Favorite movies

184   8.3   7.9 

A farmer’s family is torn apart by faith, sanctity, and love — one child believes he’s Jesus Christ, a second proclaims himself agnostic, and the third falls in love with a fundamentalist’s daughter. Putting the lie to the term “organized religion,” Ordet (The Word) is a challenge to simple facts and dogmatic orthodoxy. Layering multiple stories of faith and rebellion, Dreyer’s adaptation of Kaj Munk’s play quietly builds towards a shattering, miraculous climax.

Kankku's rating:

94   8.3   7.4 

Irene and George Girard are a wealthy couple living in post-war Rome with their son Michele. After the suicide of the only child, Irene is bedridden for 10 days, before enlisting the help of Andrea Casatti (Ettore Giannini) to help her overcome her grief. Being a Communist, he takes her to the poorer parts of Rome and leads her into donating her time and money to help people there.

Rarely I run into films like Europa '51. This was the movie that introduced me to style of Roberto Rossellini, since I hadn't seen any of his films before Europa '51. And God, if his whole filmography is like Europa '51, I surely don't know if I'm going to cry or laugh. Europa '51 is one of the most touching and the most beautiful films I've ever seen. Visually this film is just pure perfection and the story behind the beautiful pictures is something that you don't see every day. Society is shown very cruelly and the woman in the middle, Irene Girard, couldn't be performed by anyone else than Ingrid Bergman, who was also Rossellini's wife at the time. All in all, very beautiful movie that makes you really think about the world situation.

Kankku's rating:

436   8.1   7.9 

A family drama takes place in a mansion in the late 1800's. Karin and Maria watch over their sister Agnes' sickbed together with the servant Anna. Through flashbacks the lives of both sisters are described, which are full of lies, deceit, callousness, self despise, guilt and forbidden love. Agnes' dramatic death cramp arouses only aversion in them. They both retreat in their own way from her when she grasps for their hands.

Kankku's rating:

482   8.8   8.1 

With its stunning camerawork and striking compositions, Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc convinced the world that movies could be art. Renée Falconetti gives one of the greatest performances ever recorded on film, as the young maiden who died for God and France. Long thought to have been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981—in a Norwegian mental institution.

Dreyer's work as a director and Falconetti's performance as Jeanne d'Arc is one of the kind. Camerawork is perfect, sets are perfect everything is perfect. This is pure perfection. Emotionally very strong.

Kankku's rating:

941   7.9   7.9 

Three Colors: Blue is the first part of Kieslowski's trilogy on France's national motto: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Blue is the story of Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed European composer and her young daughter in a car accident. The film's theme of liberty is manifested in Julie's attempt to start life anew free of personal commitments, belongings grief and love. She intends to spiritually commit suicide by withdrawing from the world and live completely independently, anonymously and in solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her intentions, people from her former and present life intrude with their own needs. However, the reality created by the people who need and care about her, a surprising discovery and the music around which the film revolves heals Julie and irresistably draws her back to the land of the living.

Kieslowski might be my favourite director ever and this is definitely his best film. Visually Blue is pretty blue and beautiful in every way. Juliette Binoche is astonishing in her role and story is really beautiful and touching. Of course music is huge part of this film and that side is also done well. Music includes its own themes for different characters and that just a little part of the beauty of the film.

Kankku's rating:

107   8.2   7.8 

A young woman gets killed in an accident trying to meet her favorite actress Myrtle Gordon after a play. Then Myrtle Gordon felt responsible for the killing leading her down to an emotional crisis that interferes with her professional work as an actress.

Kankku's rating:

87   7.9   7.7 

Kankku's rating:

373   8.1   7.9 

Vivre sa vie was a turning point for Jean-Luc Godard and remains one of his most dynamic films, combining brilliant visual design with a tragic character study. The lovely Anna Karina, Godard’s greatest muse, plays Nana, a young Parisian who aspires to be an actress but instead ends up a prostitute, her downward spiral depicted in a series of discrete tableaux of daydreams and dances. Featuring some of Karina and Godard’s most iconic moments—from her movie theater vigil with The Passion of Joan of Arc to her seductive pool-hall strut—Vivre sa vie is a landmark of the French New Wave that still surprises at every turn.

