• Roberto Leoni – Favola crudele (1991)

    1961-1970DramaItalyRoberto Leoni

    It is the story of a terrorist who manages to escape during a transfer by sea and lands on a remote desert island where there is a large mansion inhabited by a little girl about 9 years old a girl of 18 and their housekeeper.Read More »

  • Alexis Granowsky – Das Lied vom Leben aka Song of Life (1931)

    Germany1931-1940Alexis GranowskyDramaExperimentalWeimar Republic cinema

    Quote:
    Released in America as The Song of Life, this German film stirred up quite a tempest back in 1931 for its depiction of a Caesarian birth. Though not much was really shown, it was enough to cause women filmgoers — and not a few men — to faint dead away. The film was banned outright in Germany and ran into some censorship problems in the US; still, by its very controversial nature it proved to be a hit wherever it was shown. And oh, yes, there was a plot, albeit a somewhat nonsensical one: After discovering that her elderly fiance has false teeth, a young bride-to-be becomes so distraught that she contemplates suicide! She is rescued by a young sailor, with whom she has a baby, leading to the aforementioned “C-section” sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRead More »

  • Masud Kimiai – Dandan-e-mar AKA Snake Fang (1990)

    1981-1990IranMasud KimiaiWar

    Reza, the veteran worker of a print house whose sight is adversely affected because of his job, loses his mother. Finding the gloom reigning over the home beyond bearing, he departs to overcome his sorrows. He ends up at a hostel where he shares his room with a southern guy called Ahmad who has a group of orphan war-stricken children under his wing. After the initial inkling gives way to the friendship, Reza discovers that Ahmad’s patron plies his trade in black-market. At the same time, Reza’s sister is constantly beaten and humiliated by her husband for being infertile…Read More »

  • Michel Lemoine – Neiges brûlantes (1983)

    1981-1990EroticaFranceMichel Lemoine

    A beautiful Muriel comes to spend her vacation with her friend but everyone mistakes her as a notorious girl Lorna. Now they are trying to find out whether she is really Muriel or Lorna.Read More »

  • Ivan Passer – Haunted Summer (1988)

    1981-1990DramaIvan PasserThe Cannon GroupUSA

    This film delves into an unusual get-together by Percy Shelley (Eric Stoltz), his lover Mary Godwin (Alice Krige), her half-sister Claire (Laura Dern), Lord Byron (Philip Anglim), and his companion, Dr. John Polidori (Alex Winter). During one summer, these poets and their admirers talk about evil, deride the conventional mores of the times, go sailing, smoke opium, and generally celebrate the imaginations and the life of the senses. Ivan Passer directs this beautifully photographed literary drama based on Anne Edward’s 1972 novel. In a very fluid and dreamlike way, Haunted Summer explores some of the dangers and a few of the exhilarations of living in an ivory tower world of art. Krige steals the film with her deft and nimble portrait of the woman who would eventually write Frankenstein.Read More »

  • Nagisa Ôshima – Mao and the Cultural Revolution (1969)

    1961-1970DocumentaryJapanNagisa OshimaTV

    Nagisa Oshima’s documentary details the rise of Chairman Mao during the revolution and shows the Communist Party’s struggle and cultural upheaval. Made in 1969 for NTV station, this TV documentary also questions Mao’s dictator tendency during the cultural revolution.Read More »

  • Clay Jeter – Jess + Moss (2011)

    2011-2020ArthouseClay JeterDramaUSA

    Jess (18) and Moss (12) are second cousins who have spent their summers together since either of them can remember. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, all they have is each other. Through a series of memories and vignettes, ‘Jess + Moss’ recounts the events of the last summer they shared together. Shot entirely on location with a variety of expired and often degraded film stocks, ‘Jess + Moss’ captures the evocative and haunting character of the dark fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky.Read More »

  • Cinda Firestone – Attica (1974)

    1971-1980Cinda FirestoneDocumentaryPoliticsUSA

    In 1971, inmates at Attica State Prison seized control of D-yard and took 35 hostages after peaceful efforts for reforms failed. Attica investigates the rebellion and its bloody suppression, revealing institutionalized injustices, sanctioned dishonesty, and abuses of power.Read More »

  • Slavko Martinov – Propaganda (2012)

    2011-2020DocumentaryNew ZealandPoliticsSlavko Martinov

    Quote:
    Propaganda is presented as a North Korean “educational video” about the evils of western capitalist societies. Crude-looking and blunt in its narration, it contains no winks to the audience hinting that it’s a forgery. Since reviewing it, in fact, I’ve learned that when director Slavko Martinov first presented the movie on YouTube, millions of viewers were convinced that it was real.Read More »

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