Dienstag, 28. August 2012

take 11: 29.8.2012

CULT!

doors open at 19h30 

20h15: Poland 1981, 100min. polish with english subs:

 

                                         

"Mis," by Stanislaw Bareja, is one of the best and highest rated Polish comedies. With its plot tightly set in Polish reality, the film presents a skewed view on Polish society of the 1980s. The film's main plot is intertwined with grotesque and absurd situations from everyday life (exaggerated to fit the film's comedic purpose). The film focuses on Ryszard Ochodzki (Stanislaw Tym), a chairman of a sports-club, whose passport has been mysteriously damaged, which makes him unable to leave the country. He wants to get to London, where he is supposed to withdraw a large sum of money from his bank account. Unfortunately, he shares his bank account with his ex-wife, who also wants the cash. The bulk of the film follows Ochodzki's efforts to outsmart his wife, get a new passport and get to London as soon as possible. I have no words to describe the film's brilliance. While some of the jokes might be unfunny to non-Polish audiences, the film still makes for a fantastically comic viewing and a brilliant insight into the 1980s' Poland.









ca 22h:

SECRET CULT MOVIE




Montag, 20. August 2012

take 10: 22.8.2012

USA !

Doors open at 19h30.
Before and after the main features ANIMATED SHORTS from USA.

 20h: USA 2003, 100 min, english (a kind of), no subtitles:



Producer, writer, director and star Tommy Wiseau has created a film that was produced, writting, directed and stared himself, which is shown in many movie theatres regularly and is considered as cult.


IMDB user comment
I have now seen Mr. Tommy Wiseau's cinematic tour-de-force, `The Room' three times. With each viewing, `The Room' becomes more complexly entangled in and inseparable from my own life. I no longer know where The Room ends and I begin.

It is, without question, the worst film ever made. Including movies made on beta max video cameras in special education high school classes. But this comment is in no way meant to be discouraging. Because while The Room is the worst movie ever made it is also the greatest way to spend a blisteringly fast 100 minutes in the dark. Simply put, `The Room' will change your life.



It's not just the dreadful acting or the sub-normal screenplay or the bewildering direction or the musical score so soaked in melodrama that you will throw up on yourself or the lunatic-making cinematography; no, there is something so magically wrong with this movie that it can only be the product of divine intervention. If you took the greatest filmmakers in history and gave them all the task of purposefully creating a film as spectacularly horrible as this not one of them, with all their knowledge and skill, could make anything that could even be considered as a contender. Not one line or scene would rival any moment in The Room.

The centerpiece of this filmic holocaust is Mr. Tommy Wiseau himself. Without him, it would still be the worst movie ever made, but with him it is the greatest worst movie ever made. Tommy has been described as a Cajun, a Croatian cyborg, possibly from Belgium, clearly a product of Denmark, or maybe even not from this world or dimension. All of these things are true at any one moment. He is a tantalizing mystery stuffed inside an enigma wrapped in bacon and smothered in cheese. You will fall in love with this man even as you are repelled by him from the first moment he steps onto screen with his long Louis the Fourteenth style black locks and thick triangular shoulders packed into an oddly fitting suit, and his metallic steroid destroyed skin. Tommy looks out of place, out of time and out of this world. There has never been anything else like him. Nor will there ever be.



Just when you think the movie might lapse into an ordinary, pedestrian sort of badness, Johnny's best friend Mark, a man who's job seems to be to wear James Brolin's beard from Amityville Horror, shows up and electrifies the screen with a performance so wooden that it belongs in the lumber section of Home Depot. Incidentally, Mark is played by Greg Sestero, who, in addition to being described as a department store mannequin, was also the line producer on `The Room' and one of Tommy Wiseau's five (5!!!!!) assistants on the movie. Lisa forces Mark, amid his paltry, unconvincing protests, to have an affair with her on their uncomfortable circular stairs. For no apparent reason Lisa decides that she is made of pure evil and wants to torture her angelic and insanely devoted fiancé, Johnny.



See this film at all costs. See it twice. Or three times. Or as one kid that I met from Woodland Hills has, 12 times! See it until you can recite every precious line of dialogue this movie has to offer. Let The Room become your new religion and Tommy Wiseau your prophet preaching the gospel according to Johnny.
My dream is to someday buy a theater and run The Room 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until the print disintegrates. I hope it becomes your dream as well. IMDB user comment











  ca. 22h, USA 1973, 90 min., english no subtitles



Kino Anders presents proudly one of the best horror movies ever made!!!


Unsettling... surreal... otherworldly... those are just a few words one can use to describe this picture. Engrossing... unforgettable... a few more. This movie is worth a thousand words only because no one word will suffice.

