July 7, 1995

El Perquè de tot plegat (1995) ***

El Elefante y la bicicleta (1995) ***

Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda (1995) ***

The Star Maker (1995) ***

Lady Into Lassie (1995) ***

Roula (1995) ***

Twist (1995) ***

Zero Woman (1995) ***

Ghost In The Shell (1995) ***

Talk Of The Town (1995) **

German comedy starring Katja Riemann as a radio talk show host who has an affair with her best friend's husband.

Maborosi (1995) *

Story of a widow who remarries and lives happily ever after. A Japanese film inspired by Ozu.

Lover Of The Last Empress (1995) *

Directed by Andrew Lau. With Chingmy Yau, Tony Leung Kar-Fai. Historical drama about the last Empress Dowager of China.

The Last Connection (1995) *

Weak movie about Polish immigrants in Germany.

The Ride (1995) **

Good Czech film about two young men meeting a young woman during a ride in the country.

All Things Fair (1995) ***


Prowokator (1995) **

Ciekawy film o terrorystach, alpinistach, zdrajcach i fotografach.

The Play For The Passenger (1995) **

Well directed Russian film about revenge.

Pensionat Oskar (1995) *

A Swedish drama about homosexuality, partly inspired by Pasolini's "Teorema" (1968).

Pasolini An Italian Crime (1995) **

This film explores the mysterious circumstances surrounding the tragic death of the great Italian filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Over My Dead Body (1995) *

A philandering husband is killed by a professional hit-man hired by his evil wife. A German black comedy starring Katja Riemann.

Cinema de lagrimas (1995) ***

A tribute to the Latin American cinema in general and Mexican melodramas in particular. It features sequences from 17 classic films. Highlights include: a vengeful father killing his daughter's lover while they exchange their wedding vows, another father killing his daughter with a knife while she dances in her lover's arms ("Historia de un gran amor", 1942), a mother forced by a gangster to abandon her newborn baby in a trash can ("Victimas del pecado", 1951), a grief-stricken lover entering the tomb of his beloved ("Abismos de passion", 1954), a husband buying a nude sculpture of his wife ("La Diosa arrodillada", 1947), a mean woman kicking a bankrupt man out of her house ("Dona diabla", 1950), a wild party girl scandalizing her guests by singing and dancing, a son commiting suicide after learning about his beloved mother's sinful life ("Armino negro", 1953). Directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos.

Midaq Alley (1995) **

Mexican soap opera starring Selma Hayek. Interesting narrative structure.

Maybe...Maybe Not (1995) **

Katja Riemann stars in this German farce about drag queens, unfaithful boyfriends and pregnant women. Aka "Pretty Baby".

Manneken Pis (1995) **

Bizarre film about a twisted courtship between two very weird young people. Surrealism, Belgian style.

Love And Hate: European Stories (1995) *

This film consists of five parts, set in Norway, Poland, Denmark, Yugoslavia and Sweden. The first one is about a funeral. The second introduces an aspiring dancer and the third one - a bored housewife. The fourth episode is a gruesome story about graverobbers. The final segment is also the funniest - it concerns two neighbors who suddenly loose their privacy.

"Sara" *
"Steps" *
"The Letter" *
"Pigs And Pearls" *
"Open Doors" **

The Flower Of My Secret (1995) *

Pedro Almodovar is known for his flamboyant and kitchy melodramas. But this one isn't flamboyant or kitchy - just boring.

Don't Die Without Telling Me Where You're Going (1995) *

Campy Argentinian movie about love and reincarnation.

Deep River (1995) *

Weak movie about Japanese tourists in India.

High Risk (1995) *

A vicious attack against Jackie Chan.

Gonin (1995) **

Violent gangster movie about five disgruntled men organizing a daring robbery. Unfortunately, their victims happen to be Yakuza kingpins and the bandits will pay dearly for their impudence.

301-302 (1995) **

South Korean film about sex, food and murder.

Weather Woman (1995) *

A really lame sex comedy from Japan.

Warrior Lanling (1995) *

Visually splendid, but very tiresome epic film about a Chinese warrior.

Un Eroe Borghese (1995) *

Absorbing drama about an Italian government official fighting against the Mafia.

Two On A Couch (1995) *

Boring Danish film about two brothers.

Tragedie Burlesque (1995) *

Campy comedy about insanity in Belgrade.

Tokyo Fist (1995) *

Boxing and sexual obsessions in Japan. Terminally boring.

Tak Tak (1995) *

Bardzo nieudany film o milosnych perypetiach mlodego Don Juana.

Daze Raper (1995) **

Directed by Yip Wai-Sun. With Farini Cheung. Sleazy Hong Kong film about a former prison guard who robs women by putting sleeping medecine into their drinks. The Mandarine version of the film runs 88 minutes and contains some brief nudity.

Day Of The Beast (1995) **

Directed by Alex De La Iglesia, it's a Spanish horror comedy about a priest trying to prevent the birth of the Antichrist.

Reina y Rey (1995) *

A shameless rip-off of De Sica's "Umberto D" (1952), set in Cuba.

Cyclo (1995) **

The winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival is a shocking and quite brutal film about crime in modern Vietnam. **

Cudowne miejsce (1995) **

Jeden ze slabszych filmow Jana Jakuba Kolskiego. Wiele orginalnych pomyslow, ale za malo humoru.

The Postman (1995) *

A shameless rip-off of Kieslowski's "Krotki film o milosci" ("A Short Film About Love"), set in China.

A Chinese Odyssey Part One: Pandora's Box (1995) **

It's not particularly funny, but this parody of the "wu xia pian" (sword & sorcery) movies has its moments.

Patron (1995) *

Depressing Argentinian film about a young girl forced to marry a rich landowner.

Passover Fever (1995) *

Directed by Shemi Zarhin. With Gila Almagor, Ichio Avital and Alon Abutbul. An Israeli soap opera about a dysfunctional family meeting for the Seder banquet on Passover eve. There are suspicions of marital infidelity, mysterious eating disorders, predictions of snowstorms in April and other pressing matters. The film got an award for best screenplay at the 1995 Montreal WFF, but it should have won a Daytime Emmy instead.

Confidences à un inconnu (1995) *

A drama starring Sandrine Bonnaire and William Hurt.

Musulmanin (1995) *

A Russian drama about clash of two cultures.

Colpo di luna (1995) *

An ordinary Italian film starring Tcheky Karyo.

A Mongolian Tale (1995) *

A love story set in Mongolia.

Buried In Light (1995) *

An experimental Italian film about Eastern Europe, made by a Jewish-American director born in Afghanistan.

Brother Of Sleep (1995) *

Very ugly and unpleasant film set in a beautiful Alpine valley.

Blush (1995) *

Chinese melodrama about former prostitutes.

Belle al Bar (1995) *

An Italian comedy about sexual ambiguities.

La Vie en fleurs (1995) **

A documentary about a hippie family (one woman, three men, five kids). It consists of home movie footages and contemporary interviews.

Ulysses' Gaze (1995) **

Slow moving film about a Greek-American filmmaker (Harvey Keitel) travelling across the Balkans in search of an old movie. Some brilliantly directed scenes crying out for an editor to turn them into a motion picture.

Ulrike Marie Meinhof (1995) **

Interesting documentary about the notorious German terrorist.

American Daughter (1995) *

Quite a rarity - a Russian film set in United States. It's a story of a father looking for his daughter.