1940s

Synopsis
Five children in an apparently ideal American small town find their lives changing as the years pass near the turn of the century in 1900. Parris and Drake, both of whom have lost their parents, are best friends; Parris dreams of becoming a doctor, studying under the father of his sweetheart Cassie, while Drake plans on becoming a local businessman when he receives his full inheritance – juggling girlfriends in the meantime. As they become adults, the revelations of local secrets threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams…Read More »

Synopsis
An experimental computer animation film series from John & James Whitney.
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A group of female doctors travel to a remote village during their summer holiday to offer free medical care to villagers. There they must battle prejudice and superstition as much as disease. Stars Kinuyo Tanaka and Shin Saburi.Read More »

A letter is addressed to three wives from their “best friend” Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands–but she doesn’t say which one.Read More »

Brief Synopsis:
An actor, Paul Orman, is accidentally told that his new, custom made tail coat has been cursed and it will bring misfortune to all who wear it. As the 4 succeeding wearers of the coat discover, misfortune can often lead to truth.Read More »

Quote
Begins with a three beat announcement drawn out in time which thereafter serves as a figure to divide the four sections. Each return of this figure is more condensed, and finally used in reverse to conclude the film.

The brothers John & James Whitney created their remarkable series of Film Exercises between 1943 and 1944. These films are visually based on modernist composition theory, the carefully varied permutations of form are manipulated with cut-out masks so that the image photographed is pure direct light shaped, rather than the light reflected from drawings as in traditional animation. Read More »

BRUCE GENTRY, based on a short-lived but well-done post-World War Two adventure comic strip, begins in South America, where Bruce Gentry (Tom Neal), pilot and adventurer, is recruited by a US government agent (Dale Van Sickel) who needs to fly to the States in a hurry. After fighting off some thugs pursuing the agent, Bruce takes to the air with his passenger, who explains that he’s been gathering information on a plot engineered by an unnamed foreign power (it’s those Russians again!) and traitorous American fifth columnists that has as its goal the conquest of the nations of the Americas–North, Central, and South. The weapon the would-be-conquerors intend to use shortly after comes on the scene: a sinister flying saucer that heads for Bruce’s plane at an incredible rate of speed.Read More »

Quote:
Information film that was an important part of the rural electrification campaign, set up as part of the New Deal policies of president F.D. Roosevelt. Privatised electricity companies of the U.S. cities saw no profit in bringing electricity all the way to the sparsely populated countryside, so the ministry of Agriculture tried to convince farmers to set up co-operations which in turn could buy power from the government.
Ivens selected a model farm and family, the Parkinsons, and shows the daily life on the farm before and after the installation of electricity. The films was seen by over 6 million people until 1961 and houses besides the two main components of American culture (untamed pastoral nature versus industrial progress) many autobiographical aspects. The whole film is staged with the farmer’s family acting as themselves. Today we’d call this a docudrama. The Parkinson’s farm had already been electrified several months before the shooting.Read More »

16 year old orphan Tomi (played by Hideko Takamine) was a wild and unsettled girl. The juvenile court punishes her to be sent into the mountains of Aoyama for reeducation. Here she is taken care of by the teacher Miss Yamada, which is kind but has troubles getting along with the girls that are sent to her…
The director Aoyagi, wo directed a number of entertainment films during the war, deals with the topic of punishment and problematic youngsters. The film is very different and much more dramatic from films by Hiroshi Shimizu or Hiroshi Inagaki dealing with similar topic. The film depicts the roughness of the young girls and the brutality amongst them in a more realistic way. He takes a rare approach by not having Tomi say anything at all during the first half of the film. The film is also interesting from a historical point of view in putting the focus on the attitude of the Japanese state towards problematic young people during the war.Read More »