Three Stars (2010)

Three Stars (2010)

Available at Amazon

Synopsis
Focusing on ten Michelin 3 Star chefs, Three Stars depicts the everyday drama of life in gourmet restaurants and includes exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes access to some of the world’s most talented chefs as they work in their gastronomic laboratories, hunt for exquisite ingredients in local markets, and gather rare edible plants along rough coastlines. It reveals the business of cooking on the highest level and highlights the various kitchen routines and culinary philosophies of chefs like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Yannick Alléno, and Olivier Roellinger.

Filmmaker Bio
LUTZ HACHMEISTER, Director / Producer

Lutz Hachmeister is a German media historian, award-winning filmmaker and journalist. He gained international attention for directing the 2005 BBC-co-produced film The Goebbels Experiment featuring Kenneth Branagh as the narrator for the Goebbels Diaries. In 2006 Hachmeister established the Institute for Media and Communications Policy (IfM) in Berlin and Cologne.

Hachmeister’s documentary about the life and death of Hanns Martin Schleyer, the former head of the German employers association, who was murdered in 1977 by the Red Army Faction, won a Grimme-Award (Germany’s most prestigious television prize) in 2004. The following year, The Goebbels Experiment premiered at the Berlin film festival und was selected as a New York Times critics’ pick.

Hachmeister currently heads the Institute for Media and Communication Policy and is considered to be “Germany's leading media expert” (Berliner Zeitung, 21/07/1997). The Institute is particularly known for its high-ranking media colloquia, which host international guests like Alan Rusbridger, Greg Dyke or Norman Pearlstine. Hachmeister is also the founder of the Cologne Conference, a “media Bauhaus” and festival for aesthetic and strategic trends in the audiovisual industry. (Source: firstrunfeatures.com)

Trailer:
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Wake in Fright (2013 / 1971)

Wake in Fright (2013 / 1971)

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Wake in Fright (also known as Outback) is a 1971 Australian film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence and Chips Rafferty. The screenplay was written by Evan Jones, based on Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel of the same name.

Made on a budget of A$800,000, the movie was an Australian/American co-production by NLT Productions and Group W. Wake in Fright tells the story of a young school teacher who descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.

For many years, Wake In Fright enjoyed a reputation as Australia’s great "lost film" because of its unavailability on VHS or DVD, as well as its absence from television broadcasts. In mid-2009, however, a thoroughly restored digital re-release was shown in Australian theatres to considerable acclaim. Later that same year it was issued commercially on DVD and Blu-ray. Wake in Fright is now recognised as a seminal film of the Australian New Wave.

Plot
John Grant (Gary Bond) is a middle-class teacher from the big city. He feels disgruntled because of the onerous terms of a financial bond which he signed with the government in return for receiving a tertiary education. The bond has forced him to accept a post to the tiny school at Tiboonda, a remote township in the arid Australian Outback. It is the start of the Christmas school holidays and Grant plans on going to Sydney to visit his girlfriend but first, however, he must travel by train to the nearby mining town of Bundanyabba (known as “The Yabba”) in order to catch a Sydney-bound flight.

At "The Yabba", Grant encounters several disconcerting residents including a policeman, Jock Crawford (Chips Rafferty), who encourages Grant to drink repeated glasses of beer before introducing him to the local obsession with the gambling game of two-up. Hoping to win enough money to pay off his bond and escape his "slavery" as an outback teacher, Grant at first has a winning streak playing two-up but then loses all his cash. Unable now to leave "The Yabba", Grant finds himself dependent on the charity of bullying strangers while being drawn into the crude and hard-drinking lifestyle of the town's residents.

Grant reluctantly goes drinking with a resident named Tim Hynes (Al Thomas) and goes to Tim's house. Here he meets Tim's daughter, Janette (played by Sylvia Kay, the then-wife of the movie's director Ted Kotcheff). While he and Janette talk, several men who have gathered at the house for a drinking session question Grant’s masculinity, asking: “What’s the matter with him? He’d rather talk to a woman than drink beer.” Janette then tries to initiate an awkward sexual episode with Grant, who vomits. Grant finds refuge of a sort, staying at the shack of an alcoholic medical practitioner known as "Doc" Tydon (Donald Pleasence). Doc tells him that he and many others have had sex with Janette. He also gives Grant pills from his medical kit, ostensibly to cure Grant's hangover.

