A young farmer and his lazy father try to help with the construction of the Dniprohes, but he learns that strength is not enough for a worker and joins the Communist party.Read More »
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Aleksandr Dovzhenko – Ivan (1932)
Aleksandr Dovzhenko1931-1940DramaPoliticsUSSR -
Aleksandr Dovzhenko – Proshchay, Amerika! AKA Farewell, America! (1949)
Drama1941-1950Aleksandr DovzhenkoPoliticsUSSRA remarkable rarity, Dovzhenko’s unfinished final film was a response to the atmosphere of intrigues and espionage – real or imagined – that dominated the early Cold War era. In protest of the intensifying postwar anti-communist witch hunt, American journalist Annabelle Bucard emigrated to Russia and became a Soviet citizen; her book, The Truth About American Diplomats, was published in English and Russian in 1949. That book, and aspects of Ms. Bucard’s life, formed the basis for FAREWELL, AMERICA. Shortly after the Allied victory, an idealistic “Anna Bedford” gets a job in Moscow at the U.S. Embassy, which she promptly discovers is crawling with spies.Read More »
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Conrad Rooks – Chappaqua (1966)
1961-1970Conrad RooksCultDramaUSASummary:
Semi-autobiographical story of Conrad Rooks, who travels to France to undergo a drug-withdrawal cure. Flashbacks to the beginings of psychedelia in San Fran.Read More » -
Antonio Santillán – El ojo de cristal AKA Eyes of the Dead (1956)
1951-1960Antonio SantillánFilm NoirSpainSpanish cinema under FrancoWith the intention of stealing the compensation for a work accident, Enrique kills an old man. However, it turns out that he had not yet collected it, so he will try, then, to falsify the signature of the check. Meanwhile, at the same time that the police are investigating the case, the son of the police inspector investigates on his own.Read More »
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William Dieterle – The Turning Point (1952)
1951-1960Film NoirThrillerUSAWilliam DieterleJerry McKibbon is a tough, no nonsense reporter, mentoring special prosecutor John Conroy in routing out corrupt officials in the city, which may even include Conroy’s own police detective father as a suspect.Read More »
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Karl Heinz Martin – Von morgens bis mitternachts AKA From Morn to Midnight (1920)
1911-1920GermanyHorrorKarl Heinz MartinSilentWeimar Republic cinemaStill shocking even today, From Morn to Midnight remains one of the boldest examples of German expressionist cinema. Based on a play by one of the era’s most respected expressionist writers, Georg Kaiser, the story centres on a bank cashier (Ernst Deutsch) who steals money after becoming enraptured by an elegant customer (Erna Morena). Driven by lust, he begs the customer to come away with him, but she laughs in his face. Distraught at having to return home to his drab family life, the cashier goes on the run, determined to seek out the pleasure and passion he has been missing. But he is continually haunted by visions of death, and his relationship with the stolen money soon sours.Read More »
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Aleksandr Dovzhenko – Zvenigora AKA Zvenyhora [1928 Cut] (1927)
1921-1930Aleksandr DovzhenkoDramaSilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSRThere is a mysterious place in the midst of the Ukrainian steppes, the Zvenyhora, or the Ringing Mountain. According to folk legends it harbors invaluable treasures of the Scythians. The entire chain of historic events that left their trace on the face of Ukraine – the Varangians, the nomad invaders, the struggle against the Polish gentry, the Haidamaka uprising, the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution – are connected by one image of a Ukrainian old man, ageless, ingenuous, enterprising, cunning and indestructible – Dovzhenko’s personification of Ukrainian identity itself. The old man’s entire life is devoted to hunting for the illusive hidden treasures, which, as the film unfolds increasingly appear as a metaphor of Ukraine’s national soul and its – yet unlocked – spiritual potential. In the process, the old man is torn between his grandson Pavlo, epitome of the Ukrainian nationalist cause, and Tymishko, forward-looking, proletariat-oriented Bolshevik. The old man, instigated by Pavlo attempts to derail the Bolshevik train of progress. He is captured by Tymish’s comrades-in-arms, forgiven and taken on board the train speeding away towards the bright new day.Read More »
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Michel Soutter – Adam et Ève (1983)
Michel Soutter1981-1990DramaRomanceSwitzerlandSynopsis:
Returning from work, Louis finds a letter from his wife saying their marriage is over. He’s just lost his mother, and now he’s lost his wife as well. Shaken, he tries to understand: why the illness? Why the separation?Read More » -
Jonas Mekas – Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972) (HD)
1971-1980DocumentaryExperimentalJonas MekasUSADocumenting Mekas’s return to the Lithuanian village of his birth, Semeniškiai, for the first time since he and his brother Adolfas escaped from German labor camps and emigrated to the United States in the late 1940s, Reminiscences is arguably the greatest achievement within Mekas’s exploration of the film-diary form. We begin in Williamsburg with footage shot by Mekas with his first Bolex of his and Adolfas’s first years in exile, before skipping ahead to the brothers’ return to Lithuania in 1971, their reunions with family members, their experience of their home country as displaced people, and finally, their visit to the labor camp near Hamburg where they were imprisoned during World War II.Read More »









