An old man meditates by the sea. A little girl is building a sandcastle. A young couple is frolicking on the beach. The day fades into the evening, as do the memories of youth. Pika päeva ehavalgus (The Light of a Long Day) is a poetic short film about the course of life, shot on 16mm. It won medals at amateur film festivals in Yugoslavia, Austria, Finland, Lithuania and the Baltic Union Republics for the humanistic treatment of the subject and the best directorial and acting work.
Author: Jon W.
Using a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 early one August morning, Claude Lelouch attached a camera to the bumper of the car and sped through the streets of Paris. He set the route to be from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, which is straight through the heart of Paris. When this film was first shown, Lelouch was arrested, and because of this, the footage spent many years underground until it was finally released on DVD in 2003.
Struggling hippie independent filmmaker Mick gets his big break after he finds out that his girlfriend Marlene’s father Burt is a movie producer. Unbeknown to Mick, Burt only specializes in porno pictures. Mick cranks out a cruddy science fiction stinker in three days for Burt, who demands countless changes and has a hard time figuring out how to distribute Mick’s lousy movie.
Former music-video director Michael H. Shamberg debut film is an experimental drama about a woman who comes to terms with painful childhood memories. Orlando is an expatriate American sports journalist living in Paris. She is also slowly recovering from childhood sexual abuse from her father and an incestuous relationship with her late brother. As she wanders the streets on a rainy evening, she sullenly ruminates over her memories. Both Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci play small parts in this film, while legendary filmmaker Chris Marker provides computer graphics.
Gizmo! is an irresistible collection of newsreel footage chronicling the inventive spirit in America. We are treated to some of the strangest inventions ever concocted by man, as well as a few forgotten contraptions that seem to make a great deal of sense. Naturally, filmmaker Howard Smith does not let slip the opportunity of showing the inventors at their most foolish, so once again those ubiquitous shots of collapsing one-man airplanes and malfunctioning jet-powered backpacks are trotted out. Gizmo! is a wonderful way to spend 77 minutes, as well as an ideal fund-raiser for your local PBS “pledge week”.
Yuriko works at home all day as a tape transcriber, while her husband, Takashi, works as a school teacher. Yuriko’s behavior grows stranger and more distant and she starts spending all day “patrolling” the neighborhood. Takashi follows her one afternoon and begins to suspect that she may be suffering from schizophrenia.
An ironic backstage short, in which a young actress in her dressing-room, preparing to go onstage for a play which she tells us is failing, reflects on the performers’ and audiences’ lack of enthusiasm, and reminisces about a failed love affair. Meanwhile, the other performers carouse enthusiastically and we hear the audience’s enthusiastic response.
In this gay classic from acclaimed filmmaker Ira Sachs, 18-year-old Lincoln Bloom leads a relatively straight teenage life, but finds himself drawn to the anonymous sexual encounters of local gay bars and video arcades. He soon meets Minh, a Vietnamese immigrant, and embarks with him on a trip down the river, where their doomed relationship hits a dramatic turning point.