Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2 (#873)

Established in 2007, The Film Foundations World Cinema Project has maintained a passionate commitment to preserving and presenting masterpieces from around the globe, with more than two dozen restorations that have introduced international moviegoers to often-overlooked areas of cinema history. This collectors set gathers six works, from the Philippines (Insiang), Thailand (Mysterious Object at Noon), Soviet Kazakhstan (Revenge), Brazil (Limite), Turkey (Law of the Border), and Taiwan (Taipei Story). Each title is an essential contribution to the art form and a window onto a distinct filmmaking tradition unfamiliar to many.

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• Spine #873

Films In This Set

Insiang

1976

Jealousy and violence take center stage in this claustrophobic melodrama, a tautly constructed character study set in the slums of Manila. Lino Brocka crafts an eviscerating portrait of an innocent daughter and her bitter mother as women scorned. Insiang leads a quiet life dominated by household duties, but after she is raped by her mothers lover and abandoned by the young man who claims to care for her, she exacts vicious revenge. A savage commentary on the degradations of urban poverty, especially for women,Insiangwas the first Philippine film ever to play at Cannes.

Insiangwas restored by the Cineteca di Bologna/ LImmagine Ritrovata. Restoration funded by The Film Foundations World Cinema Project and the Film Development Council of the Philippines.

Mysterious Object at Noon

2000

Apichatpong Weerasethakul brought an appetite for experimentation to Thai cinema with his debut feature, an uncategorizable work that refracts documentary impressions of his homeland through the surrealist concept of the exquisite corpse game. Enlisting locals to contribute improvised narration to a simple tale, Apichatpong charts the collective construction of the fiction as each new encounter imbues it with unpredictable shades of fantasy and pathos. Shot over the course of two years in 16 mm black and white,Mysterious Object at Noonestablished the directors fascination with the porous boundaries between the real and the imagined.

Mysterious Object at Noonwas restored in 2013 by the Austrian Film Museum and the Cineteca di Bologna/LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundations World Cinema Project, LISTO laboratory in Vienna, Technicolor Ltd. in Bangkok, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute.

Revenge

1989

A child is raised in Korea to avenge the death of his fathers first child in this decades-spanning tale of obsession and violence, the third collaboration between director Ermek Shinarbaev and writer Anatoli Kim. A study of everyday evil infused with philosophy and poetry, this haunting allegory was the first Soviet film to look at the Korean diaspora in central Asia, and a founding work of the Kazakh New Wave. Rigorous and complex,Revengeweaves luminous imagery with inventive narrative elements in an unforgettable meditation on the way trauma is passed down through generations.

Revengewas restored in 2010 by the Cineteca di Bologna/LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundations World Cinema Project, the Kazakhfilm Studio, the State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Ermek Shinarbaev. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.

Limite

1931

An astonishing creation,Limiteis the only feature by the Brazilian director and author Mrio Peixoto, made when he was just twenty-two years old. Inspired by a haunting Andr Kertsz photograph on the cover of a French magazine, this avant-garde silent masterpiece centers on a man and two women lost at sea, their pasts unfolding through flashbacks propelled by the music of Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, and others. An early work of independent Latin American filmmaking,Limitewas famously difficult to see for most of the twentieth century. It is a pioneering achievement that continues to captivate with its timeless visual poetry.

Limitewas restored in 2010 by the Cinemateca Brasileira and the Cineteca di Bologna/LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundations World Cinema Project, Arquivo Mario Peixoto, Saulo Pereira de Mello, and Walter Salles. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways, and Qatar Museum Authority.

Law of the Border

1966

Set along the Turkish-Syrian frontier, this terse, elemental tale of smugglers contending with a changing social landscape brought together two giants of Turkish cinema. Director Ltfi . Akad had already made some of his countrys most notable films when he was approached by Ylmaz Gneya rising action star who would become Turkeys most important and controversial filmmakerto collaborate on this neo-western about a quiet man who finds himself pitted against his fellow outlaws. Combining documentary authenticity with a tough, lean poetry,Law of the Bordertransformed the nations cinema forevereven though it was virtually impossible to see for many years.

Law of the Borderwas restored in 2013 by the Cineteca di Bologna/LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundations World Cinema Project, Dada Films, and the Turkish Ministry of Culture. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute.

Taipei Story

1985

Edward Yangs second feature is a mournful anatomy of a city caught between the past and the present. Made in collaboration with Yangs fellow New Taiwan Cinema master Hou Hsiao-hsien,Taipei Storychronicles the growing estrangement between a washed-up baseball player (Hou, in a rare on-screen performance) working in his familys textile business and his girlfriend (Tsai Chin), who clings to the upward mobility of her career in property development. As the couples dreams of marriage and emigration begin to unravel, Yangs gaze illuminates the precariousness of domestic life and the desperation of Taiwans globalized modernity.

Taipei Storywas restored by The Film Foundations World Cinema Project at the Cineteca di Bologna/LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with the Cinmathque Royale de Belgique and Hou Hsiao-hsien.