Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Toxic Love

By: börek - October 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

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

Tags: , , ,

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

By: börek - September 15th, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

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

Tags: , ,

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Dreamlife of Angels

By: börek - August 2nd, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

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

Tags: ,

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

By: börek - June 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

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]

Tags: , ,

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Charles, Dead or Alive

By: börek - June 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

Charles_Dead_or_AliveSunday June 19th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Charles, Dead or Alive (Charles mort ou vif). Directed by Alain Tanner, 1970, 93 minutes. In French with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

The debut feature film by the great Swiss director Alain Tanner (Jonas will be 25 in the Year 2000, In the White City). Unseen for decades, this is an incredibly rare screening of this film about a businessman who becomes disillusioned with his lifestyle and throws his destiny to the wind to see where he ends up. In this film, Tanner already sets up the major theme that runs through all his films… describing the inner road and turmoil that anyone has to go through when they decide to break with society and follow their convictions uncompromisingly to the bitter end.

Although shot in Switzerland, the backdrop of the film is the volatile uprisings and demonstrations that were happening in France in 1968. This one is a forgotten gem that few people have had the chance to see in a cinema. Shot in a grainy and austere black and white, it’s a snapshot of the dynamic sociopolitical landscape of late 1960s Europe as the old world is hijacked and overtaken by modernization and American economic globalization. An extremely rare glimpse into the counter-culture movements of the 60s.

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

Tags: ,

Black and White movie night: The Heart of a Dog (1988)

By: börek - May 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

The_Heart_of_a_DogSunday May 29th 2016, Black and White movie night: Black and White movie night: The Heart of a Dog (Vladimir Bortko, 1988). 136 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

The film is set in Moscow not long after the October Revolution where a complaining stray dog looks for food and shelter. A well-off well-known surgeon Phillip Phillippovich Preobrazhensky happens to need a dog and lures the animal to his big home annex practice with a piece of sausage. The dog is named Sharik and well taken care of by the doctor’s maids, but still wonders why he’s there. He finds out too late he’s needed as a test animal: the doctor implants a pituitary gland and testicles of a recently deceased alcoholic and petty criminal Klim Chugunkin into Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the next days. After his transition to human is complete, it turns out that he inherited all the negative traits of the donor – bad manners, aggressiveness, use of profanity, heavy drinking – but still hates cats. He picks for himself the absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the “Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)” and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive Preobrazhensky out of his big apartment. Eventually he turns the life in the professor’s house into a nightmare by stealing money, breaking his furniture, a water ballet during a cat chase and blackmailing into marriage a girl he met at the cinema. The professor with his assistant are then urged to reverse the procedure. Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik he does remember little about what has happened to him but isn’t much concerned about that. To his content he is left to live in the professor’s apartment. […Lees verder]

Tags: , ,

Iranian New Wave Cinema Nomad Tribes of Iran Special: ‘Gabbeh’ (1996)

By: börek - May 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

GabbehgabbehSunday May 22th 2016, Iranian new wave cinema: Gabbeh (1996). In Farsi with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Gabbeh is a 1996 Iranian film directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Gabbeh is a brilliantly colorful, profoundly romantic ode to beauty, nature, love and art. Mohsen Makhmalbaf originally traveled to the remote steppes of southeastern Iran to document the lives of an almost extinct tribe of nomads. For centuries, these wandering families created special carpets – Gabbeh – that served both as artistic expression and autobiographical record of the lives of the weavers. Spellbound by the exotic countryside, and by the tales behind the Gabbehs, Makhmalbaf’s intended documentary evolved into a fictional love story which uses a gabbeh as a magic story – telling device weaving past and present’ fantasy and reality.

Synopsis:
On the banks of a stream, an old woman and her husband are washing their Gabbeh. From this carpet comes forth a beautiful young woman – aptly named Gabbeh – who shares her epic tale: she is desperately in love with a mysterious horseman who follows her clan from after. Though her father has agreed to let her marry the man, season after season, the horseman follows Gabbeh—always present, always waiting, howling songs of love after nightfall.

Delicately interlaced with this simple and touching love story are the people whose lives are shaped by the rhythms of nature, and who instinctively express the joys and sorrows of life through song, poetry, and the tales they tell in their brilliantly-hued weavings.

More about the film: http://www.makhmalbaf.com/?q=film%2Fgabbeh
More about the director: http://www.makhmalbaf.com/?q=mohsen
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYEXQcZZL90 […Lees verder]

Tags: , , ,

Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Murderers Are Among Us

By: börek - May 1st, 2016  Filed under: Filmavond

The_Murderers_Are_Among_UsSunday May 15th 2016, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema:
THE MURDERERS ARE AMONG US 1946
(Die mörder sind unter uns)
Directed by Wolfgang Staudte
81 minutes
In German with English subtitles
Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

With a style that is a fusion of deep expressionism mixed with harsh documentary, this rare movie captures the mood of a demoralized Berlin directly after the Second World War. We enter a city of devastation, of decimated streets and broken lives. But imagine the feelings of the main character Susanne when she returns to her home city after having been released from a concentration camp. When she returns to her wrecked apartment, she finds a stranger living there. Both of them are lost souls. They strike up a friendship… but as she goes through the streets she realizes she is in a city of people that betrayed her. Who is who? Who are the innocent survivors, and who are the villains?

This unusual movie was made directly after the end of the war, and therefore captures the ideas and sensibilities of that bitter time better than any film made today which looks back with contemporary prejudices. All of the film’s photography was done in the real streets of Berlin, and the main characters roam the desolate streets of rubble. And this thriller is also interesting to compare to the upcoming film noir movement… all of the elements are there – the sharp shadows, human silhouettes against cracked walls, unusual angles, spiral staircases, haunted tormented individuals wandering through a jagged broken landscape. There is a mood of dark melancholy hanging in the air of this sombre movie as Suzanne tries to find a way to forgive her city for the atrocities she has endured. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , ,