Abandoned by her husband, Laura takes her nine year old daughter, Muriel, and leaves the hectic life on Buenos Aires bound for the tranquility of Argentina’s countryside. When they lose all their belongings in a freak accident, Muriel and her mother are taken in by a suspicious proprietor of a run down hotel, Mirta who has children on her own. Through struggles and hardships, the two women form a makeshift family only to have it threatened when Muriel’s father shows up looking to make amends. It’s a story of courage and survival, it is also a story of men and women as seen through the eyes of a child.
Category: Arthouse
A young unmarried couple leave the politically turbulent Berkeley behind for a life in the country. Finding a place in sheep country, the couple awaits the birth of their first child as they revel in bucolic splendor. The tensions of city life are left behind as things progress towards the anticipated due date. The couple wishes to have a natural childbirth and are comforted that the expectant father is a pre-med student with some knowledge of the upcoming situation. Things go along smoothly until the expectant mother’s father returns after years of being a sailor.
Doctor Glas is told in the form of a journal. The main character is Dr. Glas, a physician. The antagonist is Reverend Gregorius, a morally corrupt clergyman. Gregorius’ beautiful young wife confides in Dr. Glas that her sex life is making her miserable and asks for his help. Glas, in love with her, agrees to help even though she already has another adulterous lover. He attempts to intervene, but the Reverend refuses to give up his “marital rights”- she must have sex with him whether she likes it or not (at the time, a wife was legally the property of her husband, and subsequently had no right to say no). So, in order to make his love happy, he begins to plot her husband’s murder.
In its sixty-five minutes, Paz Encina’s first film, carries Ramón and Cándida, an aging couple living in the deep country, from sunrise, when they hang their old hammock between two trees in a clearing, to sunset, when they take it in. Settled in its tenuous grasp, they talk about the heat, the rain, the dog that won’t stop barking, the war, and their son, Máximo, who is doing his military service and hasn’t been heard from lately. The father lives in hope, the mother in fear, and scenes of their daily rounds of labor and rest—images of a contemplative pictorial exaltation—are joined by voice-over flashbacks revealing the story of their son’s departure and the rumors that followed.
A lonely old man lives in a desolate block of appartments in Vienna which is to be pulled down to make way for something more profitable. He fights for his humble home, fortifies it to defend himself against invincible forces of profit. A staid cinematography follows the character’s resistance and downfall.
Os Mutantes examines the lives of three kids in their early teens who have rejected life in juvenile homes or with foster families to take their chances on their own. They drift into petty crime and are exploited by sexual predators; the two boys end up working in a pornographic film, while Andreia becomes pregnant.
The Magicians were a rock band. The guitarist of the band committed suicide three years ago. Several other members of the band that has meanwhile split up meet each other on a cold New Year’s Eve. It’s snowing. They hang around in a bar. Thinking of better times. The film was made in one shot. A filmic bravura piece. Maker Song Il-gon profited from the freedom of his commission to experiment with making a film without editing. This resulted in a beautiful play with the unity of place and action, as in the theatre, and a reflection on the time past of the story.