Grandma's Encyclopaedia

Grandma's Encyclopaedia 1965

5.60

A short film by Walerian Borowczyk. This first volume looks at the first three letters in Grandma's encyclopaedia: A for 'Automobile', B for 'Ballon', and C for 'Chemin de fer'.

1965

The Concert

The Concert 1967

5.10

A short film by Walerian Borowczyk. Ostensibly a film of a concert given by the round, unassuming Monsieur Kabal and his spiky, terrifying wife, it's actually a cover for their frequent attempts at causing each other extreme physical harm.

1967

The Games of Angels

The Games of Angels 1967

5.50

Animated short. Abstract forms in a setting evocative of a concentration camp created by the universe. Based on a series of paintings by the Polish artists and filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk, Les Jeux des Anges takes the viewer into a nightmarish and sinister labyrinth world. With images reminiscent of Bosch and Ernst and an abstract soundtrack the film evoke unspeakable horrors lurking at the heart Borowczyk's masterpiece. Borowczyk described the film himself as "A report on the city of angels."

1967

Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal

Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal 1967

6.20

"Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal" is Walerian Borowczyk’s first feature-length film and his last animated film. It consists of a sequence of loosely connected scenes, much like a vaudeville program, in which Mr. and Mrs. Kabal perform absurd, surreal, and sometimes cruel acts.

1967

The Mystery of Alexina

The Mystery of Alexina 1985

4.40

In 1856, fresh from life with nuns in an orphanage school, Alexina Barbin comes to a coastal village in La Rochelle to teach the village girls. She is deeply religious. She shares the classroom and a bedroom with the young and vivacious Sara, with whom she falls in love. Alexina has another secret: her gender is mysterious. She and Sara begin a scandalous love affair, but Alexina seeks marriage and social acceptance. She discloses her secrets to the village priest, to her mother, to the bishop, and to the bishop's physician. After the church and court rule on her petition, marriage to Sara becomes Alexina's sole purpose and hope.

1985

Renaissance

Renaissance 1967

6.80

To the sound of trumpets, a collection of pulverised antique bric-a-brac begins to reassemble itself, revealing a stuffed owl, a cornet, a hamper, books, a doll, a plate – and a bomb...

1967

Sarah

Sarah 1983

5.30

An insurance investigator meets an attractive woman in a hotel on his way to check out the causes of a fire that destroyed a movie set.

1983

The Christmas Martian

The Christmas Martian 1971

4.30

A martian comes to a small town in Quebec and becomes friends with the town children. He gives them candy to get the children into his spacecraft. This alarms the parents but he wins them over and they have a great big Christmas party.

1971

Kaya

Kaya 1967

7.00

An experimental film about peaceful and carefree life in a small Dalmatian town, which turns into bloodshed and horror on the Eve of Italian occupation of the country.

1967

Act Without Words

Act Without Words 1964

1

An adaptation of one of Samuel Beckett’s most powerful plays which is in fact a mime. A man sits in a desert and struggles to reach a flask of water and other objects symbolising relief or escape. The objects remain stubbornly out of reach, but the man doesn’t give up. What is significant about this play is that Beckett captured, without the use of words, the major concerns and motifs of Waiting for Godot and Endgame.

1964