Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.
(segment "Irtebak")
Boy (segment "Anna")
Supporting
Self (segment "À 8 944 km de Cannes")
Self (segment "À 8 944 km de Cannes")
Ticket Man (segment "La Fonderie")
A-yuan and A-yun are both from the small mining town of Jio-fen. They move to Taipei, where A-yuan is an apprentice by day and goes to night school, and A-yun works as a helper at a tailors. Everyone thinks they are meant for each other, and so do they. They fail to see time and fate are beyond their control.
The film has three stories. First is about local village idiot Paletta, who can not afford the services of a whore and so steals a locket from a holy shrine belonging to local mafia don. Second shows the story of betrayal of Pitrinu (who's dead now) by his lover Fefe. Final episode is about lowlife Lazarus. He is killed by mob boss Toto, but raised from the dead by a local messiah, who is also known as Toto (and is played by same actor).
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Angela de Marco is fed up with her gangster husband's line of work and wants no part of the crime world. When her husband is killed for having an affair with the mistress of mob boss Tony "The Tiger" Russo, Angela and her son depart for New York City to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, Tony has set his sights upon Angela -- and so has an undercover FBI agent looking to use her to bust Tony.
Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.
German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.
It's night. Perhaps after a dream of an intruder crashing through a window, a woman who's sensitive to light has a telephone conversation with a friend. The woman has a plane ticket from Copenhagen to Buenos Aires at 6 that morning. She doesn't want to go. Her friend encourages her to make the trip. Later, she stands in a car park with her suitcase. Flying geese fill the screen.
A semi-autobiographical account of Makhmalbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
Caught in the stranglehold of debt and structural adjustment, Africa is fighting for its survival. In the face of disaster, representatives of African society bring an action against international financial institutions. The trial takes place in Bamako, in the yard of a house, among its inhabitants.
A collection of deleted scenes from David Lynch's 2006 surrealist horror Inland Empire.
A short mime adaptation of a Thomas Mann story about a Parisian urchin who makes her living selling human heads. Lost for nearly 50 years, the movie was found in 2006 by the son of Ruth Michelly and Saul Gilbert when he found it in his mom's attic in Munich.
Two scientists are selected to travel across the universe to the source of a distant transmission and potential life.
Dziga Vertov-directed Soviet newsreel covering: Reports of the Pioneers: Excursion to the country, to the zoo etc.
Two Greek children embark on a journey to search for their father, who supposedly lives in Germany.
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.
Now fully revealed as the ultimate threat to existence, the Anti-Monitor wages an unrelenting attack on the surviving Earths that struggle for survival in a pocket universe. One by one, these worlds and all their inhabitants are vaporized! On the planets that remain, even time itself is shattered, and heroes from the past join the Justice League and their rag-tag allies against the epitome of evil. But as they make their last stand, will the sacrifice of the superheroes be enough to save us all?
Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz's buddy comedy Land Ho! follows former brothers-in-law Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) as they travel through Iceland. The pair of 70-year-olds find themselves in need of an adventure to break out of their rut, and soon the extroverted Mitch has talked Colin into the trip. Along the way they have various amorous encounters, and attempt to recapture the spirit of their youth.
As an omnibus of short films, Art Through Our Eyes is inspired by the art collection found at the National Gallery Singapore. Each of the five directors – Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Brillante Mendoza, Eric Khoo, Ho Yuhang and Joko Anwar – handpicked a masterpiece from the 19th and 20th century as inspiration for their short films.
An comedy set in 1960s Helsinki. The story revolves around Elsa, a resolute hatmaker who is in complete control of her life. Besides running her shop, she sometimes doubles as a fortune teller. When Jan, a Czechoslovakian jazz musician and Elsa's old lover comes to town to perform at a "peace and friendship festival", her well-organised life is jolted out of balance.
An unusual visit to a large, empty apartment. But is it empty or not? Maybe a family has lived there or is going to live there. Maybe a young girl is going to escape from there. Maybe some of the old-timers who lived there never left. The walls themselves tell the stories of the time passing by.
Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.
Nina is a 20 years old girl from Valladolid who lives with her divorced father, an autoritarian and conservative man. Trini is of the same age and has lost her mother. For both Valladolid and their families have nothing to offer and therefore they go on a risky voyage to the Costa del Sol at the south of Spain.
A young mother works at a memory-recreation facility. When a client pushes her to break the rules, she's forced to decide how far she's willing to go. Dreams and fantasy become entangled with memory as power shifts hands.
Inspired by the O. Henry short story "Gift of the Magi", Gift for the Living is a story about a grandmother and her granddaughter who, without the other's knowledge, sell their most treasured possession in order to buy the other a birthday gift. In the granddaughter's quest for the perfect gift, she discovers her grandmother's rich and unique history, a history her grandmother never spoke of. Gift for the Living is a story about love, friendship, loss and sacrifice.
An unmarried aristocrat (Jacqueline Bisset) resists the advances of the adventurous man (Peter Weller) whom she actually desires, causing him to turn his attentions to her new ward (Amy Locane) and a young maid (Karen Dwyer).
Ram reluctantly becomes a brother figure to a young and helpless boy, both undocumented workers. Living in such intense precarity, mutual support might be the only way to survive.
In this microcosm of the modern world, three couples, each at a different stage of their lives and relationship, face up to the conflicts of their differing cultures, backgrounds and beliefs.
At a Babelsberg studio, two German actors try to outdo each other with their Hollywood experiences. At a chic Düsseldorf café, two expatriate French women envy each other’s respective life. At a construction site somewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia, a foreman informs the supervising archaeologist that he as ordered the concrete without her approval. In a trendy Café in Ehrenfeld, Cologne, a recently departed meets a friend of his ex to obtain a box with things he’d left behind. A Dutch business consultant desperately tries to sell his inflated services to a Bulgarian arms contractor at Brussels Airport. On a rooftop in the Belgian Eifel, the owner and the future heir of a family workshop quietly discuss the recent passing of the family’s grandfather.
A man's enthusiastic penis starts talking to him, getting him into awkward situations and convincing everyone he tells that he's completely insane.
Mother of the bride Isobel speaks direct to camera about her selfish Lesbian daughter Kelly's upcoming civil partnership to the older, sensible Janice.
Zhenzhen is smuggled into Trinidad and is threatened upon her arrival. Her brother Wei, who is working on the island in construction, intervenes and although he doesn’t have the money, he promises to pay her debt. Wei finds Zhenzhen a job at a Chinese restaurant and tries to get an advance from his employer.
Thea Sharrock's irresistible 2009 production of Shakespeare's popular romantic comedy stirs wit, sentiment, intrigue and love into a charming confection which challenges the traditional rules of romance. At its heart, a feisty but feminine Rosalind (Naomi Frederick), in love with the endearingly naïve Orlando (Jack Laskey), uses her disguise as Ganymede to counsel him playfully in the art of wooing. Distraction is provided by Dominic Rowan, a remarkably funny Touchstone, and Tim McMullan, whose sonorous tones are perfectly suited to the lugubrious wit of Jaques. Filmed in High Definition and true surround sound.
Mother rules the house with an iron hand and has such power over her daughters that they see themselves as becoming old unmarried, maids. Jodie has feelings for the local doctor, a man much older than her, for which her mother strongly disapproves. Beth finds a relationship with a male stripper in Bristol, but sees nothing in the future with Mother around. While both girls would like to be rid of Mother, nothing happens until Jodie sees images of H. R. Armstrong, the man who put the town on the map by dispatching his un-loving wife
A week before her marriage, a woman injures a man in a car accident. As she helps nurse him back to health, she starts to doubt the course her life is taking. Her father, a powerful dictator, is not pleased with the change of plans.
An elderly widow (Joan Benac) starts to wonder what happened to a would-be lover from her past who appeared with her in a live televised drama in the 1950s. After discovering the show in CBC’s archive, her granddaughter Audrey (Deragh Campbell) attempts to try and track the man down.