#791 – Incendies, 2010, Denis Villeneuve
A mother’s last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults’ voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.
#793 – Cyrano de Bergerac, 1990, Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Embarrassed by his large nose, a romantic poet/soldier romances his cousin by proxy.
#804 – Elle, 2016, Paul Verhoeven
When Michèle, the CEO of a gaming software company, is attacked in her home by an unknown assailant, she refuses to let it alter her precisely ordered life. She manages crises involving family, all the while becoming engaged in a game of cat and mouse with her stalker.
#808 – The Green Ray, (Le rayon vert), 1986, Éric Rohmer
A lonely Parisian woman comes to terms with her isolation and anxieties during a long summer vacation.
#814 – Forbidden Games, (Jeux interdits), 1952, René Clément
Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette’s deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette’s stay with Michel’s family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.
#839 – Underground, (Podzemlje), 1995, Emir Kusturica
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko’s surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko realizes that the situation is ripe for exploitation.
#844 – United 93, 2006, Paul Greengrass
A real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
#854 – Bacurau, 2019, Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.
#869 – I Vitelloni, 1953, Federico Fellini
Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group’s leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.
#882 – Stray Dogs, (郊遊), 2013, Tsai Ming-liang
A father and his two children wander the margins of modern day Taipei, from the woods and rivers of the outskirts to the rain streaked streets of the city. By day the father scrapes out a meager income as a human billboard for luxury apartments, while his young son and daughter roam the supermarkets and malls surviving off free food samples. Each night the family takes shelter in an abandoned building. The father is strangely affected by a hypnotic mural adorning the wall of this makeshift home. On the day of the father’s birthday the family is joined by a woman – might she be the key to unlocking the buried emotions that linger from the past?
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 