Classics

  • Satyajit Ray – Seemabaddha AKA Company Limited (1971)

    Satyajit Ray1971-1980ClassicsDramaIndia

    Synopsis:

    Shyamalendu (Barun Chanda) is a successful executive at a fan company where he is expecting a promotion shortly. His life revolves around his work and socialising with colleagues along with his wife, Dolan (Paromita Chaudhuri). His sister-in-law, Tutul (Sharmila Tagore) comes to stay with them for a few days. She is given a tour of the life they lead – in restaurants, beauty parlours, clubs and race courses.Read More »

  • Satyajit Ray – Teen Kanya AKA Three Daughters (1961)

    1961-1970ArthouseClassicsIndiaSatyajit Ray

    Quote:
    Satyajit Ray was not only one of the biggest admirers of Tagore but he was also one of the few who understood and interpreted Tagore’s works with his own unique vision. Ray with his neorealistic style of filmmaking found a perfect ally in Tagore’s stories of ordinary folks. “Teen Kanya”, based on three stories by Tagore –The Postmaster, Monihara and Samapti– was meant to be a tribute to the poet laureate by Ray, made as it was in the author’s birth centenary in 1961. The film however becomes a perfect symbiosis of a master writer and filmmaker.Read More »

  • Satyajit Ray – Kanchenjungha (1962)

    1961-1970AsianClassicsIndiaSatyajit Ray

    Summary
    A wealthy family from Calcutta is on the last day of their vacation in Darjeeling, a hill station at the foot of Mount Kanchenjungha, the second highest peak of the Himalayas. Until now, they have been unable to catch a glimpse of the peak Kanchenjungha.The family members are dominated by the father, Indranath (Chhabi Biswas), an industrialist. He wants his daughter to marry a man of his choice and hopes that the man will propose if they are left together alone for some time.Read More »

  • Jean-Marie Straub – O somma luce (2010)

    2001-2010ArthouseClassicsFranceJean-Marie Straub

    Taking the last verses of Paradise in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, Straub extends the same didactic/exploratory tendencies he already was trying with texts by Cesare Pavese in Dalla nube alla resistenza (1979) and its sequel, Quei loro incontri (2006). Now, the meditation deals with repetition, light, and absence, using Edgar Varèse’s genius in an introduction that sets a somber tone so what comes next would be pure light and sublimation. (-bafici.gob.ar)Read More »

  • Fernando de Fuentes – El prisionero 13 (1933)

    Fernando de Fuentes1931-1940ClassicsMexicoPolitics

    Two gripping stories are interwoven in Prisoner 13; a son pays for his father’s faults, and a desperate mother tries to save her son’s life at any cost. Destiny and corruption play a trick on Carrasco when he is bribed to free a revolutionary and arrest someone in his place. Unbeknownst to him he ends up arresting his own son.
    Fernando de Fuentes’ “Revolution trilogy” opens with this gripping tale of corruption and family conflict, as a powerful colonel (Alfredo del Diestro) agrees to release a revolutionary he has in custody as part of a bargain to arrest another person to take the prisoner’s place. The bribe backfires when the colonel’s own son is accidentally captured to seal the deal. Potent drama from Mexico also stars Luis G. Barreiro, Adela Sequeyro, and Antonio R. Frausto. 76 mRead More »

  • Kenkichi Hara – Kotobuki-za (1945)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaJapanKenkichi Hara

    First released on 28 June 1945.
    The war was about to end in two months. Every major city in Japan would have been burnt to the ground.
    At such a time, or perhaps precisely at such a time, a romantic melodrama was produced.

    What people want, what filmmakers want to make, what the Shochiku production team, wanted to make, in every era and at every time, is a romantic melodrama!Read More »

  • Elmer Clifton – The Secret of Treasure Island (1938)

    1931-1940ClassicsElmer CliftonMysteryUSA

    Plot
    The serial is set on a remote island in the Caribbean, where reporter Larry Kent (Don Terry) and his enemies search for a lost treasure trove of gold. Kent arrives on the island in search of another reporter who had gone missing. Kent discovers that valuable lost treasure is buried on the island, and finds half of a map which holds a clue to its location. Toni Morrell (Gwen Gaze), the daughter of a shipmate whose murdered partner knew where the treasure was buried, agrees to help Kent investigate his friend’s disappearance and locate the treasure. Morrell and Kent are opposed by a villain named Collins (Walter Miller) who uses his henchmen and supply of weapons and land mines in an attempt to stop them. Kent’s enemy in the film is Dr. X. (Hobart Bosworth) who wears a skull mask and pirate clothing, and is in the process of developing a powerful explosive. Due to the actions of Dr. X., Kent is nearly buried alive, killed with dynamite and slashed in a sword battle. He defeats Dr. X. in the last installment of the serial titled “Justice”.[2][4][5]Read More »

  • Monte Brice & Laurence Schwab – Take a Chance (1933)

    Monte Brice1931-1940ClassicsLaurence SchwabMusicalUSA

    Take a Chance was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, though only one
    of the original songs, Eadie Was a Lady, has been retained. The thinnish plot involves the
    misadventures of a pair of pickpockets, played on Broadway by Jack Haley and Sid Silvers
    and on film by James Dunn and Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edwards. Tired of fleecing the suckers in
    a traveling carnival, our heroes head to Broadway, where they get mixed up with gangsters.
    The soubrette role originally played on stage by Ethel Merman is herein essayed by Lillian
    Roth, hardly a fair trade. Billed last in the huge cast is Marjorie Main, 15 years before
    stepping into her trademark role as Ma Kettle.Read More »

  • Satyajit Ray – Mahapurush AKA The Holy Man AKA The Saint (1965)

    1961-1970ClassicsComedyIndiaSatyajit Ray

    Synopsis:
    A retired lawyer meets a holy man # Birinchi Baba (Charuprakash Ghosh) and his assistant (Robi Ghosh) # on his way back from a pilgrimage # and is totally taken in by his supernatural life. The holy man is on first name terms with Buddha and all the gods of the Hindu pantheon. What the world calls ‘Cruci-fiction’ he calls ‘Cruci-fact’ because he has seen it with his own eyes! He even starts giving orations to an audience of the rich and famous at the lawyer’s residence. The gullible lawyer decides to get his entire family initiated into the guru’s fold # including his unmarried younger daughter (Gitali Roy) who is being courted by a young man (Satindra Bhattacharya). His group of intelligent and rationalist friends (Somen Bose et al) decide to take matters in their own hands # and hatch a plot to expose the smooth-talking charlatan.Read More »

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