Kankku's rating:

109   8.2   7.7 

A singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow—whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.

Chantal Akerman gives audience a lot of time to think during and after this film. This is one of so called "epics" in this list with its over three-hour-length. Delphine Seyrig's performance is her greatest I've seen and definitely one of the greatest ever in the history of cinema. Every day is similar for this lonely woman of bourgeoisie. That cycle seems boring for her but it is everything than boring for audience: it is all done so perfectly and the harmony of the screen is sensible. Camerawork is simply wonderful and everything looks great. Beautiful and great movie, pure masterpiece. Movie experience like no other.

Kankku's rating:

275   8.7   7.9 

The story takes place in a small provincial town on the Hungarian Plain. The weather is bitterly cold (seventeen degrees Celsius below zero) but no snow has fallen. Despite this, hundreds of bewildered men stand around a circus trailer (or corrugated iron box) in the main square, waiting to see the main attraction - the stuffed carcass of a whale. The men composing this faceless, ragged crowd have come from distant parts of the country as well as neighbouring settlements, and the strange state of affairs — the presence of strangers, the extreme cold — is disturbing the order of the small town. Relationships are changing, and some ambitious people feel they can take advantage of the situation; while others who are more passive fall into even deeper uncertainty. The unbearable tension is brought to a head by the figure of the Prince, a disfigured, Slovak speaking figure, who is hiding behind the whale; his mere appearance is enough to unleash destructive emotions. The ensuing apocalypse spares no one.

Kankku's rating:

150   8.1   7.5 

Celine (Juliet Berto), a magician, and Julie (Dominique Labourier), a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, fiance, clothes, identity and imagination. Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired 'film-within-the film' a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the 'Phantom Ladies Over Paris' (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier), a sinister man (Barbet Shroeder) and his child. The atmosphere, however, is more Lewis Carroll, with Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier as twin Alices. The four main actresses improvised their own dialogue in collaboration with Rivette and scriptwriter Eduardo de Gregorio.

This is my first movie ever seen by Jacques Rivette and definently not the last. Rivette's three-hour epic (if that word is the right one to describe this movie) something that you have never seen before and ever will see. Rivette uses whole of that time perfectly to make right kind of atmosphere to this film and the characters are all such a interesting kind. Absurd humor fits perfectly and everything looks absolutely spectacular. Even the title is absurd. Quite often this movie is compared to Alice in Wonderland or that Mulholland Dr. has got some infuelnce of this film and I can't argue with that. Rivette is movie maker one of the kind and Céline and Julie Go Boating is perfect demonstration of that.

Kankku's rating:

293   7.9   7.9 

A group of rich Italians head out on a yachting trip to a deserted volcanic island in the Mediterranean. When they are about to leave the island, they find Anna, the main character up to this point, has gone missing. Sandro, Anna's boyfriend, and Claudia, Anna's friend, try without success to find her. While looking for the missing friend, Claudia and Sandro develop an attraction for each other. When they get back to land, they continue the search with no success. Sandro and Claudia proceed to become lovers, and all but forget about the missing Anna.

Kankku's rating:

251   8.8   8 

Veronica and Boris are blissfully in love, until the eruption of World War II tears them apart. Boris is sent to the front lines…and then communication stops. Meanwhile, Veronica tries to ward off spiritual numbness while Boris’s draft-dodging cousin makes increasingly forceful overtures. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, The Cranes Are Flying is a superbly crafted drama, bolstered by stunning cinematography and impassioned performances.

I love Russian cinema and this is the cleanest pearl from Russia. Absolutely stunning movie. Perfect work with camera, nothing wrong. Tatyana Samojlova is one of the most beautiful actresses I've ever seen. She is not only beautiful: she is also talented.

Kankku's rating:

339   8.8   8 

Kankku's rating:

206   8.2   7.5 

An old married man leaves his wife for a younger woman. Shortly after, his ex-wife also begins a relationship with a younger partner. The film follows their struggles to find love amongst each other.

