1896. The young doctor Georg believes to have found an all-round cure for his patients by using the recently discovered X-rays. He gets lost in his research and risks everything. His wife Charlotte wants to overcome the growing estrangement to her husband and is ready for any way to go.

More about film on http://www.myspace.com/roentgenfilm


Directed by Michael Venus / Germany / 2009

An animator’s commissioned works, rejected because of their increasingly absurd and violent tone, eventually find their entire animated world collapsing in upon itself..

In the spring of 1999, the Family Learning Channel commissioned animator Don Hertzfeldt to produce promotional segments for their network. The cartoons were completed in five weeks. The Family Learning Channel REJECTED all of them upon review, and they were never aired…

Nominated for Oscar in 2001, another 16 wins.


Directed by Don Hertzfeldt / USA / 2000

Rejected: A Film By Don Hertzfeldt

Bitter Films: Volume 1, 1995-2005; Animated Shorts by Don Hertzfeldt

Everything Will Be Ok (Don Hertzfeldt)

The Animation Show (Vol. 1 & 2 Boxed Set)

The Animation Show, Vol. 3

Police chase an armed criminal in a version of Los Angeles comprised entirely of corporate logos.

Nominated for 2010 Oscar. Another 2 wins.

Directed by François Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain / 2009

In 1997, for its fiftieth anniversary, the Cannes Film Festival asked director Leos Carax for a short film; a visual postcard addressed to the festival in which the director could give news of himself and of his current project, Pola X.

This official explanation almost suggests some slight, vaguely conventional documentary-like film piece, in which the filmmaker could pay lip-service to the festival organisers and discuss some of the greater trials and tribulations involved in getting his project off the ground. Instead, Sans Titre (1997) is a film that not only works in its own right – drawing us in with an enigmatic story presented in an entirely visual way – but also complimenting the themes and ideas behind the underrated masterwork that is Pola X, in such a way as to make it entirely essential.

This short, eight minute film blends elements of stock footage, solarised imagery, inter-titles, music and video effects to create an enigmatic portrait of loss and disconnection that is open to ideas of both visual and metaphorical interpretation. It’s not only a fascinating insight into Carax’s entirely personal working methods, but also a fascinating look at the more cryptic, unspoken themes presented in Pola X. In fact, if we were to ignore the first few minutes of the film – in which festival stock footage from the first fifty years of Cannes is presented as a kaleidoscopic montage – and focus instead on the latter half, we see a particular foreshadowing of the events and themes of Pola X playing out in such a way as to not only suggest that this film could be viewed as something of a thematic a prequel to the subsequent project, but also that this film is being used as something of a moving storyboard.

Unlike Pola X – which is rich in design and detail – Sans Titre draws heavily on the influence of legendary filmmaker Jean Luc Godard. This is notable in its cross format use of film and video, as well as on-screen text, voice-over and loud, disarming music. With this in mind, the film reminds us of Godard’s difficult 70’s period of film-making, and in particular, of the short film In Scénario de ‘Sauve qui peut la vie’ (1979). In that particular project, Godard discussed the various themes and ideas of his subsequent film Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) in the style of an esoteric visual essay. Carax, of course, is one of the filmmakers most clearly influenced by Godard, even appearing as an actor in Godard’s widely criticised adaptation of King Lear (1987), as well as paying homage to the older filmmaker with his earliest films, Boy Meets Girl (1984) and Mauvais Sang (1986); so it is perhaps of no surprise that the influence of Scénario de ‘Sauve qui peut la vie’ and of Godard in general is all over the thematic presentation and conceptualisation of the film in question.

In keeping with these parallels, some of the imagery of Sans Titre is vague and enigmatic. Other sequences are almost comical; recalling the Chaplin influenced sequence from Mauvais Sang. However, the overall tone of the film is cold and melancholic. One of the most memorable series of shots from Sans Titre depict a man (possibly Carax) lying on a bed that is covered by a crumpled, white sheet. Next to him, painted in a grotesque, Francis Bacon-like manner on the sheet itself is the figure of another person. The man is attached to the figure and mourns for it, longingly, as if it were the spirit of a dead lover; whilst within the sequence of shots we have other footage of empty streets, flickering computer monitors, and home video footage of two children laughing, fighting and snuggling in bed.