Later, a drunk Grant participates in a barbaric kangaroo hunt with Doc and Doc's friends Dick (Jack Thompson) and Joe (Peter Whittle). The hunt culminates in Grant clumsily stabbing a wounded kangaroo to death, followed by a pointless drunken brawl between Dick and Joe and the vandalising of a bush pub. At night's end, Grant returns to Doc's shack, where Doc apparently initiates a homosexual encounter between the two.

A repulsed Grant leaves the next morning and walks across the desert. He tries to hitch-hike to Sydney, but accidentally boards a truck that takes him straight back to "The Yabba". He contemplates shooting Doc, but instead attempts suicide. Grant recovers in hospital from his suicide attempt and Doc sees him off at "The Yabba's" rail station. He returns to Tiboonda for the new school year. (Source: wikipedia.org)

I Am Bruce Lee (2011)

I Am Bruce Lee (2011)

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I Am Bruce Lee tells the amazing story of one of the most iconic human beings ever to enter the public consciousness. Voted as one of the most important people of the 20th century in Time Magazine's Time 100, as well as one of the Greatest Pop Culture Icons by People Magazine, Bruce Lee continues to be honoured and remembered for his enduring legacy. Bruce Lee's often revolutionary and sometimes controversial thinking on a multitude of planes has become a source of inspiration and debate for a generation of philosophers, actors, filmmakers and athletes. The film is a compelling and visually stunning uncovering of Bruce's life, his enormous impact, and his ever-expanding legacy in the world of martial arts, entertainment, and beyond-despite his tragic and sudden death at the age of 32. -- (C) D&E

That's What She Said (2012)

That's What She Said (2012)

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Bebe (Marcia DeBonis) is getting ready for the most romantic encounter of her life, and she needs her best friend Dee Dee (Anne Heche) to cheer her on. Too bad Dee Dee is so cynical about dating that she shows up three hours late only to spew cigarette smoke and bitterness all over the morning coffee. And too bad Clementine, a train wreck of a stranger (Alia Shawkat,) has decided to invade their day with non-stop talk about her nymphomaniac escapades. Looking to turn the day around, this fearsome threesome embark on a day of misadventure that only New York City can offer. THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID is a quirky and honest look at friendship in the face of adversity, asking one of life’s great questions: why does it always have to be so hard? (That’s what she said.)  -- (C) Official Site

Samsara (2011)

Samsara (2011)

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Prepare yourself for an unparalleled sensory experience. SAMSARA reunites director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson, whose award-winning films BARAKA and CHRONOS were acclaimed for combining visual and musical artistry.
 
SAMSARA is a Sanskrit word that means “the ever turning wheel of life” and is the point of departure for the filmmakers as they search for the elusive current of interconnection that runs through our lives. Filmed over a period of almost five years and in twenty-five countries, SAMSARA transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders. By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern.

Expanding on the themes they developed in BARAKA (1992) and CHRONOS (1985), SAMSARA explores the wonders of our world from the mundane to the miraculous, looking into the unfathomable reaches of man’s spirituality and the human experience. Neither a traditional documentary nor a travelogue, SAMSARA takes the form of a nonverbal, guided meditation. Through powerful images, the film illuminates the links between humanity and the rest of nature, showing how our life cycle mirrors the rhythm of the planet.

The filmmakers approach non verbal filmmaking with an understanding that it must live up to the standard of great still photography, revealing the essence of a subject, not just its physical presence. SAMSARA was photographed entirely in 70mm film utilizing both standard frame rates and with a motion control time-lapse camera designed specifically for this project. This camera system allows perspective shifts to reveal extraordinary views of ordinary scenes. The images were then transferred through the highest resolution scanning process available to the new 4K digital projection format that allows for mesmerizing images of unprecedented clarity. SAMSARA will be a showpiece for the new, high-resolution 4K digital projection, the HD format, as well as standard digital and film projection. -- (C) Official Site

After Fall, Winter (2011)

After Fall, Winter (2011)

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After Fall, Winter is a dangerous, sexy, poignant and at times a darkly funny story about two people seeking love in Paris. Michael is a NYC writer going through a hard time, professionally and mentally, and decides to spend a winter in Paris to find new inspiration. Sophie is a young French nurse hiding a dark secret behind her strong personality. They both desperately want intimacy and ache for the love that will change their lives. When they meet, their chemistry is instantaneous and they hope to start anew, together. Unfortunately, they have fashioned reclusive lives and emotional fracture which ultimately spells the doom of their passionate love. -- (C) Official Site