Classics

  • Robert Bresson – Au hasard Balthazar (1966) (HD)

    1961-1970ArthouseClassicsFranceRobert Bresson

    Quote:
    The story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson’s Mouchette.

    Quote:
    In the French countryside near the Pyrenees, a baby donkey is adopted by young children – Jacques and his sisters, who live on a farm. They baptize the donkey (and christen it Balthazar) along with Marie, Jacques’ childhood sweetheart, whose father is the teacher at the small school next-door. When one of Jacques’ sisters dies, his family vacates the farm, and Marie’s family take it over in a loose arrangement. The donkey is given away to local farmhands who work it very hard. Years pass until Balthazar is involved in an accident and runs off, finding its way back to Marie, who is now a teenager. But her father gets involved in legal wrangles over the farm and the donkey is given away to a local bakery for delivery work.Read More »

  • Norman Lloyd – Carola (1973)

    Drama1971-1980ClassicsNorman LloydUSA

    SYNOPSIS:
    Originally produced in 1972 as a segment of the television series “Hollywood Television Theatre.”

    Legendary filmmaker Jean Renoir’s suspenseful and romantic tale of a beautiful French actress struggling to avoid the deadly politics and forbidden passions of Nazi-occupied France.

    During World War II, an acting company in occupied Paris is notified that a German officer will be stopping by to see their play. The stage manager–who also happens to be the lover of Carola, the lead actress–asks her to “play up” to the visiting German for the good of the play, but when the officer arrives, it becomes clear to the manager that the German and Carola have had a previous relationship, and that she is still in love with him.Read More »

  • Alex Segal – Death of a Salesman (1966)

    1961-1970Alex SegalClassicsTVUSA

    Quote:
    An abridged award-winning television adaptation of a famous play about an aging travelling salesman who’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown. His job is gone, and his family hates him for never being there. He tries mending things with them.Read More »

  • Osamu Fushimizu – Shina no yoru aka China Night (1940)

    1931-1940AsianClassicsJapanOsamu Fushimizu

    Peter High wrote:
    Fushimizu Osamu’s immensely successful China Nights works the rich metaphorical possibilities afforded by the commonplace image of China as a disreputable “woman” in need of redemption. As early as 1911, popular historian Yamaji Aizan had characterized the nation as “not a powerless country like a single woman, but an infelicitous one like a prostitute.” Although it’s discretely muted, the film’s first scene introduces Ri Koran’s character as something perilously close to a “fallen woman”.Read More »

  • Albert Maysles & David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin – Salesman (1969)

    USA1961-1970Albert MayslesCharlotte ZwerinClassicsDavid MayslesDocumentary

    Synopsis:
    Filmmakers (and brothers) Albert and David Maysles follow four employees of a company that makes expensive, ornate, illustrated bibles as they attempt to sell the items door-to-door to less-than-interested customers, who are mainly poor or lower-middle-class Catholics with little money to spend on pretty Bibles.Read More »

  • David Paltenghi – Orders Are Orders (1954)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyDavid PaltenghiUnited Kingdom

    Summary:
    Movie company wants to shoot a science-fiction film using an Army barracks as location, and its soldiers as actors. Of course, the Commander doesn’t like it a bit, and persuades the crew to use a nearby haunted house instead. -imdb-Read More »

  • Pál Fejös – Sonnenstrahl AKA Ray of Sunshine [+ Maifest Wien 1932] (1933)

    Drama1931-1940AustriaClassicsPál Fejös

    Vienna as a light, modern city and a place that encourages improvisation of the mind. The jobless Hans Schmidt and Ann Berger become true champions in the city. However, setbacks and false interpretations underlie their attempts at economic stability. Hans gets involved in a serious accident, which renders him unable to work. Anna alone can’t the bill for the taxi. The community helps her. Hans and Anna become a part of Socialist Vienna.Read More »

  • Raj Kapoor – Awaara aka The Vagabond (1951)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaIndiaRaj Kapoor

    This much-discussed film was Kapoor’s first to feature his trademark Chaplinesque character “Raj/Raju” (“little Raj,” though the homage to Chaplin is less pronounced than in the sunnier SHRI 420), here a hapless “vagabond” (avaaraa) who, as the film opens, is on trial for the attempted murder of a pillar of society, Judge Raghunath (brilliantly played by Prithviraj Kapoor, R. K.’s real-life father). He is defended by a beautiful young lawyer, Rita (Nargis), an orphan who also happens to be the Judge’s ward. Read More »

  • Tomu Uchida – Jinsei-gekijô: Hishakaku to kiratsune aka Theater of Life: Hishakaku and Kiratsune (1968)

    1961-1970AsianClassicsJapanTomu Uchida

    Quote:
    Hishakaku (Koji Tsuruta), a kyakubun (visitor) with the Kokin gang, frees his lover Otoyo (Junko Fuji) from a brothel run by boss Oyokota (Tatsuo Endo), accompanied by Miyagawa (Ken Takakura) and other Kokin gangsters — and consequently brawls with Oyokota’s gang. After killing several of Oyokota’s men, including a former anikibun (elder brother) who has betrayed him, Hishakaku flees, with the police in close pursuit, and takes refuge in a strange house. There, he encounters Kiratsune (Ryutaro Tatsumi), an old man who calmly invites him in, gives him sake, and advises him to give himself up. Struck by the nobility of the old man’s character and the sageness of his advice, Hishakaku does as he says.Read More »

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