“Cinema is cinema. Church is church. Told the father. Did you ever see God in the house of the Devil?”
(João Viana, Our Madness, 2018)
The Cinematic Favorites series which started around this time last year continues, and the first edition of 2020 encompasses six oldies, six features released between 2000 and 2020, as well as six shorts - all first-time watches - which left the strongest impression on me. Its mid-section comes off as the most eclectic one, given that it includes, respectively, a formally challenging period drama composed of stunning tableaux vivants not unlike the masterpieces of Dutch masters + a brutal, deeply absorbing historical epic holding the power of an ancient myth + a satirical Russian thriller boasting cartoonish violence and great humor + a visually delightful anime which sees Masaaki Yuasa at his most mawkish and restrained + an exotic mood piece of dreamlike qualities co-produced by France, Portugal, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau & Qatar (sic!) + a teen rom-com which totally caught me by surprise with its unaffected performances, hints of magic realism, and tongue-in-cheek self-awareness.
OLDIES
1. The Lodger (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)
2. The Empty Canvas (Damiano Damiani, 1963)
3. History of Cinema in Popielawy (Jan Jakub Kolski, 1998)
4. Caravaggio (Derek Jarman, 1986)
5. Tristana (Luis Buñuel, 1970)
6. Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971)
2000-2020
1. The Portuguese Woman (Rita Azevedeo Gomes, 2018)
2. Apocalypto (Mel Gibson, 2006)
3. Why Don't You Just Die! (Kirill Sokolov, 2018)
4. Ride Your Wave (Masaaki Yuasa, 2019)
5. Our Madness (João Viana, 2018)
6. Tamara (Alexandre Castagnetti, 2016)
SHORTS
1. What Did Jack Do? (David Lynch, 2017)
2. Sweep Away Hungry Ghosts (Zhang & Knight, 2020)
3. M.C. Echer: Adventures in Perception (Han Van Gelder, 1972)
4. The Clapping Tree (Jutta Pryor, 2020)
5. My Juke-Box (Florentine Grelier, 2019)
6. Nagi 2 (Takatoshi Arai, 2020)
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