Kankku's rating:

1193   7.4   7.3 

Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass. Her boyfriend and ex-lover take matters into their own hands by hiring two criminals to help them find the rapist so that they can exact revenge. A simultaneously beautiful and terrible examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect, and how time destroys everything.

My first from Gaspar Noé couldn't be better at all. I expected a lot from this film but this gave me even more. 'Chaotic' but still controlled camera work evokes feelings inside but there is a lot more to come and feel.

Kankku's rating:

106   8.2   7.9 

Carlos Saura’s exquisite Cría cuervos . . . heralded a turning point in Spain: shot while General Franco was on his deathbed, the film melds the personal and the political in a portrait of the legacy of fascism and its effects on a middle-class family (the title derives from the Spanish proverb: “Raise ravens and they’ll peck out your eyes”). Ana Torrent (the dark-eyed beauty from The Spirit of the Beehive) portrays the disturbed eight-year-old Ana, living in Madrid with her two sisters and mourning the death of her mother, whom she conjures as a ghost (an ethereal Geraldine Chaplin). Seamlessly shifting between fantasy and reality, the film subtly evokes both the complex feelings of childhood and the struggles of a nation emerging from the shadows.

Ana Torrent might be the greates child actor ever. This is second movie on this list to include Ana Torrent in it's cast. Ana Torrent is again amazing but I have to say that other children in their roles are not much worse. Geraldine Chaplin in her double role is also fantastic. Movie handles family relationships in a wonderful way. Saura's way to show children growing is touching and I could never imagine that somebody else could do any better work. Musical side is also great in this one.

Kankku's rating:

326   7.6   7.2 

A supposedly idyllic weekend trip to the countryside turns into a never-ending nightmare of traffic jams, revolution, cannibalism and murder as French bourgeois society starts to collapse under the weight of its own consumer preoccupations.

Jean-Luc Godard had done 15 feature films in 9 years. After breaking up with Anna Karina, darkness descented in Godard's movies and fierce was on rampage. In Week End those are the two dominant powers. Story is full of unfortunate events and surprises, so none of us don't have to act surprised when our heroines are being raped by Pinocchio. Actors are all great in their roles and plot is just marvellous. Visually film gives its best and surely hangs in minds forever. Society definitely gets its own part from Godard. 60s is definitely the century of Godard and Week End might be his most important film.

Kankku's rating:

283   8.5   7.9 

When Juliette marries Jean, she comes to live on his ship, on board of which are, besides the two of them, only a cabin boy and the strange old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips off to see the nightlife when they come to Paris. Angered by this, Jean sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to find Juliette.

Sad but true, this is Jean Vigo's only feature movie he directed before early death of his. But the debut / the end of career couldn't be much better. Dita Parlo as Juliette is both talented and beautiful in a breathtaking way. Dita Parlo isn't definitely the only talented actor in the movie: Michel Simon as Jules, the tattooed sailor, is hilarious and Jean Dasté is great as Jean. Love story is surely one of the kind and for that we all are grateful for the actors, Jean Vigo and Boris Kaufman. Joyful visual beauty is unforgettable but so is the whole movie as well.

Kankku's rating:

121   8.8   8.1 

This one represents whole trilogy as a single film.

Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

Masaki Kobayashi is definitely one of the greatest Japanese directors. The Human Condition is one great example from his filmography. Massive film handles massive themes and one of these themes is surprise surprise, humanity. The main character sees life from various points during to war. From the very beginning of the film it is clear that Kaji, the main character of the film, respects her wife and the value of human life the most. Kaji doesn't judge anyone from the political bases and thinks everyone is equal. Kaji shows great humanity even in the army greens, when he takes care of one outcast and when he gets suddenly promotion, he takes care that no recruit should be forsaken and humiliated. The physical pain that Kaji goes through the war is nothing compared the mental pain. When Kaji sees other women in the battlefield, he gets worried if his wife Michiko is even waiting him home.

