The short stories about marriage that Vít Olmer wrote for Playboy magazine when Arnošt Lustig was its editor-in-chief are witty, often with absurd punchlines, and clearly show that the author is a keen observer of life around us. He selected five of them for his new Czech comedy, whose common denominator is actor Jiří Krampol, the main character in each of them.
Jiří KrampolMichal, Divoký, Bimbo, Rozvinul, Hruška / de Grouchy
Eva HolubováDivoká
Oldřich VíznerDr. Zawinul
Emília Vášáryovájaponská žena
Jana Paulová
Monika KvasničkováZawinulová
Svatopluk Schuller
Jan Skopeček
Rudolf KubíkJenda
Jan Kraus
This anthology film, whose Chinese title begins with a romantic name for human excrement, premiered internationally at Rotterdam and won Best Screenplay from the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. A variety of Hong Kong people wrestle with nostalgia when facing an uncertain future. Their stories give way to a documentary featuring a young barista turned political candidate.
To have a clear picture of the Greek public opinion after the recent victory of the current government, the editor-in-chief of a famous newspaper organisation enlists the help of two of his best reporters. What will the survey show?
A compilation of episodes from the classic '80s horror anthology TV series "Tales From The Darkside" for the VHS market.
Old lovers reunite, a friendship is betrayed, a pet is killed, a runaway discovered, and a co-worker comes back from the dead in these five interconnected tales about suffering from kindness. Shot over five-years worth of weekends featuring a massive cast and crew, this ambitious, feature-length, no-budget indie shows a side of Maine not seen anywhere else (no lobstermen here, sorry) and finds bleak comedy in a backwater state being dragged into a diverse and inclusive 21st century.
Nanni Moretti recalls in his diary three slice of life stories characterized by a sharply ironic look: in the first one he wanders through a deserted Rome, in the second he visits a reclusive friend on an island, and in the last he has to grapple with an unknown illness.
Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.
In "Multo", a young groom in Baguio for his honeymoon is possessed by a homicidal spirit when he discovers a cursed ring and decides to wear it. "Kulam" is set in the eerie halls of a mysterious hospital where a doctor practice voodoo and dead bodies go wandering in the night. "Aswang" is about a student who is a guest at a town fiesta in a remote province. The people's hospitable ways leave her clueless about a ritual that takes place at night.
Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".
Four comedic episodes framed within the story of a tyrannical Zen master and his two hapless disciples.
Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
Anthology comedy/romance film
Wasteland is a five-part anthology film that deals with isolation, mental illness, and the subjectivity of reality. Each of the five parts can be watched individually, but when viewed in sequence, each story brings out a more interesting and distinct context to its respective pieces.
A four-part anthology set in Liverpool
A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.
Four darkly funny tales about Lebanon: Activists planning a protest descend into internal strife. Three sisters and their mother argue while an incompetent plumber destroys their flat. Depressed life coach Malek wants to die and seeks help from a «death coach». A stand-up comedian who jokes about a meteor strike that could put Lebanon out of its misery, is blamed when it appears to come true.
This bittersweet film was Roman Vávra's feature debut. The film consists of three independent stories, all connected through the motif of a field of grain. In 'Awn' a young couple takes a summer stroll in the country, in 'The Haystack' a gang of boys have an adventure with an older girl, and 'The Journey' recounts the tragicomic homecoming of a pair of aging newlyweds. For only the second time in the nineties Czech star Iva Janzurová appeared on the silver screen.
In the middle of a riverside park stands a single bench. One evening, a couple of childhood friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while meet up at this bench. Although awkward at times, they sit there exchanging gentle words of affection. And as time goes by more people gather at this little bench: a couple on the verge of a breakup that gets interrupted by an old man, a runaway and her older sister that comes looking for her, and city officers planning on removing the bench. At the Bench is an anthology film showing glimpses of the everyday life of various people that gather by this little bench.
Centered around a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.
A journalist could marry the daughter of a tycoon, but prefers a relationship with a married woman. An attorney renounces her lover by greed. A soldier tries to approach a widow on a train. A German couple looking for adventure mistakingly aim for the wrong target, yet find love.
On the surface, this collection of shorts by up-and-coming African American filmmakers arrived at a perfect time. The cutting-edge products of the New Black Cinema of the early '90s had disappeared, giving way to embarrassingly stereotypical, scatological fare such as Booty Call and Next Friday. This feature-packed compilation (which includes production notes, interviews with all of the filmmakers, and audio commentary by four) attempts to prove that African American cinema is intent on moving past the lowbrow humor, as six of the seven shorts steer clear of any comedy.