monsieurk's - Favourites List
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On the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, the High Commissioner of the French Republic De Roller (Benoît Magimel) is a calculating man with flawless manners. His somewhat broad perception of his role brings him to navigate the high-end establishment as well as shady venues where he mingles with the locals. Especially since a persistent rumour has been going around: the sighting of a submarine whose ghostly presence could herald the return of French nuclear testing. - Director:
- Albert Serra
- Cast:
- Benoît Magimel, Pahoa Mahagafanau, Marc Susini
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The Seventh Seal (1957)Det sjunde inseglet
As the Black Death continues to wipe out the population of Europe, knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) returns from the Crusades, disillusioned and worn. When suddenly Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears before him, he asks for the chance to live, proposing a game of chess to decide his fate. The knight takes his squire, a troupe of traveling players and a deaf and dumb girl under his protection as the game is played out. One by one Death exacts his toll, and it is up to Block to stall his opponent for as long as possible if he is to help save the lives of those he is trying to protect. All the while, the villages and towns about them fall further into ruin and religion takes a stranglehold on those desperate for a means of survival. - Director:
- Ingmar Bergman
- Cast:
- Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot
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Hard to Be a God (2013)Trudno byt bogom
A group of scientists visits the distant planet Arkanar, and discovers a society still trapped in its own medieval era. Unable to interfere with the course of its history, they can only watch in mounting horror as all sparks of intelligent and independent thought are mercilessly snuffed out by Arkanar's cruel rulers. Will they remain enmired in their squalid existence for ever, or can the visitors subtly nudge the more open-minded in the right direction? Truly, it s hard to be a god. - Director:
- Aleksey German
- Cast:
- Gali Abaydulov, Yuriy Ashikhmin, Remigijus Bilinskas
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The Structure of Crystal (1969)Struktura Krysztalu
Two talented physicists - Jan (Jan Myslowicz) leaves the city for the countryside and works as a meteorologist in a small village, Marek (Andrzej Zarnecki), a promising scientist with a dazzling career in science, trieslo persuade Jan to return to the University. Unexpectedly, Marek's suggestions meet with strong resistance. The film pictures two life strategies. One is to use one's intellect to the utmost, a thrilling path that leads to wealth and respect; the other is to consciously seek the meaning of existence in rejecting all amenities of civilization. Jan gets immersed in a simple life, and submits to the passing of time that enables him to sustain a harmony between his own existence and the nature. Marek fails to comprehend why a talented physicist would seek refuge in the countryside. The director seems to incline towards Jan's position. Zanussi's debut film seems particularly mature and original, both in the intellectual and the visual plane. The film was awarded at the IFF in Mar del Plata, IFF in Valladolid, and IFF in Panama. - Director:
- Krzysztof Zanussi
- Cast:
- Barbara Wrzesinska, Jan Myslowicz, Andrzej Zarnecki
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The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)Zangiku Monogatari
When Kikunosuke (Shôtarô Hanayagi), the son of a famous actor, falls in love with his brother’s nurse, Otoku (Kakuko Mori), his father vehemently opposes the affair. Forced to cut ties with his family, Kikunosuke forges his own way in life, but his fortunes dwindle until Otoku decides to sacrifice her own future for the sake of her lover’s. Finding Mizoguchi operating at the height of his powers, 'The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums’ is a beautifully photographed and deeply moving romantic tragedy. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Shôtarô Hanayagi, Kôkichi Takada, Gonjurô Kawarazaki
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Sansho Dayu (1954)Sansho the Bailiff
When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders. Under Kenji Mizoguchi's dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema's greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Kinuyo Tanaka, Kisho Hanayagi, Kyôko Kagawa
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My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)Moy drug Ivan Lapshin
The mostly black-and-white film begins with a present-day color sequence, then reverts to monochrome and the freezing winter of 1935, when the narrator was nine years old. The boy lived in an apartment with his father and two other men, Police Chief Ivan Lapshin (Andrei Boltnev) and his officious underling (Alexei Zharkov). The story focuses on Lapshin as he tracks down a gang of crooks in his provincial Russian village, helps his recently widowed friend, and enters into a tentative relationship with an actress (Nina Ruslanova). - Director:
- Aleksey German
- Cast:
- Andrei Boltnev, Nina Ruslanova, Andrey Mironov
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An Actor's Revenge (1963)Yukinojô Henge
This wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge on the men who drove his parents to suicide is played out against a backdrop of comic rivalries between thieves in the Tokyo underworld. Kazuo Hasegawa plays the dual role of the actor and the thief in a film which celebrates his 300th screen appearance. A heady mixture of swooning romanticism and stylised action, with a soundtrack that ranges from traditional Japanese music to lush Hollywood strings and cocktail jazz, 'An Actor's Revenge' is a cinematic tour de force. - Director:
