• Nikos Papatakis – Les équilibristes AKA Walking a Tightrope (1992)

    Drama1991-2000FranceNikos PapatakisQueer Cinema(s)

    Marcel Spandice, a famous homosexual writer during the sixties in Paris, is trying to make a young Arab into the greatest tightrope walker in the world. Behind the figure of Spandice, author, poet and lover of the circus (“because there one truly risks getting killed,” in his own words)

    The story of this film was allegedly based on a true story witnessed by the director Nico Papatakis during his filmmaking collaboration with the controversial and much-lionized monstre sacrée Jean Genet.Read More »

  • Bassek Ba Kobhio – Le grand blanc de Lambaréné AKA The Great White of Lambarene (1995)

    1991-2000African CinemaArthouseBassek Ba KobhioDramaGabon

    Cameroonian filmmaker Bassek ba Kobhio provides a fascinating revisionist perspective on Albert Schweitzer, Noble Peace Prize winner and secular saint of the colonial era.

    Like Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, this film begins to rewrite the history of colonialism from the point of view of the colonized. Le Grand Blanc de Lambaréné is not, however, a facile exercise in iconoclasm but rather a deeply-felt lament for a missed opportunity, for a cross-cultural encounter between Africa and Europe which never happened.Read More »

  • Allan Davis – The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre: The Fourth Square (1961)

    1961-1970Allan DavisDramaMysteryUnited Kingdom

    Plot Synopsis by Sandra Brennan
    Based on an Edgar Wallace mystery, this suspenseful drama centers on an attorney who is determined to prove that his client is not a murderous burglar.Read More »

  • Dan Milner – The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955)

    1951-1960Dan MilnerHorrorSci-FiUSA

    A professor works for an oceanography college on the Pacific coast. He has a daughter. A series of fishermen deaths are reported. A government investigator—not the FBI—and a scientist show up. They soon discover an unexplained source of atomic power on the ocean floor that is guarded by a strange monster. The scientist learns from the professor’s secretary that his experiments have something to do with the strange monster. The agent learns that negotiations to sell the atomic inventions, and the very strange monster, to a foreign power are underway. The secretary is killed by the professor’s assistant, who has been seeking to turn over the atomic-secrets to a foreign power. Read More »

  • Jean Negulesco – The Mudlark (1950)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaJean NegulescoUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis:
    In 1875 London, young Wheeler (who lives by scavenging) finds a cameo of Queen Victoria, which he thinks so beautiful, he risks his life to save it. Possessed of a desire to see the Queen, he slips past the Beefeaters and wanders about Windsor Castle, just when a state dinner is in preparation. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is struggling hard to persuade the Queen to end her long seclusion.Read More »

  • Lindsay Anderson – Thursday’s Children (1954)

    USA1951-1960DocumentaryLindsay AndersonShort Film

    Synopsis:
    Narrated by Richard Burton, Thursday’s Children is a documentary about the Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, England. Filmed without sound and using narration sparingly, the documentary explores the silent world of these children (and their teachers) as they come to learn what sound is, even before they are able to articulate anything themselves. The narration explains that there can be no thought without words, only feelings, and that sounds must be taught visually, through pictures or example, or experienced through vibrations. The bulk of the film, however, concerns itself with the determination of the children and the joy they feel when their attempts at communication produce breakthroughs.Read More »

  • Frederick De Cordova – Her Kind of Man (1946)

    1941-1950CrimeFilm NoirFrederick De CordovaUSA

    Quote:
    Georgia King (Janis Paige) thought she was sitting pretty, Broadway-bound and the chosen gal of bad boy Steve Maddux (Zachary Scott). Things go awry when Steve plugs a mug in self-defense and goes on the lam while Georgia goes solo to the Great White Way. In New York, Georgia captures the attention of straight-and-narrow newsman Don Corwin (Dane Clark). When Steve returns to New York for a romantic reunion with Georgia, he and Don battle for their songbird’s heart, the law and the lawless begin to break apart around the budding triangle. As Steve’s past sins return to cause tragedy in the present, he faces the biggest night of his life as Prohibition comes to an end. Thanks to its crisp direction and pitch-perfect cast, including genre favorites Faye Emerson and George Tobias, this noir rises above the numbers.Read More »

  • Alfred Zeisler – Fear (1946)

    1941-1950Alfred ZeislerFilm NoirMysteryUSA

    Quote:
    A broke medical student who’s in desperate need of tuition money sells everything he owns to a dishonest professor. When the student’s scholarship is suddenly taken from him, he flies into a rage and kills the professor, whom he feels is responsible for his situation. His life then begins to improve, but as the student grows more reckless, police suspicion continues to grow.Read More »

  • Carlos Tobalina – Champagne Orgy (1978)

    1971-1980Carlos TobalinaEroticaUSA

    After a long day’s shoot, Carlos Tobalina invites his friends over for a champagne party, only to find them engaged in the most extensive orgy ever photographed.Read More »

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