In the wake of a young man’s suicide attempt, his family gathers in their large house in the country, where complex interrelationships play out against a tense vigil. Winner of the 1991 Jean Vigo Prize, Desplechin’s rarely screened featurette displays many of the hallmarks of his mature style: the deft handling of a sprawling cast of characters (played by several Desplechin regulars, including Emmanuelle Devos), the nuanced understanding of family dynamics, and the wide-ranging literary allusions. All come together in an incisive, poignant examination of the myriad ways we deal with tragedy.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
Made as part of “All the Boys and Girls of Their Age”—a critically acclaimed anthology series conceived around decade-specific rock-and-roll soundtracks that marked a moment of renewal in French cinema and helped launch a new generation of directors including Olivier Assayas and Claire Denis—Mazuy’s television film centers on Christine, a high schooler in late 1970s France who is enamored of John Travolta. When Christine is randomly picked up and seduced by Nicolas, a brooding teenager fascinated by Friedrich Nietzsche, they immediately face obstacles to their relationship, but nevertheless develop an awkward yet intense romance.
Shot in Lebanon in 1975 just before the civil war, director Johan van der Keuken delivers an account of the complexities surrounding the ‘Palestinian issue’, touching most vitally on the global interests, fluxes of oil, and explores the European origins of the troubles in Palestine.
Excellent adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s provocative short story, still has impact. Unsettling depiction of the banality of evil. Like the short story, the film begins casually with the start of the annual ritual lottery and grows more intense as we slowly realize the lottery’s purpose. Its main character, Tessie Hutchinson, learns too late the dangers of not speaking up, and of blindly following and supporting tradition. Tradition is symbolized by lucky “Old Man Warner”(77 years in the lottery). Like the short story, the film is shocking because of its matter-of-fact tone: the lottery is depicted as just another mundane yearly event. Spare, powerful, and thought-provoking.
Remember Me is a dark, obsessive and emotive treatise on death. Its aim is to explore the intimate, personal and often secret relationships that people have with mortality and loss. The film uses original and found footage to capture the complex web of emotions which surround death and to create a passionate journey through difficult private territories.
On the eve of World War I, Jews in European ghettos and market towns were transfixed by a new sensation: motion picture images from Palestine. Many had never seen a movie before and some cried as they escaped the cold Russian landscape for a moment, on a celluloid pilgrimage to the land of milk and honey.
Film adaptation of the short Büchner story of the same name, which tells of the stay of the psychotic Sturm und Drang poet Lenz in the home of the Alsatian priest and philanthropist Oberlin. The poet, whose pathological hallucinations are becoming increasingly unbearable, hopes for help from the gentle clergyman. But Oberlin, too, knows no advice; he regards his friend’s illness as God-given.