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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
300 kilos of heroin have disappeared in Necrocity, a city of terror—a city of night—where Captain Speed has a gang and the government hides the dead. An experimental crime film considered to be a landmark of Parisian underground cinema.
A multiple-superimposition hand-painted visual symphony of animal life of earth. THE LOOM might be compared to musical quartet-form (as there are almost always four superimposed pictures); but the complexity of texture, multiplicity of tone, and the variety of interrelated rhythm, suggest symphonic dimensions. The film is very inspired by George Melies: the animals exist (in Jane's enclosure) as on a stage, their interrelationships edited to the disciplines of dance, so therefore one might say this hardly represents "animal life on earth"; but I would argue that this work at least epitomizes theatrical Nature, magical Creature, and is the outside limit, to date, of my art in that respect. (The balance-of-light was so perfectly realized in making the neg. of this print that I wish to credit Western Cine Lab's "timer" Louise Fujiki as creative collaborator in the accomplishment of this work.)
A collage more than a diary using images as artifacts that reflect processes. Sounds often come from other rooms, altered by their distance and the spaces that they have come through, just as the images themselves reflect the history of their own alterations. It is also a humorous exploration of the ideas of vignetting as it frames, highlights, distances and alters space.
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.
Historical information about the opera "O escravo", by Carlos Gomes, highlighting the fourth act, in which Iberê sings Iara's love.
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.
The Magic Lantern was an projector of information and stories than preceded the cinema. How did its visual style translate into the moving image? This film traces the aesthetic narrative from the 19th century up until the 21st, calling in at the Victorians, Melies, Welles, Godard, Spielberg and Carly Rae Jepsen. It also shows how these techniques can inspire your own creativity.