• Eric Lange – Le Mystère Méliès AKA The Melies Mystery (2021)

    Documentary2021-2030Eric LangeFrance

    Synopsis
    Son of a shoe manufacturer, Georges Méliès decided to devote himself to magic. In 1888, he used his share of the inheritance to buy the Robert-Houdin Theater, Boulevard des Italiens, where his fairy-tale shows drew crowds. Seven years later, dazzled by the animated image of the Lumière brothers, he launches into a new art form, cinema. His thirst for enchantment led him to invent special effects. But the evolution of the public’s taste and the passage of the cinema to the industrial era put away his dream machine. Forgotten, he ends up running a toy store in the Montparnasse train station. In 1923, in a fit of despair, he destroyed the negatives of his films. Since then, film buffs all over the world have found and restored reels.
    (imdb)Read More »

  • Frank Tuttle – This Is the Night (1932)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyFrank TuttleUSA

    An affair is about to be consummated in a planned trip to Venice, but complications ensue when the woman’s husband returns unexpectedly from the Olympics. Cary Grant is the javelin-wielding Olympian in his first feature film. For probably the last time he gets fifth billing behind, among others, a sparkling Thelma Todd and Charlie Ruggles.

    Very pre-code in its sensibility, with clear references to Lubitsch.Read More »

  • Kim Chapiron – Sheitan AKA Satan (2006)

    2001-2010ComedyFranceHorrorKim Chapiron

    ‘Sheitan’ tells the story of a group of youngsters who exit a disco late one night and accidentally run into a shepherd who has prepared himself for a night of Satanic worship.Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)

    1941-1950Film NoirRobert SiodmakUSA

    from Noir City 17
    Quote:
    Boozy assistant DA Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) reels from a stifling marriage into an affair with the mysterious Thelma Jordon (Barbara Stanwyck). He’s so smitten, and besotted, he misses the warning signs: Thelma has a sickly aunt loaded with dough and spends lots of time in the arms of shadowy and sinister Tony Laredo (Richard Rober). Something bad is bound to happen … and when it does Cleve winds up working both sides of the law. Noir master Siodmak does a spellbinding job with a terrific script, and Stanwyck—Queen of Noir—offers a terrific, two-faced turn in one of her most rarely screened films.Read More »

  • Rodrigo Sepúlveda – Tengo Miedo Torero AKA My Tender Matador (2020)

    Drama2011-2020ChileQueer Cinema(s)Rodrigo SepúlvedaRomance

    Among gunshots and boleros, a passionate relationship flourishes between a lonely transvestite and a young guerrilla during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

    3 wins & 4 nominations.Read More »

  • Jerzy Hoffman & Edward Skórzewski – Gangsterzy i filantropi AKA Gangsters and Philanthropists (1963)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaEdward SkórzewskiJerzy HoffmanPoland

    Quote:
    A criminal mastermind responsible for a failed robbery and an accidental petty conman meet inside a prison carriage. Soon they are both going to hear the court verdict.Read More »

  • Busby Berkeley – The Gang’s All Here (1943)

    1941-1950Busby BerkeleyCampMusicalUSA

    Quote:
    Playboy Andy Mason, on leave from the army, romances showgirl Eadie Allen overnight to such effect that she’s starry-eyed when he leaves next morning for active duty in the Pacific. Only trouble is, he gave her the assumed name of Casey. Andy’s eventual return with a medal is celebrated by his rich father with a benefit show featuring Eadie’s show troupe, at which she’s sure to learn his true identity…and meet Vivian, his ‘family-arrangement’ fiancée. Mostly song and dance.Read More »

  • Guillaume Brac – À l’abordage AKA All Hands on Deck (2020)

    2011-2020ComedyFranceGuillaume Brac

    Left lovelorn after the whirlwind one-night romance he shared with the beautiful Alma, Felix must do something bold if he wants to hold onto her. Knowing she is leaving the next morning to vacation at a small riverside town over 300 miles away, Felix intends to follow and surprise her there, convincing his best friend Chérif and unwitting companion/rideshare Edouard to accompany him. When Alma is less than thrilled to see him, Chérif and Edouard explore the town free from expectation, embracing the bittersweetness of young love and passing summer.Read More »

  • Virpi Suutari – Aalto AKA Aalto: Architect of Emotions (2020)

    2011-2020ArchitectureDocumentaryFinlandVirpi Suutari

    This captivating exploration of Alver Aalto, the defining figure in Scandic design and one of Europe’s greatest modern architects, focuses on his remarkable and loving partnership with wife, Aino. Theirs was a profoundly humanist vision that put people at the centre of design, and ranged from work in furniture design through to huge architectural projects. They mixed with, and influenced, major figures of modernist art and design including Le Corbusier, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Come on a cinematic tour of their iconic buildings all over the world, from a library in Russia, a student dormitory at MIT, an art collector’s private house near Paris, to a pavilion in Venice. Narrated by experts in the field and featuring never before seen archive footage, Aalto tells the love story of an extraordinary couple with a great passion for human scale architecture.Read More »

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