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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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: ‘Pastoral: To Die in the Country’ (1974)

By: börek - November 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday November 10th 2013, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. ‘Pastoral: To Die in the Country’ (田園に死す. aka, Denen ni shisu ), 1974, directed by Shugi Terayama, 104 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles. Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00

Pastoral: To Die in the Country is another dazzling piece of surreal film-making from Shuji Terayama (*Throw away your Books*). Terayama was Japan’s infant-terrible of the turbulent sixties, an artist whose work is basically unknown here in the West. He was a photographer, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and poet… and in his time his work incited scandal and outrage, censorship and banning. Today in Japan he is considered a visionary cult hero. He is one of the favorite directors of the music group STEREOLAB and they called their 1996 album after his short film Emperor Tomato Ketchup. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: It’s Gonna Get Worse (2007)

By: börek - October 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday October 27th 2013, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. It’s Gonna Get Worse (Directed by Petr Nikolaev, 2007, 86 minutes, In Czech with English subtitles). Original title: A bude hůř.  Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00

This movie has become a renowned cult film in Czechoslovakia, but has been basically unseen anywhere else. Shot in a beautifully rough b&w, this film is like no other in taking us back to Czechoslovakia and how alternative-types lived under Communist rule. The main characters are hippies, but a much rougher type than what was found in America. These are guys who drink incredible amounts of hard alcohol, take drugs and have hard sex…. but listen to psychedelic rock music and have found their own way to be alternative. Wow, this film is incredible in capturing that whole milieu. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Billy Jack (1971)

By: börek - September 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond
Billy_Jack

Sunday September 29th 2013, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. Billy Jack (Directed by Tom Laughlin, 1971, 114 minutes, In English). Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00

People are still discussing whats going in the middle east, but of course the whole issue if whether violence can can be used to create peace has been heatedly debated for the last few thousand years in Western culture. Nowhere in cinema is this question as relevantly and poignantly addressed as in this 70s utra-cult classic.

What a film. This is the film that kicked off the whole Billy Jack phenomena in the states in the early 70s. What the hell was that, you ask? It was something that was totally unprecedented. The director and main actor Tom Laughlin made an independent film that was able to become a smash box office success, only by word of mouth…no big advertising campaigns for this small budget feature. It was a tiny, but well aimed spark that caused a tremendous cultural forest fire in American cinema…and the film was made totally outside of the Hollywood system. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Le corbeau (1943)

By: börek - August 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday August 11th 2013, Movie night. Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. Door open at 20:00, film begin at 21:00

Le corbeau: The raven (Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1943, 92 min.) In French with English subtitles

This is a wild little French thriller with a wonderful punch directed by the great Henri-Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Inferno, Les Diabolique). Made during the German occupation of France, the movie is about an unknown informant who is writing poison-pen letters about the villagers of a small French provincial town. The letters are accusing certain townspeople of taking drugs, adultery, of half-truths, and a variety of petty crimes….and the letters are signed anonymously with just “The Raven”. This informant throws the entire city out of balance, resulting in a series of tragedies including accusations, suicide and murder. […Lees verder]

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