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
Can_Dialectics_Break_Bricks_Cinema_Knoflikari

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
The_Silence_Joe's_Garage

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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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Panel Story (1980)

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

Sunday April 13th 2014, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Panel Story (Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliste). Directed by Věra Chytilová, 1980, 96 minutes, in Czech with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

The bold films of Czechoslovakian director Věra Chytilová (Dasies) are still totally deleted from film history at this moment. Women are generally marginalized, if not downright ignored, from the official film history books. Like the female directors Lina Wertmüller, Liliana Cavani and Agnes Varda, Chytilová’s career shows an incredible wealth- her films are visionary and uncompromising. This one is a black comedy that was banned for many years. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Ascent (1977)

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

Sunday March 23rd 2014, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: The Ascent (Восхождение, Voskhozhdeniye). Directed by Larisa Shepitko, 1977, 109 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Larisa Shepitko was a Female Ukrainian director who went to school and made films in Russia, but died tragically in a car accident after making just a couple films. She was part of a wave of visionary new film directors at the time which included Andrei Tarkovsky, and she was the wife of the director Elem Klimov (Come ans See). This was her last film, and her crowning achievement.

This film takes place in 1942 in the snow covered landscape of the Belarus, as two young Russian soldiers attempt to find food while evading the German occupation. But this is no thriller in the Hollywood sense, and instead centers on what happens when they are caught… […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Out of the Blue (1980)

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

Sunday February 16th 2014, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock: Out of the Blue. Directed by Dennis Hopper, 1980, 94 minutes, in English. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

As a true low-budget independent work, this film delivers more art and honesty than most indie films before and after. The film opens with Dennis Hopper drunkenly driving his big truck with his daughter (Linda Manz- *Days of Heaven*) in clown make-up and asking her if he is sexier than Elvis. Then he crashes into a busload of screaming children, destroying the lives of the children, his daughter and himself. The film follows the wake of this incident and the black clouds that follow him and his daughter. The film climaxes with one of the most over-the top, crazed endings of any film. That final scene with Hopper and Manz has to have influenced Hopper’s role in David Lynch’s *Blue Velvet*. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

By: börek - January 1st, 2014  Filed under: Filmavond
The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Sunday January 19th 2014, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. The Spook Who Sat by the Door, 1973, directed by Ivan Dixon, 102 minutes, in English. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Talking about a volatile film! Someone should have made Obama watch this black-power thriller before he got into office! This cult classic was driven underground immediately after it was made… and the studios have kept the negatives locked in a vault for over 30 years. It is only now, after all these decades, that this seminal black power movie can properly be seen for the first time. […Lees verder]

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