The themes of family, alienation, loss, disconnection, late night melancholy turned creativity, secrets and lies are all familiar from Pola X, with darker implications of the incestuous notions suggested by that film’s source novel, Herman Melville’s Pierre: or, The Ambiguities. Even the footage from other films – mostly of flickering black and white moments of crippling melodrama from silent cinema – present these same themes and ideas as well as endearing Carax – always a provocative figure within the wider context of French cinema – as a film artist equal to the superior likes of Godard, Welles, Fassbinder, Tsukamoto, von Trier and Kieslowski.

The purposely enigmatic quality of the title illustrates that this is a minor work, or an unfinished sketch of creativity; with Sans Titre – no title – also recalling the ironic and unsentimental titles of the director’s previous work, from Boy Meets Girl and The Lovers on the Bridge (1991) to Pola X, with its literary acronym and use of Roman numeral to denote the various draft of the script. Sans Titre is admittedly a minor work, though it is one that enriches the context of the more significant film that followed and, as with the relationship between Godard’s Scénario de ‘Sauve qui peut la vie’ and the eventual film that he would produce, demonstrates that Carax, as a filmmaker, is in complete control of where his film’s are going and the shape that they will eventually take. imdb


Directed by Leos Carax / France / 1997

In 1914, the Czech architect Jan Letzel designed in the Japanese city of Hiroshima Center for the World Expo, which has turned into ruins after the atomic bombing in August 1945. “Atomic Dome” – all that remains of the destroyed palace of the exhibition – has become part of the Hiroshima memorial.

In 2007, French sculptor, painter and film director Jean-Gabriel Périot assembled this cinematic collage from hundreds of multi-format, color and black and white photographs of different years’ of “Genbaku Dome”.

Directed by Jean-Gabriel Périot / France / 2007

During 1971 Belgrade Film festival Karpo Godina recruited seven masters to direct a segment of the film, intercepted them at the hotel and handed them a 1-page set of instructions..

The rules for this film were simple. Each director would make a 3 minute film. The film was to take place in one room, with the camera in a single position. No changing of lenses, framing, angle or position would be allowed. The camera position and room were the same for all segments, though props could change scene by scene. During the film, someone must say “I Miss Sonja Henie”.
All shooting was done at night or early in the morning during the festival, on 35mm.


Directed by Karpo Godina, Tinto Brass, Miloš Forman, Buck Henry, Dušan Makavejev, Paul Morrissey, Frederick Wiseman / Yugoslavia / 1971

A Beirut-ish tribute to Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Amelie Poulain, about (fleeting) love & the little pleasures in life, all set and in relation with the very inspiring city of Beirut.

Directed by Mounia Akl & Cyril Aris / Lebanon / 2009

Another late night schizophrenic musing.

Directed by Robin Glass / Brazil / 2009

David Scott has lost his daughter to a crime; torn between the love of his wife and the law, he seeks revenge.

Directed by J.F Nabi / USA / 2009

Mitchell Stevens has a troubled conscience and a past he regrets. Having recently left his life as a priest, he’s looking for a way to redeem himself to the world and to himself. When the local police ask him to help provide shelter for a battered woman, he sees an opportunity to help someone and earn that redemption. But Mitchell’s best intentions are about to confront a complicated cycle of violence.


Broken Circle takes place in an apartment of a former priest, Mitchell Stevens (Michael Badalucco), who still goes on supporting the less fortunate ones. He is called upon to give shelter to a Spanish speaking woman, Perla Rosarez (Delilah Cotto) that has been beaten up by her husband.

Mitchell is on a path to improve his life, and is struggling hard for that change to take place. He finds a great opportunity for redemption by taking in that young woman and helping her to solve her problems; to not only break his own vicious circles that he needs to get out of, but to break her circle as well.

This movie is about the effort it takes in order to change ones own life and habits, and what happens if you decide to change the lives of others with your own purpose in mind. imdb


Directed by Aaron Sawyer / USA / 2007

The depths of insanity are explored by a man chasing something in his apartment with a shoe.

A man is trying to catch some sort of bug running around his room. He takes his shoes off and intends to crush it under the heel of his loafer. However as he slowly begins to track the bug down and trap it, things chance dramatically but the man continues his course of action.

Directed by Christopher Nolan / UK / 1997

Poetic essay about the beginning of life from labor pains and birth and about its symbolic meaning.

