• Fritz Lang – Scarlet Street (1945)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirFritz LangUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Bleak.. grim… uncompromising… masterpiece… these are the words usually batted around about the film Fritz Lang considered his best American title. And the film lives up to these accolades without excuses. Endlessly rewatchable, the film finds Lang’s mise en scene at its most precise, its most crystalline. The film flows like the rainwater down a polished glass… easy and languid here, pausing there to plump up and gather weight… letting go there with velocity, until Chris Cross (Robinson) eventually finds his bottom in inevitable oblivion. Banned in several states, the ending of Scarlet Street may be the grimmest of all “Golden Age” Hollywood films– and most amazing that it passed the censors. Joan Bennett’s Kitty, and Dan Duryea’s Johnny may be the most vicious characters ever sketched onscreen in a 1940’s melodrama.. and the murder at its climax may be the most shocking, despite the absence of blood and gore.Read More »

  • Yves Boisset – Espion, leve-toi (1982)

    1981-1990Film NoirFrancePoliticsYves Boisset

    Sébastien Grenier,a secret agent eliminates all his rivals in order to decipher who has killed some of his associates.

    Sebastien Grenier (Lino Ventura), a former French spy, is working as a financial analyst in Zurich and cultivating an on-going relationship with Anna Gretz (Krystyna Janda), a German teaching at the university. Then his peaceful existence starts to disintegrate when he is recruited by a top French intelligence operative (Michel Piccoli) to discover how one of their own secret agents was found out and executed in broad daylight by a gang of terrorists. Sebastien starts to work but is immediately put off by the fact that his contacts are being murdered before he can reach them. As he gets deeper and deeper into the case, he comes to realize that he is being used in an elaborate political scheme, a scheme that leads to the death of Anna and a vow to get the killers who have now ruined what is left of his life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Kenneth Anger – Scorpio Rising (1964) (HD)

    1961-1970CultKenneth AngerQueer Cinema(s)Short FilmUSA

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    Quote:
    Scorpio Rising , a landmark in the American underground film, confirmed Kenneth Anger’s reputation as a major talent and, at the time of its release, created a stir which reached from the pages of New York’s Film Culture to the courts of California, where it was judged obscene. It is testimony to the film’s aesthetic power that 20 years later it continues to shock and dismay as many viewers as it amuses and exhilarates through its artfully subversive reinterpretation of the American mythos.Read More »

  • Robert Z. Leonard – Dancing Lady (1933)

    1931-1940MusicalRobert Z. LeonardRomanceUSA

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    Plot:
    Janie lives to dance and will dance anywhere, even stripping in a burlesque house. Tod Newton, the rich playboy, discovers her there and helps her get a job in a real Broadway musical being directed by Patch. Tod thinks he can get what he wants from Janie, Patch thinks Janie is using her charms rather than talent to get to the top, and Janie thinks Patch is the greatest. Steve, the stage manager, has the Three Stooges helping him manage all the show girls. Fred Astaire and Nelson Eddy make appearances as famous Broadway personalities.Read More »

  • Abbas Kiarostami – Dow Rahehal Baraye yek Massaleh AKA Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)

    Drama1971-1980Abbas KiarostamiIranShort Film

    Quote:
    Two young boys are classmates: when Nader returns his friend’s notebook, the cover of which he has accidentally torn, the other is faced with two possibilities. Either he can quickly take revenge, or the two can look for a solution together, glue the book back together and remain good pals.Read More »

  • Daniel Lindsay & T.J. Martin – LA 92 (2017)

    2011-2020Daniel Lindsay and T.J. MartinDocumentaryPoliticsUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Synopsis:
    A look at the events that led up to the 1992 uprising in Los Angeles following the Rodney King beating by the police.

    Review:
    Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin (“Undefeated”) co-direct a penetrating historical documentary, using interviews and archive footage, recalling the Watts riot in April 1992 from twenty-five years ago after the acquittal verdict in the Rodney King trial of the four police officers who beat him. It sparked several days of protests in Los Angeles that resulted in at least 54 deaths and a billion dollars property damage caused by arson and looting. All the cops were acquitted despite such explicit evidence revealed on videotape that was filmed by a white bystander named George Holliday. It showed that on March 3, 1991, in an incident that went national, several Los Angeles police officers beating an unarmed black man named Rodney King.Read More »

  • George Cukor – A Woman’s Face (1941)

    1941-1950DramaGeorge CukorUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    A supposedly superior remake of the 1938 Swedish film of the same name that starred Ingrid Bergman. It’s based on the French play Il etait une fois by Francis De Croisset and written by Donald Ogden Stewart and Elliot Paul. Capable studio director George Cukor (“The Women”/”Susan and God”) does his usual fine job handling actors, creating a finely drawn tense atmosphere as he makes the best of this ridiculous courtroom melodrama into a pleasing film despite the inane dialogue and incredulous machinations in the storytelling. Joan Crawford jumped at the chance to star in this juicy role despite having to play a facially disfigured woman (at least for half the film), which she was advised by even Louis B. Mayer (MGM head) that it could be costly for the glamour actress in the future. Instead it turned out to be one of her more acclaimed roles and did nothing but promote her career further as a serious dramatic actress (she won an Oscar for Mildred Pierce in 1945, which she claims this film had a cumulative effect in helping her win that award). Crawford’s scar makeup was credited to Jack Dawn, who created makeup for such films as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941).Read More »

  • Kenneth Anger – Lucifer Rising (1972)

    1971-1980CultKenneth AngerShort FilmUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    “A film about the love generation – the birthday party of the Aquarian Age showing actual ceremonies to make Lucifer rise. Lucifer is the Light god, not the devil – the Rebel Angel behind what’s happening in the world today. His message is that the key of joy is disobedience. Isis (Nature) wakes. Osiris (Death) answers. Lilith (Destroyer) climbs to the place of Sacrifice. The Magus activates the circle and Lucifer – Bringer of Light – breaks through.”

    – Kenneth AngerRead More »

  • Jörg Buttgereit – Nekromantik (1987)

    1981-1990CultGermanyHorrorJörg Buttgereit

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:

    The controversial horror film that shocked the world in 1987, when it was banned in Germany, censored in Japan and simultaneously became a huge underground hit in the US (now long out of print.)

    Nekromantik tells the story of Rob (Daktari Lorenz) who works at a street-cleaning Agency, and visits roadside accidents to clean up the scene. Incidentally Rob collects the body parts and shares them with his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice M.) When Rob presents a complete corpse taken out of a swamp, their undying love reaches its peak, but soon after Betty gets a more liking towards the corpse and leaves Rob, which takes him to the sick end of his destruction.Read More »

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