Images from an aerial tram leaving Manhattan are followed by images of a nearly static bird, of bugs fighting, and of light bending as it passes through glass. Near the film’s end the tram lands in Manhattan, as if it had reversed direction; as in all of Julie Murray’s films, the images and the editing can pull several ways at once. There are no absolutes, and even the light by which we see is altered by the material it passes through.
Category: Short
A poor church photographer wanders into the harsh realities of life in the city of old Manila. His camera is stolen by a kid. He encounters intimidation in his search for the kid and goes through other misadventures.
Vera thinks she’s witnessed a man decapitating his wife. Actually, she’s only seen magician Bluebeard the Great rehearsing his act. Still convinced that the magician is a killer, Vera goes through all sorts of comic agony when she is forced to share the same train compartment with Bluebeard (who doesn’t help matters when he offers her a sandwich consisting of “scrambled brains and tongue”).
A man who lives by himself becomes increasingly concerned that he is not alone. Based on the short story by Guy de Maupassant.
Bahman Kiarostami’s charming documentary about mourners-for-hire who are called upon to attend funerals in Iran. With an understated, lighthearted style, Tabaki provides a fascinating view of a peculiar occupation within this religious culture, offering, in the process, an insightful portrait of the society as a whole.
Morning has broken on January 1, 2000. A man rises from his bed, leaving a woman asleep. He walks through an apartment littered with the detritus of last night’s party. Twin men are asleep in a single sleeping bag on the floor. He sees a couple making love in an apartment across the way. The woman rises, sees him staring out the window, and runs a bath. As she soaks and the twins sleep, he makes a discovery beneath a wastebasket. Quiet morning-after ruminations continue.
Moretti plays himself, running the movie theater he owns in Rome. In the film, Moretti is endlessly anxious with the wish for his patrons to watch and appreciate Abbas Kiarostami’s Close-Up, in the face of reports that other films are selling far more tickets.