An Electric Blanket Named Moshe

An Electric Blanket Named Moshe (1995)
Director.........: Assi Dayan
Country..........: Israel
Runtime..........: 90 min


This Israeli black comedy is the second entry in Assi Dayan's trilogy that began with Life According to Agfa (1993). The story centers around the lives of three down and out people who played bit parts in the first film. They are Malka, an aging whore who dreams of being a singer, Levy, her self-destructive pimp, and Moshe, a homeless old man who dreams of owning an electric blanket. Fragmentary scenes from their dreams comprise the beginning of the film; Malka is also seen hawking her body on the outskirts of town. Later the three are badly beaten by rival pimps and they must go to the ER for treatment. They are next seen entering the bar where Agfa is being filmed. They talk the director into giving them small parts. In the end they are seen, as if appearing in an earlier film, discussing philosophy on a park bench.
About the Trilogy:
Life According to Agfa, shocked Israeli audiences as it used a Tel Aviv pub and its neighborhood to portray a self-destructive Israeli society tearing itself apart. When Dayan, the enfant terrible of Israeli cinema one, followed "Agfa" with the chaotically existentialist and intentionally foul-mouthed "Electric Blanket Syndrome," even his most devoted followers were taken aback, some arguing it was intentionally horrifying, others rejecting it as hopelessly vulgar.
Assi Dayan wrapped up the trilogy on his personal "accidental philosophy of life" (which started with "Agfa,") with "Mr Baum," the story of a man who is told in the first sequence of the film that he has 92 more minutes to live; and he indeed dies some 90 minutes later, in the last sequence. This third episode states that everything, including life itself, is an accident, that every man is an island and no one gives a damn about the rest of humanity, though they all pretend to. Don’t believe your father and mother, wife, children, friends or relatives, it’s all one to them whether you live or die, as long as it does not affect their personal comfort.

La princesse de Montpensier (2010)

La princesse de Montpensier (2010)
Director:Bertrand Tavernier
Country: France | Germany
Runtime: 139 min




Bertrand Tavernier is in top form with this gripping, superbly mounted drama set against the savage Catholic/Protestant wars that ripped France apart in the 16th century. Based on a novella by the celebrated Madame de Lafayette, the action centers on the love of Marie de Mezières for her dashing cousin Henri de Guise, thwarted when her father's political ambitions force her into marriage with the well-connected Philippe de Montpensier, who she has never met. When Philippe is called away to fight, she is left in the care of Count Chabannes, an aging nobleman with a disdain for warfare, and soon becomes exposed to the sexual and political intrigues of court.

The Last of the Crazy People(2006)

The Last of the Crazy People
Director: Laurent Achard
Country: France
Runtime: 94 min


A stark corrective to the tradition of lyrical Frenchfilms about the tender joys of growing up in the country, Laurent Achard's Dementedis a Gothic but soberly-executed melodrama about childhood as hell. Based on anovel by Canadian writer Timothy Findley, Achard'sfilm gives us a child's-eye view of an adult world that seems irreparablydamaged, while maintaining a controlled stylistic distance that keeps us, likeits young protagonist, guessing at the nature of what's really going on.

The film's control andintelligence more than merit Achard's best directoraward in Locarno, and should put him on the map (hislast film was Rotterdam Tiger winner PlusQu'hier, Moins Que Demain in 1998). Goodpress and word-of-mouth should help the exports of a subtle piece that isn'teasy to encapsulate in a brief hard-sell pitch, while festivals will latch ontoit as one of the year's most clear-headed art-house statements. The Englishtitle, however, is more suggestive of B-movie shlockthan thoughtful Euro fare and could be a disadvantage.

The story focuses on 11-year-oldMartin (Cochelin), a gauche, unprepossessing lonerwho lives with his family on a run-down farm. When school breaks up, a grimholiday seems to lie ahead of the boy. At home, no-one seems too happy to seehim around, expect for the house's Moroccan domestic Malika,the nearest Martin has to a mother figure. Martin's grandmother (veteran Cordy) has an icy, unforgiving presence, while his mother (Reymond) lives behind locked doors, the ebb and flow of hermental condition keeping her husband in a state of nervous anxiety.

The boy has an uncertainally in his big brother, a mercurial arty type in a volatile state of psychicand sexual meltdown, who has never recovered from a schoolteacher failing torecognise his apparent genius as a poet. With family stability crumbling, andthe farm on the verge of being sold to wealthy neighbours, things come to aconclusion that Achard executes with coollyunderstated shock effect.

