Balancing between feverish dreamlike hallucinations of a tormented past and a grim disoriented reality, the grizzled Joe--a traumatised Gulf War veteran and now an unflinching hired gun who lives with his frail elderly mother--has just finished yet another successful job. With an infernal reputation of being a brutal man of results, the specialised in recovering missing teens enforcer will embark on a blood-drenched rescue mission, when Nina, the innocent 13-year-old daughter of an ambitious New York senator, never returns home. But amidst half-baked leads and a desperate desire to shake off his shoulders the heavy burden of a personal hell, Joe's frenzied plummet into the depths of Tartarus is inevitable, and every step Joe takes to flee the pain, brings him closer to the horrors of insanity. In the end, what is real, and what is a dream? Can there be a new chapter in Joe's life when he keeps running around in circles?

Over two decades ago, Emma left Russia to follow Tancredi Recchi, the man who had proposed to her. Now a member of a powerful industrial Milanese family, she is the respected mother of three: two sons, Edoardo who is engaged to Eva and Gianluca that are businessmen and their lesbian daughter Elisabetta that lives in Nice. Emma, although not unhappy, feels confusedly unfulfilled. One day Edoardo becomes partner in a restaurant with Antonio, a talented chef and Edoardo's friend and Emma has a love affair with him. It does not take long before she embarks on a passionate affair with the sensuous young man. When Edoardo discovers the affair of his mother there is a tragedy that will affect the Recchi family.

During a self-imposed exile in Arles and Auvers-Sur-Oise, France, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh develops his unique, colorful style of painting. While grappling with religion, mental illness and a tumultuous friendship with French artist Paul Gauguin, van Gogh begins to focus on his relationship with eternity rather than the pain his art causes him in the present.

Justine, raised as a rigorous vegetarian, arrives as a freshman at the reputable Saint-Exupéry Veterinary School. As she leaves the family home, Justine abruptly moves into a mad new world of strange school traditions and vicious initiation tests, and before long, she must chew over her unshakable herbivorous beliefs. More and more, as Justine descends deeper and deeper into a hidden world of uncharted animalistic tendencies, an unprecedented and equally morbid craving for meat will transform her into a very different being, but now that her corporeal awakening is finally complete, is there a point in denying her hunger for raw flesh?

Sam and Jonathan, a pair of hapless novelty salesmen, take us on a kaleidoscopic tour of the human condition, unfolding in absurdist episodes: a sing-along at a 1940s beer hall, a randy flamenco teacher, a thirsty King Charles XII of Sweden en route to battle, and more slices of reality and fantasy.

'Me and You and Everyone We Know' is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another in an isolating contemporary world. Christine Jesperson is a lonely artist and "Eldercab" driver who uses her fantastical artistic visions to draw her aspirations and objects of desire closer to her. Richard Swersey, a newly-single shoe salesman and father of two boys, is prepared for amazing things to happen, but when he meets the captivating Christine, he panics. Life is not so oblique for Richard's six-year-old Robby, who is having a risqué Internet romance with a stranger, or Robby's 14-year-old brother Peter, who becomes the guinea pig for neighborhood girls practicing for their future of romance and marriage.

Tokyo is a city of transitions in three short films. A young woman who finds her life useless experiences a metamorphosis. A disheveled Caucasian emerges from a manhole to face arrest, trial, and execution; he calls himself "Merde" and speaks a language only his look-alike attorney understands. Is he human? A recluse experiences human contact when a pizza-delivery girl faints at his door during an earthquake. He conquers fear to seek her out. A chair, a corpse, a hermit: sources of urban connection?

In Hollywood, people in need revolve around Dr. Henry Carter, a shrink: Jack, an aging star wants permission to cheat on his wife; Shamus is a director who's a cokehead; Patrick is a high-powered germophobic producer; Jeremy is a young writer looking for a break; Jemma, a high-school student, is skipping school; and Kate is an actress facing her mid-30s. Henry's wife recently died; he's grieving, blaming himself, smoking lots of pot. Henry's friends try an intervention; someone steals a patient's file from Henry; Patrick's assistant, the pregnant Daisy, sees promise in Jeremy's work; and, Jesus, Henry's drug dealer, sells him some potent weed. Can anything good come of this?

