1960s

In this magnificently inscrutable late-sixties masterpiece, Marco Ferreri, one of European cinema’s most idiosyncratic auteurs, takes us through the looking glass to one seemingly routine night in the life of an Italian gas mask designer, played, in a tour de force performance, by New Wave icon Michel Piccoli. In his claustrophobic mod home, he pampers his pill-popping wife, seduces his maid, and uncovers a gun that may have once been owned by John Dillinger—and then things get even stranger. A surreal political missive about social malaise, Dillinger Is Dead (Dillinger è morto) finds absurdity in the mundane. It is a singular experience, both illogical and grandly existential.Read More »

In the 1930s, chaos and misery reign over Düsseldorf as the Nazis begin their campaign of terror. But the city is afflicted by another menace, a serial killer who writes a letter to the police every time he murders a young woman. Who would suspect Peter Kuerten, a man who is so mild and unassuming? His only passion is Anna, a singer in a café, but she ignores him and makes fun of him. One day, Peter meets two young country girls, Paula and Rosa. Not long afterwards, Paula is found dead and Rosa, the prime witness to this murder, is herself killed a few days later. Unaware of Peter’s dark exploits, Anna becomes his lover. But then she finds one of the messages he sends to the police…Read More »

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This movie was originally filmed in 1962 as Zastava Ilyicha (The Ilyich Gate). It was one of the first films that reflected the younger generation’s resentment of the older generation’s ways. The original title referred to Lenin’s paternal name (his full name was Vladimir Ilyich Lenin). Even after the decanonization of Stalin, Lenin still remained the icon for the old generation. “Ilyich” was often used as an affectionate term in Soviet iconography. The film invoked Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev’s sharp criticism. Meeting the studio members, he said: “Do you want us to believe in the scene where a father doesn’t know how to answer his son’s question “how to live?” At the censor’s insistence the movie was re-cut and released under the “apolitical” title Mne Dvatdsat Let (I’m Twenty) in 1964. In 1991, the film was re-released and shown at the London Film Festival with ninety minutes of the original footage restored, resulting in a film which was 175 minutes long.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Retired military officer Richard Briand-Charmery, known to all as “The Commandant”, gambles every centime he has on horse racing bets. When his luck is down, he supplies his friends with false betting tips, knowing that the friend whose bet comes off will give him a fraction of the winnings. One day, Richard meets up with an old flame, Maud, and passes an evening with her at his expense. To pay the bill for the evening’s extravagance, the Commandant tries his scam on a naive restaurateur, Ripeux…’
– Films de FranceRead More »

A beautiful short by the Iranian director about the archaelogical excavations in the area of the Marlik hills. Narrated by Golestan, the film features a reflective voice-over text exploring the lives, hopes and myths of the people who once lived there and who live there today. A very lyrical film, and a small masterpiece.Read More »

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In 1960s Germany, criminal mastermind Dr. Mabuse uses hypnotized victims and the surveillance equipment of a Nazi-era bugged hotel to steal nuclear technology from a visiting American industrialist.Read More »

Synopsis:
A strange case baffles the police and the citizens of a German small town. A two-year old girl has disappeared. There are suspects, innocents, guilty ones and a web of lies. It’s saturday afternoon, and Achim’s parents are invited for a topping-out ceremony. The neighbour’s daughter, Monika (Renate Roland), is the babysitter for Achim (Sascha Urchs) and his little sister Kathrin, but Monika doesn’t take the job too serious. She’d rather go for a ride with her boyfriend. Through a unforeseen row of circumstances, Achim becomes the murderer of his sister, and hides the body in a wrecked car on the scrapyard. When the parents return home, a frantic search for the little child begins. Only the father (Sieghardt Rupp) seems to know the truth…Read More »

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Lena is about to marry when she finds out her fiance is a bad person. After leaving him, she seeks for a sense in her life through adventures with artists who are also searching their own identity. When raining, she meets Zhenya.Read More »

Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art:
Posing as a West German TV production crew, the two East German directors of this film persuaded a former leading German mercenary of the Congo civil war (one of many!) to discuss his activities and heroic achievements in what is surely one of the most sensational exposés of its kind. Continually smiling or laughing, this man, a self-acknowledged Nazi, proudly reveals that he went to the Congo to save Western civilization from Bolshevism – to complete the work of the Nazis. Dressed in his military jungle uniform (with his Second World War decorations) he waxes eloquent about the ‘colours’ of South Africa, ‘explains’ apartheid, and freely discusses his ‘adventures’. Shots of corpses, tortures, and executions of Blacks are intercut. It is not often that one can see and hear a real, ‘live’ Nazi in action, talking (more or less) freely because he presumed himself to be among friends instead of with two of the most clever political propagandists of our time, working for the other side.Read More »