Quote:
With its small cast, character-driven story, and modest production values, Sam Peckinpah’s first feature film seems very like another of his TV Western dramas–just one that happened to get shot in Panavision. The director’s favorite TV actor, Brian Keith, plays a surly loner named Yellowleg who ventures into Indian country with a dance-hall girl (Maureen O’Hara), the corpse of her little boy, and a pair of marginally human specimens (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills) who more than justify the title. Everybody has, or seems to have, a guilty or shameful secret: Why does Yellowleg keep his hat on? Was Kit (O’Hara) a widow, or a whore? Action, menace, and ethical dialogues come and go pretty much according to TV rhythms, and the visuals and editing are conventional. But there’s enough quirky character work and offbeat mood-making to hint at the singular filmmaker soon to arrive big-time. –Richard T. JamesonRead More »
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Sam Peckinpah – The Deadly Companions (1961)
1961-1970DramaSam PeckinpahUSAWestern -
Mikhail Kalatozov – Nepobedimye aka The Invincible (1943)
1941-1950DramaMikhail KalatozovUSSRWarSummary:
The autumn of 1941. Leningrad is besieged by the Nazis. A new model of tank is being developed at a large defense plant. Built in the shortest possible time combat vehicles are tested directly on battlefields, fighting with fascists in the outskirts of the city.
The first feature film about the heroic everyday life of city defenders was shot directly in assembly shops of plants and in the streets of Leningrad when the city was fighting against the enemyRead More » -
Cesare Canevari – Una Jena in Cassaforte AKA A Hyena in the Safe (1968)
1961-1970Cesare CanevariCrimeItalySynopsis:
Several men and women make their way to a large mansion as guests. They relax for a while, then get down to the business that they are there for. A rich man called Boris has died and left a fortune of diamonds in a huge safe. Someone pulls a lever and the steel casket rises from a pool in the garden. Each of the guests has a key, and the safe can only be opened when all keys are used. However, one of the guests for the life of him can’t find his key. The angry guests suspicions are centered towards Janine, but even a strip search reveals nothing. Everyone mopes around until the early hours of the morning, getting more and more stressed. The guy who lost his key is so distraught that he loses control completely, and falls from the building to his death.Read More » -
Matthew Holness – Possum (2018)
2011-2020DramaHorrorMatthew HolnessUnited Kingdom

Quote:
After returning to his childhood home, a disgraced children’s puppeteer is forced to confront his wicked stepfather and the secrets that have tortured his entire life.Read More » -
Ingmar Bergman – Riten AKA Ritual (1969)
Drama1961-1970ArthouseIngmar BergmanSweden

A judge in an unnamed country interviews three actors, together and singly, provoking them while investigating a pornographic performance for which they may face a fine. Their relationships are complicated: Sebastian, volatile, a heavy drinker, in debt, guilty of killing his former partner, is having an affair with that man’s wife. She is Thea, high strung, prone to fits, and seemingly fragile, currently married to Sebastian’s new partner, Hans. Hans is the troupe leader, wealthy, self-contained, growing tired. The judge plays on the trio’s insecurities, but when they finally, in a private session with him, perform the masque called The Rite, they may have their revenge.Read More » -
Eduardo Mendoza de Echave – El evangelio de la carne AKA The gospel of the flesh (2013)
2011-2020DramaEduardo Mendoza de EchavePeruThriller

Quote:
Three men searching for forgiveness during a soccer championship final. Undercover cop Gamarra’s desperate attempts to save his wife from a terminal illness gets him into trouble; bus driver Felix wants to be accepted into a religious sect after his involvement in a tragic traffic accident; and imperiled soccer club leader Narciso tries to secure his younger brother’s release from prison.Read More » -
Luc Moullet – Les Sièges de l’Alcazar (1989)
France1981-1990ArthouseComedyLuc Moullet

Paris, 1955. Guy, film critic of the Cahiers du Cinéma, often goes to see the films of Vittorio Cottafavi in a local cinema. One day he notices that Jeanne, film critic of “Positive “, the rival magazine, seems to be following him. He is intrigued.Read More »
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Tonino De Bernardi – Médée miracle (2007)
2001-2010ArthouseDramaFranceTonino De Bernardi

Inspired by the Greek myth Medea in which a mother kills her own children. Set in a suburban locale, Medea finds she is incapable of killing her own kids.Read More » -
Yasujirô Ozu – Kohayagawa-ke no aki AKA The End of Summer (1961)
1961-1970DramaJapanYasujiro OzuSynopsis
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews” wrote:
This Technicolor film is the deft blending of comedy and tragedy; it’s the penultimate film of arguably Japan’s best filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu (“Early Spring”/”Tokyo Story”/”Late Spring”). It’s co-scripted by the director and his regular screenwriter Kôgo Noda. It features the extended Kohayagawa family, who run a small sake brewery in post-war Japan and in failing times are thinking about merging their business with a larger company.Read More »