Messiah of Evil is the story of a woman who goes looking for her father after he mysteriously stops correspondence with her. When she arrives at his seaside home, she finds that the whole town has gone quite batty. She is joined by a far out new-age couple who were curiously attracted to the strange town. Together, the trio find out that the town has become one big, evil, flesh and blood craving, moon worshiping zombie cult.


 DEAD PEOPLE (or MESSIAH OF EVIL) is one of those rare horror films that comes along only a few instances in one's lifetime.

I was totally knocked-out by this forgotten film. Everything about it is mesmerizing. The thing I was impressed the most about DEAD PEOPLE is the mood. I've rarely seen a horror this darkly moody, not since SUSPIRIA. Horror fans looking for gore or fast paced action or even the standard way horror films are usually made (high body count, an unstoppable killer, etc) will be disappointed by DEAD PEOPLE. It's none of those things.

DEAD PEOPLE is directed like a nightmare and everything about it is disorienting. There's almost no familiar point of reference in the movie. Everything about it is deliberately done as to make the viewers feel like they cannot relate to what's going on, which is probably why this film looks like a failure to many. But for me, the effect is fantastic. This "disorientating" technique is very common now, with celebrated filmmakers, such as David Lynch, who have made entire careers utilizing this style of film-making.


Messiah of Evil (the most common title) is not the kind of zombie movie that most people expect. The zombies are small-town residents slowly turned into the living dead by a supernatural force while remaining functional the whole time. They are able to speak, move, and act as a living person would; their main objective is not to eat the living (although they do), but to wait for the coming of their dark messiah. If this concept turns you off, then you may want to skip this movie.

With that out of the way, the film is a surreal, expressionistic, and highly imaginative piece of avant-garde terror. The above-average cast turns in superb performances, with Michael Greer and Marianna Hill sympathetic as the offbeat leads. The images are amazing: Joy Bang slowly surrounded by zombies in the cinema, the marquee reading KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE, Greer roaming the deserted streets, the bleeding citizens of Point Dune staring out at the ocean...I could go on and on. The low budget shows, and the faded, grainy color composition only enhances the phantasmagorical tone. Elisha Cook's recounting of the town's history is incredibly creepy, as is Hill's narration (in both hysteria and cool detachment). Raun McKinnon's sad, plaintive performance of the theme song, "Hold on to Love," is another haunting aspect. An intelligent, chilling modern horror movie that doesn't need buckets of on-screen gore to make it's point.




Sonntag, 12. August 2012

take 9: 15.8.12

CANADA!

Doors opens at 19h45.
before and after the main features, ANIMATED SHORTS from Canada.



  
20h30, Canada 1985, 1h, english, no subtitles


YOSH AND STAN SHMENGE, polka players extraordinary, are retiring. The two legends are hanging up their lederhosen. And like most popular music stars, they are having a final concert for their devoted fans, most of them now over 50. ''The Last Polka,'' a zany ''documentary'' (=mockumentary) sendup of that concert and a review of the career of the Shmenges.


Old black-and-white home movies and newsreels show Yosh and Stan growing up during World War II in Leutonia, situated on the dark side of the Balkans and totally devoid of trees. Young Yosh and Stan break into show business with a vaudeville act playing music on geltkes, which are glass jars. Their first big influence was Lionel Hampton. Trying to get established, they try a number of gimmicks, at one point touring as ''Stan & Jolie,'' with Yosh done up in blackface and crouched on one knee. Eventually, though, with Yosh playing clarinet and Stan accordion, they settle on toe-tapping polkas, offering delighted audiences such popular favorites as ''Cabbage Rolls and Coffee.'' ''Hey,'' shouts big Yosh cheerfully, ''let's polka - two, three, four.'' 




The Spinal Tap of Polka starring John Candy and Eugene Levy and directed by John Blanchard is  very funny! Watch the trailer, if you don't believe me!




ca. 21h45, Canada 1974, 79 min., english, no subtitles
Monkeys in the Attic A Film of Exploding Dreams centres on two couples living in a sumptuously kinky Toronto household. The clowning and crazy Wanda (Jackie Burroughs) and Eric (Victor Garber) are wild in fantasy and sexuality, while Elaine (Jess Walton) and Frederick (Louis Del Grande) appear to be on the verge of separation; tired of Frederick’s bullying, Elaine retreats into a world of alcohol and pills, resenting Frederick and the freakiness of the other couple. When a pizza delivery boy (Jim Henshaw) arrives, he is lured into Elaine’s bathtub and then dumped into the backyard pool. His boss phones at the end, bringing the fantasy back to reality.



