CineShots
- Struktura krysztalu / The Structure of the Crystal (1969) Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
The protagonists of the film are two talented physicists – one of them leaves the city for the countryside and becomes a meteorologist, the other establishes a brilliant career in science. Both are bombarded by moral dilemmas regarding their choice in life.
- EO (2022) Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
EO is a donkey working for a Polish circus. He performs in an act with Kasandra, who loves and protects him. When Animal Rights activists help get the circus shut down, EO is taken away, and is brought to a horse stable to work. In the truck being transported, and at the stables, EO sees horses running free, and being pampered. After knocking over a shelf of trophies, EO is sent to a farm, where he seems depressed and won’t eat. He gives rides to children through woods, where trees continue to be cut down to create space for man.
- The Mighty (1998) Director: Peter Chelsom
Kevin "Freak" Dillon is a 12-year-old boy suffering from Morquio syndrome and living with his mother Gwen "Fair Gwen" Dillon. He is extremely intelligent and is obsessed with flights of fancy, but due to his disability, he walks with leg braces and crutches. Meanwhile, Maxwell "Max" Kane is a 14-year-old beastly yet good-natured boy with learning challenges and living with his maternal grandparents Susan "Gram" and Elton "Grim" Pinneman. He has flunked the seventh grade twice and is tormented by Tony "Blade" Fowler, a teenage delinquent who is the leader of a teenage bully gang named the "Doghouse Boys". When Kevin is assigned as Max's reading tutor, they form a bond of friendship over the similar circumstances they share, such as both being outcasts in their school and their fathers abandoning them.
- Manifesto (2015), dir. Julian Rosefeldt
"Manifesto" has no plot, and the only thing tying the ~dozen scenes together is Cate Blanchett. Her monologues range from common hippie platitudes to batshit insanery, and she moves deftly between the dozen starkly different characters. There's some beautiful cinematography, but the show is stolen by Blanchett's incredible performances.
Highly recommended for folks that like "artsy" movies with no plot, or anyone who needs 90 minutes of solid Cate Blanchett.
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), dir. Tone Hooper
~45 minutes in. This brief little moment with Leatherface might be my favorite scene in the movie. The way he lumbers to the window, glances anxiously outside, and puts his head in his hands... without a word we see a glimpse of his humanity. Is Leatherface a psychotic murderer, taking joy in killing these teens? Or is he the homemaker, protecting his family's property from these strangers who barged in? What's actually going on in his head?
Love this flick.
- Dark City (1998) Director: Alex Proyas
In a Kafkaesque setting, John Murdoch, an amnesiac man who, finding himself suspected of murder, attempts to discover his true identity and clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known as the "Strangers".
- Sami Blood [2016] Amanda Kernell
>I'm longing for the country that doesn't exist, because what does, I'm tired of desiring.
- Le Grand Restaurant (1966) Director: Jacques Besnard
Not something that I watch on regular base, but a Sunday's cinematic guilty pleasure (also applies for movies with Tati). Also, it connects me to my childhood, growing up with Louis de Funès movies.
Do you have those kinds of "guilty pleasure" movies or feel well movies?
- César et Rosalie (1972) Director: Claude Sautet
In Paris the beautiful divorcée Rosalie spends time with César, a coarse but good-hearted scrap merchant. At a wedding she sees her first love David, a shy graphic artist. Despite the efforts of César to stifle the renewed relationship, David and Rosalie run away to Sète on the Mediterranean. Distraught at being abandoned, César tracks them down and offers Rosalie her family's old holiday home on the island of Noirmoutier in the Atlantic, which he has bought. She accepts and all her family come to spend the summer there, but she falls into depression.
- Army of Shadows (1969) Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
The film follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate. While portraying its characters as heroic, the film presents a bleak, unromantic view of the Resistance.
- Annihilation (2018) Director: Alex Garland
I don't necessarily recommend this movie, but it did have some stunning visuals. I wish I could've given you more pixels.
This movie was strange. I saw it in the theater and when the end credits started rolling, someone behind me said, "What the fuck did I just watch?"