Eugène Green • Italy-France • 2014
Alexandre and Aliénor live in Paris, in a state of stagnation—Aliénor feels her husband slipping away from her as he settles into a state of professional and spiritual malaise. The couple escape to Italy when Alexandre becomes inspired by the idea of completing an unfinished book on seventeenth century Roman baroque architect Francesco Borromini. While in the small town of Stresa on Lago Maggiore, they meet Goffredo and Lavinia, a pair of siblings who awaken internal longings in the couple that had long laid dormant.
Embellished with formalistic flourishes and a gentle, elegant tone, La Sapienza heralds the return to a simpler world—of art and architecture, the pillars of modern civilization. Eugène Green’s fifth film premiered at Locarno, BFI London, Göteborg, and Seville, where it won Best Film.
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Little Stabs at Happiness
Ken Jacobs • United States • 1963 • Jacobs' poetic riff on the transformation of The Piper's Son.
In Jacob’s words—“Material was cut in as it came out of the camera, embarrassing moments intact. 100' rolls timed well with music on old 78's. I was interested in immediacy, a sense of ease, and a...
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Michael
Carl Theodor Dreyer • Germany • 1924 • An early Dreyer masterpiece.
Based upon Herman Bang's 1902 novel, Michael refashions the classical Greek myth of Jupiter and Ganymede into a love triangle between aging artist Zoret, his protagonist Michael, and Princess Zamikoff, an aristocratic femme fata...
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Nostalghia
Andrei Tarkovsky • 1983 • Italy-Soviet Union • A sensory reflection of living in exile.
Shrouded in diaphanous textures of mist, fog, and rain, and blending memory and reality to the threshold of discernibility, No...
