June 26

After The Wedding (Efter Brylluppet) (2006) - Suzanne Bier

Description 

Jacob Petersen is a man who has dedicated his life to helping the children of Indias streets. When the orphanage he runs is faced with closure, he receives an unusual proposal. Offered $4 million dollars by a Danish businessman called Jorgen, though there are two conditions. The first requires Jacob to return to Denmark; the second, he must take part in the wedding of Jorgens daughter. The wedding serves as a critical juncture between past and present, forcing Jacob into the most intense situation of his life. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Academy Awrds. 

Released by Soda Pictures - Possible rental release. 

Alain Delon - The Screen Icons Collection 

A collection of five films featuring the iconic French actor. Films include: 

UN FLIC, - Also released individually.
PLEIN SOLEIL, 
L'ECLISSE, 
TRAITEMENT DE CHOC 
FLIC STORY. 

Released by Optimum Releasing

Bamako (2006) - Abderrahmane Sissako 

Description 

Set in the courtyard of a mud-walled house in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, the intimate personal story of an African couple on the verge of breaking up is told alongside a very public political trial - African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, whose disastrous policies they blame for Africa's debt-ridden troubles.

Amidst the impassioned testimonies and pleas for social justice, everyday life goes on in the courtyard. Full of colour, music and vitality. 'Bamako' combines gripping drama and sharp satire to create an inspirational, often humorous and sometimes moving insight into contemporary Africa.

My opinion

Court drama with the IMF and World Bank brought to account by the African nations, mind numbing in its facts and figures but saved from being just a didactic diatribe by the sub plots and surreal nature of the whole proceedings. 

Well worth seeing, heavy going at times but one Im looking forward to catching again. 

Released by Artificial Eye. - Low chance of rental release .

The Chess Players (1977) Satyajit Ray

Description 

Set in the kingdom of Oudh during the last days of the Moghul Empire, 'The Chess Players' marked the first time that the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray worked outside of his native Bengal. The story follows two Indian noblemen (Saeed Jaffrey and Sanjeev Kumar) whose obsession with the game of chess renders them oblivious to the treacherous and historic events happening around them. In one of his finest performances, Richard Attenborough stars as General Outram, the British officer who covertly manoeuvres on behalf of the East India Company to seize control of the region and depose its King. One of Ray's most ambitious and expensive productions, 'The Chess Players' is a masterful and visually stunning historical drama.

Released by Artificial Eye.

Colour Of The Loyalty (Hak Bak Jin Cheung) (2005) - Chung Siu-hung 

Description 

In the tradition of Infernal Affairs, the movie follows "Fat", an orphan and his "Uncle Chai" who is a follower of Brother Dragon, the Big Gangster.

Released by Elephant Video.

The Dream Life Of Angels (199 - Erick Zonca

Description:

The Dream Life Of Angels is an absorbing film about two young French women struggling to find their place in life. Isabella is twenty-one, moving from town to town with all her worldly belongings in her backpack, intelligent yet without much of a future. Marie is the same age and in the same rut, seemingly without any anchor herself...

Both are solidly working class, unskilled and rootless. Circumstance has thrown them together and the film describes a two-month period as they house-sit the apartment of a car accident victim. Their prospects are not great, and each deal with the hand life has dealt them very differently. 

Released by Arrow Films.

Haven't seen this in quite a while, it'll be nice to catch it again.

Edelweiss Pirates (2004) - Niko von Glasow

Description 

Based on a true story, EDELWEISS PIRATES is a film about the activities of a gang of anti-Hitler German youths towards the end of World War II.

Released by Elephant Video.

Hanzo The Razor 

Description:

Love samurai films? Wish they were... dirtier? Welcome to Hanzo The Razor's deranged world of crazy swordplay and sexploitation set to a 1970s funk soundtrack. Uncut for the first time ever in the UK, this cult 1970s Japanese pinku trilogy was seemingly influenced by Dirty Harry and Shaft, but there's no doubt who has the 'longer arm of the law'! 

Shintaro Katsu (best known as the blind swordsman in the original Zatoichi) stars as Hanzo a rebellious yet obsessively moral samurai police officer who slashes his way through the backbone of crime, uncovers corruption at higher levels, and tortures relentlessly using his own unique techniques. 
Shocking audiences even today, the hardest man in Edo regularly unleashes his special weapon in the form of his oversized penis, which he uses to 'interrogate' female suspects into pleasured compliance. Despite the knuckle-biting, graphic violence there is an underlying social commentary, testifying to the noble honour of the samurai and emphasising Hanzo's status as the people's champion. 

