• Vittorio De Seta – Pasqua in Sicilia AKA Easter in Sicily (1955)

    1951-1960DocumentaryItalyShort FilmVittorio De Seta

    Quote:
    Vittorio De Seta captures the music and pageantry of an Easter celebration in Sicily.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke & Howard Hawks – The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)

    1931-1940CrimeDramaHoward HawksUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    Synopsis:
    Steve is just a heavy duty bartender when Edwin J. Bennett, known as the Professor, starts training him for the ring. While doing road work, he is almost killed by a speeding car which crashes into a ditch. In the car is Belle Mercer and her driver. Steve takes Belle to a farmhouse and is smitten by her, but she is Willie Ryan’s Girl. The fight is a breeze and later, Steve again meets Belle with Willie. That night, Steve and Belle disappear and return married, much to the disappointment of Ryan. Then Steve starts training in ernest and is 19 for 19 in the ring. However, he has an eye for the women and an expanding ego to match.Read More »

  • Claude Chabrol – L’avarice [Les sept péchés capitaux] (1961)

    1961-1970Claude ChabrolComedyFranceShort Film

    Quote:
    “L’Avarice” was Chabrol’s contribution to the 1962 French/Italian omnibus film LES SEPT PÉCHÉS CAPITAUX (which also featured contributions from de Broca, Jacques Demy, Sylvain Dhomme, Max Douy, Jean-Luc Godard, Eugène Ionesco, Edouard Molinaro, and Roger Vadim) in which a group of twenty-five engineering students put hold a lottery to pick who gets to spend a 50,000 franc evening with a beautiful prostitute. The film was photographed in Franscope by Jean Rabier (Henri Decae’s camera operator on LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS.)
    —DVD BeaverRead More »

  • Marek Koterski – Dzien Swira aka Day of the Wacko (2002)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaMarek KoterskiPoland

    Quote:
    24 hours in the bitter life of a frustrated divorced teacher who stays in the vicious circle of his numerous obsessions.

    Marta Jazowska for culture.pl wrote:
    Afilm portraying the painstaking life of a 44 year literature professor with obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Divorced, pedantic and frustrated his life consists of a series of rituals performed around the simplest every tasks. Capturing his unbearable stagnation and anger, the film is about isolation and lonelinessRead More »

  • George Lucas – American Graffiti [+commentary] (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaGeorge LucasUSA

    It’s the last night of summer 1962, and the teenagers of Modesto, California, want to have some fun before adult responsibilities close in. Among them are Steve (Ron Howard) and Curt (Richard Dreyfuss), college-bound with mixed feelings about leaving home; nerdy Terry “The Toad” (Charles Martin Smith), who scores a dream date with blonde Debbie (Candy Clark); and John (Paul Le Mat ), a 22-year-old drag racer who wonders how much longer he can stay champion and how he got stuck with 13-year-old Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) in his deuce coupe. As D. J. Wolfman Jack spins 41 vintage tunes on the radio throughout the night, Steve ponders a future with girlfriend Laurie (Cindy Williams), Curt chases a mystery blonde, Terry tries to act cool, and Paul prepares for a race against Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), but nothing can stop the next day from coming, and with it the vastly different future ushered in by the 1960s.Read More »

  • Giuliano Montaldo – Sacco e Vanzetti AKA Sacco & Vanzetti (1971)

    1971-1980DramaGiuliano MontaldoItalyPolitics

    Synopsis:
    In 1920, the anarchist Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco (Riccardo Cucciolla) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (Gian Maria Volonté) are sentenced to death, falsely accused of a robbery and murder. Indeed they are condemned due to their political beliefs, in one of the most shameful and hypocrite judgments of the human history.Read More »

  • Henry Koster – Harvey (1950)

    1941-1950ComedyDramaHenry KosterUSA

    Quote:
    The classic stage hit gets the Hollywood treatment in the story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.Read More »

  • Whitney Horn & Lev Kalman – Two Plains & a Fancy (2018)

    2011-2020ComedyExperimentalLev KalmanUSAWhitney Horn

    Described on its Kickstarter page as “..a satirical, experimental “Spa Western” set in Colorado in 1893”.

    The narrative follows a group of 3 women who travel around the landscapes and strange towns of 1890s Colorado, originally looking for natural springs, but with various absurdist detours and side-tracks.

    Not in popular taste or catering to a common sense of humour – as reported in the Hollywood Reporter:Read More »

  • Shirô Toyoda – Wakai hito aka Young People (1937)

    1931-1940AsianDramaJapanShirô Toyoda

    Quote:
    This film depicts the delicate relationship between Keiko, who was born an illegitimate child and was regarded as a problem child at the mission school, and her teacher Mazaki, who understands her, and Hashimoto, a female teacher with whom he has a close relationship. One day, Keiko becomes pregnant, and rumors spread that the partner is Mazaki… A film that gave Toyoda Shiro the opportunity to show his talent in literary works. Later, the film was adapted by Kon Ichikawa, Katsumi Nishikawa, and Keisuke Kawasaki.Read More »

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