1960s

Synopsis:
In this slow-starting but effective drama, comedian Alberto Sordi changes hats to play Silvio Magnozzi, a man so dedicated to his high moral standards that he loses out on most of the things he wants in life -including his wife. He watches while others march up the ladder of success way ahead of him, sometimes by hypocritically licking the boots of their superiors or doing just anything at all to attain advancement. After his death grip on his principles causes his wife to walk out, Silvio relents and starts to live like others. Now he is supposedly happily residing on Easy Street, his wife is back — and so what is bugging him?
~ Eleanor MannikkaRead More »

Documentary which take as subject the Oberhausen Group and New German Cinema. An ironic look back at the Oberhausen Manifesto and its impact.
With Ferdinand Khittl, Haro Senft, Franz-Josef Spieker, Vlado Kristl, Peter Schamoni, Enno Patalas, Ulrich Gregor, Uwe Nettelbeck, Rudolf Noelte, Hilmar Hoffmann, Artur Brauner, Peter Bamberger, Rudolf Thome, Klaus Lemke, Max ZihlmannRead More »

A Chinese scientist flies to USA in order to declare that his country is now provided with nuclear weapons.
But the plane is intercepted by secret service and shot down on the Italian territory during the flight.
Nevertheless the scientist is just injured. He’s wanted by many nations but the secret agent Robert Kent luckily comes to his defence.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Two old school friends, both in their late twenties. One lives on his parent’s rural estate and does nothing; the other half-heartedly pursues work as a journalist in Düsseldorf. While he allows himself to be lulled by the stifling petty bourgeoisie of his mother-in-law to be, he also enjoys the baronial hunting parties in the country. With their indifferent attitude, the two make cynical and blasé comments about prevailing conventions – the ones they’ll never break away from… Precisely located in place via documentary images, and in time with a reference to “the new Godard” (Une femme mariée), Schonzeit für Füchse is a milieu study that recaps the end of the Adenauer era for the petty and grand bourgeoisie in the lower Rhine region. Read More »

Quote:
The Leopard is more than a tad too pleased by its own spots, but in this case the source material and its director’s intentions were almost accidentally an appropriate match. The film is based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s 1958 bestselling historical novel, which, all literary credentials aside, probably hit the exact same nerve in Italy that Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind did in America 20-odd years prior. Like the 1939 MGM adaptation of Mitchell’s Civil War soap opera, The Leopard seems more interested in the behavior of textiles and the performance of its own art director than it is with accurately depicting a truly historic national moment.Read More »

Quote:
This black and white documentary film reports on a brigade of women, they are the “stars” of a Berlin light bulb factory. What is striking is the cordiality and good cooperation within the women’s group, despite their monotonous work in the control area in the production of tungsten wires, also called filaments. Original tones are inserted to convey the joys, the cheerfulness and quick-wittedness that they have despite their burden of family and work. A problem of the wrong way of counting the female workers is openly addressed by the brigade leader and in a countercut Inge introduces her baby to her colleagues in the company. Everything seems like one big family and nobody can really imagine being without this work.Read More »

This adaptation of the 1947 novel by Laszlo Nemeth follows the story of a lonely woman who is not interested in men but is forced into a marriage, which turns out badly, against her will.Read More »

Detectives working for an airline suspect a club owner of smuggling heroin in consignments of artificial flowers. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard are investigating a series of killings of young women associated with the club, all the bodies being found along with a handful of plastic daffodils…Read More »

Quote:
Films that explore mental illness, especially Hollywood productions such as The Snake Pit, The Three Faces of Eve and A Brilliant Mind, usually tend to be heavy on the histrionics providing highly dramatic showcases and Oscar award opportunities for actors. But a descent into madness isn’t always signaled by wildly disruptive or overwrought behavior from the afflicted. Sometimes the illness can creep up slowly by degrees and pass for something more fleeting and subtle that avoids detection during the early stages. Life Upside Down (La vie à l’envers), directed by Alain Jessua, is a remarkable example of this, presenting a man who goes quietly mad while interpreting his erratic behavior as a profound new self-awareness.Read More »