In Sword of Justice, Hanzo overturns his own gutless superiors; in The Snare, he breaks into a temple used by local magistrates for the sadistic torture of young girls; in Who's Got the Gold?, the shogunate treasury is being looted by its own officials. 

From the creator of the Lone Wolf and Cub series (used as the basis for Shogun Assassin, and a direct influence on Tarantino's Kill Bill) the Hanzo the Razor trilogy is presented here for the first time in the UK complete and uncut. 

Released by Eureka.

Henri-Georges Clouzot Collection 

A collection featuring three of the French master filmmaker's best films 
QUAI DES ORFEVRES, 
LE CORBEAU,
THE WAGES OF FEAR.

Human Resources (1999) - Laurent Cantet 

Description 

Laurent Cantet's HUMAN RESOURCES tells the deeply personal story of a father-son relationship that is tested when their opposing attitudes toward work and life collide head on. Frank (Jalil Lespert) is a business school student who has returned from France for a summer internship at a factory in his hometown. It just so happens that his father, Jean-Claude (Jean-Claude Vallod), is an employee of the factory, where he has worked for thirty years. At first, Frank's energy impresses the bosses and makes his father proud. He orchestrates a referendum with the hopes that this will ease some of the tensions between the factory executives and the union leader, Mrs. Arnoux (Danielle Melador). But when he discovers that the executives were using this information in order to bypass negotiations with the union, jeopardizing his father's job, Frank is left feeling stunned and betrayed. Upon seeing that his father is going to accept this news passively, he helps the union boycott, sparking a clash between father and son that threatens to ruin their relationship forever. Cantet's usage of non-professional actors gives HUMAN RESOURCES a documentary-like feel, adding poignancy to the film's universal story. 

Released by Soda Pictures.

Je T`Aime Moi Non Plus (1976) - Serge Gainsbourg 

Released by Optimum Releasing.

I guess we all know that song........ 

Jean-Paul Belmondo - The Screen Icons Collection 

A collection of five films featuring the iconic French actor. Films include 

LE PROFESSIONEL, 
A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, 
PIERROT LE FOU, 
STAVISKY,
A DOUBLE TOUR.

Released by Optimum Releasing.

Labyrinth Of Passion (1982) - Pedro Almodovar 

Description

Labyrinth of Passion is an early foray by Almodovar into the chaos and anarchy of the many permutations of desire. Billed as the first Almodovar film that "you can see and hear", it has the bold, primary colours of a low-budget Sirk.

Sexilia is a young sex fiend, member of a female rock group and daughter of a brilliant and twisted gynaecologist. She is in love with Riza Niro, heir to a fallen Arab empire, who is more preoccupied with make up and men than with international politics. They are the central couple around which the film revolves, just one step away from losing control.

The kaleidoscopic trip through the Labyrinth of Passion takes in music, shameless obsessions, terrorism, test-tube babies, remedies for people with dry lips and brittle fingernails, murky pasts and uncertain futures.

Released by Tartan Video.

Masjavlar (2004) - Maria Blom 

Description 

An engaging debut from acclaimed theatre director Maria Blom, Masjavlar won three Swedish Academy Awards, triumphing in the Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Leading Actress categories. 

Playfully taking its Swedish title (Dalecarlians) from the residents of the Dalarna province in Northern Sweden, the film concerns Mia (Sofia Helin), the youngest of three sisters who moved away to Stockholm 15 years ago. With her father, Calle (Willie Andreason), turning 70, Mia reluctantly returns to her hometown for the celebration. When it transpires that Calle is bequeathing her the idyllic family lakeside cabin, tensions between Mia and her sisters Eivor and Gunilla soon surface. 

Establishing herself as one of the leading lights of contemporary Swedish cinema, Blom creates an impressive set of characters, all with unexpected depths and surprises, and paints a provocative portrait of family and community. With the cast perfectly evoking a tangled web of tensions and repressed emotions, Masjavlar melts even the coldest of hearts.

Released by Drakes Avenue.

