IN THE SOUP  1992 Directed by Alexandre Rockwell 93 minutes In English

This amazing low-budget offbeat comedy is a gem from the 90s New York independent film scene. It stars a very young Steve Buscemi (before he was in Reservoir Dogs) in one of the best roles of his career. He is Adolpho Rollo, a wannabe film director with big dreams; all he needs is cash. In comes a producer (Seymour Cassel) who is actually a gangster and knows nothing about cinema, but wants to make a movie. You might not know it, but many independent films use to be financed clandestinely by the Mafia or by drug smuggling or money laundering. If you couldn't get money from the studios, you had to go to the criminals. These two actors, Buscemi and Cassel, are pure gold together, and they make In the Soup into one of the strangest and most infectious movies you will ever see.

If you like deadpan humour (like the early Jim Jarmusch films - and by the way, Jim Jarmusch is an actor in this film) and have an appreciation for movies that take you into weird and quirky situations, then you should definitely see this indie cult classic. The script is razor-sharp and the whole movie has an oddball otherworldly humor that knocks it out of the genre ballpark. It should also be noted that it won the Grand Prize at the Sundance film festival in 1992 (in competition against Reservoir Dogs).

In the Soup is yet another little cinematic treasure which has been unjustly deleted from film history and seems to have been totally forgotten about. On top of everything else, the film's cameos are also marvelous - Jim Jarmusch, Jennifer Beals and Carol Kane.

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UNE ROBE D'ETE   1996 (Summer Dress) 15 minutes Directed by François Ozon In French with English subtitles  

Pretty amazing how much is packed into this short film by Ozon (8 Women). The story begins when a guy is laying on the nude beach, to discover his clothes have been stolen, and he has nothing to wear. The film shoots off from there.... a great little film to end the summer with.