World War One

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Set in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising, a married woman in a small Irish village has an affair with a troubled British officer.Read More »

Plot Summary:
Madariaga is an Argentinian cattle baron with two daughters: one married a Frenchman, the other a German. Madariaga favors his French grandson, Julio, as his heir, but Julio is a wastrel and rake whose greatest achivement is tangoing well. When Madariaga dies, his fortune is split between his daughters. The German side of the family goes back to Berlin, while the French half moves to Paris, where Julio becomes a painter and falls in love with Marguerite, a married woman. When WWI explodes (and is described by the mystic Tchernoff as the coming Apocalypse), and Marguerite’s husband is blinded, Julio decides he must join the army, and becomes a reformed character. But Death hasn’t finished gathering his harvest yet and Julio must face his own cousin on the battlefield.Read More »

At the beginning of the twentieth century the noble and chaste Eugenia (L. Antonelli) and the enriched plebeian Raimondo (O. Lionello), Sicilians, come to learn by telegram on their wedding night to have the same father, but for social propriety, and economic reasons, they decide to play the comedy in front of the world by living in chaste marriage. According to the current morality, he can afford some escapade but the virginal wife, while eager to penetrate the mysteries of the flesh, must restrain herself. It will be the readings of D’Annunzio to dismantle her resistance.Read More »

Synopsis:
World War I: an allied squadron and a German squadron face off daily in the skies. Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, leads one, and, although one of his decisions cost the life of his predecessor, he expects his men to honor codes of conduct. The allied squad has similar class divisions: its colonel, an aristocrat, laments that men he considers peasants are now fliers, including a cynical and ruthless Canadian, Roy Brown, the squad’s ace. As the tactics of both sides break more rules and become more destructive, the Baron must decide if he is a soldier first or part of the ruling class. He and Brown have two aerial battles, trivial in the larger scheme yet tragic.Read More »

Quote:
A Superlative War Picture.
An eloquent pictorial epic of the World War was presented last night at the Astor Theatre before a sophisticated gathering that was intermittently stirred to laughter and tears. This powerful photodrama is entitled “The Big Parade,” having been converted to the screen from a story by Laurence Stallings, co-author of “What Price Glory,” and directed by King Vidor. It is a subject so compelling and realistic that one feels impelled to approach a review of it with all the respect it deserves, for as a motion picture it is something beyond the fondest dreams of most people.Read More »

Promotional film for war loans and bonds. Mother Froehlich sells her clock and sends the money to her son fighting in war. Then they get attacked and someone else finds the lucky coin… (themoviedb.org)Read More »

Synopsis:
Somewhat fictionalized account of the life and war service of Alvin York, who went from humble beginnings to being one of the most celebrated American servicemen to fight in World War I. As depicted in the film, Alvin turned to religion when he was struck by lightning during one of his drunken outings. Alvin took his newfound religion seriously claiming to be a conscientious objector when receiving his draft notice. When that was refused, he joined the infantry where he served with valor, capturing a large number of Germans and saving the lives of many of his men who were under heavy fire.Read More »

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A few months later, (L’Herbier) directed Rose-France, an excessive and disturbing poem, filmed in the form of a weird symbolist collage. In this movie he started to experiment with special effects and celebrated the young actor Jaque Catelain, an expressive beauty, a true Dorian Gray, whose presence would mark almost all of his silent films. His mastery of the medium earned him a two-year contract at the Gaumont Film Company.Read More »

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The winter of 1917, the North-East front, the final clashes of the Great War. An Italian stronghold situated at 1800 metres above sea level, on the Asiago plateau, described in the novels of Mario Rigoni Stern. It’s snowing everywhere; the Austrian trenches are so close that you can hear the enemy soldiers breathing.

A hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, maestro Ermanno Olmi describes with Torneranno i prati his vision of a conflict that cost the lives of 16 million human beings, just as it was brought back to him by the memory of his father, called to arms at 19 years of age, to find himself within the bloodbath of Carso and Piave. A drama that scarred his youth and the rest of his life, just like millions of others.Read More »