• Douglas Sirk – Hitler’s Madman (1943)

    Douglas Sirk1941-1950DramaUSAWar
    Hitler's Madman (1943)
    Hitler’s Madman (1943)

    Synopsis:
    Somewhat fictionalized account of the destruction of the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia and the events leading up to it. In 1942, the Allies parachuted a Czech resistance fighter into the area. He quickly reunites with his former girlfriend and many of the villagers who knew him from before the war. The Nazis are evil however and under the command of Reinhardt Heydrich rule the country with an iron fist, arbitrarily arresting innocents and charging them with fictitious crimes. When Heydrich is severely wounded in a roadside attack – he dies three days later – Henrich Himmler orders the destruction of Lidice. The men are herded into a church which is set aflame and the women are sent to concentration camps. The town itself is leveled.Read More »

  • Richard Fleischer – The Narrow Margin (1952)

    1951-1960250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirRichard FleischerUSA
    The Narrow Margin (1952)
    The Narrow Margin (1952)

    A Fortune If They Seal Her Lips!…A Bullet If They Fail!

    (Taken from IMDB) Plot-When a mobsters wife decides to testify against his evil deeds she goes undercover to avoid being killed. Now that he’s coming to trial she has to be escorted across country via train in order to testify. Cop Walter Brown and his partner are assigned the task, but the mob are on their trail.

    A great low budget film noir with one of the greats, Charles McGraw.Read More »

  • Herbert Wilcox – Lilacs in the Spring AKA Let’s Make Up (1954)

    Herbert Wilcox1951-1960ClassicsFantasyUSA
    Lilacs in the Spring (1954)
    Lilacs in the Spring (1954)

    Plot Summary:
    A young entertainer, Carole Beaumont (Anna Neagle), is wooed by actor-producer Charles King (David Farrar) but, uncertain of her feelings, she resists his attentions. During an air raid, a bomb explosion rocks the cafe and Carole is knocked unconscious. In her confused state, fantasies flash through her mind, and she seems to become Nell Gwyn of Old Drury, with Charles King looking very much like King Charles. Recovering, she is advised by her doctor to take a rest in the country and, there,another beau, Albert Gutman (Peter Graves), prompts his grandmother, Lady Drayton (Helen Haye), to invite Carole to their family home at Windsor. Read More »

  • Elisabeth Kapnist – Orson Welles, autopsie d’une légende AKA Orson Welles: Shadows and Light (2015)

    2011-2020DocumentaryElisabeth KapnistFrance
    Orson Welles, autopsie d'une légende (2015)
    Orson Welles, autopsie d’une légende (2015)

    Giant of cinema, the embodiment of creation, Orson Welles is the man who reinvents the film language at 24-years old. Who is hidding behind this impressive figure? This movie is a journey towards the man behind the legend. It drags us into the labyrinth with multiple mirrors that Welles erases and recreates at the mercy of his imagination.Read More »

  • Michael Kann – Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn… AKA Stielke, Heinz, Fifteen (1987)

    1981-1990DramaGermanyMichael KannWar
    Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn... (1987)
    Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn… (1987)

    Follows the 15-year-old, Heinz Stilke, a member of the Hitler Youth. Heinz is proud of his father, who died bravely for his fatherland, but suddenly learns that he himself is half Jewish. Heinz leaves his gymnasium and is forced to flee his classmates lest his secret be revealed.Read More »

  • Dominik Graf – Im Angesicht des Verbrechens aka In Face of the Crime (2010)

    Dominik Graf2001-2010CrimeGermanyTV
    Im Angesicht des Verbrechens (2010)
    Im Angesicht des Verbrechens (2010)

    “In this epic-scale saga of life on both sides of the law, Max Riemelt plays Marek Grosky, a Russian Jew who immigrated to Germany in the 1920s. Grosky is one of a large number of Russians who have fled their homeland and settled in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. While Marek has become a police officer in Berlin, his sister Stella (Marie Baumer) is married to a high-ranking crime chieftain, and the cop finds himself caught between two worlds, torn between his devotion to duty and his ties to his family. As a war rages between criminal factions in Charlottenburg, Marek witnesses the death of his brother and falls for a Ukrainian woman who has been brought to Germany to work as a prostitute. Im Angesicht des Verbrechens (aka In Face Of The Crime) was originally created as a ten-part series for German television; it was later re-edited into a pair of feature-length films which were screened as part of the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. “
    by Mark DemingRead More »

  • Joshua Pikovsky & Jordan Tetewsky – Hannah Ha Ha (2022)

    Joshua Pikovsky2021-2030DramaJordan TetewskyUSA
    Hannah Ha Ha (2022)
    Hannah Ha Ha (2022)

    Hannah lives a content, hard-working life in the small town where she grew up. To her visiting older brother, she’s just wasting her time. As their Summer together winds down, Hannah gets what wasting time really means.Read More »

  • Robert Knights – Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man (1980)

    Robert Knights1971-1980ClassicsTVUnited Kingdom
    Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man (1980)
    Malcolm Bradbury’s The History Man (1980)

    Quote:
    A thoroughly superb four-part comedy-drama series, The History Man is considered a pivotal literary and television work and one of the most fondly-remembered of all Malcolm Bradbury’s output.

    Bradbury had always prided himself on stories concerning, criticising and critiquing academic culture and the proliferation of “new” university campuses which were dotted across the United Kingdom at the time. The History Man featured one such “new” educational establishment, the University of Watermouth, as the platform for the tale of Barbara and Howard Kirk (Geraldine James and Anthony Sher), an exploration of their very modern marriage and considerably radical political views.Read More »

  • Hervé Le Roux – Grand bonheur (1993)

    Hervé Le Roux1991-2000ComedyDramaFrance
    Grand bonheur (1993)
    Grand bonheur (1993)

    First feature length film by Hervé Le Roux, director of Reprise (1996). With Lucas Belvaux, Marilyne Canto, Nathalie Richard, Eva Ionesco, László Szabó, Arielle Dombasle, Rosette.

    “Judith, Charly, Caroline, and Nanou, plus their men friends, are semi-Bohemians in Paris, avoiding paying rent, and encouraging each others’ efforts to make movies, produce plays, and play music. They tease, confide, share beds, talk, and drink with each other. Things may go on forever like this when Nanou announces that she’s pregnant with Luc’s child, and they plan to move to Marseilles. This is somewhat upsetting to Luc’s sometime male lover, but life and these friendships go on, with good humor.”Read More »

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