1950s

In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe’s personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues, and bizarre secrets are revealed to him, he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth. Short on historical accuracy but strong on plot and characterization.Read More »

An impressionistic image of Warsaw rebuilt after the war and its residents. A kind of lyrical film version of a feature article, full of warm humour and enriched with observations of everyday life. (Awards: 1955 – 9th International Film Festival, Edinburgh, Honorary Diploma, 5th World Festival of Youth and Students, Warsaw, Gold Medal; 1956 – 5th Cultural and Documentary Film Week, Mannheim, Film Critics’ Award)Read More »

A classic tale of bravery and courage during WWII, Odette tells the true story of female war hero Odette Hallowes. After volunteering her services to the Special Operations Executive, Odette is despatched into Nazi occupied France and thrown into an intense world of espionage.Read More »

About the movie:
(fictionalised documentary), script and directing with Witold Lesiewicz. A two-part film. The part made by Munk is about the work ethos again, this time the work ethos of miners. It is a story about people from the mine’s management who want to fulfil the production quota, which is at risk of not being met, and go down an old, unused mine shaft to look for coal. The film is schematic in plot but interesting as to form. (Awards: 1955 – Special Mention from the State Award Committee)Read More »

Quote:
Robin Wood located the seeds for the ghoulish moppet’s maternal stabbing in Night of the Living Dead (and The Exorcist, The Omen, The Brady Bunch, et al.) in little Tootie pulverizing the snowmen in Meet Me in St. Louis; roots had already settled by the time Maxwell Anderson’s play about a soulless sprite got transplanted to screens, only the intergenerational anxiety is whipped into safe, static, psycho-babbling kitsch hysteria. Rhoda (Patty McCormick), the pigtailed, 8-year-old devil, skips back home from drowning a schoolmate and asks mom Nancy Kelly for a peanut-butter sandwich; a “perfect little ray of sunshine,” Au Clair de la Lune played on a loop while the handyman (Henry Jones), wise to the monster behind the curtsies, is barbecued in the basement. Read More »

“The espresso has a democratic note,” says Vesely’s study on urban life changings.
Italy has spread to Munich: cappuccino, ice cream and outdoor tables instead of beer pub. The generation gap in 1958 is already visible, because with espresso drinking the German youth set the tone.

An essay on the “Italianization” of life in Munich: an espresso bar and tables in the open air instead of the Hofbräuhaus.Read More »

A young and dynamic engineer, Mack Prite, whose talents have helped him rise above humble origins, struggles against an old entrenched capitalist whose oil company’s profits are threatened when Prite develops a plan to turn peat into usable energy.Read More »

Alice Rémon, a pharmacist, is a prostitute who managed to leave the streets by getting married. Her husband dies one day, poisoned. Her mother-in-law, who hates her, accuses her of murder.Read More »

This well-paced, effective drama by director Ko Nakahira eloquently decries the foibles of adultery by looking at a worst possible scenario. Young Kikuko (Yoko Katsuragi) is married to an older university professor and because of the age difference as well as several other factors, she is bored with the marriage and falls for one of his students, Yuichiro (Seiji Miyaguchi). The two manage to sneak off for stolen moments together and on one of those occasions in the park, they both witness a murder. Shocked by what they saw, the student insists that they immediately go to the police to testify against the killer. But this is Japan, after all, and the adulterous wife knows that losing face by losing her marriage over her infidelity is much worse than the need to identify a killer. Unfortunately for him, the student never quite sees it her way.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, RoviRead More »