Black and white images and gorgeous camerawork makes this film look absolutely beautiful. Tatsuya Nakadai shows again some brilliant talent. Fun detail in this film is that the soldiers of Soviet army are mostly shown as quite fat and old. Japanese soldiers are sometimes shown maybe even more brutal and inhuman than Soviet troops.

Kankku's rating:

428   8.2   8.1 

Hitman Jeff Costello is a perfectionist who always carefully plans his murders and who never gets caught. One night however, after killing a night-club owner, he's seen by witnesses. His efforts to provide himself with an alibi fail and more and more he gets driven into a corner.

Kankku's rating:

2473   7.8   7.9 

A bright-eyed young actress travels to Hollywood, only to be ensnared in a dark conspiracy involving a woman who was nearly murdered, and now has amnesia because of a car crash. Eventually, both women are pulled into a psychotic illusion involving a dangerous blue box, a director named Adam Kesher, and the mysterious night club Silencio.

Kankku's rating:

913   8.5   8.6 

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. Her family is in financial trouble. The tramp's on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

Kankku's rating:

244   8.3   7.8 

Three emotionally abused individuals from the fringes of society get locked in a convoluted love triangle. Yu, a Catholic boy searching for true love ends up taking "panty shot" photos of women in public until he discovers Yoko, whom he sees as his Virgin Mary. Yoko, an anti-family, misandrist girl finds that her foster mother will be marrying Yu's father. Koike, an "original sinner" and the regional leader of a brainwashing cult, co-ordinates a plan to convert Yu's family to her cult. Under her careful direction, their lives come crashing together in one fateful street fight.

Kankku's rating:

315   8.9   8.4 

Peace in 17th-century Japan causes the Shogunate's breakup of warrior clans, throwing thousands of samurai out of work and into poverty. An honorable end to such fate under the samurai code is ritual suicide, or hara-kiri (self-inflicted disembowelment). An elder warrior, Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) seeks admittance to the house of a feudal lord to commit the act. There, he learns of the fate of his son-in-law, a young samurai who sought work at the house but was instead barbarically forced to commit traditional hara-kiri in an excruciating manner with a dull bamboo blade. In flashbacks the samurai tells the tragic story of his son-in-law, and how he was forced to sell his real sword to support his sick wife and child. Tsugumo thus sets in motion a tense showdown of revenge against the house.

Kankku's rating:

117   7.6   7.6 

“Why would I tie myself to one woman if I were interested in others?” says Jerôme, even as he plans on marrying a diplomat’s daughter by summer’s end. Before then, Jerôme spends his July at a lakeside boardinghouse nursing crushes on the sixteen-year-old Laura and, more tantalizingly, Laura’s long-legged, blonde stepsister, Claire. Baring her knee on a ladder under a blooming cherry tree, Claire unwittingly instigates Jerôme’s moral crisis and creates both one of French cinema’s most enduring moments and what has become the iconic image of Rohmer’s Moral Tales.

By this far, when making this listing project, I have seen only three movies by Eric Rohmer. I can guarantee that I never get bored to him. Rohmer's ability to create relationships between the characters is amazing and Claire's Knee is perfect example for that. Characters are all loveable and different from each other. Landscapes are awesome and visually this is great. But nothing compares to the story of the movie. Love is haunting instinct and it won't leave any of the characters in peace - especially Jerôme. Jean-Claude Brialy's performance as Jerôme, Laurence de Monaghan's performance as Claire, Aurora Cornu's performance as Aurora and Béatrice Romand's performace as Laura are all great.

Kankku's rating:

511   8.1   8.1 

A darkly comic journey into forbidden family territory. No one can ignore a person like Danish patriarch Helge Klingenfeldt. So on his sixtieth birthday, a celebration is required. Friends and relatives scurry to the country estate. Eventually, every family's secrets will come out. And since his twin sister's death two months ago, prodigal son Christian is more haunted than usual. The time has come for the darkest family skeleton to be revealed, and it must be done in their father's style - with flair, and malice.

Dogme #1. This is one of my all time favourites ever made. Family relations are shown beautifully and visual style is stunning. Hand-held camera works well and everything looks fantastic. Actors are amazing and whole thing works perfectly. Emotionally very strong and I can tell you that true men cry during The Celebration.

