A Flight of Rainbirds (1981)
Genre : Drama, Comedy
Runtime : 1H 32M
Director : Ate de Jong
Synopsis
Maarten, a 34 year old cell biologist, works on cloning. One night he dreams he has only seven days left to live.
A short film by Walerian Borowczyk in two parts. The first 'panel' follows the morning routine of Leon Boyer who, despite being almost 100 years old, still farms the land, drives a vintage car, and plays with his two dogs. The second panel shows shots of beautiful flowers and a cat, to a recording of Tino Rossi singing 'La romance de Nadir / Je crois encore entendre' from Bizet's opera 'Les pêcheurs de perles'.
A film documenting the landscapes of northern Iceland, as well as a recent work about the Hudson River.
An off-screen narrator remembers a time he was five years old, walking to school in a heavy rain, wearing a yellow slicker and cap. He relates to us that a boy he'd never seen before ran up to him and said that it was raining worms. Our lad of five is on the cusp between believing anything he hears and entering the age of reason. He asks for proof. He holds out his hand.
This documentary examines the life and legacy of controversial Italian filmmaker Lucio Fulci through interviews with his colleagues, each of whom answers the question, "What is your fondest memory of Lucio Fulci?". The responses are as varied as the people who knew the late writer-director, providing a nuanced look at the man behind such gory grindhouse classics as City of the Living Dead and The House by the Cemetery.
Ukrainian folk tale. The hero of the story, Kotigoroschko sets off on an arduous journey to find his sister Olenka, who has been kidnapped by an evil dragon. Dangers lurk everywhere. Everywhere the submissive servants of the dragon fight him, but again and again, good-hearted people help the brave young knight survive the adventurous journey: they give him a sword, life-giving water and a flying ship. Finally Kotigoroschko enters the realm of the dragon...
The same day of their marriage, Jean's wife dies of a strange ailment in the middle of surgery. Afflicted by the loss, the young man abandons his medical studies and takes refuge in the memories of his time of courtship. At the same time that this happens, a wave of murders shakes the city with the same pattern of behavior: the victims are surgery students whose bodies have had both hands amputated.
Young Chinese-American filmmaker Wei-ming travels from New York to his childhood home on Lamma Island to make a video documentary about the imminent opening of a Disneyland theme park in Hong Kong. While doing research for the project, he meets Larry, a dancer/choreographer.
Coffee Masters is a documentary by Miguel Kohan, produced by Lita Stantic, Gustavo Santaolalla and Walter Salles. It tells the story of great tango of the old guard who, summoned by a rock musician, proposing a record to demonstrate its validity. This adventure, full of memories, humor and poignant moments, culminating with a presentation of the Masters at the Teatro Colon.
Chapter Two represents a continuation of daily observations from the environment of Manhattan compiled over a period from 1980-1981. This is the second part of an extended life's portrait of New York.
Letters, Riddles and Writs is a one act opera for television by Michael Nyman broadcast in 1991.
A short treatise on the semiotics of capital, happiness, and phenomenology under the flickering neon of global capitalism.
Six men. The forest. The menace is there somewhere. Armed, ready, looking for action, they wander, day and night, striving for a confrontation.
Terra Incognita is a lensless film whose cloudy pinhole images create a memory of history. Ancient and modern explorer texts of Easter Island are garbled together by a computer narrator, resulting in a forever repeating narrative of discovery, colonialism, loss and departure.
In a 13-minute navigation, Nestler takes us downstream the Rhine River. The opportunity of cheap water transport kept prices of raw material down and made the Rhine one of the most important arteries of industrial transport in the world.
“I could do wonders if I didn't have a body. But the body grabs me, it slows me, it enslaves me.” -- Ponce de Léon Our PONCE DE LEÓN discovered the fountain of youth and drank of immortality in the waning moments of his life. In an instant, he became old forever – an 80-year old Spaniard who would continue to walk the earth for century after century after century, watching as coral foundations gave way to mangrove swamps, as swamps were drained and buildings were erected, as buildings decayed and swamps returned. Our PONCE DE LEÓN is an immortal for whom time poses the greatest dilemma – it is a constant, a given, and his personal battle lies in trying to either arrest time entirely or to make the hands on his clock move ever faster. For Ponce de Léon, time is a problem of body, and only by escaping his container can he escape time itself.
Vincent Vivant agrees to Stephan the spy's proposal: he is to cross the border with a mysterious suitcase.
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, King Boy D and Rockman Rock, try to find and gain access to the mystical White Room. They leave a party at their house and drive in their 1968 US Cop Car through night-time London and the dusty plains of the Sierra Nevada region of Spain. There they face judgement: will they be allowed to enter the White Room? Meanwhile their lawyer David Franks tries to find a loophole to free them from their contract with Eternity.
Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takes on an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty that serves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any human presence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse of street life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan population and imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force of a universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his camera toward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects around his apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ... Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elements that retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The city becomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting his personal mood.
The third part in a series of films dealing with naturally-derived psychedelia. Shot during a performance by Rhode Island noise band Lightning Bolt, this film documents the transformation of a rock audience’s collective freak-out into a trance ritual of the highest spiritual order.