TOP 500 LETTERBOXD

A Jewish girl in 19th century London dreams of becoming a stage actress.

1952 film directed by Roberto Rossellini

Petro is a modest farmhand living in an impoverished village in some unspecified long-ago era. He wants to marry the lovely Pidorka, but her stern father won't hear of it. The mischievous demon Basavriuk, offers a deal, enticing Petro into crime for the sake of fortune.

Depicting the struggles of Filipinos in rural areas under the brutal Marcos regime, a family of poor farmers tries to overcome the challenges brought on by corruption and greed for power spanning 1971 to 1987.

When a charming 12-year-old girl takes on the characteristics and voices of others, doctors say there is nothing they can do. As people begin to die, the girl's mother realizes her daughter has been possessed by the devil--and that her daughter's only possible hope lies with two priests and the ancient rite of demonic exorcism.

A formal dinner party starts out normally enough, but after the bourgeois group retire to the host’s music room, they inexplicably find themselves unable to leave.

1968 film by John Cassavetes

1982 film by Ingmar Bergman

Three strippers seeking thrills encounter a young couple in the desert. After dispatching the boyfriend, they take the girl hostage and begin scheming on a crippled old man living with his two sons in the desert, reputedly hiding a tidy sum of cash. They become house guests of the old man and try and seduce the sons in an attempt to locate the money, not realizing that the old man has a few sinister intentions of his own.

After having her second child, a German housewife suffers from postpartum depression before inexplicably falling into a continually misdiagnosed mental state, befuddling her relatives.

1972 film by Shunya Itō

2007 film by Wang Bing

When a theater troupe's master visits his old flame, he unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

As no other filmmaker, Lav Diaz is involved with the suffering of the people of the Philippines, with its history of colonialism, corruption and poverty. A philosophical drama about the psychological effects of injustice and arbitrariness. Two poor labourers leave the city looking for a treasure. Few filmmakers make films as long as those of Lav Diaz. Six hours is not even particularly long within his oeuvre. He has films to his name that are twice that long. And even fewer filmmakers would want to reshoot a film they’ve already made. Yet that’s what happened here. Lav Diaz shot a first version of Florentina Hubaldo, CTE in 2009. Once he had a HD camera, he decided to shoot the film again. Another long film. Back to distant and inhospitable locations. It says a lot about this filmmaker's commitment that he does not make life easy for himself when telling his epic social dramas. Florentina Hubaldo, CTE has several protagonists. There are the two construction workers, Manoling and Juan, who have become unemployed and left the city to go digging for treasure. There’s the shopkeeper Manang Nena who makes her daughter become a prostitute. And the Harvard-business student Briggs who takes over his family's feudal company. Stories that show the extreme aspects of the Philippines. Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof: Lav Diaz in Rotterdam: Florentina Hubaldo, CTE: 300' x 2 = 600' + Century, 355' x 2 = 710' + Butterflies: 58' x 3 = 174' + Melancholia: 480' x 3 = 1440' + Purgatorio: 16' x 2 = 32' + Encantos: 540' x 2 = 1080' + Heremias book 1': 540' x 1 = 540' + When the Rain Ended: 7' x 2 = 14' + Evolution: 630' x 2 =1260'. Total: 5850 / 60 = 97.5 hours. Yes, I decided to count it all up. After the screening of Florentina Hubaldo, CTE, the festival has screened almost 100 hours of Lav Diaz. Lav Diaz is the master of the long film, which is called more elegantly in French film fleuve, and since his masterpiece Evolution of a Philippine Family (2005) we have followed his work closely. Or, to pursue the French metaphor, we have drifted down the river with him. There’s plenty to be said about the work of Lav Diaz. These are opulent stories that are embedded in a complex social-political and geographical history, but they are also just long or very long films that demand a certain physical perseverance from the Spectator. I love to allow myself to be swept away by the full length and duration of the films, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t occasionally drift off. For instance - I think it was in 2006 - I saw the rough version of Heremias on the Philippine vacation island Boracay. The Cinemanila festival was accustomed to organising workshops on the island and Lav Diaz was to screen his latest majestic work at night in the open air on the famous white beach. I didn’t want to miss that.. For technical reasons, the screening was moved inside and at the end of the film, Lav Diaz's producer, himself and I were the only spectators left. 'Last-man standing,' Lav said about me next day to the director of the Cinemanila Festival, which wasn’t quite true. During the final titles, I was shaken awake by the master so I was just in time to see the HBF logo.

Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.

1931 film by Mikio Naruse

As an awkward idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined.

Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

Individualistic and idealistic architect Howard Roark is expelled from college because his designs fail to fit with existing architectural thinking. He seems unemployable but finally lands a job with like-minded Henry Cameron, however within a few years Cameron drinks himself to death, warning Roark that the same fate awaits unless he compromises his ideals. Roark is determined to retain his artistic integrity at all costs.

Travelling family man Paolo agrees to pose as husband to an unwed pregnant girl he meets on a train. However, once faced with her father, things do not go as planned.