Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Kes (1969)

By: börek - April 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

150419 Kes smSunday April 19th 2015, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Kes (1969). Directed by Ken Loach, 111 minutes. In English with English subtitles. Free admission. Door opens at 20:00, Film starts at 21:00.

This is an early film directed by Ken Loach, and it is a poetically beautiful portrait of a 14-year-old boy growing up in the northern working-class Yorkshire area of England. It is photographed in an austere, almost documentary style. The non-actor David Bradley is stunningly as the young boy Billy, whose dreary future seems to be pretty much destined for the local coal mines. One day his life suddenly resonates when he discovers a small kestrel falcon, which he trains daily. This is a film about being suffocated by your environment, and the deep longing for something else.

Whereas the Hollywood approach to life is to escape through entertainment, European cinema (and Kes is a wonderful example) instead zeros in on aspects of our lives and asks us to pause and think about them. In Kes, this is done through sublime acting and a profound ability to capture a mood. There is so much trash in the cinemas today, why not try out something that may pierce your heart and change your idea of cinema forever? This movie is still etched deeply in my memory after I saw it last 35 years ago.. it’s one of the most moving films of all time, and it achieves this without any cheap sentimentality.

For many people it is the best film ever made. And it was also voted by the British Film Institute as being one of the 10 best British films of the last century. This will be a high-definition screening. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nenette and Boni (1996)

By: börek - March 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

150322 Nenette et Boni smSunday March 22nd 2015, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Nenette and Boni (1996). Directed by Claire Denis, 99 minutes. In French with English subtitles Free admission. Door opens at 20:00, Film starts at 21:00.

This is an early film by French film director Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Rhum, White Material), but she already has her obscure and “difficult to pin down style” well defined. She is also already working with her long-time collaborator Agnes Godard who brings us the striking cinematography in this film, along with British band Tindersticks, who do the soundtrack.

As usual with her cinema, Claire Denis has the gift of taking us into uncharted territory, especially concerning the diverse and unusual connections between people. Although its about relationships, Nenette and Boni isn’t about sex or romance, however, but rather its about intimacy and bonding. It tells the story of a brother and sister who are the products of a broken home, who are torn apart. But when 15-year old Nenette escapes and turns up on her brothers doorstep, a journey begins which is the heart of this film.

In this movie director Denis’ penchant for elliptical story lines is more fluid and less fragmentary and jarring than in her later works. Set within a harsh urban decor, this film nevertheless is able to combine unsentimentality and lyricism. It also features a cameo role by the controversial Vincent Gallo. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Touch of Evil (1958)

By: börek - February 1st, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

20150201_Touch_of_EvilSunday February 1st 2015, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Touch of Evil (1958). Directed by Orson Welles, 111 minutes. In English with English subtitles. This will be a high-definition screening. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Free admission.

Many consider this movie to be the true masterpiece of Orson Welles’ career. Taken away from him and sliced to ribbons by the studios, the history of this movie has always been a sad tale. In recent years there has been an attempt to reconstruct this gem to its original vision, and the result of these efforts is the version we will be screening.

This is Welles’ riveting film noir, a crime thriller about a creepy and corrupt police chief named Hank Quinlan (played by Wells himself) working on the Mexican border. When a narcotics investigator (Charlton Heston) arrives to investigate a crime, instead of things becoming clearer they only become murkier. The 3 minute opening shot alone is legendary in film history, and after that the film continues to shoot off and plunge the viewer into a wild, mysterious, unknown world. Also starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, Marlene Dietrich and Janet Leigh. The black and white cinematography is piercing, complimented by a haunting musical score by Henry Mancini. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Szerelem (1971)

By: börek - January 2nd, 2015  Filed under: Filmavond

20150111_Szerelem_LoveSunday January 11th 2015, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Szerelem (Love). Directed by Károly Makk, 84 minutes. In Hungarian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Filmmakers in Hungary have made some real cinematic gems, but rarely are they ever screened. Winner of the Jury prize at Cannes in 1971, and recently voted the 12th best film in the history of Hungarian cinema, Szerelem is a captivating, wrenching, haunting depiction of East block existence in the 50s. When a man is arrested and imprisoned by the government for no apparent reason, his wife lies to her husband’s dying mother, telling her he is abroad shooting a film in New York. This beauty of a film deals with themes of commitment, faith, and even the ethics of telling lies… how far can someone go with lying?

