In the offices of a prestigious New York daily, a junior editor and his veteran secretary are locked in a battle of wills over office culture. Will speed, efficiency and organisation win out, or are the old ways best? This short was Oscar nominated in 1999 and features a cameo performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Tag: 1990s
HOBO is a travelogue of sorts, a portrait of life lived by homeless men on and off the railways in America. John T. Davis spent three months travelling on the boxcars with his principal subject, Beargrease, who each year leaves his home to ride the rails and scavenge for food. It is a world mostly populated by men, many of them ‘misfits’, who for various reasons find life on the margins of settled society easier than being a part of it. The film confronts the romance and mythology created by the many songs about life as a hobo, but finds romance and beauty in the landscapes of the American west.
Interweaving evocative images with powerful performance footage, this short film explores Southern writer Dorothy Allison’s life, from the oppression of poverty and childhood abuse to a place where she has channeled that oppression into creativity.
After his family is murdered, and he’s left for dead, a farmer awakens in the desert and finds himself transformed into a savage warrior, with all the powers and skills of the ancient gods. Guided by his “spirit masters” he’s given a mission; destroy Titan Corporation, the world’s most powerful high-tech computer company and its ambitious leader, Michael Burroughs. Burrough’s has discovered the technological remains of an ancient race and a secret that will allow him to open the Vortex and achieve immortality. Out in the desert, ancient powers collide with sophisticated technology as the Savage and Burroughs meet in a titanic struggle that could destroy mankind.
During World War I in Norway, a shipping magnate goes bankrupt, and the family being used to a high-spending life moves to a summer cabin with moonshine and smuggling as a way out. Love and art are sacrificed in the hunt for old honor, with the children as victims.
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.
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.
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.