Elina Löwensohn in Let the Corpses Tan
Streaming on April 3
Mom and Dad's Nipple Factory
Justinsuperstar, US, 2014
From Executive Producer Mayim Bialik, when Randi is diagnosed with breast cancer, her introverted husband Brian, a traditional family man, transforms their modest Midwest home into a secret prosthetic nipple laboratory, an act of love that blossoms into a truly unexpected business, kept hidden from their church, small-town community and five unsuspecting children.
Let the Corpses Tan
Hélène Cattet, Belgium, France, 2018
In this deliriously stylish homage to 1970s Italian crime films, a gang of gold thieves engages in an all-day firefight with cops in a remote, blistering Mediterranean hamlet. Based on a classic pulp novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette and featuring vintage music cues by Ennio Morricone, “Let the Corpses Tan” is a cinematic fever dream that will slamfire your senses like buckshot to the brain.
Streaming on April 10
Boyfriends and Girlfriends
Éric Rohmer, France, 1987
In “Boyfriends and Girlfriends” Éric Rohmer uses the amorous misadventures of two girlfriends in the outskirts of Paris to test the old proverb “les amis de mes amis sont mes amis” (“the friends of my friends are my friends”). The buttoned-up Blanche and the free-spirited Lea are tempted by each other’s love interests, testing both their friendship and their understanding of matters of the heart.
Aviator's Wife
Éric Rohmer, France, 1981
Éric Rohmer’s fleecy farce of romantic overanalysis finds the director exploring the possibilities of handheld camerawork as he seeks a narrative expression of the opening epigraph: “It is impossible to think of nothing.” A young student sees his girlfriend’s ex leaving her apartment one early morning, and his imagination is off to the races. He decides to spy on her and her lover to find out why.
Streaming on April 17
Blues Under the Skin
Robert Manthoulis, France, 1973
In the early 1970s, music documentarian Robert Manthoulis traveled to the Mississippi Delta to capture the remnants of the authentic American blues. Virtually unseen in the U.S., “The Blues Under the Skin” is a thrilling rediscovery, an untapped treasury of musical performances that not only captures a vanishing musical form, but offers a priceless glimpse of 70s Black life in the rural South.
Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Sophie Fiennes, UK, Ireland, 2013
Cultural theorist superstar Slavoj Žižek re-teams with director Sophie Fiennes (“The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema”) for another wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. With infectious zeal and a voracious appetite for popular culture, Žižek literally goes inside some truly epochal movies to explore and expose how they reinforce prevailing ideologies.
Streaming on April 24
5 Broken Cameras
Guy Davidi, Emad Burnat, France, Israel, Palestine, 1980
An extraordinary work of cinematic and political activism, this Academy Award-nominated film is a firsthand account of nonviolent resistance in a West Bank village threatened by Israeli settlements. Structured around the destruction of a succession of self-taught Palestinian cameraman Emad Burnat's video cameras, “5 Broken Cameras” follows one family's evolution over five years of village turmoil.
Buoyancy
Rodd Rathjen, Australia, 2019
This story of a spirited Cambodian teenager sold into forced labor on a Thai fishing boat is a passionate testimony against social injustice and a moving coming-of-age tale about a boy whose humanity is put to the test. Trapped at sea with a brutal captain and hope dwindling, he decides to take control of the trawler. Nominated for the Amnesty International Film prize at the Berlin Film Festival.