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A multi-awarded film by Filipino National Artist Gerardo de Leon, based on a novel written by martyr-hero Jose P. Rizal, and which trigerred the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Produced in 1961 for the national celebrations commemorating the birth centenary of Rizal, the film considered lost for almost two decades until its recent restoration by German Archivist.Read More »
Two years after forming his own production company, Jet Tone, Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai released ASHES OF TIME, a martial-arts epic based on THE EAGLE-SHOOTING HEROES, a series of novels by Louis Cha writing under the pseudonym Jin Yong. The film was set in jianghu, an imaginary world with its own views of good and evil. In 2008, unhappy with the many alternate versions of ASHES OF TIME available, Wong reedited and restored the film, working with the original negative and soundtrack, which were in severe disrepair. Read More »
Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison) pulls Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) from his life’s work making sculptures to instead throw a fresco up on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a dreary building the Church can’t afford to tear down. Michelangelo hates painting and does everything he can to dodge the assignment, but stays on thanks to the counsel of the Contessina di Medici (Diane Cilento), a married woman who can’t understand why the artist prefers his work to her company. Michelangelo drags his feet while architect Donato Bramante (Harry Andrews) tries to have the commission shifted to his favorite, Raphael (Tomas Milian).Read More »
Synopsis:
Fabiola, the nasty daughter of a Roman aristocrat, whips a Christian slave after he refuses to partake in a wrestling match. Eventually, she falls in love with the same slave, and gets involved in an attempt to save Christians from persecution. Starring Rhonda Fleming and her real-life husband Lang Jeffries.Read More »
Synopsis
A compelling but very strange relationship between a young and lonely fourteen-year-old girl and a mute peasant farmer is at the core of this curious film by Raphaele Billetdoux. Elisabeth (Penelope Palmer) has reason to be unhappy at home so when she meets Marcel (Klaus Kinski), a farmer who indulges her, the two enjoy many an innocent moment together every morning before she leaves for school. Eventually, Elisabeth’s parents send her off to study the organ because of her musical talent. As a result, she begins to develop her abilities and grow beyond the relationship she once had with Marcel. But the mute farmer does not necessarily see this change from Elisabeth’s perspective.Read More »
A colorful action film about the Battle Of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. in which the Spartans defend themselves for a Persian invasion against overwhelming odds. King Leodinas (Richard Egan) rallies the locals to stop the attack of thousands of plundering Persian invaders led by evil King Xerxes (David Farrar). Sir Ralph Richardson as Themistocles of Athens leads the international cast this the spectacular cinematic conflict that has more emphasis on action rather than historical accuracy.
— Dan PavlidesRead More »
Nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1974, this follow-up to WITH FIRE AND SWORD is set in the 17th century during the Swedish invasion and occupation of Poland, known as The Deluge, which left the country in ruins.
Based on a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Deluge follows the romance between a violent soldier and the young woman who tries to tame him.Read More »
“The Manuscript Found in Saragossa collects intertwining stories, all of them set in whole or in part in Spain, with a large and colorful cast of Gypsies, thieves, inquisitors, a cabbalist, a geometer, the cabbalist’s beautiful sister, two Moorish princesses (Emina and Zubeida) and others that the brave, perhaps foolhardy, Walloon Guard Alphonse van Worden meets, imagines or reads about in the Sierra Morena mountains of 18th-century Spain while en route to Madrid. Recounted to the narrator over the course of sixty-six days, the novel’s stories quickly overshadow van Worden’s frame story. Read More »