Kankku's rating:

532   8   7.8 

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s international breakthrough remains one of his most beloved films, a ravishing, mysterious rumination on identity, love, and human intuition. Irène Jacob is incandescent as both Weronika, a Polish choir soprano, and her double, Véronique, a French music teacher. Though unknown to each other, the two women share an enigmatic, emotional bond, which Kieślowski details in gorgeous reflections, colors, and movements. Aided by Slawomir Idziak’s shimmering cinematography and Zbigniew Preisner’s haunting, operatic score, Kieślowski creates one of cinema’s most purely metaphysical works. The Double Life of Véronique is an unforgettable symphony of feeling.

Kankku's rating:

471   8   7.1 

Kankku's rating:

42   7.8   7.1 

In the centre of part 3 of Rohmer's "4 Seasons-Cycle" stands a young man, Gaspard, who went to Dinard (a town by the sea in the Bretagne) because he hopes to meet the girl he thinks he is in love with - Lena. Shortly after his arrival he comes into contact with Margot who works as a servant at her aunt's creperie. He spends a long time with her, and discusses the way he feels about Lena but he hesitates to tell the truth about his relationship. The reason is that he isn't quite sure himself. Although he insists he loves Lena, doubts arise.

Kankku's rating:

417   8.5   8.2 

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality.

Kankku's rating:

67   7.4   7.2 

On an empty road, an old man is walking with his son. They meet a crow that can speak. They are changed into monks and Saint Francois sent them to preach for hawks and sparrows. A reflexion about idealism.

Kankku's rating:

272   8.2   7.8 

In Milan, after visiting dear friend Tommaso Garani that is terminal in a hospital, the writer Giovanni Pontano goes to a party for the release of his last book, and his wife Lydia Pontano visits the place where she lived many years ago. In the night, they go to a night-club, and later to a party in the mansion of the tycoon Mr. Gherardini. Along the night, Giovanni flirts with Valentina Gherardini, the daughter of the host, and then he receives a proposal to work for him in the area of communication and write the history of his company. Meanwhile, Lydia flirts with the playboy Roberto.

Kankku's rating:

231   8   7.8 

In the suburb of Rome, the translator Vittoria breaks her engagement with her boyfriend, the writer Ricardo, after a troubled night. Vittoria goes to downtown to meet her mother, who is addicted in Stock Market, and she meets the broker Piero in a day of crash in the Stock Market. The materialist Piero and the absent Vittoria begins a monosyllabic relationship.

Kankku's rating:

511   8   7.6 

A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.

Kankku's rating:

299   8.6   8 

By pure coincidence, three men meet to pull off a jewel heist. Corey (Delon) is released from prison, and immediately goes round to rob his old mob boss, who betrayed him. Whilst driving through the countryside, Corey finds a man hiding in his trunk: Vogel (Volonte), who just escaped police custody (his crime is never revealed). Total strangers, they immediately plan the robbery, deciding upon a third man, Jansen (Montand) an alcoholic ex-cop. Of course, both the mob and the cops are hot on their trail.

Kankku's rating:

261   7.8   7.8 

In Victorian England, the uncle of orphaned niece Flora and nephew Miles hires Miss Giddens as governess to raise the children at his estate with total independence and authority. Soon after her arrival, Miss Giddens comes to believe that the spirits of the former governess Miss Jessel and valet Peter Quint are possessing the children. Miss Giddens decides to help the children to face and exorcise the spirits.

Kankku's rating:

281   8.3   8.1 

Kankku's rating:

75   8.2   7.6 

Passenger (Pasazerka) has been called 'one of the most audacious fictions ever made about the Holocaust'. Director Munk died in a car crash, aged just 39, in the middle of filming. His friend, Witold Lesiewicz, and his colleagues decided to complete the film to what they believed were Munk's intentions and assembled it using the existing footage, Munk's still photographs and a voice-over narration. Finally released in 1964, the film won main awards at Cannes and Venice and has been described by those who have seen it as an unfinished masterpiece.

I don't need to argue with that opinion about 'one of the most audacious fictions ever made about the Holocaust'. Very often this kind of war dramas hits me harder than actional war films with blood and bullets everywhere. Passanger is great mixture of beautiful, beautiful visual style and great performances from the actors. Visually still pictures works well with beautiful black&white camerawork.

Kankku's rating:

950   8.4   8.2 

Ingmar Bergman is one of my favorite directors. Persona is deffinently his greatest movie! Movie like a poem. I love Bibi Andersson. Emotionally strong picture, mysterious and beautiful. Absolutely amazing film.

Kankku's rating:

100   7.8   7.6 

Celestine, the chambermaid has new job on the country. The Monteils, who she works for are a group of strange people. The wife is frigid, her husband is always hunting (both animals and women) and her father is a shoe-fetishist. Joseph, the farm-labourer is a fascist and sexually attracted to Celestine. Celestine settles herself and talks to the neighbour, an ex-officer, who likes damaging his neighbour's things.

Kankku's rating:

432   8.6   8.3 

Sunrise isn't the hardest movie you can get and maybe that is one of the strenghts in this film. Plot is simple but visually this is anything but simple. This movie has been chosen as the most beautiful movie ever made and that reward is definently well-earned. I'm not saying that this is more beautiful than The Passion of Joan of Arc but still this is very beautiful.
Love story isn't over sentimental, acting from the actors in leading role are simply amazing.

Kankku's rating:

282   8.2   7.8 

Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais’ epochal Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad) has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. Written by radical master of the New Novel Alain Robbe-Grillet, this surreal fever dream, or nightmare, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-filled château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais’ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

Delphine Seyrig is one of my all time favorite actresses in the world and Last Year at Marienbad is perfect demonstration of her skills. Surrealistic themes and scenes in the film makes this film absolutely fantastic. So called love story between the Man and the Woman is beautiful - actually whole film is beauty it self. Mysteric and poetic beauty from the promised land of cinema.

Kankku's rating:

300   7.6   7.5 

A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother. Against his will, he "becomes her arms" and the two undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.

I really like the surreal world of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Characters are more than fantastic and visual style is like no other. Circus milieu is fantastic and grotesque special effects truly convinced me. In my opinion, Santa Sangre is Jodorowsky's true masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made.

Kankku's rating:

45   8.4   7.7 

Based on a true story reflecting the Stalinist terror of the early 1950s, Ryszard Bugajski’s harrowing film was banned under martial law in Poland and only became available on underground VHS through a copy smuggled out by the director at great risk. Tonia (Krystyna Janda), a singer in a sleazy cabaret, is imprisoned without explanation. Days become weeks become months, varied only by the persuasion, intimidation and torture of interrogation. Janda’s outstanding depiction, of a woman who becomes heroic in the face of torture and imprisonment, takes you to places few films are willing to explore.

Kankku's rating:

1737   7.8   7.8 

A man returns to his home town after being away and discovers a severed human ear in a field. Not satisfied with the police's pace, he and the police detective's daughter carry out their own investigation. The object of his investigation turns out to be a beautiful and mysterious woman involved with a violent and perversely evil man.

Kankku's rating:

100   8.3   7.2 

A common friend's sudden death brings three men, married with children, to reconsider their lives and ultimately leave together. But mindless enthusiasm for regained freedom will be short-lived.

Kankku's rating:

1741   8.1   8.2 

Kankku's rating:

60   6   5.3 

David, an independent photographer, and Katia, an unemployed woman, leave Los Angeles, en route to the southern California desert, where they search a natural set to use as a backdrop for a magazine photo shoot. They find a motel in the town of Twentynine Palms and spend their days in their sport-utility vehicle, discovering the Joshua Tree Desert, and losing themselves on nameless roads and trails. Frantically making love all the time and almost everywhere, they regularly fight, then kiss and make up, with little else going on in their empty relationship and quite ordinary daily life--until something horrible and hideous brutally puts an end to their trip.

Kankku's rating:

205   8.3   7.8 

Kankku's rating: