• Gakuryû Ishii – Enjeru dasuto aka Angel Dust (1994)

    1991-2000AsianCrimeGakuryû IshiiJapan

    Every Monday at 6 pm a young woman is murdered in the subway. The psychiatrist Setsuko Suma is called in to assist the police. The trail leads to another psychiatrist – Dr Rei Aku – who Setsuko used to date. As she get closer to the solution, she gets more and more convinced that Aku’s deprogramming of former sectmembers is important.Read More »

  • John Cromwell – Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)

    1931-1940DramaJohn CromwellUSA

    Plot:
    Among the most masterful matchups of actor and role in screen history is this stirring film of Robert E. Sherwood’s beloved play taking a thoroughly human look at the early years of our 16th President, with all his frailties and strength of character. Best Actor Oscar nominee* Raymond Massey (who originated the role on stage) wonderfully plays the future Great Emancipator in a chronicle of his backwoods childhood through his first romance with Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard) to his phenomenal rise to President Elect, besting the great orator Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart). Ruth Gordon also does memorable work as driven, ambitious Mary Todd Lincoln, whose vision of Abe’s leadership destiny will not be denied by anyone – including her often reticent husband. There’s also no denying the enduring emotional power of this simple, magnificent movie. From Warner Brothers! Read More »

  • James Algar – A True-Life Adventure: White Wilderness (1958)

    1951-1960DocumentaryJames AlgarUSA

    Quote:
    Six years worth of footage shot in Alberta, Canada has been condensed into a 72-minute documentary which offers a unique and touching look at the daily lives of animals such as polar bears, walruses, goldeneyes, wolverines, and, of course, lemmings. One of the most amusing and tender moments perhaps is when a young polar bear slips down a hill and as he slides, the music takes on a comical turn, as if it were a practiced circus act. This documentary is filled with such little moments which make it all the more enjoyable.Read More »

  • João Batista de Andrade – A Próxima Vítima (1983)

    1981-1990BrazilCrimeDramaJoão Batista de Andrade

    TV reporter tries to find out who is killing prostitutes in a São Paulo neighborhood.Read More »

  • Júlio Bressane – A Família do Barulho (1970)

    1961-1970BrazilComedyJúlio Bressane

    Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil@IMDb wrote:
    A dysfunctional family, composed of a prostitute and two gays, one strong and the other fragile and stupid, lives a routine life in Rio de Janeiro. When the slut threatens the other two to stop supporting them, they decide to find an odalisque as an alternative to keep their easy life.Read More »

  • Alain Cavalier – Un Américain (1958)

    1951-1960Alain CavalierArthouseFranceShort Film

    An American sculptor settles in Paris, convinced that this city will be good for his work. However, to survive, he has to sell the New York Herald Tribune at night.

    The assistant director on this film was Maurice Pialat.Read More »

  • Henry Barakat – Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer (1959)

    1951-1960DramaEgyptHenry Barakat

    Quote:
    This is a classical melodrama from Egypt and nicely shot in black and white. It is a tale of relations between man and woman, death, revenge and forgiveness. To watch a film is not just the moving images it is also a opportunity to travel in time and space. Here one is moved back too Egypt in the fifties. I do believe that with the travel back in time there is also and chance to learn something about norms and values, the society and how the relations between people was at that particular time in that particular environment. Doa al karawan AKA The Nightingale’s Prayer (1959) was chosen as one of the best Egyptian films of all time, and it also stars Faten Hamama and she is maybe the number one female screen icon of Egyptian cinema. This film is based on a novel by Taha Hussein and he is considered to be one of the finest and most influential writers of modern Egyptian literature.Read More »

  • Jacek Bromski – Sztuka kochania AKA Art of Loving (1989)

    1981-1990ComedyJacek BromskiPoland

    Sztuka Kochania is a satire about sex therapists and popular newspaper advice columnists. A young woman asks an advice columnist if her fiance is the right man for her, and should she get married to him. She follows the doctor’s advice and abruptly halts her wedding right at the altar. When the distraught woman then seeks follow up help from the doctor, we discover that even the most trusted moral advisers don’t necessarily lead perfect lives themselves, and can lack the high ideals they tell their readers to follow.Read More »

  • Giorgio Ferroni – La Notte dei diavoli AKA Night of the Devils (1972)

    1971-1980GialloGiorgio FerroniHorrorItaly

    Italian genre film legend Gianni Garko stars in this terrifying masterpiece of the macabre, based on Tolstoy’s story The Wurdulak, itself previously adapted in Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. A nameless mentally ill man (Garko) is found wandering in the woods, his mind lost in fever dreams of gruesome, sexual imagery. After admitted into a psychiatric hospital, the man flashes back to his nightmarish encounter with a backwoods family whose dynasty holds a centuries old curse. Read More »

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