Fiction - Commercial - Corporate - Animation - Documentary

Dodes’ka-den – 1970


Legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa almost ended his career (and his own life) over the initial commercial failure of his first color film: the surreal and heartbreaking Dodes’ka-den. It is an episodic exploration of slum-dwellers striving for dignity and happiness, interweaving gritty realism and poetic fantasy with such ease you will never doubt a master is at the helm.

Kwaidan – 1964


Mad Movies called our Halloween pic « the most beautiful film ever made ». It’s the episodic ghost story Kwaidan, one of the most entrancing, unforgettable experiences ever. Ace director Masaki Kobayashi weaves together four supernatural tales, making the most of spellbinding use of color, in-camera tricks and the most beautiful soundstage-bound locations outside of Ridley Scott’s Legend. See it!

The Killing Fields – 1984


Our film of the week is a harrowing and beautiful vignette from an ignoble time in History: Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields. The first half is masterful enough, but it’s halfway through that things ramp up to a whole other level. One of the very best films of the 80s.

Electric Boogaloo – 2014


The great paradox of learning anything, is that you find out more by studying failures than successes. By that standard, our film of the week is the greatest filmmaking case-study of all time: this documentary charts the rise and fall of Golan and Globus, the two mad bandits behind Canon films. Long before the Weinsteins, and unburdened by that duo’s focus on quality, these gentlemen invented the B-action movie of the 80s and got the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris and Dolph Lundgren where they are today… which kind of says it all. Don’t miss this one!

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell – 1968


This week, we’re all about extreme ideas explored to their fullest potential, and as a case study, we’d like to propose « Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell », an alien-invasion-survival-vampire horror film with, surely, the best title of all time. If your taste-buds are finely tuned to the delights of some of the weirder horror-shlock from the 80s, then you might have just found your cinematic caviar!

Men Behind The Sun – 1988


Our film of the week is a brutal horror nobody should have to experience, the hugely controversial Men Behind The Sun. If Schindler’s List is too much for you, stay clear of this baffling depiction of Japanese POW camps in the run-up to WWII. Call it bad taste, call it propaganda, this denunciation of cruelty on an unprecedented scale is a meaner film than you’ve probably ever seen, and helps remember human tragedies that should never be forgotten. Warning: not for the faint of heart!

Batman Returns – 1992


As the Dark Knight and Man of Steel duke it out onscreen, we celebrate our favorite film outing of either superhero: Tim Burton’s magnum opus. The totally bonkers gothic fairytale that is his Batman Returns dared to go way beyond the conventions of even its tortured title character. Yes, the Bat is almost a supporting character, but his antagonists, all beautiful freaks, are beyond iconic. Burton, his cast and composer Danny Elfman have never been better than here.

The Man Who Saved The World – 1982


This time our film of the week needs little introduction, underground legend that it is. A labyrinth-plotted, legally-dodgy rip-off of unprecedented dimensions, « Turkish Star Wars » as it is often referred to, steals its score from Indiana Jones, entire sequences from Star Wars, and ties it all together with insane pseudo-Rambo VS Power Ranger alien action whose level of stupidity rivals anything in Monty Python’s catalogue. As you drain the blood from your eyes you’ll find it impossible to decide whether this is the worst or best film ever made.

Sleeping Beauty – 1959


With its lush design and iconic villain, Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is without a doubt the most visually stunning of the studio’s golden age classics. Drawing on a rich range of Renaissance art and a score adapted from Tchaikovsky eponymous ballet, the first animated feature in super-70 widescreen has barely aged a day, and we invite you to rediscover it as soon as you can.

Fog Of War – 2003


Our film of the week is a very subtle breed of revolutionary, turning all the common expectations one has from a documentary on their head: it’s subjective, it’s got one point of view, and is uniquely cinematic. Filmmaker Errol Morris grills US Defense Secretary (Japan firebombing and Vietnam War architect) Robert McNamara and the result is spellbinding. A must-see!