Much of the film's effecthinges on the inscrutable presence of young Cochelin,who at first seems oddly vacant, but whose blank manner turns out to provide anuninflected conduit for the traumas that surround him. Among the familymembers, Dominique Reymond (Will It Snow For Christmas'), whose presence in French films isinvariably a positive sign, has a magnetic presence as the much-feared,too-little loved mother - and a single long close-up of her calm, implacablestare is perhaps the most terrifying sight that recent cinema has had to offer.

Without laying on anydramatic rhetoric or expressionist effects, Achardhas succeeded in making a film that functions brilliantly as a psychologicalhorror story - although, this clan's extremity notwithstanding, the horror atissue is simply the standard one of childhood solitude and the approach toadolescence.

Achard and co-writer Natalie Najemastutely maintain a balance between the viewer's sense of a world out of kilterand a sense of Martin's own partial view of things, while dangling intimationsthat all may not be right with the boy either. Sober, classically framedphotography make this a visually handsome film too, providing just enough ruralprettiness to appeal to admirers of French ruralism -who will quickly realise that Cold Comfort is the name of this farm. (screendaily.com)

Surrealist Motion Volume One (2008)

Surrealist Motion Volume One (2008)
Director: Jonathan Knape
Country: Sweden
Runtime: 41:30 min

The people at Filmic Art have 'intended to create Surrealistic works with motion suited for flat LCD-plasma screens. Influenced by some well known surrealist paintings, this silent collection of four animated vignettes is an attempt to bring to life Salvador Dali-esque artwork in the comfort of your own living room. How much you get out of it will likely depend on your appreciation of painted surrealism and/or the state of mind you're in when you watch it.

So without further ado, here's a look at what happens in the four 'paintings' contained on this disc:
Directed by Jonathan Knape Sweden, Ambient, 2008,

Room With A View: (10:10)
In this work we have set-up a room with some objects that we have paraphrased from Rene Magritte. The idea with a painting within a painting is not new and could be seen already in early Dutch 14th ... still photo from the film

This Castle Is Not Located In The Pyrenees: (10:00)
The painting Castle in the Pyrenees 1959 by Magritte has obviously been an inspiration for us in the creation of this work. Magritte gave the title as a play on the French expression "Châteaux en ... still photo from the film

Prairie Serenades: (7:02)
In Magritte's work Voice of the Winds from 1928, three iron bells hover above the ground symbolizing the sound of the wind. In our work there are three wooden churches on a prairie that slowly lift ... still photo from the film

Persistence of the Watchful Eye: (13:00)
In this work, we have used Salvador Dali and his painting Persistence of Memory from 1931 as inspiration. However, the only object that we actually have paraphrased from this painting is the idea ..

It's hard to know exactly what to make of these four computer generated moving paintings. It is meant for a specific audience and if you're not a member of that target demographic, you may not have a predisposed inkling to appreciate what they've done. What can be said is that this material does effectively capture the look and feel of the work of the surrealist painters who inspired it. At the same time, watching 41 min of slow moving paintings shift and turn and morph and change isn't exactly a recipe for excitement...

Karen Cries on the Bus

Karen Cries on the Bus(2011)
Director:Gabriel Rojas Vera
Country:Colombia
Runtime:98 min

Karen discovers, after 10 years of marriage, which to have left behind his dreams to devote herself to the home chores has been a mistake that cost him his youth. She decides then to separate and go in search of a life of its own. With his savings she rents a room in the center of Bogota and try to get a job, but his age and inexperience will make it difficult. Karen will have to decide between returning to the stability of a relationship or face life for herself.

Maya Deren's Sink

Maya Deren's Sink (2011)
Director:Barbara Hammer
Country:USA
Runtime:30 min


Maya Deren's Sink, a 30 minute experimental film, is an evocative tribute to the mother of avantgarde American film. The film calls forth the spirit of one who was larger than life as recounted by those who knew her. Teiji Ito's family, Carolee Schneemann and Judith Malvina, float through the homes recalling in tiny bits and pieces words of Deren's architectural and personal interior space. Clips from Maya Deren's films are projected back into the spaces where they were originally filmed appearing on the floorboard, furniture, and in the bowl of her former sink. Fluid light projections of intimate space provide an elusive agency for a filmmaker most of us will never know as film with its imaginary nature evokes a former time and space. Written by Anonymous

True Noon

True Noon(2009)
Director Nosir Saidov
Country:Tajikistan
Run time: 83 min


Nilufar, a girl living in town below, is about to marry a man living in town above. But one day, soldiers come and plant barbed wire to separate the two towns. The life of people, who have thus far enjoyed peace, now falls into severe chaos. Students must take classes with the barbed wire in the middle of the class, and it becomes difficult to go to the hospital. However the biggest problem is Nilufar`s wedding. Kirill, the chief of the climate observatory, tries his best to help her wedding, but then a terrible tragedy occurs.

