Best movies like Video 50

This highly personal film essay demonstrates that Chinese cinema has dealt with questions of gender and sexuality more frankly and provocatively than any other national cinema. Yang ± Yin examines male bonding and phallic imagery in the swordplay and kung fu movies of the '60s and '70s; homosexuality; same-sex bonding and physical intimacy; the continuing emphasis on women's grievances in melodramas; and the phenomenon of Yam Kim-Fai, a Hong Kong actress who spent her life portraying men on and off the screen.

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.

Arthur Lipsett's first film is an avant-garde blend of photography and sound. It looks behind the business-as-usual face we put on life and shows anxieties we want to forget. It is made of dozens of pictures that seem familiar, with fragments of speech heard in passing and, between times, a voice saying, "Very nice, very nice." The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film.

A portrait of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt whose lavish, sexual paintings came to symbolize the art nouveau style of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.

Coffee And Cigarettes is a collection of eleven films from cult director Jim Jarmusch. Each film hosts star studded cast of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

Five tales by Edgar Allan Poe come to life thanks to a pictorical style animation, five tales that exude madness, pestilence, murder and torture.

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

Day in and day out, lovers Cynthia and Evelyn enact an elaborate sadomasochistic fantasy as mistress and maid. But as their ritual of domination and submission begins to turn stale, Cynthia yearns for something more conventional, while Evelyn tries to push their taboos even further.

A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither.

"Joe Cocker - the Rotating Rocker - and his 42 member communal touring company Mad Dogs & Englishmen with the Master of Space and Time Leon Russell - see them perform in the pleasure palaces of America - it's a moving picture" says the classic film poster. See this spectacular rock 'n' roll tour documentary and get a dramatic visual record that captures the spirit of the hippie era with mind-blowing performances, crazy backstage footage, and spaced-out interviews. Supporting cast includes Claudia Lennear, Rita Coolidge, Sherman Jones reciting "Face on the Barroom Floor," and Canina the dog.

A poignant story of redemption that takes us into the relationship between a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction after 26 years of marriage, the Spine continues Landreth's pursuit of a twisted, beautiful and highly original visual aesthetic, using digital imagery to create characters whose physical appearances are metaphors for their unique souls.

Collection of short films the summaries of which include; a foreign man moving to Italy, getting married and having a child; a four split scene short involving plot-less images of old people with television sets for heads, a beautiful woman having sex, and overall confusion; and an old man reminiscing over his youth.

An attempt to bring the work of surrealist artists to a wider public. The plot is that of an average Joe who can conjure up dreams that will improve his customer's lives. This frame story serves as a link between several avant-garde sequences created by leading visual artists of their day, most of whom were emigres to the US during WWII.

A series of erotic vignettes and sexual imagery (mostly of the gay variety) are presented courtesy of The Cockettes (a gay/drag performance art ensemble of late 60s/early 70s San Francisco).

A television reporter interviews fighters and promoters about Bruce Lee in preparation for a tournament to claim the title of “Successor to the Bruce Lee legacy”. Footage from Bruce Lee's films and interviews are repurposed in pseudo-documentary style.

Ricky, a dim-witted ex-con, meets Beth, a dim-witted waitress, in an Idaho diner. They take off in his car to Washington and begin an affair. Beth, a lonely romance-novel addict, is hopelessly enamored; Ricky is just in it for the (constant) sex. Beth's longing to visit California and Ricky's longing for quick cash leads them into a desperate situation. Director Jost uses a variety of avant-garde visual and narrative techniques, such as montage, collages, split screens and lengthy, tongue-in-cheek monologues to tell the tragicomic story of two complete losers in love.

Paul Silberstein, youngest son of an urbane but deeply strange old Austrian dynasty of confectionery millionaires, discovers the power of love and humor - and also his own extraordinary ability to shape his realities. Based on the motives of the short story with the same name by André Heller.

An epic silent space opera about a robot-based alien invasion, featuring unique visuals created by meticulously modifying and editing thousands of hours of silent and serial film footage. With an original story, musical score, and sound design, Time of the Robots creates a new experience highly reminiscent of early cinema.

