1971-1980

Quote:
When Brubaker (Robert Redford) comes to a small state prison to be its new warden, he’s horrified by what he sees. Prisoners are sold as slaves, and even decent food can’t be obtained without cold, hard cash. So the enraged warden tries to set matters right…but the more he reforms, the more enemies he makes with the townspeople who have benefitted from the corruption. Soon Brubaker’s in big trouble–and it looks as if no one is powerful enough to help. This powerful drama received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.Read More »

Plot Summary
A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful individuals, each representing a planet in the solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide’s assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek out the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.Read More »

Synopsis:
A Russian road crew accidentally blasts open a subterranean crypt, and the captain of the road crew, fearing looters and criminals, stations a guard near the site.

Late in the night, an earthquake shakes loose one of the coffins, which slides down and lands at the feet of the confused guard. Curious as to what has fallen before him, the guard opens the coffin and discovers the body of a dog, impaled by a stake. He removes the stake, which revives the vampiric hound Zoltan.Read More »

Quote:
Based on the Bathurst prison riots of 1974, Stir is a convincing account of a brutal jail system and almost unbelievable degree of sadism that infected the warders in their treatment of the prisoners there. Written by Bob Jewson, who was a minimum security inmate at the time, the script presents the prisoner’s point of view without bias but with a great sense of humanity creating well-drawn characters and situations that never fall into the hackneyed or melodramatic. Read More »

The lovely Maria Teresa is unhappily married with the impotent lawyer Marcello. Maria Teresa’s marriage is contrasted by the passionate Valeria, who is killed during a chase. Is Valeria’s husband the murderer? Maria Teresa helps him…Read More »

Imagine, if you will, a story written for Akira Kurosawa. You know, one with armies clashing and sieges of great castles. Now imagine the story was done instead by a third-grade grammar-school class of about thirty people–the same heavy themes but where Kurosawa would show an army the play has to use two people. Instead of a castle there would be a tent. You would get a sort of “micro-epic.” Okay, now you have some idea what a “micro-epic” might be. Ousmane Sembene’s 1977 Senegalese film CEDDO is a very big film on a very small scale. The film, based on a true story, takes place in one village but it is still the stuff of epics.Read More »

In this 1972 actioner, a Washington DC cop is proud that he is one of the few African Americans on the force. He is not well loved by his peers or the street people. The trouble erupts when he is overlooked for a promotion. The angered cop goes off the deep end and begins using his gun to launch a personal vendetta against street crime. In the end it is all for naught and he does not survive the adventure.Read More »

Quote:
Aravindan’s finest b&w film chronicles three days with a circus in a small town in Kerala. A series of high-angle shots, as the circus drives into its new location, introduce us to the village. Several sequences use a remarkable quasi-documentary effect combined with minutely choreographed action e.g. the sunset as the manager (Gopi) directs the raising of the big top. The episodic film tells of a soldier who befriends the circus strong man in a toddy bar and shows how the bizarre characters from the circus including the dwarf merge with the local populace.Read More »

Quote:
In a small town outside of Barcelona, Spain, José Maria is a teenager with a big problem, he imagines that he is really a woman. While he begins to show his desire to be a woman through his appearance, the reactions within his household make things more difficult for him. His rude father is a male chauvinist who, afraid of his son’s softness, puts him to work chopping wood. Then, his father takes him to a cabaret show, to expose José Maria to women. However at a show, José Maria is exposed to a dancer named Bibi, who is a transgender woman, for the first time.Read More »