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A 1972 crime film directed by Steno and starring Enrico Maria Salerno. Set during Italy’s tumultuous anni di piombo (“Years of Lead”), the film obtained a great commercial success.
Italian film historian Roberto Curti stated that many critics have consider Execution Squad to be the initiator of the “poliziottesco” film genre. Curti opined that Execution Squad was just a logical continuation of Damiano Damiani’s Confessions of a Police Captain.Read More »
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Jean Eustache is filming an evening with friends here, during which actor-turned-psychoanalyst Jean-Noël Picq delivers his personal analysis of Jérôme Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. Between this conversation between friends, cigarette and glass of wine in hand, the infernal creatures of Bosch arise, raising more questions than explanations…Read More »
The film sought to portray a relatively unknown and isolated rural world and, through a highly politicized discourse, affirmed the genuineness of “folk culture.” Representative of the new documentary film movement that developed in Portugal after the revolution, the movie encouraged the local retrieval of the Caretos tradition. A ritual that seemed to be doomed by the conjoined impact of emigration, the colonial war and the crisis of agriculture was thus brought back to life. – Paulo RaposoRead More »
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I had a garden where I grew Asparagus from seed – it’s a very primitive vegetable going back to the time of the dinosaurs. It comes out of the ground as a phallic stalk, pointy and purple green, the essence of a beautiful masculine form. But then as summer passes it stretches tall and becomes a delicate fern, seen on roadsides tilting in the wind, the essence of the feminine like long strands of tangled hair in the breeze. I thought of it as a beautiful symbol of sexuality. From that I made a visual poem about the creative process, taking the role of the magician/artist as the protagonist who ushers the viewers through her search for the essence of the creative forces which rule and drive our existence.
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Jared Martin plays an aspiring filmmaker obsessed with the idea of Christ as a woman, and tries to film his vision with Sondra Locke as his subject. Supposedly based on a song by Leonard Cohen, which is used in the film.Read More »
Det Danske Filminstitut wrote:
A very special TV production: In the studio, Leth reads from several of his poetry collections, while a subtitle – as in ‘Life in Denmark’ – meticulously, but double-bound, records observations and describes the process. The subtext thus seems to function as a medium for the director’s reflections as the TV film progresses. (…) Alternating with the poetry reading in the studio, the second part of the film consists of snapshots from the 1970 Tour de France stage race, including the cobblestone roads of northern France, Mont Ventoux and the cathedral sprint in Rouen, which is shown three times.’Read More »
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Almost the entire hour and three-quarters of Jean Eustache’s 1971 film “Numéro Zéro” is filled with the director’s interview of his grandmother Odette Robert on Feb. 12th of that year. Eustache includes in the film the conditions of its production—the director himself is seated at the table with her, pours her some whiskey, speaks with the camera operator, manipulates the clapboard at the head and tail of the reels, and even takes a phone call from a foreign firm that wants to distribute one of his early short films. Odette Robert had come from her home in the provinces to live with Eustache in Paris and help care for his son Boris (who is seen, at the beginning of the film, helping guide her through the streets of Paris—she had recently had eye operations and had to wear dark lenses, including on-camera).Read More »
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“JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS alternates and sometimes combines life-size cardboard animations with live performances by children and the effect is entirely unified and delightful.” – Edgar Daniels, Filmmakers Newsletter “Suzan Pitt [Kraning]’s films possess an absolutely cosmic sense of patience, of things happening at their own speed and with their own logic. Made with children, JEFFERSON CIRCUS SONGS is a string of puzzling little episodes, some using cut-out animation, some featuring a pixilated cast clad in moppet wigs with stockings stretched over their faces. After its screening at the 1973 New York Filmmaker’s Expo, critic Rex Reed noted that ‘most of it is quite sophisticated and brilliant. It’s likeable because it’s perfect for what it is – a fantasy – and such things, if done well and with talent and vision, need no outside logic … like looking into a Faberge egg.’ ” – Ron Epple, Media and MethodsRead More »
Another great East German children’s film. Pay particular attention to the freon-sucking snowman.
Synopsis
Every day on the beach at Coccatuttibana, a girl stands and waits for the “Wismar“. Her friend Karli will be on this ship, and he is going to bring her something which does not exist in Africa. Finally the day arrives. Asina gets her present – a talking snowman. But the cool man cannot survive the African sun. Asina and her friend Karli must think of something soon….Read More »