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Fata Morgana
Herzog’s intense, dreamlike mediation on desert life as if seen by an alien.
Director: Werner Herzog
Overview
Partly mystical, partly absurd, this early film by Werner Herzog evokes the chimerical visions of a desert mirage, re-framing and making strange different documentary images of life and decay in the Sahara. Film historian Lotte Eisener reads a Mayan creation myth and unlikely musical choices further twist and confuse our sense of place.
Related
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Watership Down Watership Down
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 92 mins Director: Martin Rosen
An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.
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Requiem for a Village Requiem for a Village
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1975 68 mins Director: David Gladwell
The idyllic, pastoral past of a Suffolk village is reborn through memory in this extraordinary, little-known film from director David Gladwell.
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Un Chien Andalou Un Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 mins Silent Director: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
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Eden and After Eden and After
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1969 98 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.
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Gallivant Gallivant
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1997 100 mins Director: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting takes a terrific, twisting coastal tour of the UK with his family.
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Sebastiane Sebastiane
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1976 85 mins Director: Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress
A distinctly bold and sensual reclaiming of gay history, Jarman here tells the sexually intense story of the 4th-century martyr.
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M M
Crime 1931 111 mins Director: Fritz Lang
Peter Lorre is unforgettable as the compulsive child murderer on the run from both police and criminals alike, in Fritz Lang’s seminal crime film.
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The Marriage of Maria Braun The Marriage of Maria Braun
Drama 1978 120 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
With a blazing star performance from Hanna Schygulla in the title role, this was the greatest critical and commercial success of Fassbinder’s career.
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Germany, Pale Mother Germany, Pale Mother
Drama 1980 151 mins Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms
Set during the Third Reich and its aftermath, this lyrical, harrowing tale of love and war is a neglected classic of New German cinema.
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The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
Drama 1972 124 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder's visual and verbal extravaganza about a successful but lonely fashion designer who falls in love with a beautiful younger woman.
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Fitzcarraldo Fitzcarraldo
Drama 1981 157 mins Director: Werner Herzog
One of Werner Herzog's most acclaimed and audacious films, Fitzcarraldo tells the incredible story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera to the heart of the Peruvian jungle.
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Fear Eats the Soul Fear Eats the Soul
Melodrama 1974 93 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fassbinder’s international breakthrough, this unconventional love story combines lucid social analysis with devastating emotional power.
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Heart of Glass Heart of Glass
Comedy 1976 94 mins Director: Werner Herzog
An 18th-century Bavarian community falls apart when the local glassmaker dies, in Werner Herzog's mesmerising drama for which he famously directed his actors under hypnosis.
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Land of Silence and Darkness Land of Silence and Darkness
Documentary 1971 85 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s profound and deeply moving documentary about the experiences of a community of deaf-blind people.
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The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Biopic 1974 109 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s poetic account of the historical character who captivated 19th-century Nuremberg after emerging from isolation after 16 years in a cellar.
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Fitzcarraldo Fitzcarraldo
Drama 1981 157 mins Director: Werner Herzog
One of Werner Herzog's most acclaimed and audacious films, Fitzcarraldo tells the incredible story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an opera-loving fortune hunter who dreams of bringing opera to the heart of the Peruvian jungle.
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The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner
Documentary 1975 46 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog’s moving portrait of a record-breaking ski jumper.
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Nosferatu the Vampyre Nosferatu the Vampyre
Horror 1979 107 mins Director: Werner Herzog
English language version of Herzog’s stimulating take on the Dracula story starring Klaus Kinski, with echoes of Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu.
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Saute ma ville Saute ma ville
Drama 1968 13 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.
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Les Rendez-vous d'Anna Les Rendez-vous d'Anna
Drama 1978 128 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A quasi self-portrait that was unfairly neglected on its release, this road movie is a profound musing on loneliness, displacement and the long shadow of the war.
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Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.
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Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.
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Je Tu Il Elle Je Tu Il Elle
Drama 1974 86 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.
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Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.