1971-1980

  • Albert Band – Dracula’s Dog AKA Zoltan, Hound of Dracula(1977)

    1971-1980Albert BandHorrorUSA

    Synopsis:
    A Russian road crew accidentally blasts open a subterranean crypt, and the captain of the road crew, fearing looters and criminals, stations a guard near the site.

    Late in the night, an earthquake shakes loose one of the coffins, which slides down and lands at the feet of the confused guard. Curious as to what has fallen before him, the guard opens the coffin and discovers the body of a dog, impaled by a stake. He removes the stake, which revives the vampiric hound Zoltan.Read More »

  • Stephen Wallace – Stir (1980)

    1971-1980ActionAustraliaDramaStephen Wallace

    Quote:
    Based on the Bathurst prison riots of 1974, Stir is a convincing account of a brutal jail system and almost unbelievable degree of sadism that infected the warders in their treatment of the prisoners there. Written by Bob Jewson, who was a minimum security inmate at the time, the script presents the prisoner’s point of view without bias but with a great sense of humanity creating well-drawn characters and situations that never fall into the hackneyed or melodramatic. Read More »

  • Eriprando Visconti – Una spirale di nebbia AKA A Spiral of Mist (1977)

    1971-1980Eriprando ViscontiGialloItalyThriller

    The lovely Maria Teresa is unhappily married with the impotent lawyer Marcello. Maria Teresa’s marriage is contrasted by the passionate Valeria, who is killed during a chase. Is Valeria’s husband the murderer? Maria Teresa helps him…Read More »

  • Ousmane Sembene – Ceddo (1977)

    1971-1980African CinemaArthouseDramaOusmane SembeneSenegal

    Imagine, if you will, a story written for Akira Kurosawa. You know, one with armies clashing and sieges of great castles. Now imagine the story was done instead by a third-grade grammar-school class of about thirty people–the same heavy themes but where Kurosawa would show an army the play has to use two people. Instead of a castle there would be a tent. You would get a sort of “micro-epic.” Okay, now you have some idea what a “micro-epic” might be. Ousmane Sembene’s 1977 Senegalese film CEDDO is a very big film on a very small scale. The film, based on a true story, takes place in one village but it is still the stuff of epics.Read More »

  • Christopher St. John – Top of the Heap (1972)

    1971-1980Christopher St. JohnCultExploitationUSA

    In this 1972 actioner, a Washington DC cop is proud that he is one of the few African Americans on the force. He is not well loved by his peers or the street people. The trouble erupts when he is overlooked for a promotion. The angered cop goes off the deep end and begins using his gun to launch a personal vendetta against street crime. In the end it is all for naught and he does not survive the adventure.Read More »

  • Govindan Aravindan – Thampu AKA The Circus Tent (1978)

    1971-1980ArthouseExperimentalGovindan AravindanIndia

    Quote:
    Aravindan’s finest b&w film chronicles three days with a circus in a small town in Kerala. A series of high-angle shots, as the circus drives into its new location, introduce us to the village. Several sequences use a remarkable quasi-documentary effect combined with minutely choreographed action e.g. the sunset as the manager (Gopi) directs the raising of the big top. The episodic film tells of a soldier who befriends the circus strong man in a toddy bar and shows how the bizarre characters from the circus including the dwarf merge with the local populace.Read More »

  • Vicente Aranda – Cambio de sexo AKA Change of Sex (1977)

    1971-1980DramaQueer Cinema(s)SpainVicente Aranda

    Quote:
    In a small town outside of Barcelona, Spain, José Maria is a teenager with a big problem, he imagines that he is really a woman. While he begins to show his desire to be a woman through his appearance, the reactions within his household make things more difficult for him. His rude father is a male chauvinist who, afraid of his son’s softness, puts him to work chopping wood. Then, his father takes him to a cabaret show, to expose José Maria to women. However at a show, José Maria is exposed to a dancer named Bibi, who is a transgender woman, for the first time.Read More »

  • Michel Deville – L’apprenti salaud AKA The Apprentice Heel (1977)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaFranceMichel Deville

    Antoine Chapelot, a bachelor in his forties, works in a hardware shop and lives with his mother. Everything changes when he meets Caroline, a teenaged charmer who unwittingly helps him to organize a lucrative real estate scam. While he is on a roll, Antoine decides to pursue the career of a swindler a bit further by persuading a rich family that they had a long-lost American uncle who has just died a millionaire.

    Like Deville’s best films, this has an eccentric relationship at the heart of the plot, vertiginous cutting and a dance-like fluidity of texture.Read More »

  • Yuriy Norshteyn – Skazka skazok aka Tale of Tales (1979)

    1971-1980AnimationUSSRYuriy Norshteyn

    Quote:
    The name Tale of Tales came from a poem of the same name by Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet that Norshteyn loved since 1962.Read More »

Back to top button