Baltic Cinema | Selected by Kuba Ryniewicz

Thursday 24 September | 18:30 
Introduced by Kuba Ryniewicz
Dir. John Waters / USA 2000 / 87mins
35mm transferred to digital video | In English

Vowing to punish the crass sins of commercial cinema, fuelled by revolutionary zeal and self-imposed sexual frustration, Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff) and his guerrilla production crew kidnap a Hollywood movie goddess and force her to star in their radical underground movie. Invading the streets of Baltimore, they shoot their no-budget epic starring their hostage Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith). Nothing is going to stand in Cecil’s way, no matter what…

Wednesday 7 October | 18:30  
Dir. Luchino Visconti Germany / Italy 1969 / 167mins

‘The most savagely subversive film by the iconoclastic auteur Luchino Visconti employs the mechanics of deliriously stylised melodrama to portray Nazism’s total corruption of the soul. In the wake of Hitler’s ascent to power, the wealthy industrialist von Essenbeck family and their associates—including the scheming social climber Friedrich (Dirk Bogarde), the conniving matriarch Sophie (Ingrid Thulin), and the cruelly deviant heir Martin (Helmut Berger, memorably donning Marlene Dietrich–like drag in his breakthrough role)—descend into a self-destructive spiral of decadence, greed, perversion, and all-consuming hatred as they vie for power, over the family business and over one another. 

The heightened performances and Visconti’s luridly expressionistic use of Technicolor conjure a garish world of decaying opulence in which one family’s downfall comes to stand for the moral rot of a nation.’ —Criterion

Saturday 10 October | 15:00  
Dir. Hal Hartley UK / France / USA 1994 / 98mins 
35mm transferred to digital video | In English 

A man wakes up in an alley, bleeding and with no memory of who he is. He stumbles into a coffee shop and is befriended by a charitable ex-nun who is failing in her attempts to write marketable pornography.

The legendary Isabelle Huppert delivers one of her most moving performances in English. The film premiered at Cannes, Director's Fortnight, in 1994.

‘Sharp, wry, and playful’ —New York Times / ‘Delightfully stylish’  —Time Out

Friday 16 October | 18:30  
Dir. Frank Ripploh / W Germany 1981 / 103mins
35mm transferred to digital video | In German with English subtitles

Frank. a dedicated schoolteacher, embraces the sexual freedoms of the city’s underground scene—navigating a double life in public toilets, cinemas and cruising spots. When Frank (played by director Frank Ripploh himself) meets Bernd, a sweet and steady museum worker, he finds himself torn between the comfort of domestic partnership and the allure of anonymous desire.

‘Released in the UK in 1982, Taxi zum Klo was groundbreaking in its unhysterical depiction of contemporary urban gay life. It was part of an international wave of gay films in the late 70s, the most notable of which, from a British perspective, were Derek Jarman's Sebastiane (1976) and Ron Peck's Nighthawks (1978) … Taxi zum Klo shows a neon-illumined city in motion – seen through the rain-flecked windows of Frank's Karmann Ghia. As he drives, he reflects in voiceover while a minimal electronic soundtrack pulses.’ —Jon Savage, The Guardian

Saturday 24 October | 15:00 
Dir. Marcel Łoziński / Poland 1981 / 83mins

‘Filmed in home-movie style and set to irrepressibly happy songs, this documentary by Marcel Łoziński captures everyday life at a Polish Socialist Youth summer camp, where floundering party officials instill newlyweds with approved values. 

Although not all the officials themselves are that well-grounded ideologically, they do their best to mould the students into good citizens of the communist utopia. They rehearse songs, march, paint slogans on banners and play role-playing games in which the participants learn how to behave with visitors. The climax of this summer residency is a contest to find the most exemplary couple. 

How to Live is at times downright hilarious. It is almost impossible to believe that this film was shot only eight years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the end of the communist era. On the other hand, the tests the contestants have to do – including a party jargon quiz – bring to mind the citizenship courses that immigrants to Western European countries are required to take. Once we have pierced the ridiculous formality of Comrade Camp Leader and his helpers, what comes to the fore are the emotions of those who want to fit the ideological mould, and those who do not.’ —IDFA