1960s

Synopsis (possible spoilers):
At Santa Monica, during 30s, two contending gangster bands claim for dominance on the city. Willing to solve permanently this situation, Johnny Bello sets an ambush for Jack Lo Dolce’s gang, killing them brutally.
The only survivor is Fred “il Solitario”, Jack Lo Dolce’s brother. Expecting Fred’s revenge, Johnny Bello charges one of his killers with finding and eliminating him. Fred, after avoiding successfully the killer’s search, becomes a friend of Fanny, Johnny’s girlfriend, from whom he hears details about a next coming robbery to a bank van. Lurking at the place designed to attack the van, Fred exterminates the whole Johnny’s gang, but during the shootout also Fanny dies. Captured and sentenced to die by the electric chair, Fred, while waiting for death, thinks back to his life, till that remote day when he, as a child, was forced to stand and watch his own parents’ murder: a trauma which had to lead him, along with his brother Jack, into the world of crimeRead More »

The story about the young Yakuza boss Jirocho, the role popularised by the great Chiezo Kataoka! An outstanding movie with intrigue and suspense directed by Masahiro Makino. This is the final in Makino’s Jirocho trilogy!

Synopsis:
When yakuza boss Jirocho learns about the illegal activities in the town of Kofu where poor towns people are being victimized by the local yakuza boss, he invites his disciples to set things right.Read More »

A young woman searches for her missing brother and the person responsible for the death of her parents. A speedy but not very proficient thief is looking for the big break. A samurai and a priest tries to save a servant girl from destitution. They all find a common purpose.Read More »

Synopsis
Norman Taylor, a psychology professor lecturing in belief and superstition, discovers that his wife Tansy is a practicing witch. She is insistent that her charms have been responsible for his academic success.Read More »

A woman and her daughter are in love with the same man, a chef at the restaurant that the mother manages. He is slightly crippled from frostbite in his years in Siberian labor camps and considers himself “already dead.”Read More »

Synopsis
A rich and lonely American widow befriends two young people whose motives become suspect.Read More »

Synopsis:
Little moments in the course of a very brief romance make up the bulk of this tender, lyrical film, the only one ever directed by Gennady Schpalykov, better known as a screenwriter. On a bus filled with young people going for an outing to the theater, Victor (K. Lavrov), a scruffy geologist, and Lena (I. Gulaya), a young factory worker, strike up a conversation. He has traveled to many interesting places, she is young, recently divorced, and has a child. When she invites him to join the group at the theater, he says that he’s too grungy to go there. However, after he gets off the bus, he rushes around getting himself cleaned up, somehow manages to make it into the sold-out theater, and finds Lena. They leave during intermission, and he walks her home. The next day, she brings her daughter along to meet him where he has been staying, and they share a nice lunch together, until he abruptly leaves.Read More »

One of Joris Ivens’ most poetic films is his first attempt to film the wind. With a beautiful photography, a powerful editing and a poetic commentary the film tries to make the wind visible and tangible. It starts in black and white, continues in colour and ends in cinemascope to illustrate the force of the upcoming Mistral wind that blows in the south of France. The original scenario was much more elaborate and ambitious and fits Ivens’ lifelong wish to film the impossible: the wind. It was difficult to find a producer for this film, for most people were rather sceptical to finance a film with an invisible main character. Finally Claude Nedjar was willing to produce the film, which despite many financial problems was finished in 1965.Read More »

Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak (1960)

Quote:
Two young people, Walter and Charlotte, are walking through a small village in Switzerland a snowy winter day. Walter introduces Charlotte to Clara, hoping to make Charlotte jealous. After saying good-bye to Clara, Walter accompanies Charlotte into her house, although she doesn’t want him to. Charlotte is hungry and cooks a steak. She asks Walter if he wants a piece of it. He says no, but she gives him a small piece anyway. He wants a kiss, and she says no. She starts to compare herself with Clara, who Walter agrees is more beautiful. In spite of this, Walter says he likes Charlotte much more, but she thinks he is lying. She notices that he is cold and shivering. She hugs him, he kisses her, and she starts kissing him. After leaving the house he accompanies her to the train.Read More »