Filmed with a strong sense of compassion for the impoverished and an underlying hatred for the injustice which forces them into the lives they must live, this is one of the first works from Brazil's Cinema Novo. A poor Brazilian family struggle to earn a living when they take a job overseeing the livestock of a wealthy rancher. They move into an abandoned house, and their fortunes begin to take an upward turn. The father is duped into a card game with a crooked local policeman. The ranch hand protests, and a fight ensues that results in his beating by the cop. Despite being the victim of injustice, the man believes there should be some semblance of law and order and makes no protest about the incident. A severe drought has the man moving on from the ranch with his family to earn their living elsewhere.
Kon Ichikawa's documentary record of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo looks like a deliberate bid to make a film as different as possible from Leni Riefenstahl's notorious Nazified Olympiad Triumph of the Will--shot at the 1936 Berlin Games. Where Riefenstahl glorifies muscular young Aryan bodies in heroic struggle and victory, Ichikawa goes for a more unassuming, human touch. Working with 164 cameramen, he undercuts the official pomp and pageantry with moments of humor and informality. Thousands of doves are released to mark the opening ceremony, and spectators duck and cover against a shower of droppings; meanwhile an official trots anxiously after one dove that doesn't feel like taking off. Ichikawa sidelines the competitive spectacle to dwell on small idiosyncrasies and revealing displays of emotion--a Russian shot-putter goes through an elaborate pre-throw ritual of twitches and tweaks; an American swimmer weeps when she's awarded her gold medal; a Japanese weightlifter emits a rousing Samurai yell as he hoists his barbell; a racing cyclist, grounded in a collision, clutches his leg in agony and frustration; and the camera impishly zooms in on the ungainly wobbling bottoms of competitors in a walking race. There are moments of sublime beauty, too: rowers scull over a mist-shrouded morning river; the Ethiopian marathon winner, slim and sinewy, calmly outpaces the field with a stoic dignity worthy of Buster Keaton. Finally, after all the fine speeches about aspiration and international brotherhood, a lone sweeper totes his broom across the vast deserted stadium.
One of the most unconventional and experimental films ever made, Wavelength is a structural film of a 45-minute long zoom in on a window over a period of a week.
Filmed at the height of the Vietnam War, director Emile de Antonio's unabashedly subjective documentary blasts American involvement in the conflict, with startling and disturbing images adding emotional intensity to this scathing critique. Through news footage and interviews with military figures, journalists and politicians, the provocative filmmaker traces modern Southeast Asian history and makes an argument for Vietnamese self-determination.
The Spider's Stratagem (Italian: Strategia del Ragno) is a political film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The screenplay was written by Bertolucci based on "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" story written by Jorge Luis Borges. Athos Magnani, a young researcher, returns to Tara, where his father was killed before his birth, at the request of his mistress, Draifa. The father, also named Athos Magnani (a wartime anti-fascist hero) and looking exactly like the son, was killed by a fascist in 1936-or so says Draifa, the town statue, and everyone in the city. As the son untangles the web of lies this story is constructed from, he finds himself ensnared in the same web.
This is a collage-style exploration of the ideas of radical sexologist Wilhelm Reich. Dusan Makavejev intermingles documentary material on Reich's own life, scenes reflecting late Sixties American sexual counter-culture, and the fictional story of the sexually liberated Milena who attempts to spread the Reichian doctrine to a handsome but leaden Russian skating star.
In Paris, Alexandre, an unemployed young man with memories of the May 1968 events in France, attempts to persuade his former love, Gilberte, to marry him. Gilberte opts to instead marry another man. Alexandre is involved with a live-in girlfriend called Marie, and is interested in films such as 'The Working Class Goes to Heaven'. One day, after an unsuccessful reconciliation with Gilberte at the highly popular Les Deux Magots café, he meets Veronika, a Polish French twenty-something nurse. In the midst of the sexual revolution, Veronika is highly promiscuous, and begins to make advances on Alexandre. During the summer of 1972, Alexandre and Marie are nude in bed in their apartment when Veronika visits. Marie lets her in and Veronika insults both of them, but acknowledges she is not pure herself. The three begin a ménage à trois and sleep in the same bed, with Veronika assuring Alexandre she and Marie both love him, and telling him to be more happy with his situation and life. Although Marie affirms her indifference to Alexandre's affairs, she quickly changes her mind when she sees how close he becomes to Veronika. This leads to a growing estrangement between her and Alexandre. As the three sit together, Veronika attempts to reassure Marie about her looks and body. Tearfully, Veronika speaks about how she believes no women are truly whores, and how love is meaningless unless it produces a child.
A singular work in film history, Chantal Akerman's 'Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles' meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow (Delphine Seyrig) - whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son, and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman's film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema's most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades
Anne-Marie Stretter (Delphine Seyrig) is the wife of the French ambassador in India in the 1930s. Growing bored with the oppressive lifestyle she leads, she begins to compulsively sleep with other men to alleviate her situation. The Vice-Consul of Lahore (Michael Lonsdale) fails in his attempts to begin a love affair with her. Her husband knows of her indiscretions, but is tolerant of her promiscuity.
Peter Weir directs this engaging thriller about an Australian lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) who defends a group of aborigines in a murder case, only to begin experiencing strange dreams and visions that portend a catastrophic tidal wave that will decimate Australia. Are these visions the real thing, or is he losing his mind? Finding the answer may prove crucial to the murder case and to the survival of the continent.
In Senegal, sometime after the establishment of a European presence in the area but before the imposition of direct French colonial administration, the Ceddo ("commoners") try to preserve their traditional culture against the onslaught of Islam, Christianity, and the slave trade. When local king Demba War sides with the Muslims, the Ceddo abduct his daughter, Dior Yacine, to protest their forced conversion to Islam. After trying to rescue the princess, various heirs to the throne are killed, and Demba War is killed during the night. Eventually the kidnappers are killed and Dior Yacine is brought back to the village to confront the imam, just as all the villagers are being given Muslim names.
In Turkey, several prisoners are granted furlough. One, Seyit Ali (Tarik Akan) travels to his house and finds that his wife (Serif Sezer) has betrayed him and works as a prostitute. She was caught by her family and held captive for Seyit Ali to end her life in an honor killing. Though apparently determined at first, he changes his mind when his wife starts to freeze while travelling in the snow. Despite his efforts to keep her alive, he eventually fails. His wife's death relieves Seyit Ali from family pressure. Another prisoner, Mehmet Salih (Halil Ergün) has been arrested for his role in a heist with his brother-in-law, whom he abandoned as he was being shot by police. His in-laws have disowned him, and he is finally forced to tell his wife Emine (Meral Orhonsay) the truth. Emine and Mehmet Salih decide to run away on a train. On the train, they are caught in the washroom having sex. They are saved from an angry mob by the train's officers and held in a cabin before being handed over to officials. There, a young boy from Emine's family who boarded the train shoots both Mehmet Salih and Emine. Ömer (Necmettin Çobanoglu) returns to his village sitting near the border between Turkey and Syria, and arranges to cross the border to escape prison. Ömer finds his village in a battle between Kurdish smugglers and Turkish soldiers. Though Ömer is clearly determined, he gives up after his brother, who took part in the battle, is shot dead. Through his brother's death, Ömer has inherited the responsibilities of his brother's wife and children as dictated by tradition.
In New Zealand in the 1860's the native Maori people fought the British colonials to keep the land guaranteed to them by treaty. The warrior Te Wheke fights for the British until betrayal leads him to seek utu (revenge). The settler Williamson in turn seeks revenge after Te Wheke attacks his homestead. Meanwhile Wiremu, an officer for the British, seems to think that resistance is futile.
Norbu's (Rigzin Tseshang) little son died of illness. Therefore, he expressed the deep regret for his thieving horse in the "ghost dancing". Later, his second son was born. Nevertheless, by force of livelihood, he had to thieve horses again. Unfortunately, he was hit to death when he stole horses for the last time.The film shows the unique culture of Tibet and the influence that religion has on the modern people as well as the society with the help of the new and rich film language and the expressive force of the film image.
Songlian (Gong Li) is the fourth and newest wife to a master who already supports three wives. Each has her own house within the closed world of the family compound, where every evening a red lantern is lit in front of the door of the wife with whom the master chooses to sleep. Let the rivalries begin!
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