Christmas 1887. In a Parisian mansion, Douce, the bored daughter of an aristocratic family, nurtures a secret passion for Fabien, who manages the estate. But Fabien is the lover of Irène, Douce’s governess, and plans to elope with her using money stolen from the family. Meanwhile, Douce’s father, a widower, has also fallen in love with Irène, and his proposal of marriage sets in motion a train of events with tragic consequences…Read More »
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While some other mid-20th-century directors were pursuing the chimera of “total cinema,” Jean Cocteau was chasing down the dream of a “total art.” But if “total cinema” meant capturing on screen the actual world as it really was, Cocteau’s “total art” meant giving form, instead, to the otherwise impalpable worlds of desire and dream. Both quests were fundamentally unrealistic, but Cocteau embraced this truth in ways both joyously inventive and technically rigorous.Read More »
Zeb Smith is a gambler with a larcenous streak, but when an itinerant preacher takes a bullet meant for him, Zeb vows to fulfill the preacher’s mission of building a church. Frustrated in his attempts to get donations, Zeb attempts to capture fugitive Doll Brown in order to obtain the reward. But he finds that there’s more to Doll than meets the eye. When his old friend Bucky McLean shows up gunning for Doll, Zeb sees a chance to redeem them all… one way or another. Written by Jim BeaverRead More »
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Jean Cocteau died on October 11, 1963, the same exact day that his longtime friend, the French chanteuse Edith Piaf, succumbed to liver cancer not all that far away. Some have even speculated that the news of Piaf’s death was what spurred the heart attack that claimed Cocteau, a beautiful, if melancholic coincidence, if we are to put our full faith into what’s ostensibly rumor, seeing as the famed poet, theater director, and filmmaker often remarked that he was more scared of the deaths of his loved ones than he was of his own inevitable demise.Read More »
Leila Mourad one of the Orient’s Divas stars in this classic musical romance as a poor girl who marries a wealthy young man while others try to break them apart.Read More »
The final work by French theatre artist Antonin Artaud, To Have Done With The Judgment Of God (Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu) was commissioned by French Radio but at the last minute the French Radio Director canceled the broadcast. To Have Done with the Judgment of God had its first radio broadcast twenty years later in 1968, and the piece has been influential in radio art circles since.Read More »
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Stalingrad has inspired many movies, but none so sweeping and monumental as this 1949 Soviet production. More than a movie, this is a spectacular military re-enactment of the Battle of Stalingrad – supervised by the Red Army, deploying thousands of veteran troops, as well as the actual tanks, planes and ships (including captured German materiel) from the Eastern Front. In its meticulous recreation of Stalingrad’s key campaigns, the film ranges freely across fronts and capitals, bringing to life the military and political players who shaped this epochal battle. Read More »
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1942. Picture of Josef Stalin.
Stalingrad. The greatest battle that humanity has ever known occurred in the summer of 1942 on a wide expanse of the Soviet land. It was 1942. The Soviet Union fought Hitler’s gigantic war machine one-on-one.
Stalin speaks with Comrade Vasilevsky saying: “It’s clear. They are moving towards Stalingrad. This is the second time that we’ve had to defend this city from the enemy.” He adds that they don’t know the full plans of the Germans, but this plan is even more adventurous that the one for last year’s capture of Moscow.Read More »
This little-known Marcel Pagnol production stars his wife Jacqueline as a miller’s daughter. The film concerns her romance with the rich and powerful Schubert, played by Tino Rossi. However, the storyline of La Belle Meuniere is not as fascinating as the film’s technical history. It was lensed in an experimental process called Rouxcolor, wherein four black-and-white images were projected on the screen simultaneously through special tinted lenses, thereby giving the illusion of color and depth. Pagnol had intended to make film in the usual “flat” black-and-white process, but when he became intrigued with Rouxcolor he scrapped his completed footage and started all over. Unfortunately, Rouxicolor proved too cumbersome for widespread distribution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »