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Ewald André Dupont - Piccadilly (1929)

scalisto — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:20:45 GMT

One of the pinnacles of British silent cinema, Piccadilly is a sumptuous showbusiness melodrama seething with sexual and racial tension. Chinese-American screen goddess Anna May Wong stars as Shosho, a scullery maid in a fashionable London nightclub whose sensuous table-top dance catches the eye of suave club owner Valentine Wilmot. With her exotic dance routines she rises to become the toast of London and the object of Wilmot’s erotic obsession — prompting the bitter jealousy of Mabel, his former lover and star dancer (played by Ziegfeld Follies star Gilda Gray). Contemporary fears and temptations of miscegenation are played out through Wong as the subject of fatal passions.

Seijun Suzuki - Hishu monogatari aka A Story of Sorrow And Sadness (1977)

scalisto — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 18:50:02 GMT

After Suzuki was fired for making 'incomprehensible' movies his first effort back after a long period of industry suppression was "Story Of Sorrow And Sadness". In this corporate-victimization expose professional model Reiko (Shiraki) is dramatically groomed for a top spot on the golf tour. Her handlers saw her as an easy 'sell' if she could just prove worthy enough at the chosen sport. Her surprising victory in her first professional competition opens the door for her huge celebrity status as a bikini-clad TV talk show hostess. All the trappings of public adoration are forced, almost Bunuel-like, to the surface with protagonist indifference towards her fans, abuse, irresponsibility and a bit of sexual dalliance. Let's make it clear - this is just as incomprehensible as most other Suzuki films - filled with some Imamura-style sexuality and each scene as unexpected and unpredictable as the next. Certainly another bizarre product of the psychedelic mind of a cult icon in Japanese cinema.

Nikita Mikhalkov - A Few Days in the Life of I.I. Oblomov (1979) Re-post

scalisto — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 12:10:15 GMT

Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov takes a break from emulating his beloved Chekhov to film the classic Ivan Goncharov novel Oblomov. The title character (played by Oleg Tabakov) is a 19th century Russian civil servant and landlord who chooses to go to bed one day--and never get up. Preferring to sleep his way through life rather than confront it, Oblomov is shaken from his slumbers by the arrival of a childhood friend Shtoltz. A series of flashbacks show why it is that this friend's presence gets Oblomov out of his 'jammies and back on his feet.

Özer Kiziltan - Takva aka A Man's Fear Of God (2006)

scalisto — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:05:14 GMT

Humble and introvert Muharrem lives in a solitary and meager existence of a prayer and sexual abstinence adhering strictly to the most severe Islamic doctrines. His extraordinary devotion attracts the attention of the leader of a rich and powerful Istanbul religious group and he offers him an administrative post as a rent collector for their numerous properties. Muharrem's new job throws him into the modern outside world he has successfully avoided for so long. He soon witnesses a conflicting attitude toward alcohol consumption and goodwill. He notices that he himself has become proud, domineering and even dishonest. To make matters worse, Muharrem's inner peace is unnerved by the tormenting image of a seductive woman who tempts him in his dreams, both night and day. With the balance of his devotion now upset, his fear of God begins to eat away at his senses.

Marcel Carné - Nogent, Eldorado du dimanche (1929)

scalisto — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:39:24 GMT

This was an amateur venture at making an atmospheric silent film, dealing with the simple pleasures of simple people on a Sunday afternoon, near Paris, along the River Marne. It showed couples dancing to accordion music, soldiers in the fields, and a little working-class girl, lonely in her bare bedroom. Carné shot his film with the help of Michel Sanvoisin, a clockmaker of some note in the amateur cinema world.

René Clair - It Happened Tomorrow (1944)

scalisto — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:13:01 GMT

An ambitious newspaper reporter, eager to scoop the competition, wishes he could know the news before it happens. A mysterious old man grants the reporter that power, even as he cautions against using it. Now able to predict the news 24 hours in advance, the reporter goes about scooping all the other papers, picking sure-fire winners at the race track, and enjoying life... until he learns -- in advance, of course -- of his own death. Our hero's problem: How can he keep the future from happening?

Anthony Harvey - The Lion In Winter (1968)

scalisto — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 15:45:53 GMT

Christmas 1183 - an aging and conniving King Henry II plans a reunion where he hopes to name his successor. He summons the following people for the holiday: his scheming but imprisoned wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine; his mistress, Princess Alais, whom he wishes to marry; his three sons (Richard, Geoffrey, and John), all of whom desire the throne; and the young but crafty King Philip of France (who is also Alais' brother). With the fate of Henry's empire at stake, everybody engages in their own brand of deception and treachery to stake their claim.

Mario Monicelli - Un Borghese piccolo piccolo aka An Average Little Man (1977)

scalisto — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:07:02 GMT

Giovanni Vivaldi, a modest modest pen pusher close to his retirement, has educated his son Mario with great efforts. Now he believes his son's accountant diploma should earn him a job at the Ministry where he works. To facilitate this, Vivalidi joins a freemason's lodge where the higher-ranking employees of the Ministry belong. On the day of the test for the job, something goes terribly wrong...

Marcel Ophüls - Le chagrin et la pitié aka The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) Re-post

scalisto — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:38:21 GMT

The Sorrow and the Pity. From 1940 to 1944, France's Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany. Marcel Ophüls mixes archival footage with 1969 interviews of a German officer and of collaborators and resistance fighters from Clermont-Ferrand. They comment on the nature, details and reasons for the collaboration, from anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and fear of Bolsheviks, to simple caution. Part one, "The Collapse," includes an extended interview with Pierre Mendès-France, jailed for anti-Vichy action and later France's Prime Minister. At the heart of part two, "The Choice," is an interview with Christian de la Mazière, one of 7,000 French youth to fight on the eastern front wearing German uniforms.

Fritz Lang - Das Wandernde Bild AKA The Wandering Image (1920)

scalisto — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:53:39 GMT

A woman (Mia May) runs away from her abusive husband. She ends up in some mountain era where she hides out only to run into what appears to be her husband's twin brother. Soon the husband is back on her trail as she runs into a former boyfriend who had taken a vow of celibacy.

Claude Miller - Garde à vue aka The Grilling Re-post (1981)

scalisto — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:50:51 GMT

Inspector Gallien is investigating the rape and murder of two little girls. The only suspect is attorney Jerome Martinaud, but the evidence against him is circumstantial. As the city celebrates New Year's Eve, Gallien calls Martinaud to his office and interrogates him for hour after hour while Martinaud continues to maintain his innocence. We learn all about the evidence; we meet Martinaud's wife and learn all about the rift between the two; but will we, and Gallien, finally learn whether Martinaud is guilty?

Esteban Sapir - La antena (2007) Re-post

scalisto — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:17:32 GMT

A completely unique take on silent cinema in this fairy-tale like story by Esteban Sapir, beautifully shot in black-and-white and practically without dialog, "La Antena" is a feast for the eye and a must for lovers of German expressionist cinema, with most of the nods to the works of Fritz Lang and Friedrich Murnau.

Mike Leigh - Bleak Moments (1971)

scalisto — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:04:39 GMT

Mike Leigh's assured first feature, Bleak Moments, already demonstrates his skill with actors, and his unique ability to create complex characters whose behavior confounds audience expectations. In this film, as in most of his work, Leigh captures truths about human behavior. The action in Bleak Moments appears simple on its surface, but there's a richness to this work that withstands repeated viewings. Leigh is greatly aided by his cast, particularly by the restrained fierceness of Anne Raitt's performance as Sylvia.

Manoel de Oliveira - Aniki Bóbó (1942)

scalisto — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:00:52 GMT

One of the earliest features by Portugal's most renowned director, it was also one of De Oliveira's best-known works for many years. Using the actual children of the area, the film follows the adventures of street urchins growing up in the slums of Oporto and on the banks of the river. Much simpler in style and more approachable than many of De Oliveira's later films, it has excellent location photography and natural performances from the kids.

Yoshishige Yoshida - Kokuhakuteki joyûron aka Confessions among actresses (1971)

scalisto — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:35:47 GMT

Confessions, indiscretions, actresses. A game betwen acting and confessing. But a pretext for another Yoshida's materspiece, where the eye is the king of the meaning.

Claire Denis - White Material (2009)

scalisto — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:58:12 GMT

A contemporary story set in an unnamed African country torn by a rebellion. In a rural province, birthplace of one of the rebel chiefs, Maria, a fierce and fearless white woman, refuses to abandon her coffee crops, or to acknowledge the danger to which she is exposing her family. For Maria, to leave is to surrender: a sign of weakness, of cowardice. On this plantation which has already supported three generations of whites, André - her ex-husband and father of their teenage son - is frightened by her blind, stubborn pride. Without her knowing, he resolves to arrange the family's escape to France. The crops no longer mean anything to him. He has married again, a young African woman with whom he has a son, and for them, he will stop at nothing. Not even at betraying Maria by placing her destiny in the hands of the local mayor, a man he believes to be his friend...

Mikio Naruse - Tabi yakusha aka Travelling Actors (1940)

scalisto — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:03:43 GMT

Lovely comedy about two actors who play the front and back legs of a horse and feel their artistry is unappreciated. When the self important barber who funds their show decides to replace them with a real horse, they plan to get even.

Mikio Naruse - Shiroi yajuu aka White Beast (1950)

scalisto — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 11:45:56 GMT

The third film that Naruse made in 1950, White Beast (Shiroi yaji, 1950), was described by Kinema Junpo critic Tsumura Hideo three years later as "so indescribably miserable as to haunt me even today." Tsumura represents the bulk of Japanese critics of the time, who felt that Naruse experienced a terrible slump throughout the 1940s and this film seemed to be the "bottom of the ocean." The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its catfights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.

Henry Hathaway - Souls at Sea (1937)

scalisto — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:59:58 GMT

Gary Cooper and George Raft play a couple of seafaring buddies in this moral adventure saga set during the 1840s, when the slave-trade had been outlawed by the British Empire but was still a reality on the high seas. In its depiction of the friendship between two men, one of questionable character, the film bears some similarities to Hathaway’s Spawn of the North, made the following year.

Stanley Kubrick - Killer's Kiss (1955)

scalisto — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:00:46 GMT

Stanley Kubrick's second feature film, Killer's Kiss was made on a budget of $40,000, all raised by Kubrick's relatives. The black-and-white drama was shot principally at night in a variety of seedy Manhattan locations. The plot, told in an extended flashback, covers two days in the life of boxer Davy Gordon (Jamie Smith) -- he meets nightclub dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane); the two fall in love, and decide to make their futures somewhere other than New York City. But Gloria is lusted after by her ex-employer, Vince Rapallo (Frank Silvera), who not only won't take "no" for an answer but has no intention of losing her to a two-bit boxer. His machinations lead to murder, a police manhunt, and revenge in the best film noir fashion -- the very best, in fact, as Kubrick's use of real New York settings (and very ominous and sleazy New York settings at that) gives the action here a startling verisimilitude, as though we're watching a documentary, or the unfolding of actual events...