Film Archive

Ancient Roman architect Lucius is too serious. His inability to keep up with the fast-moving times costs him his job. When a friend takes the dejected Lucius to the public bathhouse to cheer him up, Lucius accidentally slips through time and resurfaces in a modern-day public bath in Japan. There, he meets aspiring young manga artist Mami, along with others of the “flat-faced clan”. Shocked by the many inventive aspects of Japan’s bathing culture, Lucius returns to ancient Rome and garners tremendous attention when he implements these novel ideas back in Rome. As he time-slips back and forth between ancient Rome and modern-day Japan, Lucius’ reputation as the ingenious, new bath architect begins to grow.

Her head filled with dreams, Amélie, 20, goes back to Japan, where she spent her childhood. To earn a living, she decides to give private classes in French and meets Rinri, her first and only student, a young Japanese man with whom she soon has an intimate relationship. Between surprises, happy times and the pitfalls of a culture shock that is both poetic and amusing, she discovers a side of Japan she had never seen before…

In a somewhat simplified way, we could say that For Some Inexplicable Reason, the greatest surprise of Hungarian cinema in 2014, tells the story of a Nanni Moretti-like young man in Budapest with a Wes Anderson/Spike Jonze-esque touch. Áron (Áron Ferenczik), about to turn 30, aspires to become something, but he still doesn’t know what. His girlfriend has just walked out on him and he tries, without much success, to become an adult. While drunk after learning that his ex has found love again (thank you, Facebook!), he buys a flight to Lisbon and, who knows ?, to the rest of his life.

After the unexpected success of Carmina o revienta, a mockumentary about and starring his mother, the popular actor Paco León (Three More Weddings, best film of 2014 MCFF) comes back to his charismatic mother, Carmina Barrios, for his second film as a director. From its unusual beginning, which makes it a worthy heir to the classics of Spanish black comedy, Carmina’s efforts to conceal the death of her husband for a couple of days to get his monthly pay are narrated through monologues and conversations with daughter Maria Leon, parrot Barcenas and neighbors (including the superb Yolanda Ramos). An offbeat but hilarious story about resilience and the joy of life.

Yehezkel, age 75, living in a Jerusalem retirement home, decides to fulfill his terminally ill best friend Max’s wish to die in peace. Despite the objections of his wife Levana, Yehezkel and Max’s wife Yana enlist the help of Dr. Daniel, a veterinarian, and retired police officer Raffi Segal to help them with their mission. At the moment of truth the group realize that none of them is willing to “pull the trigger”. A retired engineer and inventor, Yehezkel builds a machine for self-euthanasia, purely to help his friend. But after Max is gone, rumors about the machine beg in to spread, and the group receives more pleas for help. Meanwhile Yehezkel refuses to face the reality of his wife’s deteriorating dementia.

Darko Lungulov’s second feature is a tragicomedy stylized as a Balkan Western of sorts, that mixes social satire with Eastern European humour. The protagonist Marko (Boris Milivojević), a barber in his early 40’s, lives in the grim reality of a small Serbian town (circa 2009). When Marko hears about the new Michael Jackson tour he comes up with idea to erect a statue for the pop idol, putting himself against the town major’s schemes and a violent nationalist right wing group.

A contemporary Don Quixote (Kaplan, played by Héctor Noguera) and Sancho Panza (Contreras, Néstor Guzzini) seek Nazis on the beaches of Uruguay. Like them, their idealistic and tragicomic adventure completely ignores reality. At 76, James Kaplan, a Jew who fleed Poland escaping Nazi persecution, feels like he hasn’t done anything of value in his life. When he discovers that a German old man lives alone in a beach bar, he believes it’s an opportunity to go down to posterity. In no movie like this is so justified the use of Serge Gainsbourg’s “SS In Uruguay” in the opening credits.

Adapted from François Lelord’s popular novel, Peter Chelsom’s new film introduces us to the boring and meaningless life of a London-based shrink, named Hector (Simon Pegg). His emotionally sterile relationship with his beautiful girlfriend Clara (Rosamund Pike) and his unsatisfying job, drag Hector to some major changes in his life. He embarks on a picaresque journey from Shanghai to Africa and Los Angeles and through diverse encounters, to research what makes people happy.

The great American comedy returns to theaters thanks to Peter Bogdanovich. The New York-born filmmaker, author among others of The Last Picture Show (1971, chosen among the best 100 films of all time by the American Film Institute), returns to the big screen after thirteen years of silence with a delicious heir to the screwball comedy by authors like Ernest Lubitsch, Billy Wilder or Howard Hawks, with a touch of Woody Allen. This delightful romantic farce stars prostitute Izzy (Imogen Poots), who is offered 30,000$ by Broadway director Arnold (Owen Wilson) to quit her night job and pursue her dreams to become an actress. An exceptional cast, completed by Jennifer Anniston, Rhys Ifans (the hilarious Spike in Notting Hill) and Cybill Shepherd, in the highly anticipated return of the legendary Bogdanovich.

Four years afer his directorial debut Another World, Silvio Muccino will helm his second feature, Laws of Desire (Le leggi del desiderio). Filming started in August for this comedy that, according to the actor- turned-director, “will let the audience recover the wonder of imperfection.” The cast stars Muccino, Nicole Grimaudo, Carla Signoris and Maurizio Magoli. Laws of Desire tells the story of Giovanni, a life-coach whowants to prove the truth of his theories accepting the arduous challenge to bring three lucky people to success and the realization of their deepest desires. Butthe relation with Matilde, one of his pupils, will change their lives.