Check-Ins de nashhadar

Vojislav Rakonjac's last film and follow up to "Before the Truth" in that it's also a sequel to the story where the main protagonist is now in prison and the story continues in the form of a physiological drama between prisoner and guard, shot in black and white with the same new wave style as the previous film which you don't need to have seen to appreciate this one although it does borrow scenes from it in terms of flashbacks.

Nicely done tale of lost love, memory and what might have been, all done with some beautiful cinematography but without sentiment, this was Guy Gilles follow up to "Love at Sea" 1964, and is similar in structure and in terms of visuals, ie segments shot in black and white and colour, Gilles only made about half a dozen full features and these two are certainly worth checking out.

Haunting Taiwanese tale of three people and their common experiences, loss, loneliness, alienation, obsession and a whole lot more if you look for it.

Gritty prison/heist drama from Joseph Losey and one of his most underrated in my opinion, Stanley Baker is on top form playing the hard boiled career criminal, quite a few unexpected twists in this but Losey focuses mainly on the prison hierarchy and pecking order to good effect, cinematography by Robert Krasker who notably did "The Third Man" also some nice small touches like showing the protagonist as having a trendy, arty apartment which is very unusual for the period at least in British drama's c1960.

Unusual off beat take on a serial killer as a young man (Jaques Perrin) knocks off suicidal and depressed women convincing himself it's mercy killings.

Olmi goes east and makes a strange movie about Chinese pirates.

Unique anti-war tale from Oliveria where the entire military history of Portugal is recounted in a series of flashbacks.

Highly atmospheric slow burn psychological drama/horror about a disturbed woman living in a Victorian country mansion, British production, Spanish director, shades of "Repulsion" a film that should be much better known in my opinion but sadly neglected.

Balabanov's penultimate film about a Soviet Afghan war veteran who stokes the boilers in a factory and disposes of a hitman's victims as part of his routine, brilliantly grim and dark with very dark humour but a compelling portrait of the underbelly of Soviet life in keeping with Balabanov's other offerings like Cargo 200 which would make a nice companion viewing with a bottle of Vodka and Semechki for good measure.

Strange and dreamlike pulpy offering as a docker (Depardieu) is haunted by the murder of his sister, this movie seems to totally split opinion and was panned by critics on release, is it just arty pretentiousness? style over substance? tongue in cheek perhaps? well, yes and no, the aesthetic is clearly deliberate like the obvious use of soundstages so it looks like a 50's musical, use of overly melodramatic music etc, although the movie looks great especially use of colour, it does meander off course and could be trimmed by 30 mins although a four hour version was envisaged for this, it's still worth a look, at least it's a lot more ambitious than "Diva" the directors debut... think of something like Twin Peaks set in Marseilles but more ambiguous.

Beautiful looking period piece where the director was definitely going for the "frame every shot like an old master oil painting" look, but very slow moving overall, cant fault the visuals though.

Impressive low budget production with a cast of amateur actors and some civil war re-enactors I'd guess who all look surprisingly of the period thanks mostly to the hairy look of the mid 70's, nicely shot in black and white this is the story of Gerard Winstanley who invented communism 200 years before Karl Marx.

Ruin porn arthouse, this is a montage of abandoned places and spaces in the world with no soundtrack other than nature and is actually more eerie and haunting than just about any post apocalyptic movie.

AKA The Delivered
Are you a fan of films set in 17th century Cromwellian England with a 1970's Hammer aesthetic, erotica and spaghetti western storyline with a feminist slant? then this movie is for you.

AKA The Advocate.
Unusual overlooked medieval movie probably because it's not about warfare, this is based on the actual cases of 15th century lawyer Bartholomew Chassenee who goes from Paris to the country to find himself defending a pig accused of murder according to French law of the period (seriously) lots of dry humour, debauchery and nudity and an opening scene that almost surpasses anything Monty Python could dream up.

Visually stunning Portuguese film, every shot in this is gorgeous and composed to perfection, the kind of movie where subtitles are really not required.

The first movie to be made about a nuclear holocaust and aftermath and I have to take my hat off to Arch Oboler who wrote, produced, directed and designed the whole thing and used a bunch of new film school graduates to make it, basically an indie film before such a thing existed, knowing his limitations what we get here is an intimate, contemplative film mostly taking place in Oboler's own clifftop modernist house, some impressive cinematography throughout and still a film which is much more effective than most of the post apocalyptic stuff from the following couple of decades.

AKA The Last Battle.
Luc Bessons debut a quirky, low budget, minimalist post apocalyptic offering with no dialogue to speak of (no pun intended) any movie that opens with a guy having sex with an inflatable woman is going to get my attention, despite it's limitations this is still better in terms of creativity and vision than a lot of Bessons later stuff post Fifth Element.

Beautiful looking 18th century ghost story, to quote Guillermo Del Toro: "It's an incredibly well-researched, pastoral, spiritual horror movie. The rhythm and style of it are hard to describe. It's the "Barry Lyndon" of horror films".

AKA Falling Point
Minimalist kidnap and hostage set up that's very downbeat and melancholy as you might expect from Hossein as director, shot in both black and white and colour and almost entirely in one location at an old derelict beach hut with emphasis on the visual storytelling rather than dialogue throughout.

Another psychological and contemplative war drama, this time a US platoon are shacked up in an old Chateau at the end of WWII and a German unit try to surrender to them, things don't go as planned, not for fans of action but a really solid anti war statement.

A kind of psychological war drama where three British troops and their German prisoner try to navigate themselves out of a situation, certainly some arthouse aspirations here as we get to hear all the men's inner thoughts about each other and their predicament, it's pretty tense in places with no soundtrack and very well scripted, won't suit everyone's taste but I'd say certainly one of the unsung anti-war films of the last 50 years.

If Tarkovsky had made a film set in the 16th century with Finns in it......

Early Swedish teenage angst tale very nicely shot in black and white.

Satire on Japanese consumerism and shameless corporate marketing as three confectionery companies go up against each other, as relevant today as it was in 1958.