• Philippe Pollet-Villard – Le Mozart des pickpockets AKA The Mozart of Pickpockets (2006)

    2001-2010ComedyFrancePhilippe Pollet-VillardShort Film

    IMDB Plot summary :
    Richard and Philippe live hand to mouth, backing up a gang of Spanish pickpockets on the streets of Paris, posing as policemen who arrest a gang member while the others rifle the pockets and purses of gawkers. When all of the gang except Richard and Philippe are pinched, things look grim. Plus, Richard insists that they take in a wide-eyed immigrant lad, a deaf-mute left behind in the arrests. Philippe suggests a three-person pickpocket trick, using the boy, but when that goes spectacularly badly, they hit rock bottom. Then, at the cinema, the lad finds a solution. It’s time to celebrate.Read More »

  • Donald Crisp & Buster Keaton – The Navigator (1924)

    USA1921-1930Buster KeatonComedyDonald CrispSilent

    Wealthy Rollo Treadway (Buster Keaton) suddenly decides to propose to his neighbor across the street, Betsy O’Brien (Kathryn McGuire), and sends his servant to book passage for a honeymoon sea cruise to Honolulu. When Betsy rejects his sudden offer however, he decides to go on the trip anyway, boarding without delay that night. Because the pier number is partially covered, he ends up on the wrong ship, the Navigator, which Betsy’s rich father (Frederick Vroom) has just sold to a small country at war.Read More »

  • Chris Wilson – I Killed John Lennon (2005)

    2001-2010Chris WilsonDocumentaryShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    Review from BBC news:
    Newly released audio tapes of interviews with John Lennon’s assassin reveal Mark Chapman’s self-confessed “compulsion” to kill the former Beatle.

    “It was like a train, a runaway train, there was no stopping it,” Chapman told interviewers in a New York prison more than a decade ago.

    The singer was shot by Chapman in New York on 8 December 1980. The tapes were recorded in the early 1990s by journalist Jack Jones, who wrote a book about Chapman and his crime. Chapman describes how he shot ex-Beatle Lennon five times in the back outside the Dakota apartment complex, adding “nothing could have stopped me”.”I was under total compulsion,” he says. “I’m thoroughly convinced in my conscience and in my heart that there was nothing I could do beyond that point to help myself, totally convinced of that.”Read More »

  • Michael Powell – Return to the Edge of the World (1978)

    1971-1980DocumentaryMichael PowellShort FilmUnited Kingdom

    Director Michael Powell, actor John Laurie and assistant Sydney Streeter return to the isle of Foula, on which they made the film The Edge of the World over forty years earlier.

    Michael Powell always considered The Edge of the World to be his first truly personal film, even to the extent of keeping the rights to it. However, after its initial trade screening in 1937, the film was cut by seven minutes for a general release length of 74 minutes. In 1940, when it was re-released, the film was cut by a further twelve minutes, and for decades this was the only version available.Read More »

  • W.S. Van Dyke – San Francisco [Colourised] (1936)

    1931-1940DramaMusicalUSAW.S. Van Dyke

    San Francisco is a 1936 film directed by W.S. Van Dyke, written by Anita Loos, starring Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy and Jack Holt. It was nominated for six Oscars, of which it won one. The film tells the story of Mary Blake, who, out of poverty, starts singing at a local gambling hall. When she moves on, the owner of the gambling hall, Blackie, keeps following her. The confrontations between Mary and Blackie are suddenly put to a stop with the advent of the San Franscisco earthquake.Read More »

  • William A. Seiter – Chance at Heaven (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsDramaUSAWilliam A. Seiter

    Plot: Blackstone ‘Blacky’ Gorman, rising service station owner, is blessed with the devotion of supremely sweet and noble Marje Harris, but he meets coquettish and silly debutante Glory Franklyn and, between Glory’s charm and his social ambition, is snared into an upscale marriage that proves to have its downside. Written by Rod Crawford
    Read More »

  • Alan Zweig – I, Curmudgeon (2004)

    2001-2010Alan ZweigCanadaDocumentaryTV

    In this often very funny enquiry into crankiness, Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweig interviews notable curmudgeons like Fran Lebowitz, Harvey Pekar and Bruce LaBruce. Zweig wants to know what their frickin’ problem is and, more importantly, whether it’s the same as his. As in Vinyl, his equally irascible doc on record collectors, the endearingly dour filmmaker spends much of I, Curmudgeon spilling his guts directly to his camera and torturing himself with big questions that he can never answer satisfactorily. Zweig then confronts his subjects with the same questions, thereby making them even grouchier. (How grouchy? Andy Rooney is moved to kick Zweig out of his office.) Though I, Curmudgeon’s meandering structure and incessant jump-cuts are irritants, they’re also appropriate to the movie’s abrasive, anti-social personality. Consider this a testament to the power of negative thinking. – Eye WeeklyRead More »

  • Khru Marut – Santi-Vina (1954)

    1951-1960DramaKhru MarutRomanceThailand

    Santi, a poor 10- year-old blind boy who lives with his father. Vina takes a pity on him and tries to protect him from the bullying of Krai. Santi’s father send him to stay with Luang Ta, a respectable monk, hopefully that he would learn the Buddhist lessons and by doing good deed, he could regain his eyesight.

    When they have grown up, Santi and Vina become lover. Krai feels jealous because he also love Vina. Krai asks his parent to make a marriage proposal to Vina. Vina decides to run away with Santi. However, they are finally caught and Santi is severe beaten.Read More »

  • Jerzy Skolimowski – Essential Killing (2010)

    2001-2010DramaJerzy SkolimowskiPoland

    allmovie wrote:
    A pair of American security operatives (Zach Cohen and Iftach Ofir) are on patrol in Afghanistan when they stumble upon a Taliban fighter (Vincent Gallo), who kills them despite his terror and nervousness. While trying to escape, the Afghan is captured by American forces; he’s tortured during interrogation, but doesn’t tell the Americans anything, in part because an explosion has made it difficult for him to hear what they’re saying. The Americans ship the Afghan off to a detention facility with a number of other Taliban soldiers, but upon arrival he’s able to escape. However, the Afghan finds himself in a forbidding snowbound climate, and with no provisions or warm clothing he struggles to simply survive as he avoids his pursuers and struggles to find some way to get home.Read More »

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