Out of the Past

Marty McFly, the Doctor, Einstein, and a flux capacitor. Robert Zemeckis’s cult movie about a teenager who travels back in time and so enamors his mother that he threatens his own existence is an action-packed ride full of unforgettable lines and violations of the rules of causality. Have a seat, buckle up, and get ready to go Back to the Future.

Beirut, 1977. The early years of the Lebanese Civil War. A Shī'a man (Haitham El Amine) and a Christian bourgeois woman (Nadine Acoury) attempt to meet one last time before the latter elopes to the U.S. Corruption, poverty, garbage crises, sectarianism… This is Beirut as seen by the late, great master Borhane Alaouié: a wounded, collapsing metropolis no different from the Beirut of today.

How does the language of film contribute to the propagation of gender inequality? Who has the active role of the narrator and, conversely, who is the passive object of the viewer’s gaze? Nina Menkes dusts off the fundamental theses of feminist film theory and, without compromise, exposes the invisible mechanisms that are constituents of narrative cinema.

In this documentary, the ninety-year-old film historian Ulrich Gregor and his wife Erika share why they called the arthouse cinema where they showed more than 16,000 films the “Arsenal”, and explain what lies behind the name Forum, the Berlinale's important independent section, which they founded and whose program they shaped for thirty years. Besides a personal portrait, the film is also an exciting journey into the history of film and society in Germany and Europe.

A hit man (Forest Whitaker) who follows the samurai code. Jim Jarmusch’s masterpiece, in which action goes hand in hand with meditation, and which shoots not only bullets but also wisdom. At times it is deathly serious, at other times tongue-in-cheek, with an almost imperceptibly ironic smile crossing its lips.

Intellectually challenging films became established in the 1960s and it certainly wasn’t only Godard for whom the adventure story no longer sufficed; it was the adventure of reflection that mattered. Jireš’s The Joke is an example of this cinematic endeavour: if it weren’t for the viewer continually deliberating the impulses that prompt the hero’s associative chain of memories, and asking why fragments of past and present situations are seamlessly blended together, many of the film’s important connections would never come to light.

This unforgettable classic among music documentaries recently received its new digital makeover, presented for the first time at this year’s Cannes festival. The unique film presentation (seven 35 mm cameras) of the last concert by the cult rock formation The Band from 1976, complete with authentic first-hand accounts of a life played out in rock’n’roll tempo, was created by phenomenal director and music-lover, Martin Scorsese.

In his latest offering Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52 or Memory: The Origins of Alien), one of the industry’s greatest film aficionados and connoisseurs of cinematic history, focuses on the most original director of our times, David Lynch, and asks to what extent in his mystery-shrouded oeuvre he connects with the ultimate gem of American film production, The Wizard of Oz.

Myrtle Gordon is a Broadway star. The premiere of her new play is only days away, however, a tragic event drives the actress to the very edge of breakdown. To date there has been no film which has adopted a more comprehensive approach to depict the way in which actors become totally immersed in their craft to a degree bordering on self-destruction. An unutterably intense experience from the king of independent film, John Cassavetes.

A testimony leaning towards contemplative lyricism, this documentary portrays the unique inhabitants of a far-flung region of rural Slovakia as it meditates on old age, loneliness, poverty and the weight of life’s destiny. However, the film is also a reflection of the indomitability of man and of an authentic existence that defies the pressures of civilisation.

Rudolf Měšťák’s silent film The Prague Executioner, based on the novel of the same name by Josef Svátek, is a historical tale of love, betrayal and revenge. The screening of the restored 35 mm copy, coloured in accordance with the original tinting and toning process, will be accompanied by music from an ensemble headed by musicologist and composer Vlastislav Matoušek.

An affectionate depiction of an encounter between two breathless titans. Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and literary figure Ebráhím Golestán engage in long-distance exchanges of quotations and cryptic statements. Their dialogue, which should have taken place long ago in the last century, inevitably consists of weighty themes, such as humanity, time, art and death.

“A bored housewife, a husband who married her for show, and a stupid boy who is full of himself because he is dating a Swiss woman.” The words of Inspector Tůma sound like they’re from a European melodrama, but in fact they come from a Czechoslovak crime story. A pair of detectives, counterfeit medicine, the high-society setting of a Karlovy Vary hotel, and Oldřich Nový as the aging hotel manager Kraus.

Love story, road movie, gangster flick, rock ’n’ roll fairy tale – a seemingly incongruous mix, and yet immensely enticing. It all starts with Lula (Laura Dern), who has been waiting outside prison for her boyfriend Sailor (Nicolas Cage) to be released on parole, handing him his beloved snakeskin jacket. Lula’s mother cannot stand Sailor, but the couple are all the more determined to stay together and run away as far as they can go. In David Lynch’s cult film, Elvis Presley meets The Wizard of Oz.

Although the much-adored Shirley Temple had the right age to play the protagonist of this fairy-tale musical, the role of Dorothy eventually went to the seventeen-year-old Judy Garland – supposedly because Shirley’s childlike voice was not suited to the film’s songs. Garland’s pure and sonorous girl’s voice and acting talents quickly catapulted her to stardom as one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood. Fleming's Wizard of Oz, which amazed its audiences with its special effects, spectacular sets and costumes, its choreography and catchy melodies, has an irresistible, nostalgic charm today.