Tag: farce

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Features Live Action Movies

Scars of the Sun
(Taiyo no Kizu Ato,
太陽のきずあと)

Director – Chusei Sone – 1981 – Japan – Cert. 18 – 99m

***1/2

A young gang leader whose father is a successful literary figure finds himself battling against a rival – part of the Chusei Sone Double Feature on Blu-ray from Monday, July 27th.

NSFW

A dull, industrial pumping sound can be heard in the background. A man in a white raincoat and a hat waits. The wind blows his open coat. He takes out a cigarette. Down the road, another man steals a white car from a garage explaining, “I’ve a funeral to attend.” He picks up the raincoat and hat man.

Another car, red, heading in the opposite direction on the other side of the highway, U-turns and joins him. Both drive recklessly until the white one narrowly avoids a collision with a bicycle.

The other man asks Shuhei (Keniichi Kaneda), in the raincoat and hat, what they do about the now somewhat battered car. Shuhei says it can be fixed using his father’s money. When he tries to sign in for the funeral, he’s told to leave because the deceased wouldn’t have wanted him to attend.

They gather with others at a bar. His companion, Kobayashi, explains that Sugeru was so good at driving that he, Kobayashi, fell asleep.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Kinaesthesia

Director – Gerald Fox – 2026 – UK – Cert. 15 – 97m

**1/2

A journey through the dream imagery of silent cinema and its cinematographic effects, augmented by present day stagings before the camera – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 17th

Long fascinated by dream imagery in cinema, director Fox attended the Harvard course run by its Professor of Film Studies Vlada Petrić (1928-2019) to which this documentary essay is dedicated, being based on and quoting intensely from the latter’s theories.

Additionally, it just about works as a useful primer in silent cinema for the uninitiated provided you’re aware of its inherent biases and limitations. These may well be linked to the films (or film libraries) for which producer-director Fox secured rights, because there’s a far greater amount of French movies than you might expect. Or, these may may simply reflect Petrić’s theories and tastes.

Either way, the selection of movies here also leans towards the avant-garde in not only France but also the US. Then it throws in specific films from Griffifth (Edgar Allan Poe, 1909; The Avenging Conscience / Thou Shalt Not Kill, 1915) and Hitchcock (The Ring, 1927), China’s Romance of the Western Chamber (Hou Yau, 1927) and Japan’s A Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926).… Read the rest

Categories
Features Live Action Movies

The Milky Way
(Halav)

Director – Maya Kenig – 2023 – Israel, France – Cert. none – 94m

***

In need of income to feed her baby, a mother gets a job in a factory breast-pumping out human milk for sale to rich mother clients – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition at the 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

Singer-songwriter Tala (Hila Ruach) loves performing and writing, but can’t seem to make any money at it. And she needs money, having recently given birth to Sheleg (whose name means Snow), so gets herself a day job at Milky Way. It’s a company that employs mothers to pump their milk into containers so that rich mothers can buy the best quality milk – at a premium price. Each employee is given their own individual cubicle, and the women communicate with each other through and over the partition walls. It’s basically a milking factory for human women.

Tala quickly gets into trouble with the company authorities via an argument with a staff member when Tala lies down with her baby in an area filled with balls – supposedly for children only, not adults – as it is the only thing that will stop him crying.… Read the rest