1971-1980

Quote:
Almost the entire hour and three-quarters of Jean Eustache’s 1971 film “Numéro Zéro” is filled with the director’s interview of his grandmother Odette Robert on Feb. 12th of that year. Eustache includes in the film the conditions of its production—the director himself is seated at the table with her, pours her some whiskey, speaks with the camera operator, manipulates the clapboard at the head and tail of the reels, and even takes a phone call from a foreign firm that wants to distribute one of his early short films. Odette Robert had come from her home in the provinces to live with Eustache in Paris and help care for his son Boris (who is seen, at the beginning of the film, helping guide her through the streets of Paris—she had recently had eye operations and had to wear dark lenses, including on-camera).Read More »

Quote:
“JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS alternates and sometimes combines life-size cardboard animations with live performances by children and the effect is entirely unified and delightful.” – Edgar Daniels, Filmmakers Newsletter “Suzan Pitt [Kraning]’s films possess an absolutely cosmic sense of patience, of things happening at their own speed and with their own logic. Made with children, JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS is a string of puzzling little episodes, some using cut-out animation, some featuring a pixilated cast clad in moppet wigs with stockings stretched over their faces. After its screening at the 1973 New York Filmmaker’s Expo, critic Rex Reed noted that ‘most of it is quite sophisticated and brilliant. It’s likeable because it’s perfect for what it is – a fantasy – and such things, if done well and with talent and vision, need no outside logic … like looking into a Faberge egg.’ ” – Ron Epple, Media and MethodsRead More »

Another great East German children’s film. Pay particular attention to the freon-sucking snowman.

Synopsis
Every day on the beach at Coccatuttibana, a girl stands and waits for the “Wismar“. Her friend Karli will be on this ship, and he is going to bring her something which does not exist in Africa. Finally the day arrives. Asina gets her present – a talking snowman. But the cool man cannot survive the African sun. Asina and her friend Karli must think of something soon….Read More »

Two ten-year-old children, Gloria and Jacques, meet at the former’s birthday party. It is love at first sight and they vow eternal love. Unfortunately, the First World War breaks out and they are separated. The people around them do not understand the deep feelings that link them to each other. When they meet again after the war, Gloria has become a cabaret dancer whereas Jacques has married in the USA. Nothing seems possible between them any longer…Read More »

While lonely shop girl Resi Gutschi stays faithful to her cheating husband, all the other people in the neighborhood are having affairs and threesomes all over the place.Read More »

Synopsis:
A simple but effective tale, Bar salon tells the story of Charles, a man in his fifties whose saloon business is losing money and about to go under. Since he cannot pay his employees, his daughter Michèle begins working at a bar in addition to her job as cashier in a fish market. Every evening she serves the few remaining clients: the refined but aging Major Cotnoir, the vulgar drunk Leslie, Michèle’s unambitious, taxing-driving fiancé Robert and Julien, whose wife flaunts her affair with a lodger.Read More »

Quote:
Magdy, an engineer who gets traumatized after witnessing a worker fall to his death from a building . He decides to visit Alexandria to recover, and there he meets Soad, who suffers from a pale relationship with her husband.Read More »

A tale of medieval quest for a golden harp called “The Knight”.

Quote:
THE KNIGHT (RYCERZ), 1980. Poland.
With Piotr Skarga, Daniel Olbrychski. A haunting, austere ballad about a knight’s quest for a gold-stringed harp whose sound is said to bring peace and harmony. The film’s imagery is inspired by medieval icons. 81 min.Read More »

the AMG clerk wrote :
“This disturbing French drama comments upon the effects of excessive television violence on children. It’s set within a seaside villa, where under the care of a nanny, a group of children spend most of their days watching violent television shows. One day they all go to the beach. The nanny dozes while they frolic. For a joke, they load the snoozing servant into a rubber raft and set her out to sea. She panics when she wakes up and ends up drowning. The kids do try to save her, but when they fail they decide to run wild instead of reporting the incident. The death means nothing to them until a threatening stranger appears and tells them he witnessed it all…”
(edited to avoid spoilers)Read More »