When a naïve young man and his lazy best friend attempt to rob a bank, they find another robber has beaten them to the punch. After the original robber and the best friend are killed, the young man serendipitously gets the 80 million yen. But when he accidentally stabs an innocent hairdresser, a cause-and-effect situation quickly spirals out of control. Meanwhile, a trio of yakuzas mistakenly kills a powerful mob boss. As their paths continue to cross, the story displays some interesting parallels about just-out-of-reach redemption and the unlikelihood of atoning for one’s sins, all delivered in a black comedy package.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
Three ‘Bukowskian’ torrid nights in the life of a man in search of love. Harry, 12, is young and naive. Love, for him, is romantic love between princes and princesses demurely kissing each other on the mouth. His father is a hero who kidnapped his mother and married her on a lonely mountain peak – Later on, he’ll do the same. But Harry has a lot to learn. He also learns that there are handsome men and ugly ones, that love can be unfair. That one can find comfort in drinking – but above all he learns that man is capable of anything – absolutely anything. – to get his fair share of love.
The history of the first victim of modern artillery and its moving agony, amidst conspiracies and betrayals of the powerful. Life and death of Giovanni De’ Medici, a young brave captain in the war of Charles V against the Pope, in the first half of 1500.
In London’s Soho, Johnny Solo runs the Pink Flamingo Club. He’s tough to intimidate. So when he starts getting threats and demands for protection, he fights back. Behind the takeover plot is a competitor, Diamonds Dielli. Midnight Franklin, who’s Johnny’s girlfriend and one of the club’s headliners, wants to get Johnny out of the business. In the background are a sadistic client, an underage chorus girl, a wisecracking siren who’s not averse to rough trade, a visiting journalist, and a dancer who guards her past. Can Johnny win the struggle with Diamonds, and can Midnight get him out of harm’s way?
A prisoner is found unconscious in his cell after an attempted suicide. The prison doctor is called to resuscitate the man and so must face an ethical dilemma.
Material was cut in as it came out of the camera, embarrassing moments intact. 100′ rolls timed well with music on old 78s. I was interested in immediacy, a sense of ease, and an art where suffering was acknowledged but not trivialized with dramatics. Whimsy was our achievement, as well as breaking out of step. – Ken Jacobs.
A sensitive, low-key portrait of the East Bay Activity Center, a school in Oakland, California, started in the 1950s to help emotionally disturbed children. The atmospheric documentary opens with hilly East Bay streets shrouded in fog. The mist lifts as the film moves to children at play. Often shown in unobtrusive close-up, the youngsters appear as thinking individuals, enjoying the swings, puzzling out problems, or interacting with their teacher in the classroom.
A must-see for all Rainer Werner Fassbinder fans. Radu Gabrea’s campy 1984 biopic about the late director stars the very talented Eva Mattes in drag in the title role, manipulating his Munich stock company in a variety of perverse ways while coming on as a slob enfant terrible. Funny, insightful, and packed with inside references that enthusiasts of the director and his myth will particularly enjoy, this is good, decadent fun even for spectators with only a casual acquaintance with Fassbinder; Mattes’s hallucinatory performance has a fascination all its own.