• Göran Olsson – The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

    Göran Olsson2011-2020DocumentaryPoliticsSweden

    Synopsis:
    THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 mobilizes a treasure trove of 16mm material shot by Swedish filmmakers, after languishing in a basement of a TV station for 30 years, into an irresistible mosaic of images, music, and narration chronicling the evolution one of our nation’s most indelible turning points, the Black Power movement. Featuring candid interviews with the movement’s most explosive revolutionary minds, including Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, and Kathleen Cleaver, the film explores the community, people and radical ideas of the movement. Music by Questlove and Om’Mas Keith, and commentary from and modern voices including Erykah Badu, Harry Belafonte, Talib Kweli, and Melvin Van Peebles give the historical footage a fresh sound and make THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-75 an exhilarating, unprecedented account of an American revolution.Read More »

  • Cy Endfield – Try and Get Me AKA The Sound of Fury (1950)

    Cy Endfield1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirUSA

    Todd Wiener writes:
    In 1947, novelist and B-movie screenwriter Jo Pagano published his third novel titled The Condemned. The novel was based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart in San Jose, California, and the subsequent lynching of two suspects by a hysterical mob fueled by a frenzied media. Considered the only public lynching covered with such media scrutiny, The New York Times stated the event “was an outburst characterized by hysteria and ribaldry.” Pagano would adapt his novel into the screenplay The Sound of Fury (Fritz Lang’s film Fury (1936) is based on the same shocking event).Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – Phantom Lady (1944)

    Robert Siodmak1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsDramaFilm NoirUSA

    Quote:
    Phantom Lady (1944) is one of the high points of ’40s film noir, the title alone evoking a potent mythology of this era. At the center of its narrative is the seemingly hopeless search for the title character who potentially serves as the only reliable witness in the murder trial for Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis), falsely accused of killing his wife. But the search is frustrated by Henderson’s inability to remember any details about the woman outside of a flamboyant hat she wore during the night they spent together, an unlikely memory lapse that only intensifies his apparent guilt. Furthermore, no one else who saw Henderson and the woman together will admit to the police that they had seen her.Read More »

  • Pál Sándor – Régi idök focija aka Football of The Good Old Days (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaHungary
    Régi idök focija (1973)
    Régi idök focija (1973)

    „By the middle of the 70s, partly due to television, Hungarian films had lost much of their audience. The allure of disguised social criticism – one of the secret reasons why Hungarian films were so successful at foreign festivals – started to wear off. After 1968 social criticism became pointless. The first director to open up towards the audience (along with Zoltán Fábri) was Pál Sándor. Mourning the loss of left-wing ideals of freedom he recreated the illusion of a past community. The audience responded to his grotesque, nostalgic tone and the stories where the emphasis was always placed on the microclimate of human relationships. His “retro-films” were rich in self-irony. He never analysed and never criticised, he just told a story, created a poignant atmosphere and passionate characters. (Szeressétek Odor Emíliát – Love Emilia! 1968, Régi idők focija – Football of The Good Old Days 1973, Herkulesfürdői emlék – A Strange Role 1976, Szabadíts meg a gonosztól – Deliver Us from Evil 1978).Read More »

  • Lindsay Anderson – If…. (1968)

    Drama1961-1970CrimeLindsay AndersonQueer Cinema(s)United Kingdom
    If…. (1968)
    If…. (1968)

    In this allegorical story, a revolution led by pupil Mick Travis takes place at an old established private school in England.Read More »

  • Lindsay Anderson – O Lucky Man! (1973)

    Lindsay Anderson1971-1980ComedyUnited Kingdom

    One man’s dreams of success take him on a Byzantine journey through the various stations of the British class system in this politically charged black comedy from director Lindsay Anderson. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is an ambitious young man who is looking to get his foot on the first rung of the ladder of success by landing a job as a salesman. After the death of Imperial Coffee’s leading drummer in the North, Travis’ charm and enthusiasm so impresses manager Mr. Duff (Arthur Lowe) that he’s given the job, and after some coaching from Gloria Rowe (Rachel Roberts), Travis sets out to find his fortune in the coffee trade.Read More »

  • Lindsay Anderson – In Celebration (1975)

    Lindsay Anderson1971-1980DramaUnited Kingdom

    from allmovie:
    One of the more cinematic entries in the mid-1970s American Film Theatre series, In Celebration is adapted from the play by David Storey. Lindsay Anderson, who directed the original stage version, reassembles his cast for this filmization. Alan Bates, James Bolam and Brian Cox play Andrew, Colin and Steven, the well-educated sons of roughhewn coal miner “Mr. Shaw” (Bill Owen) and his wife (Constance Chapman). On the occasion of their parents’ wedding anniversary, the three sons return to their dank little home village. All three boys have become successful, but only Bolam is comfortable with his success. To his parents’ dismay, Andrew announces that he has given up his law practice to become an artist; he also confesses to harboring homosexual inclinations. Prompted by the embittered Andrew, the other sons churn up memories of their childhood that they–and their parents–had hoped to keep buried. — Hal EricksonRead More »

  • José Luis Borau – Furtivos aka Poachers (1975)

    José Luis Borau1971-1980DramaSpainSpanish cinema under Franco

    Quote:
    In 1975 Borau made the film for which he is best remembered Furtivos (Poachers) (1975). The plot, set in the woodlands of Segovia, is a stark story of violence incest and matricide. Co-scripted with Gutierrez Aragon, Borau took the role of the regional governor in the film. He fought the Francoist censorship to have his film released the way he intended. Furtivos was a great commercial and critical success, it won best film, Golden Shell, at the San Sebastián International Film Festival becoming one of the key film of the political transition in Spain.Read More »

  • Zoltán Fábri – Fábián Bálint találkozása Istennel AKA Balint Fabian Meets God (1980)

    Zoltán Fábri1971-1980DramaHungary

    Fábri linked two József Balázs novels. The Bálint Fábián story depicts the bitter peasant existence of the father of the protagonist of Hungarians with a profundity and power similar to sociographic literature of the 1930s.

    Bálint Fábián is killing people on the Italian front in 1918. At home, his sons strangle the priest who is the lover of their mother. On returning from the front, instead of discovering a robust wife Bálint finds a deranged woman. He is to be the carriage driver for the baron but during the ‘white terror’ he showed solidarity with his fellow labourers, and he returns to his sons as a shepherd. His wife dies, his sons abandon him…Read More »

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