1970s

This scathing black comedy from Cuban satirist Tomás Gutiérrez Alea is a dish that’s bitter to taste and hard to stomach. It’s an intricate and uncompromising fable that alarmingly boasts an authentic historical model.

In the 18th century, the wealthy owner of a sprawling Havana sugar plantation gives in to a misguided whim. As Holy Week approaches, he decides to host his own Last Supper, appointing himself as Christ and a dozen downtrodden slaves as the apostles. Held on Maundy Thursday, his re-enactment is a precarious proposition from the outset. At first, it offers Alea ample opportunity for comedy, as the pompous master cleans and flinchingly kisses the feet of the bemused slaves before taking to the table.Read More »

SHATRANJ-E BAAD
Film Notes

Shatranj-e Baad might be one of the most emblematic films in the history of Iranian cinema, even though its visibility was limited to a disastrous preview at Tehran International Film Festival in 1976. Due to an artistic conflict between Aslani and the festival curator, the projection was sabotaged, its reels were disrupted and projector malfunctioned. The critics walked out during the screening, as did the jury who pulled the film out of the competition. Instantly deemed elitist, the film was refused by all the distributors. Discouraged, the producer didn’t bother sending the film to the international festivals. Read More »

SYNOPSIS
In this period action-drama set in 15th century Japan, a band of youngsters have been taken from their families and brought to a secret village, where on the orders of the shogunate they are trained to become elite warriors sworn to protect their masters. As they learn the difficult and demanding ways of battle and espionage, they become the oniwaban, or “demon spies,” whose skills are almost supernatural in strength and power. When it is learned that one of the emperor’s vassals has broken his vows by establishing a private armory on his fiefdom, four of the young “demon spies” are sent in to destroy the weapons and bring the challenger to justice. Demon Spies marked a change of pace for director Tsuboshima Takashi, who was best known for his comedies. (Mark Deming on All Movie Guide)Read More »

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This scintillating screen version of Mozart’s beloved opera shows Bergman’s deep knowledge of music and his gift for expressing it in filmic terms. Casting some of Europe’s finest soloists—among them Josef Köstlinger, Ulrik Cold, and Håkan Hagegård—the director lovingly recreated the baroque theater of the Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm to stage the story of the prince Tamino (Köstlinger) and his zestful sidekick Papageno (Hagegård), who seek to save a beautiful princess (Irma Urrila) from the clutches of evil. A celebration of love, forgiveness, and the brotherhood of man, The Magic Flute is considered by many to be the most exquisite opera film ever made.Read More »

Two women, Karen (theatre director) and Lena, visit an island, a Swedish resort, where Lena’s ex-husband, Martin (choreographer), lives in comparative seclusion with a mentally disturbed ballet dancer named Carl. Carl is brother by guilt rather than blood, for Martin is somehow responsible for his breakdown.Read More »

Clay Lomax, a bank robber, gets out of jail after an 7 year sentence. He is looking after Sam Foley, the man who betrayed him. Knowing that, Foley hires three men to pay attention of Clay’s steps. The things get complicated when Lomax, waiting to receive some money from his ex-lover, gets only the notice of her death and an 7 year old girl, sometimes very annoying, presumed to be his daughter.Read More »

Short piece by Rut Hillarp (De vita händerna) based on a poem by Karl Vennberg.

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Rut Hillarp has an assured place in Swedish literary postwar modernism thanks both to her collections of poetry and her novels, tinged with erotic imagery and mythological patterns. After some decades of silence as a writer she re-emerged in the 1980s as a poet experimenting with photography and photo montage in combination with her poetry. Read More »

Not to be confused with the Borowczyk short of the same title, Zbigniew Szymanski’s film documents a day in the life of a worker. An exquisitely beautiful fusion of graphic and photographic imagery, similar in style to the great Jerzy Kucia’s films.Read More »

Michael Verhoeven shot the film on 16mm in the Vienna studio of painter Hundertwasser, for the first time with his wife Senta Berger as an actress.

Due to “Indecent Exposure” Verhoeven and his main actor were imprisoned for three days. The film was temporarily confiscated for its obscenity.Read More »