Life is about a birth, consisting mainly of views of a young woman’s face in the throes of labour, her heaving body in its hospital room seen as a changing landscape. Two shifts take place: the child is born and the camera shows us this new life; then, in a final shot that re-orders the entire film in retrospect (like the final shot of Pelechian’s earlier portrait of peasant life, The Seasons), we see mother and child, faces side-by-side perhaps a year later, mirrors of one another save for the difference in age.

The filmmaker works with his images as if they were a musical score. Around a central theme, he orchestrates variations and modulations that create an impression of a flood of private images arriving from beyond the frame. Pelechian is making a name for himself as a montage filmmaker who tends to inscribe in his works the movement of the world and history. His films are odes, even symphonies that speak about humanity, nature and the cosmos.

Directed by Artavazd Peleshian / Armenia / 1993

A boy, waiting for a bus. A dog, begging for potato chips. The boy sends the dog away, violently. He sees a hangnail on his finger and shows us, graphically, why you should never pick at them. The dog gets karmic retribution.

Directed by Shane Acker / USA / 1999

A parody on a safety instruction video for forklift drivers follows young Klaus as he begins his first day on the job as a qualified forklift truck driver. The film spoofs the original genre very effectively, notably through employing the best-known German narrator of instructional video clips on traffic safety for the voice-over.

Directed by Stefan Prehn and Jörg Wagner / Germany / 2000

One morning Gerald wakes up as a woman… The adventures of a man transformed into woman and who discovers a new life in a new body.

The film begins with a man waking up to discover that he’s magically turned into a lady! He has no idea how to act feminine but soon makes a female friend who helps him/her. However, she/he soon notices that men are often pigs – as she is quite pretty and men hit on her like dogs chasing after a pork chop! He learns what it’s like to be a lady in our world – in a very funny and ironic way. However, she also learns that being objectified can also be very profitable as well! imdb


Directed by Arthur de Pins / France / 2000

A man looking for something white in a black world…

Directed by Konstantinos Fragoulis and Alexandros Sipsidis / Greece / 2008

A weary donkey causes a huge traffic jam on a busy road in Tbilisi. The donkey refuses to budge. Outside the city, a bull is attracted by the red dress of a pretty girl and chases her.
A boy who is deeply in love with her, saves her life. But in return all she gives him is a red flower. But it is this flower that leads the donkey away from the road. The traffic jam clears and the boy finds the love of his life.

Directed by Veit Helmer / Germany, Georgia / 2004

Having been struck by a 150-ton meteorite, Henry has to adapt to living precisely ninety-one centimeters from himself.

An animated short that runs for only 13 minutes, this tells the rather comical and yet sad story of a man affected by a meteorite in a most peculiar way. Once he has been struck he finds that his body is now constantly 91 centimetres from where it should be. To open a door, sit down, answer his telephone, etc, he has to perform all of the actions exactly 91 centimetres away from where he normally would, laws of physics having taken a long walk off a short pier.

With a warm, wonderfully rendered style and a mixture of great detail and enjoyably abstract moments, this little piece of animation is, quite frankly, an absolute joy. The bizarre central concept is brilliantly realised and handled so well that you never laugh AT the ridiculousness of the whole thing although you do get a chance to laugh ALONG with a number of great moments.

Writer-director-animator Jérémy Clapin is someone I hope continues to produce great work and go on to even bigger and better things. On the strength of the quality on display here, he most certainly deserves it. from imdb

Won Kodak Short Film Award in Cannes Film Festival, 2008


Directed by Jérémy Clapin / France / 2008

If I could turn back time.. Would I unlearn all the things I have learned? Would my first kiss be my last one? Would I un-cry all the things I regret?

Directed by Robin Glass / Brazil / 2009

A young girl and boy’s worlds cross paths in a beautiful and touching manner.

Directed by Edward Styles / UK / 2009

The film is a retro look at a fantasy Soviet-era game show where contestants compete to see who really deserves to get the big prize – a lifetime vacation in the land that begat Mark Twain, Thomas Edison and Britney Spears. Despite it’s short length, it is still a very compelling and surprisingly well-acted film.

“I wanted to make a point about the ugliness of extreme nationalism, but I’m not anti-American and neither is the film,” Beckum says.

He attributes his success in this increasingly violent and profane world to his walk with God and his commitment to uphold his values. “I’m lucky to be pursuing my passions while surrounded by people I love. I thank God every day for the gift of being able to create and speak through art.”

