Author: Randy Weinstein

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Raging Bull

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With this stunningly visceral portrait of self-destructive machismo, Martin Scorsese created one of the truly great and visionary works of modern cinema. Robert De Niro pours his blood, sweat, and brute physicality into the Oscar-winning role of Jake La Motta, the rising middleweight boxer from the Bronx whose furious ambition propels him to success within the ring but whose unbridled paranoia and jealousy tatter his relationships with everyone in his orbit, including his brother and manager (Joe Pesci) and gorgeous, streetwise wife (Cathy Moriarty). Thelma Schoonmaker’s Oscar-winning editing, Michael Chapman’s extraordinarily tactile black-and-white cinematography, and Frank Warner’s ingenious sound design combine to make RAGING BULL a uniquely powerful exploration of violence on multiple levels—physical, emotional, psychic, and spiritual. … Read full post…Raging Bull

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The Great Beauty

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For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and elite social circles. But on his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep unexpectedly finds himself taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the lavish nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome itself, in all its monumental glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty. Featuring sensuous cinematography, a lush score, and an award-winning central performance by the great Toni Servillo, this transporting experience by the brilliant Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is a breathtaking Felliniesque tale of decadence and lost love. … Read full post…The Great Beauty

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Dekalog

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This masterwork by Krzysztof Kieślowski is one of the twentieth century’s greatest achievements in visual storytelling. Originally made for Polish television, Dekalog focuses on the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. Its ten hour-long films, drawing from the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, grapple deftly with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the passage of time. … Read full post…Dekalog

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Three Colours trilogy

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Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Three colours trilogy” is a set of three films loosely dealing with the three colours of the french flag, representing the three ideals of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity, in a typically Kieślowski way. All films are filmed in French, or French and Polish, and like his earlier works, are set to the haunting scores by Kieślowski’s traditional collaborating composer, Zbigniew Preisner. … Read full post…Three Colours trilogy

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Krzysztof Kieślowski

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Krzysztof Kieślowski (27 June 1941 – 13 March 1996) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. In 2002, Kieślowski was listed at number two on the British Film Institute‘s Sight & Sound list of the top ten film directors of modern times. In 2007, Total Film magazine ranked him at No. 47 on its “100 Greatest Film Directors Ever” list. Kieślowski remains one of Europe’s most influential directors, his works included in the study of film classes at universities throughout the world. The 1993 book Kieślowski on Kieślowski describes his life and work in his own words, based on interviews

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Art House Film Club: Criterion Channel celebrates Pride Month

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The service: For $99 a year, the Criterion Channel is hands down the best streaming service for art house film lovers. Every film on this site is lovingly curated by film lovers into thematic groups, instead of chosen by creepy AI recommendation engines like other services. For Pride Month, why not start a free trial? https://www.criterionchannel.com/checkout/subscribe/purchase About the Pride collection: Proud, rebellious, colorful, intimate, and frank, these visions of LGBTQ+ life include beloved modern classics as well as hidden gems. From staples of the art-house canon (JE TU IL ELLE, QUERELLE) to highlights of the New Queer Cinema explosion (ZERO

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Le Havre

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Director: Aki KaurismäkiCountry: Finland, FranceYear: 2011Runtime: 1hr 33minLanguage: FrenchSubtitles: English The Film Le Havre (‘The Haven’) is a 2011 comedy-drama film produced, written, and directed by Aki Kaurismäki and starring André Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Blondin Miguel. It tells the story of a shoeshiner who tries to save an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. The film was produced by Kaurismäki’s Finnish company Sputnik with international co-producers in France and Germany. It is Kaurismäki’s second French-language film, after La Vie de Bohème from 1992. The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival,

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Aki Kaurismäki

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Aki Kaurismäki is one of my favourite directors. The first time I saw Match Factory Girl in the 1990s I was blown away by it’s bleak minimalism, I was hooked. Film Style Kaurismäki is known for his extremely minimalistic style. He has been called an auteur, since he writes, directs, produces and usually edits the films himself, and thus introduces his personal “drollery and deadpan” style. The dialogue is famously laconic: the articulation is unadorned, direct and in strict standard language, without showing much emotion or drama. Characters frequently stand still and recite the dialogue as if it consisted of

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Luchino Visconti

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Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the fathers of cinematic neorealism, but later moved towards luxurious, sweeping epics dealing with themes of beauty, decadence, death and European history, especially the decay of the nobility and the bourgeoisie. He was the recipient of many accolades, including the Palme d’Or and the Golden Lion, and many of his works are regarded as highly-influential to future generations of filmmakers. Read

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Conversation Piece

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Luchino Visconti’s award-winning classic examines the solitary life of a retired American professor (Burt Lancaster) who lives alone in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her companions – her lover, her daughter and the daugther’s boyfriend – he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. Before long his quiet routine is turned upside down and the introverted professor becomes entangled in his tenants’ machinations. In the midst of this chaos each of the new neighbors’ lives – including that of the professor himself – takes an unexpected but inevitable turn.

Visconti’s penultimate film, Conversation Piece marks the culmination of his career as a master of Italian cinema. … Read full post…Conversation Piece