The Fabulous World of Jules Verne takes viewers on a captivating journey through a dreamlike world where steam-powered inventions, underwater tunnels, and volcanic islands coexist. When a group of scientists discover a hidden island base, they must join forces with intrepid reporter Michelle to save the world from an evil dictator's plot to conquer it. This black-and-white masterpiece showcases the wonders of 19th-century science and literature, blending fantasy and steampunk elements with a touch of European charm.
Gate of Flesh is a dark and gritty drama set in the harsh realities of post-World War II Tokyo. The film follows a group of prostitutes who band together to survive in a city devastated by war and poverty. They face challenges such as hunger, violence, and exploitation while navigating the treacherous world of prostitution. Based on a novel, Gate of Flesh explores themes of desperation, survival, and the human spirit in the face of adversity.
In 'Maniac,' a vaudevillian is driven insane when his reanimation experiments go awry. He impersonates a famous doctor and hides a dead body in a brick wall. With a touch of gore and violence, the maniac continues his murderous spree, all while laughing manically.
Waxworks is a horror anthology film set in a wax museum, where a writer is guided through different scenarios by a mysterious wax figure. Each scenario is a tale of horror and fantasy, exploring themes of insanity, murder, and magic. The film features iconic characters such as Jack the Ripper and Ivan the Terrible.
Arabian Nights: Volume 3, The Enchanted One is the third installment of the Arabian Nights trilogy. It explores various stories set in different parts of Portugal, focusing on the societal and economic crisis of the country. The film incorporates both fiction and documentary elements, delving into themes of political corruption, social injustice, and the power of storytelling.
Prelude: Dog Star Man is a surreal and experimental short film that explores themes of dreams, avant-garde concepts, and surrealism. It features superimposition techniques and showcases an abstract narrative.
After moving into her late husband's mansion, a newlywed woman starts experiencing strange occurrences that lead her to believe her husband's skull is haunting her. She becomes increasingly disturbed and must confront her troubled past to uncover the truth.
Friday Night is a romantic drama that takes place in Paris. The story revolves around the events that unfold on one Friday night, including a traffic jam, a strike, and encountering a stranger. The film explores themes of love, intimacy, and the unpredictability of life.
The Ryries have suffered a loss: the death of a baby just fifty-seven hours after his birth. Without words to express their grief, the parents, John and Ricky, try to return to their previous lives. The couple's children, ten-year-old Biscuit and thirteen-year-old Paul, responding to the unnamed tensions around them, begin to act out in exquisitely idiosyncratic ways. But as the family members scatter into private, isolating grief, an unexpected visitor arrives, and they find themselves growing more alert to the hurt, humor, warmth, and burdens of others—to the grief that is part of every human life but that also carries within it the power to draw us together.
Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse delves into the mesmerizing art of painted-light superimposition on television, showcasing the extraordinary techniques used in creating visual effects and illusions.
"How Every Film You Watch Tells You To Love The Rich and What To Do About It" explores the representations of wealth in cinema. It looks into how most beloved characters are subtly more well-off than they should be, how criticisms of the system are crushed, how the rich have become the average in the world of the cinema. And it shows how these stories distort the view of the real world, and are used against you by politicians.
Philippe Lutcher, an anarchist, fires a shot at Clara Stuart, a famous stage and screen actress, but only wounds her. The star, through affectation and curiosity to know his motives, pleads in his favour at his trial, but he rebuffs her pity. After he has served 18 months in prison, they meet and fall in love.
A black and white preface shows a woman in a traditional kimono climbing the stairs as WWII era Mitsubishi Zeros fly through the sky and footage of the Japanese military of the era is superimposed over the footage. She stops at the top of the stairs to say her prayers, rings a bell, and heads inside where the footage is shot in color. She unravels her kimono and rubs her face with the cloth before wrapping her blade and lovingly touching it. She pulls it across her stomach and slits herself open, falling to the mat. She crawls across the mat, dying, slipping in her own slick blood until she can't move anymore.
Chappaqua is a surreal drama film that follows a drug addict named K and his journey through New York City as he seeks treatment for his addiction. Along the way, he encounters various characters and experiences strange and surreal moments. The film explores themes of drug addiction, youth, sexuality, and spirituality.
Faithfully reproduced observations of Breton fisherfolk in story of the man a local woman really loves who will not at first give himself to her because of his fondness for the sea that takes him away.
What is the future of cinema? In 1982, in Cannes, Wim Wenders invited many movie makers to answer this question. 26 years later, the question remains, but Wenders is now on the other side of the camera.
Since its publication 200 years ago, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has influenced vast swathes of popular culture. Adaptations have starred cinema legends from Boris Karloff to Robert De Niro – and even Alvin and the Chipmunks. From tales of science gone mad (Jurassic Park) to stories of understanding the other (ET, The Hulk, Arrival), traces of the story and its themes have spread across our media. With Frankenstein Re-membered, video artist and film historian Chris Gerrard collects these diverse fragments from the birth of cinema until the present day and in the tradition of Victor Frankenstein himself, attempts to stitch them back together into an adaptation of the original Shelley novel.
This work, composed of six rolls of superimposed images set to Tenney’s electronic music track ‘Blue Suede’, is a celebration of the balletic restraints of adolescent sexuality — (shaped in this instance) by ‘The Nutcracker Suite’ of Tchaikovsky as well as the gristly roots of Elvis Presley. – S.B.
Humankind has always dreamt of the night sky. Of the infinite freedom offered by the black void, and of the strong, shining beacon inviting us to ascend. This is a story, a history of the events that led up to our conquest of space, and the consequences throughout wider humanity. The film is a collage. Of genres, documentary and comedy. Of media, drawing from painting and film. Of films, cannibalising all film history. Of truth, both objective and subjective. Watch the small steps and let your mind take a giant leap.
Two sets of images are superimposed. From the side, we see a two-masted ship. Across the deck walks a skeleton. It sits down, its legs akimbo. The legs separate and continue a dance while the body of the skeleton faces us and the skull moves its jaw bone. It rises and the legs rejoin the skull and body for an additional jig back and forth on deck.