• Alfred Clah – Through Navajo Eyes: The Intrepid Shadows (1966)

    1961-1970Alfred ClahEthnographic CinemaExperimentalUSA

    The Intrepid Shadows
    This is one of the most complex films made by the Navajo. It is the one least understood by the Navajo and most appreciated by “avant-garde” filmmakers in our society. The film opens with a long series of shots showing the varieties of landscape around our schoolhouse. We see rocks, earth, trees, sky, in a variety of shapes but mostly in still or static shots. ’The shadows are very small or short. When we have familiarized ourselves with the things that comprise the “world” we see a young Navajo come walking into the landscape. He picks up a stick, kneels down, and begins to poke at a huge spider web.Read More »

  • John Nelson – Through Navajo Eyes: Navajo Silversmith (1966)

    1961-1970DocumentaryEthnographic CinemaJohn NelsonUSA

    Navajo Silversmith
    This film is structured in almost the same fashion as the weaving film. The film starts with a series of shots showing the Navajo silversmith completing the filing on some little Yeibechai figures which have already been cast and are on his work bench. We then cut away from this (as in A Navajo Weaver) to what is apparently the beginning of the story. We see the silversmith walking and wandering across the Navajo landscape and finally arriving at what appears to be a silver mine.Read More »

  • Susie Benally – Through Navajo Eyes: A Navajo Weaver (1966)

    1961-1970DocumentaryEthnographic CinemaSusie BenallyUSA

    A Navajo Weaver
    Susie chose to depict her mother as she wove a rug. The film starts with a series of short shots showing a Navajo woman weaving at her loom. It then turns to the job of raising the sheep, shearing the wool, digging yucca roots for soap with which to wash the wool, carding and spinning, walking, digging and searching for roots with which to make dye, dying the wool, and putting the warp on the loom. Interspersed with these activities are large sections showing the mother walking and searching for the various materials necessary to make and to complete all these stages in the process of weaving. When towards the end of the film, after 15 minutes have gone by, the mother actually begins to weave the rug, we see interspersed shots of Susie’s little brother mounting his horse and taking care of the sheep, the sheep grazing, and various other activities around the hogan.Read More »

  • Eddie Romero – Beast of Blood (1970)

    1961-1970AdventureEddie RomeroHorrorPhilippines

    A mad scientist creates a monster, but after its head is cut off, he keeps it alive in a serum
    he has invented.Read More »

  • Sadao Nakajima – Poruno no joô: Nippon sex ryokô aka The Pornstar Travels Around Japan (1973)

    1971-1980EroticaExploitationJapanSadao Nakajima

    Quote:
    A voice from IMDB My continuing quest to see every film that Sweden’s stunningly beautiful Christina Lindberg ever made has brought me here to this extremely rare film… The plot: Christina, on arriving in Japan, acquaints a Japanese man at the airport who looks like a sap. He takes her to his apartment where he brutally rapes her and keeps her hostage and bound in chains. Christina’s alluring beauty eventually enchants the rapist and he is soon consulting his ‘How to Stimulate a Woman’ sex book in an effort to please her… Of course, our girl exploits this weakness and manages to escape. She then finds her way to a nightclub and to cut a long story short is ganged-banged by some odd-looking characters. Christina is not having a lot of luck is she, poor girl! Read More »

  • Michele Soavi – Deliria aka StageFright: Aquarius (1987)

    1981-1990HorrorItalyMichele Soavi

    Plot Synopsis by Robert Firsching
    Horror film actor Michele Soavi’s directorial debut was this stylish giallo thriller about an escaped lunatic terrorizing the cast of a stage musical who get locked in a theater after dark. David Brandon, Barbara Cupisti, and perennial victim Giovanni Lombardo Radice (aka “John Morghen”) lead the cast, most of whom spend their time sniping at each other with amusingly typical backstage cruelty. The murder scenes are the film’s primary attraction, artfully handled by Soavi in setpieces such as a blue-lighted stage strewn with feather-covered bodies. Read More »

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer – De nåede færgen AKA They Caught the Ferry (1948)

    1941-1950Carl Theodor DreyerDenmarkDramaShort Film

    Quote:
    This short movie is meant as a propaganda against fast driving. In 1948 there where no speed limits in Denmark (and only few motor vehicles) but it began to be a problem. The movie tells about a young couple driving on a motorbike to reach the ferry. But death is out after them, as a truck driver on the road. The question is if they will make the ferry, have an appointment with death or both?Read More »

  • David Mamet – House of Games (1987)

    USA1981-1990CrimeDavid MametThriller

    Synopsis:
    A famous psychologist, Margaret Ford, decides to try to help one of her patients get out of a gambling debt. She visits the bar where Mike, to whom the debt is owed, runs poker games. He convinces her to help him in a game: her assignment is to look for “tells”, or give-away body language. What seems easy to her becomes much more complex.Read More »

  • Carl Theodor Dreyer – Thorvaldsen (1949)

    1941-1950Carl Theodor DreyerDenmarkDocumentaryShort Film

    This very short film offers a brief consideration of the major works of Bertel Thorvaldsen (ca. 1770-1884), one of the most famous of all Danish artists and arguably the greatest sculptor between Bernini and Rodin. Resting squarely within the Neoclassical tradition, Thorvaldsen’s great talent was his ability to perfectly balance his sculptures, giving them a sense of weightlessness. (Of course, the sculptures are also extremely beautiful, but in our post-WWII era there’s something disquieting about admiring a northern European artist’s conception of ideal physical beauty. I suppose that’s unavoidable, but Thorvaldsen’s reputation has happily escaped associations with Nazi ideology.)Read More »

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