Szerelem is the merging of two short stories by the famous Hungarian writer Tibor Déry. The real magic though is in it’s sublime cinematic mood. It’s visual style is sober with a chill of fear in the air, but at the same time poetically edited with flashes of memories and other realities. Riveting, poignant and told in a flow of stunning visuals, this will be a rare screening of one of cinema’s small, neglected masterpieces. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Deadlock (1970)

By: börek - December 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday December 14th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Deadlock. Directed by Roland Klick, 1970, 88 minutes, in English. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Thin on storyline but blistering with atmosphere, this film is clearly European in its sensibilities… its just another one those wonderful, eclectic, bizarre artistic films that were churned out in the 70s. Since it was made the film has gained an enthusiastic cult following, despite the fact that its rarely ever been screened. Deadlock is somewhere
between a spaghetti western, a bleak gangster noir and Antonioni’s Zabriski Point.

The film opens with a scene which already defines its surreal style… in a burning desert landscape a man, sweating and heaving, carries a suitcase and a gun. He’s dusty and worn, and looks like a saint delivering a message. What he has with him of course is a very different story…. leading to a twisted cat and mouse game involving three people in a deserted mining town. Like the early work of Jodorowsky this offbeat German film is a strange, metaphysical gangster fable with a mythological tone. And its also featuring an original soundtrack by the
legendary experimental-progressive rock group CAN.

“DEADLOCK is fantastic. A bizarre, illuminating film.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Army Of Shadows (1969)

By: börek - November 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday November 9th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Army Of Shadows (L’Armée des Ombres). Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969, 145 minutes, in French with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Who could believe that in 2006 when American critics were voting for the best film of the year, they would choose a 37-year-old French thriller about the Resistance during World War II? How could that even be possible? Its possible because this film hadn’t ever been shown in America, despite the fact that it was considered a masterpiece for decades here in Europe.

Directed by the mesmerizing Jean-Pierre Melville, whose participation in the Resistance qualifies Army of Shadows as an authentic and haunting account of the events during the war. Melville doesn’t treat the subject lightly… in this film death hangs over every scene like a terrible shroud. Army of Shadows makes Spielberg’s movie about WW II look like a Disney film (which it is). I don’t mean in the sense of violence (because this film has very little)…I just mean in terms of sincerity, it’s dark mood and authenticity. Spielberg is pure fantasy and is more interested in spectacle than honesty. If you want to know what it was like to live under Nazi occupation, then don’t turn to America, but to this French classic which depicts the situation better than any other film that I know of.

Army of the Shadows follows the the harrowing actions of the French resistance movement and the enormous risks they took. Its exquisitely shot (all in muted blues and greys), and the acting is riveting by everyone involved, especially by the leads- Lino Ventura and Simone Signoret. Tense and pensive, this is a film that everyone should be seeing these days… especially since so few people today seem to understand the meaning of solidarity and fighting for one’s beliefs.

A real gem, and it will be a high-definition screening. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Knoflíkáři (1997)

By: börek - October 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond
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Sunday October 5th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Knoflíkáři (Buttoners). Directed by Petr Zelenka, 1997, 106 minutes, in Czech with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

The unbelievable burst of creativity that emerged from Czechoslovakian cinema of the 60s is mostly something of the past. Today the general film scene there is as dim as it is everywhere else. But of course there are exceptions, and director Petr Zelenka is one of them. Where many directors are going for a more slick Hollywood-derived approach to cinema, Zelenka is one of the black sheep, the enfant terrible of his generation. His movies are wild, deranged and surreal black comedies, but at the same time they ultimately culminate in some sort of philosophical observation. In general his films explore the broken dreams of the so-called Velvet Generation… the moral confusion and existential loneliness that was ushered in with western consumerism. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Silence (1963)

By: börek - May 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond
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Sunday May 11th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: The Silence (Tystnaden). Directed by Ingmar Bergman, 1963, 96 minutes, in Swedish with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Considered by most to be the final statement of Ingmar Bergman’s so-called “loss of faith” trilogy, it is also considered to be one of the most erotic films of Bergman’s career. For me it unfolds almost like a sci-fi film, about the lack of community we have these days, and the dark sinister forces that we no longer speak out against. A deep-rooted angst is at the core of the film, a kind of paralysis. But I must say that although that is sincerely my gut response to this film, it can also be interpreted in loads of other ways. […Lees verder]

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