Shapes and stars, fish and boats swim, fly and sail across the screen to the music of Claude Debussy (“L’isle Joyeuse”). Paperdoll people change into birds and back again dancing, piping, running, flying. Based on the collages and line drawings of Henri Matisse.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
This inventive video renders poet Jessica Hagedorn’s views of “some of the harsh and beautiful realities of city living” for women in a man’s world. Hagedorn’s poetry is musical, pungent and gutsy. The visual artistry of Doris Chase emphasizes different aspects of Hagedorn’s lyrics. Images are dissected, quartered, washed with memory wipes that support and underscore the image and poetic meaning.
An open-hearted exploration of several fears: of the dark, old age, obesity, monsters and global destruction. Director Joanna Priestley gets across a series of personal phobias in a refreshing and humorous fashion. We get a superb, contemporary animated film with salutes to historical cartoon figures scattered throughout.
Francis and Blake Falls are Siamese twins who live in a neat little room in a rundown hotel. While sharing some organs, Blake is always fit and Francis is very sickly. Into their world comes a young lady, who turns their world upside down. She gets involved with Blake, and convinces the two to attend a Halloween party, where they can pass themselves off as wearing a costume. Eventually Francis becomes really ill, and they have to be separated.
Winner of the Grand Jury prize at the 1997 Slamdance Film Festival, Daniel J Harris’ foul-mouthed indie takes a look at the wasted lives of five middle-age traveling salesmen who sell bibles and guns. Harris’ ultra-campy tale is set-off when it’s announced that the company’s big wigs are going to shut down the Anaheim branch if the salesman working there don’t get a grip on their shoddy sales numbers. To save their jobs, the Anaheim crew travels west and encroaches upon the sales territory of the company’s Las Vegas branch thus waging a violent turf war.
Produced by the BBC, Joan Miró: Theatre of Dreams profiles the Spanish painter known for his childlike exuberance and playful abstract images. Ironically, his colorful pieces were often inspired by painful wartime experiences — specifically, the harshness of Franco’s regime. Written and narrated by Miró’s longtime friend Roland Penrose, the documentary features conversations between the two. Miro, who belonged to the surrealist school, often began paintings by marking the canvas with a splotch or a stain, which later transformed into a bird, a pretzel-shaped man, or a crooked star. At 85, Miró was still working.
There’s a big drought in Africa. Food and water are scarce. 90,000 wild baboons suddenly start attacking humans and eating them in order to survive. Some people find themselves being hunted by the starving monkeys and must do whatever they can to stay alive.
TV adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman’s off-Broadway play. Tandy, Merideth and assorted others unexpectedly wake up in a steambath with no easy exit. After spending some time there, it becomes clear that the steambath is a sort of Afterlife, where indifferent souls come to tell their stories to God who happens to be the attendant picking up the towels.