Bahubali: The Beginning Baahubali: The Beginning
S.S. Rajamouli, India, 2015, DCP, 1.85, colour, 137′, with Slovene and English subtitles
15.4. | 21:00 | Kinodvor
Telugu cinema and the boundless imagination of S.S. Rajamouli present India’s most expensive film production to date. But underneath the film’s joyous abundance and bombastic baroque kitsch, we can sense the mischievous grin of a seasoned and thoughtful filmmaker. Baahubali is a feast for the eyes, a heroic epic, a war spectacle, a love story, and a tollywood musical all rolled into one. The most sublime incarnation of film entertainment. Read more …
Bone Tomahawk
S. Craig Zahler, USA, 2015, DCP, 2.35, colour, 132′
17.4. | 19:00 | Kinodvor
Bone Tomahawk is a truly unique cross between a sturdy western and a cannibal horror film, which takes its chosen genres deadly seriously, while replacing the selfironizing parody of contemporary western comedies with an unexpected spirit of “bright hope”, humour and humanity. And Kurt Russell hasn’t felt so at home for a long time. This ain’t no throwback to Wyatt Earp, it’s a return to Carpenter. Snake Plissken is alive and well! Read more …
Demon
Marcin Wrona, Poland/Israel, 2015, DCP, 2.35, colour, 94′, in Polish, English and Yiddish with Slovene and English subtitles
15.4. | 17:00 | Kinodvor
The third and tragically final film by the late director Marcin Wrona, a great young hope of Polish cinema, is a modern-day take on the Jewish folklore legend of dybbuk that strides the ever dangerous tightrope between art-house and genre cinema with boldness and confidence. In 2011 Marcin was a guest at Kino Otok – Isola Cinema Film Festival in Slovenia, where he presented his tough and nuanced second feature The Christening (Chrzest, 2009). Read more …
We Are Still Here
Ted Geoghegan, USA, 2015, DCP, 2.35, colour, 84′
15.4. | 19:00 | Kinodvor
A debut feature director with an impressive screenwriting and production slate, Ted Geoghegan knows his influences and wears them proudly. With We Are Still Here he grabs the haunted house plot by the horns, and breaths vibrant new life into the well-worn subgenre via a heap of genuine wit and moments of pure terror. When indie horror legend Larry Fessenden (in a glove-fitting role) appears at the doorstep, it’s like meeting an old friend… possessed by the forces of primordial evil. Read more …
HOMMAGE: H. R. GIGER
Presented in collaboration with Kraken Society and Internazionale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur,
with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Slovenia.
Kurja polt warmly recommends: Visit Museum HR Giger in Gruyères, Switzerland.
Dark Star – HR Gigers Welt Dark Star – HR Giger’s World
Belinda Sallin, Switzerland, 2014, DCP, 1.78, colour/b&w, 95′
14.4. | 18:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
A precious documentary portrait, the last and most intimate encounter with grim visionary H. R. Giger – author of the Oscar-winning visual design for Ridely Scott’s Alien and Jodorowsky’s Dune, the greatest cult film never made – takes us into the artist’s home, a magical cavern and a parallel world, filled to the brim with iconic images of Giger’s biomechanics. Read more …
Das Universum Giger Giger’s Universe
various authors, Switzerland, 1967-1992, 99′
14.4. | 20:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
The short film program Giger’s Universe gathers for the first time documentaries about Giger and rare prints of his own short films and music videos, among them Backfired and Now I Know You Know by American singer Debbie Harry. Two special works that have rarely seen the light of a projector are the dystopian science fiction film SwissMade 2069 and the documentary A New Face of Debbie Harry, filmed by acclaimed Swiss director Fredi Murer, a close friend of H. R. Giger. Read more …
RETROSPECTIVE: FINAL GIRL
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman
Nathan Juran (as Nathan Hertz), USA, 1958, 16mm, 1.85, b&w, 65′
13.4. | 18:30 | Slovenian Cinematheque
