TV

  • Christopher Morahan – Old Times (1975)

    Drama1971-1980Christopher MorahanTVUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    ‘Married couple Kate and Deeley are joined by Kate’s friend, Anna and talk of the past ensues. Although it is a past they have shared, their memories of it are not always the same.
    An intimate three-character play about the capriciousness of memory and the jealousy of our beloved’s intangible past.’
    – BFIRead More »

  • Giulio Questi – “I giochi del diavolo” L’uomo della sabbia AKA The Sandman (1981)

    1981-1990Giulio QuestiHorrorItalyTV

    L’Uomo della sabbia (The Sandman) is the first episode of the 1981 RAI horror anthology series I Giochi del Diavolo (The Devil’s Games). It is based on the short story Der Sandmann (1816) by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

    Hotheaded, romantic student Nathaniel conceives a passion for the professor’s daughter, Olympia. Others, though, say she has no soul, even that her singing and dancing are mechanical. When he stumbles on the professor and his assistant fighting over the automaton’s disassembled body, Nathaniel becomes even more unhinged.Read More »

  • Paul Vecchiali – Le récit de Rebecca (1964)

    1961-1970DramaFrancePaul VecchialiTV

    To modern audiences, this interpretation of a segment of Jan Patocki’s The Manuscript Found In Saragossa is the hokiest thing they’ll ever see with over the top acting and its sheer ludicrousness but that’s part of the charm. Vecchiali’s mastery of light and colour work wonders as is his grasp of spontaneity. It is overt in its homoeroticism and there are shades of an incestuous relationship going on but Marika Green’s coquettish bashfulness is later transformed in a dance scene that while it may not have the same razzmatazz as a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire routine is effective nevertheless. (Malvad, letterboxd)Read More »

  • Michael Sear & Joseph Sharman – The Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World (2005)

    2001-2010DocumentaryJoseph SharmanMichael SearTVUSA

    Synopsis:
    “The Team that Changed the World,” investigates the Globetrotters’ impact socially and culturally, as well as their lasting effect on the NBA. Featuring interviews with basketball players, celebrities, politicians, and more, the documentary also shows how the Globetrotters continue to serve as “Ambassadors of Goodwill” and touch audiences around the world today.Read More »

  • Janusz Majewski – System (1972)

    1971-1980HorrorJanusz MajewskiPolandTV

    It features a young man and a lady friend driving to an insane asylum whose overseers the woman knows. Weirdness is evident before they even reach the place, in the form of a ranting maniac in a tree. More crazies are found freely wandering the grounds of the asylum, they being participants in an apparently revolutionary new system instituted by the asylum’s director. But the director seems just as nutty in his own way as the patients, and it turns out there’s a good reason for this: he is one of the patients, having taken over the asylum and locked up its overseers.Read More »

  • Chris Rodley & Kate Williams & Dev Varma – Pornography: A Secret History of Civilisation (1999)

    1991-2000Chris RodleyDev VarmaDocumentaryKate WilliamsTVUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    A serious, non-titillating history of pornography, from the earliest days of erotic art right up to the present day’s multimedia.Read More »

  • Janusz Majewski – Markheim (1972)

    1971-1980HorrorJanusz MajewskiPolandTV

    Janusz Majewski is one of Poland’s most durable and prolific filmmakers. In a career that spans half a century Majewski has directed a variety of films, with comedies and period pieces predominating. He also made LOKIS, one of Poland’s most famous horror features, and a wealth of horror-themed shorts that comprise a significant body of work in their own right. In fact, I’d argue that Majewski can be counted as the foremost director of Polish horror movies (his only real competition in this regard are his fellow countrymen Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski and Andrzej Zulawski, all of whom have made the majority of their films outside Poland).Read More »

  • David Reynolds – The Beiderbecke Affair (1985)

    1981-1990David ReynoldsDramaTVUnited Kingdom

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    Some of IMDb reviews:

    Splendily entertaining and disturbingly prescient.

    This was not the first outing for Alan Plater’s schoolteacher detectives, who in 1981’s Get Lost had been played admirably by Alun Armstrong and Frances Tomelty. However no-one could quibble with the re-casting. James Bolam effortlessly nails each line of the arch dialogue, while the talented Barbara Flynn has that rare quality of looking both believably ordinary and incredibly fanciable. Some wonderful British character actors also get plenty of screen time in what is effectively an ensemble piece. Colin Blakely, Keith Marsh, Danny Schiller, Robert Longden and Keith Clarke all do sterling work, but special mention must be made of Dudley Sutton’s tweedy schoolmaster and Terence Rigby’s saturnine Big Al, while Dominic Jephcott was a real find as the callow university educated detective. A beautifully constructed series, that remains as pertinent as ever in a society increasingly disrespectful of privacy and intolerant of eccentricity.Read More »

  • Janusz Majewski – Wenus z Ille AKA Venus of Ille (1969)

    1961-1970HorrorJanusz MajewskiPolandTV

    Wenus z Ille / Venus of Ille (1967). Part of unofficial TV anthology: Opowiesci Niesamowite (It is the second season of The Amazing Stories – Opowiesci Niezwykle. Written and directed by Janusz Majewski. Based on Prosper Merimee’s short story (Merimee is also the author of Blekitny Pokoj AKA The Ble Room – Majewski TV adaption, 1965; and Lokis which was later adapted by Majewski into a feature film, 1970).TVRip (TVP Kultura broadcast).Read More »

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