Morley Markson’s third feature is as carefully conceived and structured as his others, a precisely modulated and often funny exploration of the clash of egos caught up (in a similar way to Markson’s Breathing Together) in the battle between “a dead culture and a live culture.” Though some critics found Monkeys in the Attic a bad amalgam of Fellini, Buñuel and Bergman, it stands as the clearest expression of Markson’s sensibility. It won an award as best foreign film at the Rencontre internationale du jeune cinema in Toulon in 1974, but had only a limited commercial release.
by: Peter Morris

 This is an unusual film. That will be my first of many understatements about Monkeys in The Attic. I know that this is a Canadian film about two dysfunctional couples who live, love, and trip (not in the travel sense) together. Their interaction with each other is only interrupted when the pizza delivery man pays a call. That is where my understanding of the plot stops. I have a few theories about the meaning of this movie; I think all are equally valid. Theory number 1: This is an obvious attempt to shed light on aimless bourgeoisie awash in the morass of modern decadent Western capitalistic society. Theory number 2: This is a treatise on the subtle differences between appearance and reality, soberness and drunkenness, sanity and insanity, male and female, body and soul. Theory number 3: This is a visual essay on the physical and emotional impotence of the male in the modern world, in light of the feminist movement. Theory number 4: This is one long public service message about the need to "Just say no." Theory number 5: This is a paradigm of what happens when a bunch of Canadians get together to get naked, drop a lot of acid, smoke a lot of doobies, and get "turned on."


 The actors in this little drama do what they can with what they are given---which is not much. Victor Garber--who later went on to play the kind-hearted Thomas Andrews in the blockbuster Titanic--and Jackie Burroughs are the most interesting to watch. They must explore the greater range of emotions. Jess Walton--of The Young and the Restless fame--and Louis Del Grande, on the other hand, just seem to be in a bad mood. Comic relief is provided by Jim Henshaw, who plays the hapless pizza delivery boy. by Sheri Files on imdb


 Despite the playful title, this an adult film with some disturbing scenes of drug abuse, and sexual and domestic violence. It is not for the close-minded or the easily offended. To fully appreciate this film (if that is possible), you have to remember the times in which it was made: it is 70s mentality and morality. Many today will find it politically incorrect, but will watch anyway...like glancing back at a bad car crash.




Sonntag, 5. August 2012

take 8: 8.8.2012

Bella Italia!

opening 20h:
20h30, Italy 1975, 125min., italian with english subs


Absurdist political thriller from legendary director Elio Petri (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto) with a dream cast.


Plot:
1970's Italy.  While an unnamed epidemic is killing the nation's citizens, Italian politicians enter a secret underground religious retreat, under the guidance of maverick priest Don Gaetano.  Amongst vicious infighting, one by one, the politicians begin dying.


 The film is notorious because Gian Maria Volonte's character, called simply 'M', was clearly a lacerating portrait of Christian Democrat politician Aldo Moro.  Two years after the film was made Moro was kidnapped and assisinated, probably by the Red Brigade.  To date this film has not received a DVD release.  It's a great shame because the film utterly transcends its period.  It features a fearless piece of acting from Volonté who gives a performanc unlike anything else I have seen of his.  Marcello Mastroianni is similarly brilliant, completely different  from his roles in Italian comedies.
The supporting cast members, who work in marvellous co-ordination with one another other, are all excellent.  Set Design and cinematography are also amazing.  The best underground bunker since Dr Strangelove.


Todo Modo is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Leonardo Sciascia.  The English translation of the title is One Way Or Another.

Trivia: Director Elio Petri commisioned a jazz score from Charles Mingus.  However, it was not used.  Ennio Morricone (never one to leave the telephone unanswered) was on hand to create a highly unsual expressionistic soundscape as a substitute.









ca. 22h50, Italy 1967, 99 min., english subs




A rather unusual agenda from Tinto Brass who obviously found later his niche in "t&a" movies. Col cuore in Gola is a psychedelic, pop art giallo that can just come from the great era of the late 60´s/70´s. Starting from the nice credits and music you immediately like this film and this is just the beginning!


 Trintignant founds in a nightclub a corpse beside the lovely Aulin who just says "I wasn’t it". Convinced that she is innocent he wants to help her and want to find out the murderer, Aulins brother should solve this case and both are searching for him. Though not quite without problems... a dwarf in raincoat is following them in companion with some gangsters who kidnap Aulin. Jean is now searching for Aulin, Aulins brother and (of course) the murderer.


 The Story itself is not that convincing (rather unimportant) but what here is really of interest is the unconvential style of brass : splitscreen (even tripple split screens!) some scenes in black and dark yellow filter and more.., and in the "middle" of course the presence of two very convincing leads: cool Trintignant and hot Ewa Aulin.
(imdb user comment)