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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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Who’ll stop the rain (1978)

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

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

 Who’ll stop the rain (Karel Reisz, USA, 1978, 126 min.) In English

Hey, what ever happened to all those powerful films that came out in the 60s and 70s which have totally disappeared….. and why have they been killed off? Based on Robert Stone’s Award-winning novel “Dog Soldiers”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is both a great thriller and a meditation on the chaos and disillusionment of the Vietnam war era in America. The film centers on a journalist called Converse (Michael Moriarty) who went to Vietnam looking for a heroic story but instead finds only madness and abject fear. He also discovers that, in a world where nothing makes sense, people are just naturally going to want to get high. So rather than getting a story, he instead gets involved in the heroin market, and attempts to head an operation to smuggle drugs back into the United States…. and that’s where the story really kicks off. The film encapsulates the end of the 60s, employing the novel’s biting, cynical perspective on the despair and chaos surrounding both the war in Vietnam and the end of the counter-cultural revolution after Charles Manson and Altamont. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

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

Sunday June 23th 2013, Movie night. Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. Door open at 20pm, film begin at 21:00

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Tony Richardson, UK, 1962, 104 min.) In English with English subtitles!

Directed by Tony Richardson and based on a short story by Alan Sillitoe, this drama movie was the epitome of the “angry young man’ films that came out of England in the 60s. It centers on Colin, a rebellious youth who is sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery. While there he throws himself into becoming a marathon runner and trains himself to become the very best. While running he can forget, at least for a short while, the prison-like conditions that he’s living in. The wonderfully poetic/edgy atmosphere that is created in this movie, the riveting black and white cinematography, and the uncompromising theme of youth rebellion means that this film will never become obsolete…. it still remains as relevant and fresh today as when it was made. You will never see a film with this amount of guts and integrity anywhere today, pure and simple. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: F For Fake (1974), Death in the Port Jackson Hotel (1972)

By: börek - March 27th, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond
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Sunday April 28th 2013, Movie night, double bill! Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. Door open at 20pm, films begin at 21:00..

F For Fake (Orson Wells, 1974, 85′). In English with English subtitles!
The great Orson Wells (Citizen Kane), nearing the end of his career of filmmaking, created this crazy film about magic, illusion and truth. In a sense this is a documentary about the illegitimacy of all documentaries. This film is totally bizarre even within the catalog of Orson Wells, being unlike anything else he ever created. What a magnificent final film for a wild, uncompromising career! Even with his last breath Orson Welles, pulls out something that you would never expect.

Trickery. Truth. Deceit. Magic. The art world. So-called experts. In Orson Welles’ free-form documentary, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) jumps head-long into the central theme of his career- the tricky line between truth and illusion, art and lies. […Lees verder]

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Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Frances

By: börek - February 16th, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday March 3rd 2013, Movie night: Frances (Graeme Clifford, USA, 1982, 140′). In English. Screened by Jeffrey Babcock. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00..

The 1980s bio-pic about the restless and uncompromising Hollywood actress Frances Farmer. Frances was on her way to becoming one of the world’s leading actresses- but she had a wild streak that she wouldn’t let go of. After being stopped one day for speeding she ended up getting into a fistfight with a policeman. One thing lead to another and from cherished movie star her life fell to the very bottom, since she was considered rebellious and subversive by the police. Frances was locked away and would end up spending much of her life in mental institutions. And, hey… it all really happened. […Lees verder]

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