Nearly 15 years in the making, Chris Sullivan's Consuming Spirits is a meticulously constructed tour de force of experimental animation. Shooting frame by frame in 16mm, Sullivan seamlessly blends together a range of techniques—cutout animation, pencil drawing, collage, and stop-motion animation—into a distinct, signature visual style. In the process, he constructs a hypnotic, layered narrative, a suspenseful gothic tale that tracks the intertwined lives of three kindred spirits working at a local newspaper in a Midwestern rust belt town. The accumulation of these images builds to a great atmospheric effect, achieved through an adroit combination of inventive set design, ever-shifting visual perspectives, fluid camera movements, a vivid color palette, and a haunting music track. Sullivan succeeds in creating, with great artistry, a hermetic, self-contained world emanating from his own unique and vivid imagination. (Jon Gartenberg, Tribeca Film Festival)

He is a major figure in the pop art movement; one of the most popular and influential artists of his generation. The motifs and colors of his canvasses have been widely reproduced, and are now part of the 20th century art pantheon, changing the way we view the world. Hockney is typically seen as an artist who loves life, a good time, glamour and sex. The highly personal and emotional side of his work is often overlooked, much like the intensity and individuality he has shown in each of his successive periods and styles. Through images, anecdotes, and detailed pictorial analysis, this documentary highlights how the renowned painter defies classification and remains mysterious in many ways: an intense, profound, and infinitely passionate artist.

Collage of dramatic scenes, some exaggerated to comic effect, with asynchronous sound from well known classic, operatic, and rock and roll music – with different approaches to love, suffering, and death.

This lighthearted romp through Royal India presents a world of Maharajas, palaces, imperiled art objects, and the foreign collectors who will stop at nothing to possess them. Peggy Ashcroft and Larry Pine star as two rapacious art collectors who come to the decaying Art Deco palace of a young Maharaja (Victor Banerjee) to examine a legendary collection of Indian miniature paintings. While vying with each other to get the pictures away from the royal couple—nicknamed Georgie and Bonnie as children by their Scottish governess—they must also divine the true motives of the Indian curator of the collection (Saeed Jaffrey), who, in league with the Maharaja’s beautiful sister (Aparna Sen), may be working against them. Amidst the backdrop of lavish tourist entertainments, Christmas parties, fireworks, and even an English ghost, a desperate game of palace intrigue will determine the ultimate resting place of the priceless paintings.

Having survived a brutal home invasion that left his fiancee dead, Scott, now emotionally unstable and reclusive is encouraged to join a support group in an attempt to get his life back on track. At the group he meets the enigmatic O, a woman who claims to have ties to Scott's attacker. Together the two set on a path of vengeance to track down the monster who did them wrong but as their journey progresses Scott begins to question O's true motives and intentions as she pulls him deeper into a world of murder and lies.

Down to the Earth’s Core takes viewers from the sidewalk to the centre of the planet in one epic unbroken shot. Using spectacular computer generated imagery; the camera smashes through almost 9 000 kilometres of solid rock to explore the hidden world beneath our feet. Experience an earthquake inside the San Andreas Fault, blast out of a volcano, encounter bizarre cave-dwelling creatures and enter caves full of giant crystals – all inside planet Earth. As the camera lowers into Earth's bosom, the planet’s extraordinary story, is laid bare layer by layer, showing how prehistoric forests became modern-day fuel, witnessing the dinosaur’s cataclysmic death, and watching as stalactites form and gold grows before our eyes. Deeper, beyond the reach of any mine, any drill, we find wonders beyond imagination: towering molten metal tornadoes, forests of solid iron crystals, until we reach the strangest, least understood place on the planet – the core.

In this edition of Starz Inside, Starz explores the increasingly popular animation style, anime. The documentary looks at the history of the genre, the pioneers and its influence in current film and television. A number of people in the entertainment industry, ranging from animators like David Silverman (The Simpsons) to actors (Michael Madsen, Michelle Rodriguez) and even musicians (Rob Zombie), participate in the episode by talking about how anime has affected their work and the way they view animation.

The extraordinary story of German businessman Ernst Leitz II (1871-1956), second only to his father in ownership of the optics company that developed the famous and highly successful Leica camera, and his heroic struggle against Nazism.

