1970s

Quote:
Diahann Carroll is radiant in an unforgettable, Oscar-nominated performance as Claudine, a strong-willed single mother, raising six kids in Harlem, whose budding relationship with a gregarious garbage collector (an equally fantastic James Earl Jones) is stressed by the difficulty of getting by in an oppressive system. As directed by the formerly blacklisted leftist filmmaker John Berry, this romantic comedy with a social conscience deftly balances warm humor with a serious look at the myriad issues—from cycles of poverty to the indignities of the welfare system—that shape its characters’ realities. The result is an empathetic chronicle of both Black working-class struggle and Black joy, a bittersweet, bighearted celebration of family and community set to a sunny soul soundtrack composed by Curtis Mayfield and performed by Gladys Knight & the Pips.Read More »

Quote:
Performance is a 1970 British crime drama film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, written by Cammell and starring James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in his film acting debut. The film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970. Cammell was heavily influenced by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (a portrait of Borges on a book cover can be seen at a crucial moment in the film).Read More »

Het Witte Kasteel (1973)

Part of Johan van der Keuken’s North/South series, The White Castle focuses on the impact of the West on the underclass: on the concrete realities of their daily life and on the way their existence is isolated and frustrated. Interweaving images of the Spanish tourist mecca of Formentera, a community center in Columbus, Ohio, and factories in the Netherlands, the film vividly illustrates the fragmented, alienated lives that the market economy produces and chillingly portrays what van der Keuken saw as “a conveyor belt [that] runs across the world.”Read More »

Synopsis:
Yawalak e Sailuk, a girl and a boy fallen in love respectively with other persons, in order to avoid marriages established by their parents against their owns feelings, leave the native village and wander through wild areas until they reach a ruined temple. Here they are welcome by the Priest of Love and introduced into a community made up of young couples who follow the master’s precepts. The master, telling a lot of love or erotic oriental tales, teaches the secrets of the most natural, complete and satisfactory copulationRead More »

Salome (1973)

Clive Barker wrote:

These are home movies, they are movies that were made in people’s cellars and people’s front rooms, with a lot of passion and no money. I think they are interesting little films, almost a thing prophetic about them in a sense, particularly in ‘The Forbidden’, the atmosphere of dread and anxiety that hangs over the movie and obviously the erotic elements and the nails in the nail board. These definitely prefigure what we see later in the Hellraiser movies. I think they are an interesting artefact, and I am glad they have found their way to video. Just for the average filmgoer, they wouldn’t mean a whole heap. For people who are really familiar with my whole mythology and my approach to things I think they are an interesting piece of insight in to how these images and ideas developed over the years.Read More »

Ne naginji se van (1977)

IMDB:
Encouraged by the stories of guest workers who pay visit to their homeland, a young man Filip finds himself on a central station in Frankfurt on the Main, Germany. While looking for his old friend Mate who would help him to get around in new environment, Filip experiences one trouble after another until he finally finds Mate lethally wounded.Read More »

From All Movie Guide:
“Suicide has long been used as a form of social protest in Japan. In this film, set in 1703, samurai culture is being transformed by the emergence of a new merchant class. Elements of the social contract are beginning to unravel, and some unscrupulous people took undue advantage of these changes before the social order was re-created. In this story, a rich merchant gives his clerk an I.O.U. instead of wages. When the impoverished clerk presents the paper to the merchant at the agreed upon time asking for payment, the man flies into a rage and pretends he never wrote it and claims the clerk is trying to defraud him. Then he sets his henchmen on the clerk to administer a beating. Though similar in story and period, this is a different film from the 1969 Double Suicide by director Masahiro Shinoda.”Read More »

Proshu slova (1977)

Quote:
The title is a Russian expression meaning “I wish to speak”. This is one of my three favorite Panfilov films which I consider masterpieces, the other two being “Nachalo” and “Tema”; Panfilov wrote this script by himself it seems. It shows, this film is genius. For me, this is honestly one of the most thought-provoking films of my life. Perfectly written. It is about a family woman who was made the mayor of a town. I am mystified by this film. Not since Tarkovsky have I felt this strange spiritual energy, and that’s saying something. This is the last Panfilov film I saw, I’ve seen five others. The incredible world of the characters is what reminds me of a Tarkovsky movie. This movie is about a family. It could be said to be about a lot of things.Read More »

La peau de Torpedo (1970)
Synopsis
A secret agent is murdered by his jealous wife who mistakenly interprets his absences from home as acts of infidelity. This triggers a deadly chain of events. Will she be next?Read More »