The rival of a worker on a Cossack stud farm exposes him during the war as a Nazi and rescues the owner’s daughter from a train about to be blown up by partisans.Read More »

Four men are gathered to play a game of bridge, when the conversation turns to unnatural and occult events, while the scientist among them tries to give the experiences a natural explanation.Read More »

Judy Bloch, Pacific Film Archive wrote:
Aubignac, a village situated high upon a crag in Provence, suffers the common fate of such enclaves, reduced and abandoned over time. Only three people remain: an old blacksmith, a withered crone, and a middle-aged poacher, Panturle (Gabriel Gabrio). And finally, it is Panturle, alone. Enter Arsule (Orane Demazis), a down-at-the-heels cabaret singer, and Gédémus (Fernandel), an itinerant knife-grinder who has picked her up; now she pulls his cart, like something out of La Strada. Arsule and Panturle team up to revitalize her existence and his land, the welcoming soil of Aubignac. Harvest, based on Jean Giono’s novel, is at once Pagnol’s crudest and clearest statement about humans and the earth: both will decay if left alone. But there is darkness, too—like the grinder whose comic ruses are edged with threat—against which the simple humanity of Arsule and Panturle becomes rather more complex.Read More »

Tsering Woeser, the subject of Chinese filmmaker Zhu Rikun’s extraordinary documentary, is a Tibetan writer now based in Beijing. Through her writing and online voice, she has become one of the most eloquent voices on Tibet. Zhu Rikun’s sharply designed, formally innovative documentary is completely in Woeser’s own voice: Zhu alternates formally photographed scenes of Woeser reading excerpts from her secret government “dossier” (which she has somehow gained access to) with scenes of her speaking in her own soft but powerful, eloquent, passionate voice. Woeser’s moving account of her political awakening and current activism makes for a powerful document of a Tibetan woman finding her voice and insisting on her freedom to use it.
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“Che” depicts 48 hours of Mostafa Chamran’s life, who was the first post-Islamic Revolution defense minister of Iran. On August 16 and 17, 1979 he was sent by Ayatullah Khomeini to command several military operations in the civil war in the Kordestan region which was besieged by anti-revolutionary forces. The film was submitted to the 32nd Fajr International Film Festival and won two Crystal Simorghs in the fields of best editing and best visual effects. In addition to Chamran the film is also about Asghar Vesali who was killed during the war and the people of Paveh in Kermanshah province.Read More »

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Starting in the 1960s in the Bay Area, artist Bruce Nauman made sculptures from nonart materials like dirt, neon, polyester resin and burlap. With a fertile, almost frenzied creativity, Nauman also pioneered video installations and body art. Now something of a recluse, living in New Mexico, Nauman continues to exert art-world influence. Last year, UC Press published a comprehensive volume about his early period, A Rose Has No Teeth. The book, however, lacked a companion DVD—too much of Nauman’s art depends on time and movement to be captured in static illustrations. Bruce Nauman: Make Me Think, a 66-minute 1997 film by Heinz Peter Schwerfel, now available from Facets, provides that missing link. Read More »

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Singapore’s top policewoman, Miss Cleopatra Wong, who heads the Seasian Interpol Criminal Investigation Department (C.I.D.), teams up with her Filipino counterpart to bust a counterfeit currency operation that threatens several Asian countries with bankruptcy. Their dangerous quest takes them from Singapore to Hong Kong and finally Manila where they locate the counterfeit ring’s Asian headquarters, which is being run by local nuns, forced into slave labor. The martial arts action is fast and furious as Cleopatra and her teams launch an attack to destroy the counterfeiter’s and their headquarters in an explosive finale in this fun-filled, action-packed adventure.Read More »

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Enigmatic young Melina (Louise Sorel) has fallen in with a group of Chelsea beatniks, catching the attention of the gang’s defiant leader Moise (Oliver Reed), but inviting scorn and jealousy from the group’s other members including Moise’s lover Libby (Ann Lynn). But wild and drunken partying has terrible consequences, and when Melina’s fiancee Carson (Clifford David) begins investigating, the shocking truth is revealed.Read More »

The film follows Martin who arrives at a party and meets a girl, but blows his chances with her having previously over-indulged, and rushes off to be sick. Later he goes for a walk with a friend and upon returning to the party, soberly glimpses his date, one last time, but her allure is gone.Read More »