The Royal Tour is a groundbreaking series of television specials, produced and hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist and CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg. Guided by some of the most dynamic and powerful heads of state, Peter journeys deep inside each country to offer viewers an all access pass to extraordinary locations, historic landmarks, and cultural experiences. In this latest edition, Peter received a royal tour from the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa. For an entire week, Mr. Correa became the ultimate guide, showcasing the visual gems that his country has to offer. They took four camera crews along as they swam with piranha in the Amazon rainforest, went whale watching off the coast of Manta, shopped like a local in a rural town in the Andes Mountains, returned to the President's hometown of Guayaquil and the school he attended, visited a cacao plantation (aka chocolate) farm in Cacao, and went diving with sharks in the Galápagos Islands.

A dramatic minute-by-minute account of the superstorm that brought New York State to its knees. Using satellite imagery, CGI mapping and the powerful personal testimony of those who lived through it, this is a forensic analysis of the meteorological, engineering and human devastation wreaked by Sandy.

Year 1763, the Seven Years' War is about to end. August III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, has died, leaving empty the royal treasury and an extraordinary collection of paintings, sculptures, jewelry and goldsmith masterpieces, which he considered a symbol of his greatness, and that of Dresden, one of the European capitals of Baroque art.

Inspired by the classic tale of Peter Pan, The Lost Girls chronicles four generations of Darling women as they struggle in the aftermath of their adventures with Peter Pan in Neverland. Like her grandmother and her mother Jane before her, Wendy must escape Pan’s hold on her and the promise he desperately wants her to keep. As her daughter Berry comes into Peter’s orbit, Wendy must fight to save her relationship with her daughter while reconciling her legacy.

Lamentations: A Monument to the Dead World belongs to a 35-hour film cycle, The Book of All the Dead, which comprises the bulk of Toronto-based Bruce Elder’s filmmaking from 1975 to 1994. In ancient Egyptian culture, the Book of the Dead consisted of religious texts intended to help preserve the spirit of the departed in the afterlife — but in Elder’s reading, that comforting idea of continuity takes on a rather darker cast. Lamentations is comprised of a complex audio and visual patchwork: a philosophical meditation superimposed as text throughout the film; vignettes featuring a comical but disturbing Franz Liszt, a debate between Isaac Newton and George Berkeley, an angry, deranged man in an alley, and an arrogant psychiatrist; and a final search for salvation in the forests of British Columbia, the American Southwest, and Mexico’s Yucatan.

Pearl Jam have released their highly anticipated and long awaited new album Gigaton. Their 11th album and first in nearly 7 years is already receiving mass critical acclaim as their greatest and most adventurous work to date. This immersive visual album pairs the band's inspired visuals with footage, produced by the award-winning Evolve Studios, to create an unparalleled 360 experience that enhances Gigaton's massive scope.

Television played a key role in the legendary Liberace career making him a household word to millions and the medium's first matinee idol. "Leapin' Lizards, It's Liberace!" video taped in 1978 was his first major television special from Las Vegas. "Leapin' Lizards, It's Liberace!" gives us a spoofed view of a typical day in the life of Mr.Showmanship, before he was off to "work" at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel in his mirrored Rolls Royce. There is a view of the magnificent Liberace Las Vegas Villa, from bedroom to piano motif swimming pool. After arriving at the Hilton showroom, guest star Debbie Reynolds, Liberace's favorite movie star and performer, joins him on stage for a salute to the Broadway musical, "Annie," complete with Sandy the Dog.

When Tourneur adapted the allegorical plays The Blue Bird by Belgian symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck and Prunella by British playwrights Harley Granville Barker and Lawrence Housman in 1918, they had been successfully staged for many years, opening in Moscow and on Broadway and everywhere. Today, the saccharine charm of these anti-modern fairy tales doesn’t work any more. But undistracted by the meaning or action of the film, we can enjoy the surface of Prunella all the better, the dazzling sets and costumes, silhouettes and painted backdrops created by the great art director Ben Carré in a fashionable Art Déco Neo-Rococo style.