From the treasure trove of drive-in kings, the Woolner Brothers, and Allied Artists (formerly Monogram), comes the legendary exploitation schlock Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,a prime example of ‘50s low-budget sci-fi horror, a cult camp classic and one of the ultimate “so bad it’s good” films. A B-movie postcard of 1950s American cultural and political climate, in which Cold War paranoia of space invasion and nuclear monsters meets the dangers of a burgeoning sexual revolution that shook the pillars of traditional gender roles and the family ideal. For some “a fantastic proto-feminist fable”, for others “a fifty foot wet dream”, for director Joe Dante simply a “perfect” film. Read more …
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Robert Aldrich, USA, 1962, 35mm, 1.85, b&w, 132′
13.4. | 20:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
With his modern Gothic masterpiece director Robert Aldrich returns to the critique of Hollywood stardom, previously condemned in The Big Knife (1955), a male variant of the story of an individual caught in the clutches of the entertainment industry. As two Hollywood giants and real life rivals, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, come head to head in this grim and grotesque swirl of sibling rivalry, it’s hard to discern on which side of the thin line between reality and fiction the electrified tension crackles more strongly. Read more …
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
John D. Hancock, USA, 1971, 35mm, 1.85, colour, 89′
14.4. | 22:15 | Slovenian Cinematheque
Hancock’s eerie, at once supernatural and psychological chiller doesn’t rely for its effect on bloody gore and jump scare tactics, but slowly builds its thick tension and sinister forebodings. Although the film has long enjoyed a cult following, its masterful moderation has surely cost it a more widespread popularity. But what is more pleasurable than (re)discovering hidden gems? Read more …
Suspiria
Dario Argento, Italy, 1977, 35mm, 2.35, colour, 98′, original English version
16.4. | 20:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
The supreme masterpiece of Italian baroque horror and giallo legend Dario Argento, in which extravagant form all but devours the already minimalist, tenuous plot, giving way to absurd twists and wildly saturated colours. The result is an unforgettable and purely cinematic experience of throbbing movement, shock and suspense. The screening of Suspiria is a fundamental lesson in (horror) film history. Read more …
I Spit on Your Grave
Meir Zarchi, USA, 1978, 35mm, 1.85, colour, 101′
16.4. | 00:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
This notorious cult classic, synonymous with the “rape and revenge” subgenre, is surely one of the most controversial films of all time. Because of its alleged “glorification of violence against women” the film was condemned, banned and endlessly cut by censors the world over, only to be redeemed by critics and academia alike as a “misunderstood feminist film”. After a number of dubious sequels and remakes, director Meir Zarchi and his star Camille Keaton finally return to the crime scene, and are currently completing the formal sequel I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu. Read more …
When a Stranger Calls
Fred Walton, USA, 1979, 35mm, 1.85, colour, 97′
16.4. | 18:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
Walton’s psychological horror flips the conventions of classical slashers, films about serial monsters Myers, Voorhees and Krueger, on their head, and with its procedural nature and character study of an alienated psychopathic personality becomes more reminiscent of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or even Taxi Driver. Yet the opening sequence of this para-slasher remains one of the scariest intros in horror film history. Among the numerous imitations that followed, the most obvious nod to Walton is Wes Craven’s Scream. Read more …
La Morte vivante The Living Dead Girl
Jean Rollin, France, 1982, 35mm, 1.66, colour, 89′, French original version with Slovene subtitles
16.4. | 22:00 | Slovenian Cinematheque
Film print from the collection of La Cinémathèque de Toulouse.
A unique mixture of blood and nudity, of bitter pain and stirring tenderness, of vague stories and dreamy aesthetics marks the films of Jean Rollin, the lone rider of French horrotica, the cult auteur of esoteric yarns, filled with lesbian vampires. The Living Dead Girl is a pure, bona fide Rollinade, even though it replaces the sandy beaches of Normandy for the shores of a lake. Read more …