Comedy

An Ideal Husband (BBC1, 1969, dir. Rudolph Cartier)

Rudolph Cartier’s Play of the Month version of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband (1895) shares the same aesthetic of visual pleasure realised through detail as Cedric Messina’s Pygmalion (BBC1 16 December 1973), as well as many common features of setting and dressing; ballrooms, studies, morning rooms, elegant dresses and eveningwear. However, Cartier’s directorial technique demonstrates a greater awareness of the possibilities of studio technique to comment upon the action of a play, and is an exemplary production in its use of finely realised period detail to achieve dramatic effects, as an interpretation that works on deeper levels than surface aesthetic visual pleasure. Read More »

Ja gore! / I Am Burning 1967. Part of TV anthology: Opowiesci Niezwykle (The Amazing Stories). Written and directed by Janusz Majewski. Based on Henryk Rzewuski’s short story.HDTVRip 720p (TVP1 HD broadcast).

Awards: Brazowy Lajkonik in the feature film category at the Cracow Short Feature Festival, 1968.Read More »

Quote:
Karl Zimmermann plays piano at the Café Rigoletto because he needs the money, but actually his whole passion is classical music, and work on his own opera is in progress. Then he meets the pop singer and song writer Anni Pichler, whom he wants to convert to “serious” music, but even the private lessons at his bachelor pad cannot convince her. Despite everything, the two find each other appealing, and they marry after a short time.
Professionally now everyone goes his/her own way, but at home things don’t go well. Money’s always scarce, and Anni complains he could earn more if he’d write music people like. And when Karl’s opera bombs, he hits rock bottom and they break up.Read More »

A miner finds bauxite near his village, close to the surface. He thinks he has found his fortune, but thanks to the Hungarian bureaucracy, he actually found nothing but trouble.Read More »

Unable to find work, Harald (co-director Sissner) babysits for his friend Alvilde’s child when Alvilde heads off each day to her factory job. The child’s father perished at sea, and soon Harald is treating the child very much as his own; having won over her child, Harald then sets his sights on the mother. A huge critical and commercial success, The Big Christening is reminiscent of early Rene Clair both in its inventive use of sound — the opening scene, showing the start of a day at the factory, is practically a symphony of industrial machine sounds — as well as in its portrait of modest working-class lives. The film’s title refers to one of the recurring subplots, dealing with the reluctance of the church to baptize the child of an unmarried woman.Read More »

Synopsis:
A winner of seven Academy Awards®*, the irresistible Going My Way lights up the screen as beautifully as it warms up the heart. Bing Crosby shines as Father O’Malley, a young priest new to an established but financially troubled parish. When his philosophies conflict with those of the curmudgeonly Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald), the unflappable Father O’Malley perseveres — eventually winning over his gruff superior and the parish with his fresh, inspirational approach.Read More »

Sea-farer Burt Brickford is engaged to captain the yacht of the wealthy Henery Legrand, ostensibly for a pleasure trip in the Gulf of Mexico. From the outset, Brickford suspects that something is amiss. Sure enough, he discovers several cases of dynamite in the ship’s hold and his paymasters are forced to admit that they are planning to recover the lost treasure of a sunken galleon. Yet this turns out to be just another smoke screen. Just what are Legrand and his entourage up to…?Read More »

Synopsis:
When Dr Frankenstein decides to retire from the monster-making business, he calls an international roster of monsters to a creepy convention to elect his successor. Everyone is there including Dracula, The Werewolf, The Creature, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and many more. But Frankenstein’s title is not all that is at stake. The famous doctor has also discovered the secret of total destruction that must not fall into the wrong hands!Read More »

“The film revolves around the concept of soap opera. Its structure is based on the assumption that Chilean reality does not exist, but rather is an ensemble of soap operas. There are four audiovisual provinces, and the threat of war is felt among the factions. The political and economic problems are immersed in a fictional jelly divided into evening episodes. The entire Chilean reality is viewed from the point of view of the soap opera, which acts as a revealing filter of this same reality”. (Raúl Ruiz)Read More »