Best by Month - 2023-2027 - First Views & Re-Views

Having naively assumed that Kalatozov without Urusevsky would be somewhat underwhelming, I was astounded to see the brilliance of the imagery and montage in his early silent works (both here and in Salt For Svanetia). The machine-gun editing is as exhilarating as anything I've seen, and would surely have Guy Maddin weeping tears of joy.
I've no idea what the film is actually about, but I believe it may well be a Russian paean to quality footwear (in the spirit of St. Hubbins). Either way, the lack of subtitles is entirely irrelevant, as this is a film where the inventiveness of the visual language is of paramount importance - indeed, it's so formally daring that it makes the vast majority of contemporary filmmaking seem utterly anaemic by way of comparison.

In an isolated mountain resort, a woman gets involved in a love triangle between herself, her volatile lover and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she had platonic feelings.

The notorious pirate ruler Madame X places a print ad, calling on women to escape their boring lives and promising "gold, love and adventure" to all who come aboard her ship, the Orlando. A motley crew including a housewife, diva and artist (played by Yvonne Rainer) embark on a quest for self-transformation, which quickly heads towards destruction as they are subjected to Madame X's sadistic, erotic escapades.

Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.

With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.

1969 Japanese drama film directed by Toshio Matsumoto

A Sicilian woman is dishonored by her lover, then goes to London with a pistol intending to murder him.

A gentleman thief charms a Viennese baron's wife and also conducts a daring daylight robbery of a jeweller's shop.

1980 film by Helma Sanders-Brahms

Summary:
After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood.

“From the Notebook of … was shot in Florence and takes as its point of departure Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and Paul Valéry’s essay on da Vinci’s process. These two elements suggest an implicit comparison between the treatment of space in Renaissance art and the moving image. The film marks a critical development in the artist’s work in that he repeatedly employs a series of rapid pans and upward tilts along the city’s buildings or facades, often integrating glimpses of his own face. As Beavers notes in his writing on the film, the camera movements are tied to the filmmakers’ presence and suggests his investigative gaze”.

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not just as a woman but as a complete person.

Made during the rapid industrialisation and collectivisation of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. Kaufman countered the poverty of the villages with the geometrical rhythm of mechanised factories; militarisation is shown as the next step of the ‘unprecedented campaign’. "The proletariat, having become master of one sixth of the globe, frees the rural working people from the kulak oppression… THE PROLETARIAT …engages the peasantry in a joint campaign for Socialism. This is what the film speaks about".

Two co-workers, one a vain woman and the other an awkward teenager, share an increasingly bizarre relationship after becoming roommates.

一名超负荷工作、工资过低的制作助理不得不拍摄一部由跨国公司委托拍摄的工作场所安全视频。
但一位受访者发表的声明迫使他重新编造自己的故事，以适应公司的叙述。

　西历2008年7月，因科学过度发展，威力强大的超磁力武器，在战争中被发动，地轴弯曲，地壳发生大变动，五大洲爆裂，陆地下沉，在一瞬间把一半的地球摧毁！ 20年后，在残留的小岛上，一直以为在大变动后世上只余下他与爷爷相依为命的少年高立，在偶然间，在岛上海滩救了有与动物沟通能力的少女罗拉，因为罗拉的爷爷是科学家，所以野心家们便想捕捉罗拉对其作出威胁。来到岛上的坏人杀害了高立的爷爷，并捉走了罗拉，因此高立便踏上了拯救罗拉的旅程。

CANAL ZONE is about the people who live and work in the Panama Canal Zone and shows both the operation of the Canal and the various governmental agencies — business, military, and civilian — related to the functioning of the Canal and the lives of the Americans in the zone. The film includes sequences of ships in transit, the work of special canal pilots, aspects of the civil government, work of the military, and the social, religious and recreational life of the Zonians.

The film shows men and women models at work on TV commercials, fashion shows, print advertising,
posing for magazine covers and ads for a variety of products: designer's collections, fur coats, sports clothes
and automobiles. The models are seen at work with photographers whose techniques illustrate different
styles of fashion and product photography. Also, the business aspect of running an agency is shown:
interviewing prospective models, career counseling, arranging portfolios, talking with clients and planning
trips. The film presents a view of the intersections of fashion, business, advertising, photography, television
and fantasy.

After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.