1940s

  • Jules Dassin – Brute Force (1947)

    Jules Dassin1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirUSA
    Brute Force (1947)
    Brute Force (1947)

    PLOT: At overcrowded Westgate Penitentiary, where violence and fear are the norm and the warden has less power than guards and leading prisoners, the least contented prisoner is tough, single-minded Joe Collins. Most of all, Joe hates chief guard Captain Munsey, a petty dictator who glories in absolute power. After one infraction too many, Joe and his cell-mates are put on the dreaded drain pipe detail; prompting an escape scheme that has every chance of turning into a bloodbath.Read More »

  • Hiroshi Shimizu – Utajo oboegaki AKA Notes of an Itinerant Performer (1941)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaHiroshi ShimizuJapan
    Utajo oboegaki (1941)
    Utajo oboegaki (1941)

    Uta’s mother died when she was six years old; her father she never met. She was forced to adopt a traveller’s life when her grandmother died, and now she is a dancer and part of a family of actors who travel from town to town, setting up street performances. A way of escape from this marginal existence arises when she gets the chance to move to tea merchant Hiramatsu’s place, where she is asked to teach his daughter to dance.Read More »

  • Michel Khleifi – Urs al-jalil AKA Wedding in Galilee (1987)

    1981-1990DramaMichel KhleifiPalestine
    Urs al jalil (1987)
    Urs al jalil (1987)

    A Palestinian seeks Israeli permission to waive curfew to give his son a fine wedding. The military governor’s condition is that he and his officers attend. The groom berates his father for agreeing. Women ritually prepare the bride; men prepare the groom. Guests gather. The Arab youths plot violence. One Israeli officer swoons in the heat and Arab women take her into the cool house. A thoroughbred gets loose and runs to a mined field; soldiers and Arabs must cooperate to rescue it. As darkness falls, tensions between army and villagers rise, and the groom’s wedding-night anger and impotence threaten family dignity and honor. Can cool heads prevail?Read More »

  • Rune Carlsten – Eviga länkar (1946)

    1941-1950DramaRune CarlstenSweden
    Eviga länkar (1946)
    Eviga länkar (1946)

    Hilda Granström runs a ladies’ tailoring shop. Her husband Richard is a cellist in the Opera Orchestra. Their three daughters help out in Hilda’s shop. Richard’s 80-year-old mother, who once was a dancer, also lives with the family.Read More »

  • Tito Davison – Que Dios me perdone AKA May God Forgive Me (1948)

    1941-1950DramaFilm NoirMexicoTito Davison
    Que Dios me perdone (1948)
    Que Dios me perdone (1948)

    Lena is a spy who manages to seduce rich men only to obtain information.Read More »

  • István Szöts – Emberek a havason AKA People on the Alps (1942)

    István Szöts1941-1950DramaHungary
    Emberek a havason (1942)
    Emberek a havason (1942)

    Quote:
    Arguably the most gifted Hungarian filmmaker of his generation, István Sz ts has been compared by critics to Ford, Vigo and Renoir. His forgotten masterpiece, People of the Mountains, is the story of a woodcutter and his family who live high in mountains of Transylvania. Forced out of their home, they are enticed into working for the very company that ejected them, only for their lives to begin to unravel one tragic misfortune after another.Read More »

  • William A. Seiter – A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)

    William A. Seiter1941-1950ComedyRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA
    A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)
    A Lady Takes a Chance (1943)

    Synopsis:
    A New York bank clerk,Mollie Truesdale (Jean Arthur), in the late 1930s, finds that her cherished dream of making a 17-day all-expenses-paid bus trip to the Pacific Coast and back, isn’t all she thought it would be…until she reaches Oregon and a bucking broncho tosses a rodeo performer on top of her and knocks her flat. Duke Hudkins (John Wayne), by way of apology, shows her the sights of Fairfield, Oregon, and she misses her bus, quarrels with the bewildered Duke, hitchhikes across a lot of desert…and a romance is born.Read More »

  • Abel Gance – Vénus aveugle AKA Blind Venus (1941)

    Abel Gance1941-1950DramaFrance
    Vénus aveugle (1941)
    Vénus aveugle (1941)

    Synopsis:
    The beautiful Clarisse learns that she is going blind, and in order to prevent her lover Madére, a boatman, from sacrificing himself for her, she decides to break with him, pretending she no longer loves him. Madère angrily leaves, and Clarisse takes a job as a singer in a harbour bar to support herself and her crippled sister Mireille. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she wants to confess everything to Madère, but he has left on a year-long voyage with a new lover Giselle…Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Banshun AKA Late Spring (1949)

    Yasujiro Ozu1941-1950AsianDramaJapan
    Banshun (1949)
    Banshun (1949)

    Quote:
    Shukichi is a professor, a widower, absorbed in his work. His unmarried daughter, Noriko, runs his household for him. Both are perfectly content with this arrangement until the old man’s sister declares that her niece should get married. Noriko is, after all, in her mid-20s; in Japan in 1949, a single woman that old is approaching the end of her shelf life. His sister warns the professor that after his death Noriko will be left alone in the world; it is his duty to push her out of the nest and find a husband who can support her. The professor reluctantly agrees. When his daughter opposes any idea of marriage, he tells her he is also going to remarry. That is a lie, but he will sacrifice his own comfort for his daughter’s future. She marries.Read More »

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