Film: Nenette
Country of Production: France
Documentary by French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert. Nenette (2010) tells the story of a 40-year-old orangutan kept at the Jardins des Plantes zoo in Paris. A star attraction at the zoo, Nenette nevertheless pays little attention to the hordes of visitors who flock to look at her. A mother of four who has outlived three mates, Nenette has lived at the zoo for over 30 years. The film shows her going about her daily routines behind glass, revealing her visitors only by their voices and as shadowy reflections in the glass.
Film: Alice
Country of Production: Czechoslovakia/Switzerland/UK/West Germany
Švankmajer’s Alice is a distinctly disturbing and creepy interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s perennial literary classic, yet it is perhaps the closest to the original work. Combining a live-action Alice (Kristýna Kohoutová) with a stop-motion Wonderland filled with threatening, bizarre characters, Švankmajer’s deliberately crude style of animation, use of close-ups and rich design work lend the film a pervading sense of unease and a menacing dream-logic which marries a sly visual wit with piercing psychological insight.
Presented here fully uncut and in its original Czech-language version for the very first time, this comprehensive BFI release also gathers together a selection of rare and fascinating Alice-related short films including Alice in Wonderland (1903), the first screen adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic (and a big YouTube hit!) and Elsie and the Brown Bunny (1921), an early advertising film for Cadbury Bros. Ltd.
Film: The Debt
Country of Production: Thriller
The past comes back to haunt three retired Mossad agents in this Israeli thriller from director Assaf Bernstein. After being tracked down and held by three Israeli agents in Berlin in 1965, Nazi war criminal 'The Surgeon of Birkenau' manages to escape from his captors. To avoid national embarrassment to the Israeli state, the three agents involved decide to claim that 'The Surgeon' committed suicide whilst in custody. After returning home to a heroes' welcome and the respect and admiration of their countrymen, the three are shocked when, 30 years later, a man surfaces in the Ukraine claiming to be 'The Surgeon' and asking for forgiveness. Now, to protect the lie, it falls to one of the former agents involved, Rachel (Gila Almagor), to finally draw a line under the past by terminating her former prisoner.
Film: World Without Sun
Country of Production: France
Jacques Cousteau’s second documentary film to scoop an Academy Award, World Without Sun is the fascinating chronicle of his ambitious attempt to create an undersea colony, with six divers living for a month beneath the Red Sea in Conshelf Two; an advanced habitat equipped with a two-man submarine and special deep-sea cabin.
Film: The Andrei Tarkovsky Collection
Country of Production: Soviet Union/Italy
Box set of the legendary director’s films:
Ivan’s Childhood. Tarkovsky’s extraordinarily accomplished debut feature is a powerful and moving tale of a 12-year-old boy who vows to avenge his family’s death at the hands of the Nazis.
Andrei Rublev. Regarded by many as Tarkovsky’s finest film, this epic tale of the great medieval icon painter chronicles a turbulent period of Russian history and was long suppressed by the politically sensitive Soviet authorities.
Solaris. Based on Stanislaw Lem’s novel, Solaris is a moving and unsettling vision of memory and humanity which transcends the science fiction genre and has often been compared to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Mirror. Reflecting upon his own childhood and the destiny of the Russian people, this beautiful and densely layered film is Tarkovsky’s most autobiographical work.
Stalker. Set in a devastated future landscape, Tarkovsky’s second foray into science fiction is a surreal and disturbing exploration of man’s quest to realise his dreams and desires.
Nostalgia. Filmed in Italy just prior to his defection to the west, Tarkovsky’s unforgettably haunting film explores the melancholy of exile from one’s homeland.
The Sacrifice. In Tarkovsky’s final masterpiece, completed as he was gravely ill, a man vows to God that he will sacrifice all he holds dear if an imminent nuclear catastrophe can be averted.
Film: Men For Sale
Country of Production:
Award-winning filmmaker Rodrigue Jean’s reflective film exposes a population of Montreal that society usually prefers to overlook: the young, often drug-addicted male prostitutes who work the city’s sex trade industry.
Men For Sale provides a mesmerising look into the lives of eleven men – most of them in their early twenties – as they attempt to explain how they all arrived at the same profession. With a humanistic eye, the film uncovers the vulnerabilities of its subjects as they struggle to affirm their masculinity and make sense of their conflicting sexual practices. Some of them envision themselves escaping the sex trade industry, while others feel like prisoners in a vicious cycle of drug use and prostitution.
By artfully weaving together intimate confessionals and scenes of Montreal’s night-time cityscape, Jean creates a dreamlike vision of a rarely-glimpsed world – one that often goes unnoticed even when in plain sight. The film, which was co-produced with the National Film Board of Canada, covers a difficult subject matter, but Jean handles it with a sensitivity that reveals the human side of those involved and their urgent need for the public’s attention.
Series: Vampire Knight Guilty: Part 2 – Episodes 5-7
Country of Production: Japan
Episodes 5-7 from the spin-off of the anime series Vampire Knight. When Yuuki decides she wants to find out more about her hidden heritage and starts to delve into the secrets of her past. Yuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, wherein she was attacked by a vampire... And then rescued by another. Now ten years later, Yuki Cross, the adopted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her saviour, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school.
Film: Who Can Kill A Child?
Country of Production: Spain
Who Can Kill A Child? is one of the most unsettling and infamous Eurocult items of the 1970s. When an English couple holidaying in Spain travel to a small, apparently deserted island, soon the hideous truth reveals itself: all the adults have been killed by the child population, and are far from finished with their systematic slaughter.
With its sun-bleached photography, dread-filled atmosphere and shocking imagery, Who Can Kill A Child? has become one of the most talked-about but little-seen shockers of perhaps cinematic horror's finest decade.
*The release date is subject to change for any of these titles.
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