Spotlight
Wondering which films to watch? Spotlight presents thematically grouped, must see films, hand-picked by Fandor's curators.
La léon
Alois Nebel
Ne change rien
The Turin Horse
Tabu
The Drummond Will
City of Life and Death
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
Computer Chess
The Day He Arrives
Back in Black (and White)
Following a scrappy, low-budget DIY ethos. Lending dead-pan humor a matching color scheme. Harkening back to a bygone era. Creating a sense of romantic nostalgia. Adding some stark contrast to the story.
As this diverse collection of new classics highlights, there's still a passion and place for black and white cinematography in the twenty-first century. Clearly, some things never go out of style.
Selected Films
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The Turin Horse
On January 3, 1889, in Turin, Italy, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, a cab driver is having trouble with a stubborn horse. The horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and takes his whip to it. Nietzsche puts an...Watch Movie
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Computer Chess
Set over the course of a weekend tournament for chess software programmers thirty-some years ago, COMPUTER CHESS transports viewers to a nostalgic moment when the contest between technology and the human spirit seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed of...Watch Movie
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Phantom Love
It is difficult to imagine a better film about a woman's world of passions, desires, dreams, relations and reflections than Nina Menkes' PHANTOM LOVE. Shot in 35mm black-and-white with Director of Photography Christopher Soos' sublime lighting design, the film follows Lulu (Marina Shoif) on a...Watch Movie
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Shit Year
Renowned actress Colleen West (Ellen Barkin) abandons her successful career for a secluded life in the hills, but the quiet and peace of mind she longed for is disrupted by the noisy construction of neighboring housing developments. Before long, Colleen discovers that she really can’t stand...Watch Movie
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Ne change rien
One of the most important figures in contemporary cinema, Pedro Costa's celebrated music documentary is a mesmerizing portrait of French actress-turned-singer Jeanne Balibar, a transfixing, cigarette-smoking chanteuse with an intense devotion to her craft. Photographed in shimmering...Watch Movie
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The Color Wheel
THE COLOR WHEEL is the story of JR (Carlen Altman), an increasingly transient aspiring news-anchor, as she forces her disappointing younger brother Colin (Alex Ross Perry) to embark on a road trip to move her belongings out of her professor-turned-lover’s apartment (Bob Byington). Traveling...Watch Movie
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Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
A full-fledged song-and-dance, tap-and-jazz musical, Damien Chazelle’s GUY AND MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH boldly recasts the 1940s MGM musical tradition in a gritty, verite style, resulting in an exuberant celebration of romance and music and one of the most critically-acclaimed...Watch Movie
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The Drummond Will
A deeply affectionate modern retelling of the classic comedies and murder mysteries from the Ealing era of British cinema, THE DRUMMOND WILL imagines what it would be like to be stuck in a world where the strange rules of Ealing cinema apply. A world where life continues quite...Watch Movie
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Go Down Death
GO DOWN DEATH is a wry, sinister realization of a strange new universe, a cross-episodic melange of macabre folktales supposedly penned by the fictitious writer Jonathan Mallory Sinus. An abandoned factory in Brooklyn stands in for a decrepit village haunted by ghosts, superstition and disease,...Watch Movie
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Bummer Summer
Via a breathtaking collection of Spartan black and white imagery BUMMER SUMMER observes the emotional fumblings of three not-grown-ups. Seventeen year-old Isaac tags along on an impromptu road trip with his older brother Ben and Ben's ex-girlfriend Lila. The trip staggers along uncertainly as the...Watch Movie
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Alois Nebel
Inspired by classic film noir and rendered in mesmerizing black-and-white rotoscope animation (à la Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE), this dark-hearted Czech drama traces the haunted memories and mysterious visions of a troubled train dispatcher through the shifting cultural and political...Watch Movie
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The Day He Arrives
A film director who no longer makes films, Seongjun, arrives in Seoul to meet a close friend. When the friend doesn't show up, Seongjun wanders the city aimlessly. He runs into an actress he used to know, shares a drink with some film students and against his better judgment,...Watch Movie
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The Color Out of Space
Arkham, 1975: Jonathan Davis' father has disappeared. His tracks lead to Germany, to the Swabian-Franconian Forest where he was stationed after the Second World War. Jonathan sets out to find him and bring him home, but deep in the woods he discovers a dark mystery from the...Watch Movie
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La léon
Deep in the lush river jungles of Argentina, Alvaro lives a solitary existence fishing and harvesting reeds. What sets him apart from the rest of his village is that he is gay. There are no other gay men in his world, and his only means of expression is with the occasional outsider who passes...Watch Movie
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Two Years at Sea
Using 16mm cameras, artist Ben Rivers documents the solitary existence of Jake, a man who lives in isolation in the middle of a remote forest. The film follows his unconventional life, capturing moments of profound beauty. Jake is seen in all seasons, surviving frugally,...Watch Movie
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City of Life and Death
CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH, a stunning depiction of the Rape of Nanking, is "a film strong enough to change your life" (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times). Director Lu Chuan based the film on the recorded witness testimony from the real-life survivors of the massacre, meticulously...Watch Movie