Eleven separate vignettes are presented. In each, celebrities, playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves (with the exception of the characters of various wait staff, and one actor playing a lookalike cousin of herself), meet in a food service establishment with coffee/tea and cigarettes involved. Beyond the topic of discussion that brought them together, they often talk directly about coffee and cigarettes, more often that coffee and cigarettes, and by association caffeine and nicotine, are not healthy, especially if they are the only things constituting lunch. Other recurring themes include the Lee family, cousinhood, celebrity worship, the connection between the medical and musical careers, and Nikola Tesla's belief that the Earth is a conductor of acoustic resonance. In all cases, the coming together for coffee/tea and smokes acts as a bridge to overcome disagreements, and/or makes uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.

In 1660, with the return of Charles II to the English throne, theater, the visual arts, science and sexual promiscuity flourish. Thirteen years later, in the midst of political and economical problems, Charles II orders the return of his friend John Wilmot, aka the second Earl of Rochester, from exile back to London. John is a morally-corrupt drunkard and a debauched, cynical poet. When the King asks John to prepare a play for the French ambassador so as to please him, John meets the aspiring actress Elizabeth Barry in the playhouse and decides to make her into a great star. He falls in love with her and she becomes his mistress. During the presentation to the King and the French ambassador, John falls into disgrace with the court. When he is thirty-three years old and dying of syphilis and alcoholism, he converts to being a religious man.

Civilization and its discontents. Paul, an actor preparing for "Uncle Vanya" on Broadway, is mired in ennui. His agent tells him about an office where he can put his soul in storage. He does so then discovers that being soulless helps neither his acting nor his marriage; he returns to the office and rents, for two weeks, the soul of a Russian poet. His acting improves, but his wife finds him different, he sees bits of the borrowed soul's life, and he's now deep in sorrow. He wants his own soul back, but there are complications: it's in St. Petersburg. With the help of Nina, a Russian who transports souls to the U.S., he determines to get it back. Who has he become?

This playful film is at once a documentary of a day in the life of the Soviet Union, a documentary of the filming of said documentary, and a depiction of an audience watching the film. Even the editing of the film is documented. We often see the cameraman who is purportedly making the film, but we rarely, if ever, see any of the footage he seems to be in the act of shooting!

Nine children with talent, aged between 5 and 15, talk freely in absence of their parents about their activities in the field they love. But, what should be a leisure/pleasure had become a stressing obligation. They are pushed by their parent to work and work in hope they will make a great career; sometimes the career the parents would have hoped for themselves. "If only I could get one day off", said one a the girls.

In a small, dilapidated village in 1990s Hungary, life has come to a virtual stand-still. The autumn rains have started. A few of the villagers expect to receive a large cash payment that evening, and then plan to leave. Some want to abscond earlier with more than their fair share of the money. However, they hear that the smooth-talking Irimias, who they thought had died, is returning. They are apprehensive that he will take all their money in one of his grandiose schemes to keep the community going.

A 1994 Hungarian art film directed by Béla Tarr

The "Green Planet" belongs to another solar system. Through the simplicity of their lifestyle those who live there are a real step ahead of us: they spend their time concentrating their knowledge, strength and energy on the development of their minds and bodies in a natural environment which they dearly preserve and care for. Once a year, they gather in the crater of a dormant volcano to decide which planets they ought to send messengers to. There are volunteers for every planet except Earth, which is considered too polluted and too dangerous. One woman alone, Mila, decides to go there to seek out her identity, as Osam the old sage has revealed to her that she was conceived there during a previous trip by her father.

movies

More lists by Simge Güçlü

Sila Icin