1971-1980

Midnight Plowboy is one of director Bethel G. Buckalew’s greatest films in his all too brief career.Junior, the cow-lovin’ country boy from Sassy Sue decides to see the big-city sights of Hollywood, despite having the I.Q. of a feedin’ trough. Mistaking a brothel for a boarding house.As payment for his rent ,Junior is assigned the task of driving the girls around in a van that doubles as a place to have sex, outsmarting a rival pimp and falling deeply in love with the beguiling Debbie Osborne as good-girl gone bad…Read More »

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The uncle of the young narrator enters his house unexpectedly. In order to offer him some refreshments, he goes to bring a bottle of wine. Through the crevice of the wall which happens to be there, he sees an ethereal girl offering a lotus flower to an old man who bursts into a hair-raising laughter. Surprisingly, this is exactly the picture he keeps drawing on pen cases as a calling. He is then jolted into realities. The thought of the old man gradually begins to loom over his life and sow the seed of anxiety. The narrator embarks on a journey in search of the ethereal girl and the old man. His journey, however, takes him into a study of history and myths. The narrator comes back and realizes that his uncle has left, leaving the door agape like the mouth of a dead man. Desperately he goes out to look for the ethereal girl.Read More »

letterboxd:
A woman’s image as a mind-scape, after she had plastic surgery.Read More »

Keith Waterhouse’s adaptation of the play by Eduardo De Filippo.

One Saturday evening Rosa Priore is preparing a magnificent Sunday lunch for her family and their friends. By Sunday afternoon her life and marriage are in ruins.

Cast: Frank Finlay, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Judy Parfitt, Edward Woodward, Clive Francis, Nicholas Clay, Cyril Shaps, Michael Elphick, John Duttine.Read More »

Written and directed by the multi-talented King Hu, The Valiant Ones (1975) is set in the Ming-dynasty China, a time when Japanese pirates were wreaking havoc along the nation’s coast. Its heroes engage in epic battles and tragic sacrifices, fully illustrating the themes of loyalty and martyrdom. The film’s fierce action, choreographed by Sammo Hung, works synergistically with Hu’s camera angles and tight-knit editing. Also impressive are its settings in the hills, islands, and rough, turbulent sea of Hong Kong, accentuating Hu’s awe-inspiring wuxia aesthetic.Read More »

The final film from Russian fantasy master Aleksandr Ptushko (ILYA MUROMETS, SAMPO), RUSLAN AND LUDMILA was a glorious and magical summation of his career: a 2-1/2 hour greatest hits package filled with the sweeping lyricism, bejeweled visual F/X and mythic storytelling that put him on par with Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Mario Bava. Based on an epic fairy tale written in 1820 by Alexander Pushkin (Ptushko had previously adapted Pushkin’s THE TALE OF TSAR SALTAN, and half-jokingly said they were related), the film opens with the seemingly-joyous marriage of bogatyr (warrior) Ruslan (Valeri Kozinets) to Ludmila (Natalya Petrova), the daughter of Prince Vladimir. (Like his earlier ILYA MUROMETS, the action of the film is set during the legendary era of the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated both modern Ukraine and Russia.)Read More »

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, seven-year-old Jeanne Wakatsuki, her family and 11,000 other Americans of Japanese descent and their immigrant parents are imprisoned in the internment camp Manzanar in California.Read More »

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During his honeymoon a man, who is very much a Don Juan, suddenly becomes impotent and strives to regain his virility. His wife, his friends and everyone joins in to find a solution, giving rise to hilarious scenes. Finally, it is a wise man who manages to put his finger on the bobo, so to speak.Read More »

Following the phenomenal success of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Michael Palin and Terry Jones created this unforgettable, BAFTA-winning series of comic plays for the BBC. Gleefully parodying the conventions of Boy’s Own-style adventure, Ripping Yarns sees Palin taking the protagonist’s role in nine rip-roaring stories – from stirring tales of sporting endeavour, intrepid exploration and wartime heroism to skulduggery, supernatural mystery and murder… and, of course, the notorious exploits of Eric Olthwaite – Yorkshire’s most interesting outlaw.Read More »