- Kon Ichikawa
- Cast:
- Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao
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Kwaidan (1964)Kaidan / Weird Tales / Ghost Stories
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, 'Kwaidan' features four nightmarish tales (adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's classic Japanese ghost stories) about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives. Breathtakingly photographed entirely on hand-painted sets, the film is an abstract wash of luminescent colours from another world. - Director:
- Masaki Kobayashi
- Cast:
- Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentarô Mikuni
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The Burmese Harp (1956)Biruma no tategoto
At the close of World War II, a Japanese army regiment in Burma surrenders to the British. Private Mizushima is sent on a lone mission to persuade a trapped Japanese battalion to surrender also. When the outcome is a failure, he disguises himself in the robes of a Buddhist monk in hope of temporary anonymity as he journeys across the landscape - but he underestimates the power of his assumed role. - Director:
- Kon Ichikawa
- Cast:
- Rentarô Mikuni, Shôji Yasui, Tatsuya Mihashi
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Beanpole (2019)Dylda
1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Although the siege - one of the worst in history - is finally over, life and death continue their battle in the wreckage that remains. Two young women, lya (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) and Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina), search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins. - Director:
- Kantemir Balagov
- Cast:
- Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov
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The Insect Woman / Nishi Ginza Station (1963)Nippon konchûki (1963) / Nishi Ginza ekimae (1958)
"My heroines are true to life - just look around you at Japanese women. They are strong, and they outlive men", director Shôhei Imamura once observed. And so an audacious, anthropological approach to filmmaking came into full maturity with the director's vast 1963 chronicle of pre- and post-war Japan, The Insect Woman (Nippon-konchûki, or An Account of Japanese Insects). Comparing his heroine, Tome Matsuki (played by Sachiko Hidari, who won the "Best Actress" award at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival for the role) to the restlessness and survival instincts of worker insects, the film is an unsparing study of working-class female life. Beginning with Tome's birth in 1918, it follows her through five decades of social change, several improvised careers, and male-inflicted cruelty. Elliptically plotted, brimming over with black humour and taboo material, and immaculately staged in crystalline NikkatsuScope, The Insect Woman is arguably Imamura's most radical and emphatic testament to female resilience. - Director:
- Shôhei Imamura
- Cast:
- Emiko Aizawa, Setsuko Amamiya, Tomio Aoki
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In a rural community of grinding economic and spiritual poverty, where poaching and delivering bootleg liquor supplement meagre incomes and love is absent, Mouchette is endlessly abused. She cares selflessly and without thanks for her family as her mother slowly dies, whilst she is humiliated by a teacher for singing out of tune, is called a slut by a shopkeeper and even, as she is about to speak to a young man who smiled at her on the dodgems, is slapped by her harsh, judgemental father. Finally, having sought to help the epileptic poacher Arsene, she is raped by him. Even then, she later protects him. Mouchette may not understand all that she experiences but nor is she a helpless victim. She cares for her mother and especially for her infant sibling. Ostracised by her cruel classmates, she retaliates, throwing mud at them. She also avenges herself against the woman who speaks with pious reverence of the dead and who offers Mouchette a funeral shroud for her mother and a dress for herself. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal
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Joan Crawford plays Vienna, a saloon owner with a sordid past. Persecuted by the townspeople, Vienna must protect her life and her property when a lynch mob led by her sexually repressed rival, Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), attempts to frame her for a string of robberies she did not commit. Enter Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), a guitar-strumming ex-gunfighter who has a history with Vienna. - Director:
- Nicholas Ray
- Cast:
- Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge
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Winter Light (1963)Nattvardsgästerna
The second of Ingmar Bergman's trilogy on faith, 'Winter Light' springs from Bergman's desire to define man's relation to God - if He exists. A village pastor, unloved and empty of faith, reveals his bitter failure to offer spiritual consolation to his flock. Sombre and poignant, the film sketches a world of half empty churches - but a world not entirely without hope in God's universe. The story brings together four personalities in a shared quest for spiritual reassurance. A susceptible and disillusioned fisherman (Max Von Sydow) is urged by his wife (Gunnel Lindblom) to seek solace from his local priest (Gunnar Bjornstrand). However, the priest is struggling to regain his own belief - a tragic and intimately depicted conflict, in which he is eventually supported by the cynical resilience of the local school mistress (Ingrid Thulin). - Director:
- Ingmar Bergman
- Cast:
- Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Björnstrand, Gunnel Lindblom
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