Drama

  • Martin Ritt – Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972)

    1961-1970DramaMartin RittRomanceUSA

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    Based on Peter DeVries’ novel Witch’s Milk, Pete ‘n’ Tillie stars Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett in the title roles. Middle-aged when they first meet, eternally joking Pete and repressed “old maid” Tillie don’t immediately hit it off. Gradually, their friendship deepens into love and culminates (reluctantly, on Pete’s part) in marriage, eleven years of which is explored in this film. Throughout the funny and tragic moments, and despite the many breakups, their love endures. Oscar nominations went to screenwriter Julius J. Epstein and supporting actress Geraldine PageRead More »

  • Milos Forman – Lásky jedné plavovlásky AKA Loves of a Blonde (1965)

    1961-1970Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtComedyCzech RepublicDramaMilos Forman

    The flirtatious title of Milos Forman’s breakthrough comedy Loves of a Blonde says a lot about the film without even trying. Everybody in Forman’s bittersweet film thinks about sex constantly but only in terms of hypothetical scenarios that almost never come to pass. The funny thing about these daydreams of coitus is that they’re not strictly sexy. In fact, most of the time characters in Loves of a Blonde are wringing their hands about sex, even the trio of homely soldiers licking their lips at the thought of seducing a table of bored blondes at a local dance. First they send alcohol to the wrong table and are subsequently unsure of how long they should smile at the girls they plan on getting drunk and taking to the woods (they aren’t even sure if the idea of taking girls to the woods for sex is just a euphemism or not). Sex is comedy here because it breeds nothing but the kind of anxiety that the title of Forman’s film teems with.Read More »

  • Vicente Aranda – Las crueles aka El cadáver exquisito aka The exquisite cadaver (1969)

    Drama1961-1970ArthouseSpainSpanish cinema under FrancoVicente Aranda

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    ,Quote:
    Carlos (Andre Argaud), a well-do-do publisher and family man, receives a severed hand in the mail at work and buries it before going home but once there, his beautiful wife (Theresa Gimpera) reads him a telegram asking if he’d like a forearm. Carlos makes up a lame, work-related explanation but now suspicious, she follows her husband and spots a mysterious woman in black following him as well. That woman is Parker (Capucine), whose lesbian lover, Esther (Judy Matheson), was once Carlos’ mistress who never got over being cast aside. Esther committed suicide but Parker kept the body and, holding Carlos responsible, devises a complicated plan to have him framed for Esther’s murder…Read More »

  • Christian Petzold – Toter Mann AKA Something to Remind Me (2001)

    Christian PetzoldDramaGermanyThriller

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Middle-aged lawyer Thomas assists Leyla, an attractive blonde, when she drops her things at the pool. After their paths keep crossing, he picks up the courage to ask her out for a date. Somewhat to his surprise she agrees, but arrives late, just as the restaurant is closing. They go back to his apartment for an impromptu pizza and, after a few drinks, she falls asleep on the couch.

    The next morning Thomas awakes to find Leyla and his laptop, which contains vital case files, missing…

    An expertly constructed thriller in the tradition of Hitchcock and Chabrol, writer/director Christian Petzold’s Something To Remind Me keeps the viewer enthralled throughout.Read More »

  • Marcel Moussy – Saint-Tropez Blues (1961)

    Drama1961-1970FranceMarcel Moussy

    Synopsis:
    ‘Anne-Marie goes south with her childhood friend Jean-Paul instead of hitting the books at home. The friends join up with artist-types in Saint Tropez, and though the ambiance is carefree and casual, Anne-Marie manages to survive the hijinks and the ardor of would-be admirers. In the end, she starts to fall for one man in particular.’
    – Eleanor Mannikka Read More »

  • Costa-Gavras – L’aveu AKA The Confession (1970)

    1961-1970Costa-GavrasDramaFrancePolitics

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    Quote:
    Costa-Gavras might be the European filmmaker most influential on American directors of the 1970s. Although this honor often goes to Jean-Luc Godard and other compatriots of the Nouvelle Vague, films like The French Connection, The Parallax View, or Blow Out are most clearly engaged with a clamorous mode of political cinema that’s as fundamentally enraged as it is delicately assembled. Typically, Costa-Gavras’s Z is credited as the key film in this regard, not simply for its humanistic, injustice-as-thriller construction, but also for the way it “opened up critical perceptions,” as Armond White states it, for filmmaking’s lasting cultural effects. Such an assessment is backed by historical fact, but one would be remiss to overstate the terrain for Costa-Gavras, since none of the director’s subsequent films received a similar degree of accolades, either from filmmakers or critics. The neglect is easier to ascertain once it’s understood just how different The Confession is from its predecessor, a nearly two-and-a-half-hour film that shirks the frantic chase sequences of Z by dialing back its proceedings to a nearly singular setting, literally within the confines of Czechoslovakian torture camp, but more figuratively within the mind and body of Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), a high-ranking communist official held prisoner by Stalinist extremists.Read More »

  • Bertrand Tavernier – Une semaine de vacances AKA A Week’s Vacation (1980)

    1971-1980Bertrand TavernierDramaFrance

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    Quote:
    Here are some ways that Bettrand Tavernier, in production notes for his new film ”A Week’s Vacation,” describes his film: ”A portrait of a woman against the background of almost murmured questions that concern us all, approached without didacticism.” ”A laughing fit before you realize it’s going to snow.” ”An old man who knows a lot.” ”A motorcycle engine more familiar than a Moliere play.” ”A letter you read at the end of summer.”Read More »

  • John Ford – The Black Watch (1929)

    1921-1930AdventureDramaFranceJohn Ford

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    Quote:
    August 1914. As his regiment sets sail for France, an army captain is sent back to India on a secret mission. He averts a tribal revolt by winning the love of a girl whom the tribe regard as a goddess.Read More »

  • Sang-soo Hong – Yourself and Yours (2016)

    2011-2020DramaSang-soo HongSouth Korea

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    Quote:
    Korean maestro and Festival favourite Hong Sang-soo (Right Now, Wrong Then) embarks on an intriguing foray into the uncanny with this ingenious spin on Luis Buñuel’s final masterpiece That Obscure Object of Desire.

    Quote:
    Painter Youngsoo (Kim Joo-hyuk) hears secondhand that his girlfriend, Minjung (Lee Yoo-young), has recently had (many) drinks with an unknown man. This leads to a quarrel that seems to end their relationship. The next day, Youngsoo sets out in search of her, at the same time that Minjung—or a woman who looks exactly like her and may or may not be her twin—has a series of encounters with strange men, some of whom claim to have met her before.Read More »

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