USA

  • William Keighley – The Prince and the Pauper (1937)

    Drama1931-1940AdventureUSAWilliam Keighley

    Errol Flynn duels into action in Warner Bros.’ spectacular, spirited film of Mark Twain’s classic novel. Amid 16th-century England’s pomp and poverty, two lookalike lads, one a beggar and one young Edward VI, exchange identities for a lark. But their switch backfires and it’s up to soldier of fortune Miles Hendon (Flynn) to turn the tables on a conspirator (Claude Rains) and return the correct lad to the throne. Flynn’s rakish persona, William Keighley’s brisk direction, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s score and the spry performances of twins Billy and Bobby Mauch helped many a film fan form an enchanted view of olde England. That view is just as rousing today. The Prince and the Pauper is regal all-family entertainment.Read More »

  • William Wyler – Wuthering Heights (1939)

    1931-1940DramaRomanceUSAWilliam Wyler

    AMG Synopsis:
    William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the story in flashback.Read More »

  • Jonas Mekas – Guns of the Trees (1961)

    1961-1970DramaExperimentalJonas MekasUSA

    Quote:
    Four young people are trying to understand why their friend, a young woman, committed a suicide. A film made up of disconnected scenes weaving between past and present. The title of the film comes from a poem by Stuart Perkoff which tells that some young people felt (around 1960) that everything is against them, so much that even the trees in the parks and streets seemed to them like guns pointing at their very existence.
    – Jonas MekasRead More »

  • Norman Z. McLeod – Isn’t It Romantic? (1948)

    USA1941-1950ComedyMusicalNorman Z. McLeod

    In rural 19th-century Indiana, the three daughters of a Civil War veteran are courted by three young men–one a sophisticated city slicker who sells phony oil stock, the second a local eccentric and the third a stolid country boy.Read More »

  • Susan Dynner – Punk’s Not Dead (2007)

    2001-2010DocumentarySusan DynnerUSA

    Quote:
    On the edge of the 30th anniversary of punk rock, Punk’s Not Dead takes you into the sweaty underground clubs, backyard parties, recording studios, and yes, shopping malls and stadium shows where punk rock music and culture continue to thrive. Thirty years after bands like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols infamously shocked the system with their hard, fast, status-quo-killing rock, the longest-running punk band in history is drawing bigger crowds than ever, “pop-punk” bands have found success on MTV, and kids too young to drive are forming bands that carry the torch for punk’s raw, immediate sound. Meanwhile, “punk” has become a marketing concept to sell everything from cars to vodka, and dyed hair and piercings mark a rite of passage for thousands of kids. Can the true, nonconformist punk spirit still exist in today’s corporatized culture? Featuring interviews, performances, and behind-the-scenes journeys with the bands, labels, fans, and press who keep punk alive, Punk’s Not Dead dares to juxtapose pop-punk’s music and lifestyle against the roots in the 70s and 80s, resulting in unexpected revelations. A DIY search for the soul of a subculture and a celebration of all things loud, fast, and spiked, Punk’s Not Dead shows punk is stronger and more relevant today than it’s ever been.Read More »

  • Zeinabu irene Davis – Compensation (1999)

    1991-2000DocumentaryDramaPoliticsUSAZeinabu irene Davis

    Synopsis
    The first feature by LA Rebellion trailblazer Zeinabu irene Davis presents two unique Black American love stories between a deaf woman and a hearing man. Inspired by a poem written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, this moving narrative shares the struggle of two couples—one in the early 1900s, the other in the 1990s—to overcome racism, disability, and discrimination. A groundbreaking look at African American deaf culture, COMPENSATION incorporates sign language and silent-film techniques (such as title cards) to make itself accessible to hearing and deaf viewers alike and to share the vast possibilities of language and communication.Read More »

  • Preston Sturges – Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

    1941-1950ComedyPreston SturgesRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA

    Quote:
    A brilliant black comedy by Preston Sturges, developed from a script he had written as early as 1932 and tried in vain to get Fox, Universal and Paramount intrested in producing. The script’s early provinence must be the reason that it’s the only one of his four post-Paramount pictures to feature dialogue comparable to (and sometimes surpassing) that found in the eight great comedies he wrote and directed in 1940–44, as well as numerous comedies that he had scripted in 1930s. The studios’ reluctance to make the film at that time is indicative of why it became a critical and a box office failure: the morbid subject matter, combined with the recent suicide of actress Carole Landis (who was suspected of having an affair with Rex Harrison, who plays the lead here), simply drove audiences away from it and for decades gave it a reputation of a film maudit.Read More »

  • Ida Lupino – Outrage (1950)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaIda LupinoUSA

    A young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.Read More »

  • Hugh Wilson – Rustlers’ Rhapsody (1985)

    1981-1990ComedyHugh WilsonUSAWestern

    From All Movie Guide:
    While the audience watches a black and white horse opera, a narrator’s voice wonders what such a movie would be like today…

    An amusing spoof of the good ‘ole westerns back in the halcyon days when all the cliches were held up as icons, this parody by Hugh Wilson works best for savvy audiences. Rex O’Herlihan (Tom Berenger) is a singing cowboy with a wardrobe straight out of the Hollywood westerns of the ’40s – he worships his horse, amend has a trusty sidekick too. Every town he wanders into has a sheriff on the dole, a shady cattle rancher, a prostitute with a heart of gold, an innocent young damsel, a town drunk, and the standard bad guys in black hats and long coats (Spaghetti-western style) who brutalize the poor sheep ranchers. After setting things straight in each identical town as goes, Rex is beginning to feel like a re-run junky, when he saunters into a town that is slightly different – and the parodies continue.Read More »

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