Illiterate and unemployed, Ed Sloan marries widowed schoolteacher Norah Gilbert and becomes the stepfather of her two sons; but after not being able to find employment, Ed ends up murdering a businessman.
Year: 2026
The world of 15 year old unicyclist Tony Marienthal includes visits to assist the elderly, learning new juggling tricks, and trying to make it home for supper. The film is a wonderful, idyllic “day in the life” film of a teen-ager. It’s also somewhat bittersweet, as Tony Marienthal, who wanted his baby son to see this film, died at the young age of 51.
In A Hole in the Soul, director Dusan Makavejev’s free-form, autobiographical meditation on the nature of a place combines aspects of both physical place (the former Yugoslavia) and mental place (the cinematic avant-garde). Makavejev mixes styles and genres in order to explore his sense of himself and his physical environment. Makavejev’s bold contribution to BBC Scotland’s acclaimed TV series The Director’s Place allows audiences a highly personal look at the director as he explores his own hole in the soul.
Thirty-year-old Irén dreams of a separate apartment so she can move in with her lover, the married Attila. Hope is sparked by one of the man’s acquaintances, the construction contractor Hevesi, but in order to apply for the larger apartment, she must first enter into a marriage of convenience with the young Gábor. Irén takes out a loan on her modest kindergarten teacher salary, wanders through the mazes of socialist bureaucracy, while Hevesi and her nominal husband harass her with sexual offers, and by the time the day of moving in is within reach, it turns out that Attila doesn’t want to leave his family after all.
Ulrike Ottinger’s singular debut feature is an extravagantly stylized lesbian pirate spectacle that radically deconstructs decades of male-oriented adventures. Madame X (Tabea Blumenschein) is the notorious pirate ruler of the China Sea who recruits a motley crew of women (among them avant-garde icon Yvonne Rainer as a disillusioned artist) to leave behind their humdrum lives and join her on her outlaw ship, the Orlando. Once aboard, the women’s search for freedom leads them on an odyssey that, in Ottinger’s words, “is not a journey outward into adventure but a journey into the interior.”
Within a few years, Chiu, a small-time crook, has become a gang leader. But his professional ambitions are actually quite different: he wants to leave illegality behind and make a career for himself and his lover in Canada – as a chef. However, this craft must first be learned and Chiu’s talent in the field of cooking leaves much to be desired.
A controversial documentary screened in the official competition at the Cannes Festival. It depicts a hypnosis session in which participants, under its influence, inflict pain on themselves and others. The film addresses important themes such as manipulation, abuse of power, and collective obedience, provoking strong reactions from audiences and critics.