Directed by Aaron Beckum/ Canada / 2006

Maddin pulls out all the stops in this dreamlike, hyperkinetic tribute to silent films.

‘The Heart of the World” could easily have been a throwaway film, given the circumstance of its origin. The Toronto Film Festival commissioned Maddin to make a brief film to fill a gap in their programming schedule. A mere time-passer. What Maddin gave them was utterly unexpected.

Maddin uses large-grain film stock and Klieg-style lighting techniques to replicate the look of silent film. Maddin’s production design (costumes, makeup, hairstyling) impeccably recreates the images of that period. It’s easy to believe that ‘Heart of the World’ is actually compiled from old UFA out-takes, circa 1925. Only just occasionally does Maddin’s grasp on the 1920s show the joins, and then those lapses are probably intentional.

‘The Hearts of the World’ depicts the rivalry of two brothers. Nikolai is an idealist engineer. Osip is playing Jesus Christ in a passion play, and seems to have developed a genuine messiah complex. Amusingly, Osip does his Jesus routine whilst toting a cross made from metal girders … an Art Deco crucifixion!

The brothers vie for the love of Anna, a beautiful scientist who has built a device which enables her to gaze into the Earth’s core, literally the heart of the world. Meanwhile, a bloated plutocrat named Akmatov lusts for Anna. All of this is explained in silent-film titles, in a 1920s typeface that looks vaguely Cyrillic. The actors employ authentic silent-film acting techniques while resisting the temptation to ‘guy’ those methods or exaggerate them. The only lapse occurs when Anna suddenly vibrates her eyes back and forth while attempting to choose between the two brothers. This seems to be Maddin’s intentional parody of silent-film acting. For the rest of the film, his homage to the past is sincere.

I spent a delightful six minutes trying to spot all the references and influences in this movie. Maddin is clearly influenced by ‘Metropolis’ (my favourite film), but I also spotted the influences of ‘Aelita’, ‘Vampyr’, ‘Potemkin’ and ‘Haxan’ in this frenzied melange. This is not to accuse Maddin of plagiarism. He displays his influences openly, using them as a foundation for a vision uniquely his own. It’s refreshing to see a 21st-century filmmaker who acknowledges a debt to silent films, in an industry filled with Tarantino wanna-bes and counterfeit Hitchcocks. imdb

Directed by Guy Maddin / Canada / 2000

The final minutes of a society of vocal bubblewrap as it faces its apocalypse.

‘Bubblewrap’ was completed August 2007 and has since made the festival rounds picking up some awards on its way. It is Arthur Metcalf’s debut film.

Directed by Arthur Metcalf / USA / 2007

A short film about a Japanese eccentric convinience store clerk.

Winner of Best Short Film at Young Directors Award Cannes, 2006

Directed by Kosai Sekine / Japan / 2005

Carl is running for his life. When a beautiful woman offers him an unexpected hiding place, his luck seems to change. But desire is about to lay its own subtle trap.

Based on “zwei bei tisch” by Hans Herbst.

Directed by Stefan Stuckert / UK / 2007

“In a sense, fear is the daughter of God, redeemed on Good Friday. She is not beautiful, mocked, cursed or disowned by all. But don’t be mistaken, she watches over all mortal agony, she intercedes for mankind; for there is a rule and an exception. Culture is the rule, and art is the exception. Everybody speaks the rule; cigarette, computer, t-shirt, television, tourism, war. Nobody speaks the exception. It isn’t spoken, it is written; Flaubert, Dostoyevsky. It is composed; Gershwin, Mozart. It is painted; Cézanne, Vermeer. It is filmed; Antonioni, Vigo. Or it is lived, then it is the art of living; Srebrenica, Mostar, Sarajevo. The rule is to want the death of the exception. So the rule for cultural Europe is to organise the death of the art of living, which still flourishes” – Jean-Luc Godard, “Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo” (1993).

The film in question is a short, two-minute rumination on the once volatile situation during the period of the Bosnian War, presented in the form of a photo-montage with accompanying text. In the film, Godard takes a single photograph and shows us a series of close-up segments that conspire to abstract the overall meaning of the picture, turning the individual elements into mere symbols that are there to be deciphered. The ultimate point that the director is trying to make is heartfelt and honest, though he is intelligent enough not to preach to his audience; instead, allowing room for further thought and deeper interpretation. By taking the original image, zooming in on it and showing it to the viewer piece by piece, Godard allows each symbol to take on various roles and characteristics; from the gun, which becomes a symbol of violence, protection and power, to the cigarette, with all its quietly mocking reminders of society in even the most barbaric and brutal of contexts.

