Now Screening - What Are You Watching Right Now?

[Barry]

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring 2004

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring......_and_Spring

On lake set in a valley in the depths of the mountains sits an isolated dwelling. Here a Buddhist monk and his young apprentice live in harmony with nature.

As the seasons change and the years pass, the carefree child apprentice becomes a young man filled with desire. Despite the continuing wisdom that his master imparts, the young man finds he is emotionally unprepared for the arrival of a youg woman. Dealing with feelings of guilt and jealously, he is forced to confront a darker side of his nature and, resolving to cleanse himself, he serves a penance in the form of a religious mantra. Later, as winter comes and death makes way for new life, the man prepares to take on the role of teacher...

Breathtaking and visually arresting, Kim Ki-duk's unique and exquisite exploration of the human condition and its infinite complexities is one of the most captivating and thought-provoking films ever made.

[Barry]

What? - a film by Roman Polanski, 2007

(My copy is the Scandinavian version with subtitles, and has a different cover)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%3F_(film)

During her Italian vacation, a young and beautiful American tourist finds herself as a guest in a coastal villa inhabited by some odd people.

[Barry]

A Man Escaped a film by Robert Bresson, France 1956



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_Escaped

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...8YcMUZM32XZr-B

Based on the true story of a Gestapo prisoner who escaped from prison just hours before his scheduled execution, Bresson’s film is a suspenseful realist drama and a moving metaphorical fable about chance and redemption. Perhaps most remarkably, Bresson (himself a former prisoner of war) conveys how the significance of everything is transformed by incarceration; sounds offer information, and objects become potential tools for escape.

[Barry]

Black Cat White Cat 1998

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat,_White_Cat

A hilarious comedy from the director of 'Life is a Miracle', Emir Kusturica's 'Black Cat White Cat' is a riotous mix of farce, romance and crime. Set within a community of gypsies, it tells a story of dodgy deals, family ties, young love and magical occurences. Zare is young man in love with the beautiful Ida, but his crooked father, having botched up a black market deal, intends to marry him off to the sister of a powerful gangster - a woman so tiny that her nickname is Ladybird.
Set on the banks of the Danube, this colourful comedy is crammed with spectacle, incident snd the music of Emir Kusturica's famous travelling gypsy band.

[Barry]

Mr Turner

A film by Mike Leigh, 2004

A stunning and beatiful film, Mr Turner tells of the extraordinary story of Britain's greatest ever artist. As Turner, (Timothy Spall) produces masterpieces ahead of his time that challenge the art world, so he has to confront his own ever changing circumstances and deal with love and loss.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Turner

[Barry]

Savages 1972

A film from the Merchant Ivory collection

A croquet ball lands amid a tribe of forest-welling 'Mud People', providing a catalyst that brings together the two distinct worlds of SAVAGES. Merchant Tvory Productions' intriguing, enigmatic 1972 comedy tha texplores, compares and contrasts the primative and cultured sides of man's nature.

Retracing the croquet ball's path the Mud People are led to an abandoned mansion , where they assume the trappings of 'civilisation, as they transform into the eccentric guests at lavish and decadent 1930s weekend house party. Each 'civilised' character cannot shed his or her true nature - savage conduct, atavistic social rituals and sexual abandonment are all common to both 'primative' and 'advanced# states.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savages_(1972_film)

[Barry]

Only Human 2004

An inspired comedy from talented writer-director team of Teresa de Pelegri and Dominic Harari. Only Human grew out of the three obsessions shared by the couple: sex, family and the Middle East.


Leni arrives home to introduce her fiancé Rafi to her Jewish family for the first time. Everything goes wonderfully well until they reveal that Rafi is Palestinian. With his future mother-in-law unhinged by the news, Rafi offers to take over in the kitchen. But he accidentially drops a frozen soup out of the seventh floor window, hitting a pedestrian below. As if the evening's not going badly enough, it turns out the pedestrian may be Leni's father.

Putting an ingenious spin on the meet-the-parents genre, husband and wife team - a neat adjunct to the film's theme of family and cohabitation - de Pelegri and Haradi have delivered a hilarious and beautifully performed comedy of errors that also acts as a pin-sharp observation on the absurdities of the Palestinian-Isral conflict and of intolerance in general

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Human_(2004_film)

[Barry]

Betty Blue 1986

The second film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. Betty Blue is a 1986 French erotic psychological drama film written and directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix. it could be described as an amour fou, but that would make light of what is ultimately a shocking film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Blue

I should add that the two protagonists seem to spend a lot of their time naked, and Béatrice Dalle has the most perfect body. Otherwise it's a serious and disturbing film, sprinkled with a few funny one-liners.

[Roy S]

[Gazjam]

Its next on my list,
will probably wait till all episodes are available then binge over a weekend as a treat.

Loved the first series, 2nd not so much as it focused less on Reacher and more on his Team.
3rd one apparantly back to what made first one good, so look forward to it.