Four arduous years in the making, Ardak Amirkulov’s 1990 historical epic about the intrigue and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan’s systematic destruction of the lost East Asian civilization of Otrar is a one-of-a-kind experience. Amirkulov’s film, shot in sepia-toned black-and-white, is at once hallucinatory, visually resplendent, and ferociously energetic, packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail and B-movie fervor, and traversing an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
A man and a woman sit in a room and when the wind blows the window open, the man imagines what would happen if he kills the woman and the following drama blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction.
This animated film paints a vivid portrait of two strangers intimately linked by the shared ceilings, floors and plumbing of their apartments. When an unexpected problem arises, these comfortable connections are compromised. Wendy Tilby uses a painstaking animation process involving painting on glass and stop-action filming.
Smith, the deaf and dumb son of a rural black preacher, refuses to accept the menial labour on offer in the small farming community where he’s grown up. He tries to earn a living in the city, but this ends in assault, and his return home sparks off a cycle of vengeful violence. What Roodt’s film lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in dirty authenticity. A hard-hitting independent venture (the director went on to make Sarafina!), completed and released against the odds in apartheid South Africa.
Goto is an island which, through a series of natural disasters, was cut off from the rest of the world in the late 1800s. Its inhabitants toil in stone quarries and relax in the state-run brothels. There in no art, no science, no prosperity, but everyone is happy to swear allegiance to their sadistic ruler, Goto III. At a public execution, Goto’s wife, Glossia saves the life of a condemned man, Grozo, whom Goto pardons and adopts as his personal fly killer. From the day that Grozo takes up his new office, the island of Goto will never be the same again…
A security company conjures up fake computer-generated “ghosts” so they can buy abandoned property at below-market value at auctions. However, a mysterious couple appear out of seemingly nowhere to thwart the company’s plans.
A biographical story of rock idol and TV star Ricky Nelson. Told in flashbacks, the film examines the Nelson’s early life, their rise to TV stardom in the 50’s, Ricky’s struggles with his Dad Ozzie Nelson to move into music and out of his Dad’s control, and his star drop after his early teen successes. Features behind the scenes stories of one of the top celebrities of the 50’s and 60’s.
During the filming of Ragtime, the 81-year old Cagney talks about his career. Cagney tells us about becoming a dancer and meeting his wife, his route from Broadway to Hollywood, the emergence of his tough-guy persona, and his post-war creations of insane characters. Donald O’Connor, Pat O’Brien, Milos Forman and others also try to distill what it is Cagney brings to the screen. Clips from several of his films illustrate their points.