The use of narration expresses Godard’s genuine sadness at the state of the world in the latter half of the twentieth-century, contrasting the ideas of art and atrocity as the presentation of the image becomes known. The film also touches on the importance of art and how it is needed as an egalitarian comment on society. With this in mind, the final image becomes a work of art itself; which – simply as a result of being – expresses something that otherwise would never have been said. As the film progresses, more and more of the image is presented to the audience until the final shot, in which the full scenario of the picture and its depiction of militant abuse, becomes clear. Here, Godard brings his narration to a close and forces the viewer for the first time to look at and contemplate the image that he has previously dissected so skilfully, so that we can take into account the crux of his argument and see the ultimate depiction of what Elvis Costello once referred to as “the sad burlesque”.

Even at this incredibly brief running time, Je Vous Salue, Sarajevo is a bold, heartfelt and moving critique from Godard – the most talented and revolutionary filmmaker of the twentieth century – with the implication of the title combined with his heartrending and reasoned narration seeming to underline the entirely personal nature of the film. “I Salute Thee, Sarajevo!” / “Hail, Sarajevo!” is the message that Godard relates as he offers this quiet and dignified polemic about political censorship, freedom of speech, art and atrocity, life and death and the state of the world in the year nineteen-ninety-three. As the poignant music of Arvo Pärt swells on the soundtrack, Godard makes his intentions clear with a final, heartfelt lament; “when it’s time to close the book, I have no regrets. I’ve seen so many people live so badly, and so many die so well”. by Graham Greene


Directed by Jean-Luc Godard / France / 1993

Classic Russian animated short film from 1975. A little hedgehog, on the way to visit his friend the bear, gets lost in thick fog, where horses, dogs and even falling leaves take on a terrifying new aspect…

This is a story about a little hedgehog and his friend bear cub. The two would meet every evening to drink tea from the cub’s samovar, which was heated on a fire of juniper twigs. As they drank their tea, the hedgehog and the bear conversed and counted the stars together. One day, the hedgehog decided to bring raspberry jam. As he went to the bear to count the stars, he passed through the woods and found a horse standing in a fog, where the hedgehog can’t even see his own pink paw. He is curious as to whether the horse would drown if it went to sleep in the fog. The hedgehog decides to explore the fog.

He finds himself in a strange world inhabited by many frightening creatures (eagle-owl, moths and bat) but also helpful and kind ones (the snail, the dog and the ’somebody’ under water); that world of silence and rustles, of darkness, high grass and enchanting stars. The hedgehog hears the sound of the owl, which he called freak (Russian: псих). He is so frightened that it seems to him that the owl is very close. He is frightened, but his curiosity keeps him exploring the unknown. The characters Hedgehog and Bear Cub are very kind and friendly. In contrast, the eagle-owl is very hostile, being on the hunt and not taking care of the beauty of the surrounding world.

Based on a story by Sergei Kozlov. In 2003 “Hedgehog in the Fog” won the “№1 Animated film of all the time” at “All time animation best 150 in Japan and Worldwide” contest in Tokyo, Japan.

Directed by Yuri Norstein / Soviet Union / 1975

Paris je t’aimerai is a short movie showing one’s perception of life in Paris. With a soundtrack written by White Trees, this succession of scenes will tell you what is missing in that beautiful city, all in a mellow musical atmosphere. Featuring celebrity Michela Maggioni, winner of Italy’s next top model, this film is about peace and harmony.

Directed by Paul Tyan / France / 2009

A man gathers together an arsenal of lethal weapons around his lover’s bed like Rube Goldberg machine. It looks as if he wants to kill her, while she is fast asleep! Then he leaves and lights the fuse…

Directed by Veit Helmer / Germany / 1995

Sorry full video has been removed due to a copyright claim by Spirit Level Film

On an August morning in 1976, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.
No dialogue, just the squeal of tyres and the roar of the engine. Breathtakingly insane.

Making of: youtube.com/watch?v=AHn5Q15kaIA

Directed by Claude Lelouch / France / 1976