A portrait of the British writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), who, although he had radical instincts, hated hypocrisy, was of great poetic brilliance, had a tragic perception of life and a calm outward appearance, was at heart a man of seething and somber darkness.
This documentary explores the inner life of François Mitterrand from a unique perspective: that of the writer he never ceased to be. From bookworm child to prolific author, from his brilliant speeches to his literary friendships, François Mitterrand's life cannot be separated from the literary world. His daughter Mazarine Pingeot undertakes to read the texts left behind by her father.
About the poet C.A.Conrad, an eccentric Elvis worshiping poet and tarot card reader, who confronts his violent past and the suspicious death of his boyfriend, Earth. The film attempts to unravel the mystery of Earth's death, while Conrad wrestles with his inner demons through a series of unconventional rituals and a tour of the deep South.
They have collected legends and fairy tales that have been passed down from generation to generation, albeit with slight changes and added meanings always intended for a specific time. Tales of all the enchanted characters, the wicked witches and the knights in shining armour. Venture into the woods with us and experience amazing things. You can meet evil or find your fortune. But what is it that makes the forest so terrifyingly appealing? In all the old tales and fables there is always at least a grain of truth - a reflection of reality. We all know the forest. Yet it guards its secrets well and will not give anything away. More than two hundred years ago, it enchanted two brothers. They told each other fantastic stories from the past, which they saw as symbols of their present. In Germany, where the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm grew up, as throughout central Europe, there were once dense and vast forests and woods that surrounded villages and towns...
THE PERFUMED GARDEN is an exploration of the myths and realities of sensuality and sexuality in Arab society, a world of taboos and of erotic literature. Through interviews with men and women of all ages, classes, and sexual orientation, the film lifts a corner of the veil that usually shrouds discussion of this subject in the Arab world. Made by an Algerian-French woman director, the film begins by looking at the record of a more permissive history, and ends with the experiences of contemporary lovers from mixed backgrounds. It examines the personal issues raised by the desire for pleasure, amidst societal pressures for chastity and virginity. The film discusses pre-marital sex, courtship and marriage, familial pressures, private vs. public spaces, social taboos (and the desire to break them), and issues of language.
The documentary is titled after Arkadaş Z. Özger’s poem “Hello My Dear” which had caused much controversy in the period it was first published. Considered to be in defiance of heteronormativity, the said poem includes references to the poet’s personality, his family, his relationship to the society, and his “unexpected” death, which came three years after its publication. Today, 50 years after it was written, the documentary follows these same lines in the poem utilising cinematic elements. The documentary also rediscovers the poetics; reaches out to the family, the comrades, the friendships, departing from the official historical accounts, cognizant of his experience of otherness, in pursuit of the “lost” portrait of Arkadaş Z. Özger.
In 1847, British writer Emily Brontë (1818-48), perhaps the most enigmatic of the three Brontë sisters, published her novel Wuthering Heights, a dark romance set in the desolation of the moors, a unique work of early Victorian literature that stunned contemporary critics.
Documentary tracing the extreme life of outlaw writer, performance artist and punk icon, Kathy Acker. Through animation, archival footage, interviews and dramatic reenactments, director Barbara Caspar explores Acker's colorful history, from her well-heeled upbringing to her role as the scribe of society's fringe.
Hubert Krejčí – Smrt divadlu!
Medailón Janka Alexyho
The documentary is a true story of four real intellectual Europeans from different cultures who are worried about the decline of literature’s life and the destiny of the street level bookshops in every country. That is why they have a mission to save symbolically “the world's last quality books”.
On the first day of shooting, James Franco, David Shields, and Caleb Powell throw out the script when a real-life argument breaks out between the three of them about what can and can't be used in the film. Shields and Franco browbeat Powell to sacrifice everything for the sake of the film; Powell threatens to leave; Shields feels guilty about betraying Powell; and Franco wants Shields and Powell to confess all for the sake of the film. A debate, nearly to the death, about life and art.
De Gaulle vs Churchill : Mémoires de guerre, guerre des mémoires
Na slovo s Alexandrom Matuškom
Documentary about the Dutch author, illustrator and performer Joke van Leeuwen, who has won various awards for her literature for children which sometimes uses a quest as a theme.
Cartoneras is a documentary that grapples with Latin America’s urban realities, and the cardboard publishing movement that has emerged from these in the 21st century. Reflecting on the different contexts that propelled this form of community publishing, like Argentina’s 2001 economic crisis, the independent art scene, and the movements which formed around waste-pickers, the film’s narrative is developed through conversations with important actors from the cartonera world.
Poet, essayist, novelist and filmmaker, Michel Houellebecq has always had close ties with the cinema and the world of the visual arts, which have accompanied and extended his reflexions since the start of his career, as the frequent allusions to them in his novels attest. This portrait of Houellebecq is from his early days of bad boy provocateur stardom. Having just published Plateforme in french and enjoying the many translations of Les Particules élémentaires.
In a world that spins faster and faster, bibliomaniacs take refuge from the rush and the noise inside the library. Amid whispers, they confess the meaning of life. A celebration of thought and obsession, where libraries reveal their inhabitants
VPRO icon Wim Brands died on April 4, 2016. He was known to the general public as a presenter of the VPRO Boeken program and also closer, with six collections of poetry to his name. This documentary about his life and work, built entirely from archive material, pays tribute to this television personality. A portrait in which attention is also paid to his complicated relationship with death. With a.o. Karl Ove Knausgård, David Sedaris, Ellen Deckwitz and Pieter Boskma. Brands' work merges with his rich inner life and that he chose death at the age of 56 casts a shadow over everything.
Well known for its exploration of seduction and revenge, the “Dangerous Liaisons” by Choderlos de Laclos caused a scandal from its first publication in 1782. Despite – or because of the scandal – the book was a top-seller. Since then, it stood the test of time. Combining eras, continents and people, the novel is adapted around the world. Marvelous tool for reflection on the female condition, social satire announcing the Revolution, remarkable work on the conflicting nature of love but also of the gender war, consecration of the power of the words, a libertine manual… “Dangerous Liaisons” is all of these at once.