The Czech New Wave is one of the most exciting periods for film people and Who Killed Jessie? is one of a handful of classics.  This film features the most successful attempt at fusing comics books and film.  Archetypal characters like "Superman" and "Cowboy" and the titular Jessie, a female superhero/sexpot, take us on a madcap adventure when they are materialized into the real world via a scientific experiment - from a scientist's dreams.  There are subtexts related to authoritarianism and freedom but ultimately it really works on the level of a briskly paced magical adventure.  See this if you can!

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Brewster is an owlish, intellectual boy who lives in a fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome. He has a dream: to take flight within the confines of the stadium. Brewster tells those he trusts of his dream, but displays a unique way of treating others who do not fit within his plans. When the fateful day arrives, and he enters the dome with his fanciful construction of bird wings, Brewster is surrounded by the police. Will he be caught before he attempts to fly? Source

 Altman's Brewster McCloud is a magical film that sees life as a somewhat absurd journey of unfulfilled dreams, but not as a process of frustration - more of a monomaniacal vision of freedom.  Brewster dreams of literal flight. He also has a guardian that also seems like a mother figure, a bird mother and spiritual guide.  There is Python-esque narration that flows throughout making parallels between the world of ornithology and anthropology. Interesting characters (Stacy Keach is great) make the story flow briskly. Popular culture references, political commentary, quirky characters, a car chase - this is something not to be missed if you're lucky enough to view it. An absurd, quirky gem - not surprising consider the title character is played by Bud Cort.

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Film fans are in mourning today over the death of one of the medium's poets, Ingmar Bergman. I didn't realize film could be art until I saw Persona, Bergman's masterpeice. Someone once told me the Sweden's ethos is its pathos - and Bergman translated that into film as only a visual poet could.

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Solyaris is Andrei Tarkovksky's masterpiece but only one among many. It's a subconscious journey through dark, blocked content in one man's life. It's also a film, like Woman in the Dunes, that deals with Existential angst and the real possibility that life could be a solipsism.

Surely other people exist, but the paradox is that we actually create their existence, to ourselves, in our own minds. Truth is very subjective and a lot of the time we interact with our version of others rather than them as they really are. In Solyaris, our projections or our inner experience of others physically come to life and unresolved, unconscious life experiences that we refused to face, now seek resolution. Solyaris is science fiction with a psychological bent that builds slowly and hypnotically.

Tarkovsky is Russia's greatest director and this is probably his greatest film but I also loved The Mirror (aka Zerkalo) - but just about any of his films is worth a viewing.

You can view the entire film here but without subtitles and view some clips here.

Collage by marcellinho:

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Claudia Llosa's debut feature film Madeinusa (pronounced Ma–den–OO–za) is a fable about the United States' (or the Western world) influence on South America's (Peru in this case) tribal population. It's a fascinating portrayal of the townsfolk that doesn't judge them, but rather presents them as they are. Their traditions are Catholic but only in a fragmented version as is their entire life which is mixed with all sorts of pagan and tribal traditions.

The drama starts with a tall, dark gringo stranger entering the town from Lima as the town is starting it's yearly Holy Time, a kind of bacchanalian festival where anything goes and a kind of opposite world is lived for a few days. The stricking images document their rituals relating to this festival. One of the most interesting involves the men cutting off each other's ties (symbolic phalluses) with scissors before starting an orgiastic dance where the women choose which men they want to pair off with. There's a virgin contest which doesn't seem unlike the Miss America (or Miss USA) pagaent and clues you into why it's such a scandal here when one of the debutantes is shown to not be a pure. Things don't really change fundamentally, but instead only change appearence. The titular Madeinusa wins the beauty/virginity contest, partially because she's the daughter of the mayor - her father unfortunately has his incestuous eyes on her and Holy Time is when the virgins are deflowered.

I won't give away any more of the plot, I'll just say that this is a great debut feature and is a window into Peru's tribal culture and the influence of the Western world (symbolized by the capital city, Lima) on it. Even if you don't particularly like movies, students of anthropology will find it as fascinating as film fans find it compelling.

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