The four Times

The four Times (2010)
Director:Michelangelo Frammartino
Country:Italy
Runtime:88 min

A story of anarchic goats, lively spiritual celebrations and reincarnation, Michaelangelo Frammartino’s “Le Quattro Volte” (which won the Europa Cinemas Label in Cannes’s Directors’ Fortnight) has a heavy philosophical load. Nevertheless, this painstakingly constructed, quasi-documentary about a shepherd and the flock where he’s eventually reborn maintains an unexpectedly playful sensibility on its own terms.

The story of sorts takes place in the quaint area of Italy’s Calabria province, where the elderly shepherd (Giuseppe Fuda) goes about his quiet existence while his impending death looms. Frammartino slowly brings us into the world, following the shepherd on his routine until his death somewhere around the end of the first act.

Then, a revelation: The director positions a camera overlooking the goats’ holding pen and watches a series of increasingly strange events gradually develop. The result is one of the most fascinating long takes ever put on screen. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a slapstick punchline as the goats run wild across the town, eventually invading their shepherd’s home as he breathes his final breath. When he finally does die, the lunacy comes down to Earth as fast as it arrived.

But things quickly turn cosmic. The shepherd’s body is placed in a tomb, the movie cuts to black, the sound of a heartbeat slips onto the soundtrack and suddenly a shot of sheep birth fills the frame. The not-so-subtle reincarnation, however, leads to a stream of subtle moments. Baby sheep wander around the farm and play together as if they were a pack of preschoolers. They then embark on a lengthy voyage through the wilderness that culminates with one of them getting separated from the pack. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, or at least just go “aww” a few times, because “Le Quattro Volte” is cinema at its most primal, yet simultaneously contains a wealth of ideas.

Frammartino keeps the material engaging simply by aiming the camera at his subjects and letting the material organically emerge—rather than enforcing the supernatural element with overstatement. The final equation has a Zen quality to it, as Frammartino cycles through a quartet of mini-stories that find new characters in increasingly unlikely places: First man, then sheep, followed by the dead of winter and eventually a Good Friday celebration. In the closing sequence, a rising fume becomes the real star of the show. Given its grandiose dimensions, it speaks to Frammartino’s humility that he allows the entire concept to go up in smoke and let the visuals complete the cycle of life. ..

by Eric Kohn

We're All Christs (2006)

We're All Christs (2006)
Director:Marek Koterski
Country: Poland
Runtime: 105 min



ward-winning Polish director Marek Koterski takes an unflinching look at the pathological effects of severe alcoholism on familial relationships in the no-holds-barred drama We're All Christs (Wszyscy jestes'my Chrystusami). The story concerns Adas (played at ages 33 and 55 by Andrzej Chyra, and Marek Kondrat, respectively), a father caught in the web of alcohol addiction passed down from the generations before him. The disease once threatened to destroy his own relationship with his young son. Now, after admitting his own problem and experiencing therapy and rehabilitation, Adas takes the first steps toward a challenging reconnection with his family and attempts to rebuild long-decimated bonds. As a lapsed Roman Catholic, he begins to turn toward the faith that he shunned as a youth, and recognizes the necessity of turning away from the evil, abusive legacy of his father on earth and toward his Heavenly Father as a far-superior alternative. In the end, his Catholicization will partially entail turning to Christ as a role model by assuming responsibility for his own earthly burdens (and thus, taking up his cross).

The Man Who Quit Smoking (1972)

The Man Who Quit Smoking (1972)
Director:Tage Danielsson
Country:Sweden
Runtime:104 min






Young Dante Alighieri inherits 17 million of his father the sausage maker on one condition - he has to give up smoking in 14 days. But the days go on and he simply can't quit. He hires a detective agency to physically stop him. He has an uncle, who inherits the money if Dante fails, and the uncle tries to keep him smoking. Written by Mattias Thuresson