous juggler, (traveling musician) whose accordion is rumored to have belonged to the devil, is making a long journey to return the instrument to his master. A young man named Fermin, who admires Ignacio and wishes to become a juggler like him, chases after him and asks Ignacio to teach him to play. Ignacio refuses, but Fermin follows anyway.The pair travels across fields, plains, deserts, mountains, and water. The music (vallenato) is what drives the characters from stop to stop along the journey.
In this film, Ciro Guerra makes an attempt to capture the magic of unknown areas of the Colombia countryside. He has created pure filmic poetry through the characters discovering, rediscovering and embracing various cultural sights and sounds of the region.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Movie night: The Last Supper (1976)

The_Last_SupperSunday October 23rd 2016, The Last Supper. Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1976. 120 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles. Film starts at 21:00. Free admission

The past might have a way to help make sense about understanding the present and the future. The Last Supper is a film that does this. If you want to understand why total insurrection against prison society, industrialism and the state is not to be seen in the immediate future, this film can provide some anecdotal understandings. Likewise, a close and inquisitive eye might see affinity between a slave plantation and society/state, even locate yourself or how you want to be on the plantation, which might mean reflecting on your everyday choices. Besides highly recommending this film to all to see, even if it might not be for you, the one hint I give the viewer is to watch and listen closely to the conversations and dialogues at the dinner table.
The film tells the story of a pious plantation owner during Cuba’s Spanish colonial period. The plantation owner decides to recreate the Biblical Last Supper using twelve of the slaves working in his sugarcane fields, hoping to thus teach the slaves about Christianity. […Lees verder]

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Toxic Love

Amore_TossicoSunday October 9th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: AMORE TOSSICO 1983 (Toxic Love). Directed by Claudio Caligari. 90 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. Film starts @ 21:00. Free admission

This will be a rare screening of an Italian flick from the 80s that has a haunting reputation in its own country, but has rarely been screened anywhere else, except in festivals. Like I have recently noted, here in Europe in the 80s there was an explosion of movies that dealt with teenagers and drugs, and specifically heroin. Since the 80s these films have pretty much been buried and forgotten, because the topic is considered too dark. Amore Tossico is one of the best movies from this genre, and in Italy it’s considered a masterpiece.

Many of the drug-related films in the 80s were exploitation movies, made with low budgets and low ideals. But this one is different, with early Pier Paolo Pasolini films being a major influence. Like Pasolini, director Claudio Caligari filmed this movie in Ostia, a bleak seaside suburb of Rome. And like Pasolini this movie takes its cast off the city streets… so most of the “actors” in Amore Tossico are real-life junkies or former junkies, giving the movie a beautiful edge of authenticity. It’s not glamorous in any way, nor is it spectacular… instead its deeply human. Many of the actors would die by heroin or aids within a few years after this movie was made, so as we watch this film we are also watching a fleeting moment that would soon be extinguished.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: I Know Where I’m Going!

I_Know_Where_I_m_GoingSunday September 25th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: I Know Where I’m Going! 1945. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 92 minutes, in English with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.

A beauty of a film, created by director Powell and scriptwriter Pressburger about a woman who is marrying a corporate kingpin (the head of ‘Consolidated Chemical Industries’), and travels from Manchester to the remote western isles of Scotland for her marriage. But when fog and bad weather rolls in, she is forced to wait on the Isle of Mull, forcing her to see life in a different way. This movie is gorgeous on so many levels. The characterization of a strong leading woman who is flouting all conventions, who is determined and strong. The captivating Scottish countryside is filmed with all of its powerful luminosity. The odd-ball characters who pop up, with unconventional beliefs, and live their lives accordingly. The chance to hear some Gaelic which is also rare and wonderful…

This haunting movie is not very well known, which makes this screening even more precious. It stars Wendy Hiller, and even features the future British singer Petula Clark as an eccentric 12 year old child. But this is a movie where the power of nature, and a fiercely poetic landscape, becomes as important as any of the actors in the film. The creators behind this flick, Powell and Pressburger, were geniuses. Do you think that the Cohen brothers are gifted? Perhaps. But they aren’t magical, and that is the quality this team was able to conjured up. This is one of Michael Powell’s smaller, less known gems. It’s a dramatic comedy, but a sublime one.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Dreamlife of Angels

The_Dreamlife_of_AngelsSunday August 21st 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema

THE DREAMLIFE OF ANGELS 1998
(La vie rêvée des anges)
Directed by Erick Zonca
113 minutes
In French with English subtitles

A hard-edged but poetically enthralling drama about two young working-class girls who are living in the drab city of Lille, working (and being fired) from shitty jobs, trying to scrape together enough money to survive from day to day. Indeed this is a film which grapples with our everyday existence, but not without a touch of magic. The Dreamlife of Angels captures the first meeting of Isa and Marie, and follows their relationship as it unfolds over the course of time. Crucial to the narrative are the two very different dreams that each of the girls have, and how those dreams are realized.

This gem of a film boasts flaring, haunting performances by the two female leads, Élodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier, and they rightfully shared the Best Actress award at Cannes for this movie. Their riveting deliveries carry the entire narrative, captured in a lyrical documentary style, and its a marvel to watch it all unfold. It won the César award for best film, but since the 90s it’s been criminally neglected and largely forgotten…. so don’t miss this special screening.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Black and white film night: M eine stadt sught einen morder (Fritz Lang, 1931)

M_Fritz_LangSunday June 26th 2016, Black and white film night: M eine stadt sught einen morder. (Fritz Lang, 1931). Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

The horror of the faces: That is the overwhelming image that remains from a recent viewing of the restored version of “M,” Fritz Lang’s famous 1931 film about a child murderer in Germany. In my memory it was a film that centered on the killer, the creepy little Franz Becker, played by Peter Lorre. But Becker has relatively limited screen time, and only one consequential speech–although it’s a haunting one. Most of the film is devoted to the search for Becker, by both the police and the underworld, and many of these scenes are played in closeup. In searching for words to describe the faces of the actors, I fall hopelessly upon “piglike.” […Lees verder]