1950s

Synopsis:
Mr. Mito (Shuji Sano), a Tokyo businessman, is demoted and sent to Osaka. There, he finds lodging in the titular inn, and makes the acquaintance of many of the town’s citizens. Notable among them are the maids at the inn, a hard-drinking geisha, and a mysterious woman Mito encounters at the mailbox. In Japan, director Gosho’s name is synonymous with melancholy and finding laughter through tears; An Inn at Osaka bears up that reputation. The struggle to stay afloat in life, especially financially, is a running theme of the film, as all of the characters struggle with looming poverty and gnawing loneliness, but it all ends with a kind of quiet triumph.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Germany, 1933. Fearing that the rise of Nazism will inevitably lead to war, a number of officers band together to form an anti-Hitler group. They recruit a journalist, Golder, to take a plan of the German offensive to the Allies. But by the time he is able to rejoin them it is too late…’
– French Film SiteRead More »

Yuzo Kawashima’s adaptation of Toyoko Yamasaki’s first novel.Read More »

Johnny One-Eye was adapted from one of Damon Runyon’s lesser-known stories. Pat O’Brien and Wayne Morris star as Martin Martin and Dane Cory respectively, former partners in crime who have long since split up. When a new district attorney puts the heat on, Cory, anxious to save his own hide, accuses Martin of an unsolved murder. Holed up in abandoned house, Martin is befriended by a little girl (Gayle Reed) and her dog. It so happens that the girl is the daughter of the crusading DA, and thereby hangs the rest of this tale. Produced by Benedict Bogeaus, Johnny One-Eye co-stars Bogeaus’ wife Dolores Moran as a moll named Lily White. The film represented the last directorial assignment of Robert Florey, who retired shortly afterward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

Quote:
There has never been a face quite like that of Giulietta Masina. Her husband, the legendary Federico Fellini, directs her as Gelsomina in La strada, the film that launched them both to international stardom. Gelsomina is sold by her mother into the employ of Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutal strongman in a traveling circus. When Zampanò encounters an old rival in highwire artist the Fool (Richard Basehart), his fury is provoked to its breaking point. With La strada, Fellini left behind the familiar signposts of Italian neorealism for a poetic fable of love and cruelty, evoking brilliant performances and winning the hearts of audiences and critics worldwide. The Criterion Collection is proud to present La strada, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1956.Read More »

Quote:
Harshness and beauty exist side by side in this look at the lives of sulfur mine workers and their families in southern Italy.Read More »

A woman whose past is scorned by nearly everyone around her meets a man who’d love her regardlessly- if only everyone else would allow them to.Read More »

From sunrise to sunset, Vittorio De Seta chronicles the lives of Sardinian women who look after both home and fields while their shepherd husbands are away tending their flocks.Read More »

Quote:
This prize-winning short is a poetic portrait of life on the coast of Sicily before, during, and following a volcanic eruption.Read More »