L’Argent (1983) Robert Bresson’s last film is an austere study of the bleak Eighties where obsession with money drives youths into gangs of thieves. Their passing of counterfeit money implicates one young man who winds up in jail, with his daughter dying and his wife abandoning him. That act of injustice precipitates him into senseless … More L’Argent (1983)
The Big Parade (1925 silent) Another of King Vidor’s masterpieces, this epic tackles machine guns and gas warfare in the trenches of World War I. John Gilbert stars as the spoiled brat from a rich family who joins up to be with his friends in what they expect will be a great adventure. While stationed … More The Big Parade (1925 silent)
Mysterious Object at Noon (1997–1999) Apichatpong Weerasethakul documents where stories come from. “The Mysterious Object and the Dogfar story had been told and acted by the Siamese Villagers from the north to the south and ended in December 1998.” What results is an innovative deconstruction of narrative itself. Elvis Mitchell wrote, “Mr. Weerasethakul’s film … More Mysterious Object at Noon (1997–1999)
A Blade In the Dark (1983) Heavily indebted to Psycho, this Gallo abandons logic to flow through dreamscapes of horror, imagery that evokes the full trauma of gender, culminating in an unexpected knifeblade every time a woman appears. Originally intended for Italian television, its gore proved so disturbing that it was released as a … More A Blade In the Dark (1983)
The Bird People in China (中国の鳥人) (1998) In this dark comedy, a yakuza is sent into the Chinese boondocks to keep track of a junior executive whose bank wants to ascertain if there’s jade to mine. Takashi Miike directs this anthropocentric fable that becomes a quest for an obscure tribe of Chinese people who have … More The Bird People in China
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) A comedy of terror normally associated with Harold Pinter plays fuels the brilliant dialogue of Jack Moran’s screenplay in this Russ Meyer exploitation film that caters to America’s worst fears about female gangs. Go-Go girls on the loose from their Pussycat strip club in Van Nuys, California, cruise the desert … More Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
The Monkey King 2 (2016 ) Fans of Marvel superheroes should pay attention to Hong Kong cinema. Based loosely on Journey to the West, this 3-D special effects movie, with action sequences directed by the great Sammo Hung, follows the Monkey King as he protects a young monk on his journey to recover sacred texts; … More The Monkey King 2 (2016 )
La Voce Della Luna (1990) In what turned out to be his last film, Fellini “crafts a parable on the whisperings of the soul that only madmen and vagabonds are capable of hearing.” Through episodic narrative, Fellini explores Jungian archetypes of lunar associations, to accommodate the manic antics of Roberto Benigni and the romantic obsessions … More La Voce Della Luna (1990)
Repo Man (1984) “The life of a Repo Man is always intense,” Harry Dean Stanton [as Bud] tells Emilio Estevez [as Otto], and no more so than when repossessing a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu full of alien bodies from outer space. Alex Cox wrote and directed this punk satire of science fiction and teen … More Repo Man (1984)
Absolution (1978) Richard Burton stars as a troubled priest under Anthony Page’s direction from Anthony Schafer’s original screenplay. Playing off the sacredness of the confessional, this plot traps the form master at a Catholic Boys School in a dilemma: what should he do when one of the boys confesses to murder? And then the murder … More Absolution (1978)