Mother And Son (1997) - Aleksandr Sokurov 

Description 

Alexander Sokurov's extraordinarily lyrical film is a beautiful and tender exploration of the deep affection between an dying mother and her devoted adult son. Set in a hauntingly beautiful landscape which Sokurov's camera transforms into stunning cinematic canvases, the pair recall happier times as the dutiful son lovingly nurses his ailing mother in her final hours. The first part in a proposed trilogy about familial bonds that continues with the captivating 'Father and Son', 'Mother and Son' is an emotional and poetic masterpiece of unique vision. 

A unique visual stylist, Sokurov is the most important filmmaker to have emerged from Russia since his mentor, Andrei Tarkovsky. 

Released by Artificial Eye.

My Wife Is A Gangster 2 - Return Of A Legend (2003) - Jeong Heung-sun

Description 

In this sequel to MY WIFE IS GANGSTER, former gang leader Eun-jin has lost her memory. She defends her employer, a restaurateur, from a gangster hellbent on taking over his business. 

Released by Elephant Video.

Red Shoes (2005) - Kim Yong-Gyun

Description 

Your feet could be killing you!

A pair of high-heeled shoes are abandoned on a subway platform. When a young woman discovers them she feels compelled to take them, not knowing that they are cursed. She has just split up with her husband and plans to raise her daughter on her own. However, the shoes take possession of her. Equally, they enchant her ballet-obsessed daughter, family and friends with murderous consequences. When she investigates further, she discovers that a malevolent spirit is seeking revenge beyond the grave. Mother and daughter become obsessive rivals for ownership of the cursed shoes, but who will find themselves taking the final walk to their grave? 

Director Yong-Gyun Kim has devised a devilishly captivating film in The Red Shoes which combines the familiar fairy tale most memorably realised in the Powell-Pressburger movie classic - with Korean horror traditions. It themes of vengeful spirits echo other Korean films such as The Phone and Into The Mirror. Its an atmospheric horror film filled with stylistically claustrophobic camerawork and tinged with modern Gothic scenery. Equally, its an intensive study of one womans psychological state of mind, her deeper, unfulfilled desires. The Red Shoes is a toe-curling chiller that takes you for a walk on the fearside. 

A Korean-style reworking of the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale...

Released by Tartan Video - Possible rental release .

The Science Of Sleep (2006) - Michel Gondry 

Description 

Largely set in the very active subconscious mind of Stephane, THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP bounces back and forth between his vivid dreams and mundane real life, which involves living in a Parisian apartment owned by his mother and working at an office with a strange crew of characters, including the crass Guy. When Stephane meets Stephanie, a shy neighbour from next door, the two form an unusual friendship, one that may or may not lead to romance. 

My opinion:

Anyone who has seen Michel Gondrys pop promos and shorts wont be surprised at this film, its one youll love or hate, if the former it is eminently rewatchable. Very imaginative and surreal, it gets a BIG thumbs up from me.

Released by Warner Home Video. Probable rental release .

She`s On Duty (2005) - Park Kwang-Chun 

Description 

An undercover female policewoman is sent to a school in order to befriend the teenage daughter of a criminal. 

Released by Elephant Video.

Le Silence De La Mer (1949) - Jean-Pierre Melville

Description 

Le Silence de la mer Jean-Pierre Melville's debut film is an adaptation of the novella of the same title by celebrated French Resistance author Vercors (the pen name of Jean Bruller). Clandestinely written in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of France and furtively distributed, it captured the spirit of the moment, and quickly became a staple of the Resistance. 

Melville's cinematic adaptation partly shot in Vercors' own house tells the story of a German officer, Werner von Ebrennac (Howard Vernon), who is billeted to the house of an elderly man (Jean-Marie Robain) and his niece (Nicole Stephane) in occupied France. Resisting the intruder, the uncle and niece refuse to speak to the German officer, who warms himself by the fire each evening espousing idealistic views about the relationship between France and Germany. These propagandised illusions are shattered, however, when a trip to Paris reveals the truth of what is really going on. 

One of the most important French films to deal with World War II, and a landmark in Melville's distinguished oeuvre, Le Silence de la Mer is a lyrical, timeless depiction of the experiences and struggles of occupation and resistance.

Released by Eureka Masters of Cinema.

The Stolen Children (Il Ladro Di Bambini) (1992) - Gianni Amelio 

Description 

A policewoman is ordered to escort two children from Milan to an orphanage in Sicily. 

Released by Arrow Films.

Cheers Trev.