• Roger Corman – Tales of Terror (1962) (HD)

    1961-1970ComedyHorrorRoger CormanUSA

    Quote:
    A capital summarization of Roger Corman’s Poe cycle. The model is L’Amore, the meditation on the director’s art in contrasting moods addressed by the actor — Magnani playing urbane and then peasant for Rossellini, Vincent Price fitting Corman’s sense of the grotesque into august and absurdist guises. Morella, the first tale, gives a deft synthesis of House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum. Maggie Pierce enters a crumbling castle, inside are tarantulas in crimson chalices and a cake wrapped in cobwebs, Price is her grief-consumed father, her dead mother (Leona Gage) looms in spirit (an overseeing portrait) and in the flesh (a mummy in the boudoir); the vengeful past averts family healing, so the climax mates incest with necrophilia amid the flames.Read More »

  • Zenzô Matsuyama – Namonaku mazushiku utsukushiku AKA Happiness of Us Alone (1961)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaJapanZenzo Matsuyama

    Synopsis
    The story is of two people. One is deaf, the other deaf and dumb. They marry after meeting at a school reunion, and the film follows their trials and tribulations … and joys.

    Quote:
    The directorial debut of longtime screenwriter and frequent Masaki Kobayashi collaborator Zenzo Matsuyama.Read More »

  • George Sherman – The Sleeping City (1950)

    1941-1950Film NoirGeorge ShermanUSA

    Pacific Cinémathèque Pacifique writes:
    The Sleeping City is a gritty, claustrophobic thriller set in a metropolitan hospital. Its jarring opening has a burned-out intern, out on a smoke break, shot point-blank in the face. Film noir fixture Richard Conte heads the “Confidential Squad” that goes undercover to investigate. Coleen Gray is the attractive head nurse with whom Conte becomes involved — and who may be mixed-up in some major medical skulduggery. Read More »

  • William Wyler – The Letter (1940)

    1931-1940DramaFilm NoirUSAWilliam Wyler

    Synopsis:
    William Wyler’s dark and poisonous melodrama, based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel, features Bette Davis in one of her nastiest roles. The story begins in the shimmering moonlight on a tropical Malayan rubber plantation. Shots ring out and a wounded man, Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell) staggers from a bungalow as Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) coldly follows him, pumping the remaining bullets into his body. She later tells her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall) that she shot Geoffrey, a mutual friend, because he was drunk and tried to take advantage of her. Robert, who owns the plantation, believes her story and hires high-powered lawyer Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) to defend her. Read More »

  • David C. Thomas – MC5: A True Testimonial [+ Extras] (2002)

    USA2001-2010David C. ThomasDocumentary

    “A riveting. all-elbows and knuckles documentary about the proto-punk warriors known as the MCS”NY Times

    “The film is a touching, detailed portrait of an important and often overlooked band” SF Chronicle

    Premise: This documentary examines the career of the Detroit rock group, the MC5 (1964-1972), a hard-edged rock band that emerged amidst the political turmoil of the late 1960s. As the band’s popularity grew, their chance at broader popularity was challenged by their ties to counterculture individuals like John Sinclair (leader of the left-wing revolutionary group, the White Panthers) whose presence made the band controversial targets for the police, government, FBI, etc. Establishing a fast, guitar-fueled loud rock sound that would influence the punk bands just a few years later, the MC5 eventually faded into obscurity, but they have maintained a cult following ever since.Read More »

  • Walter Tennyson – The Body Vanished (1939)

    1931-1940CrimeUnited KingdomWalter Tennyson

    Despite a short run time this is a breezy, effective British mystery. A Scotland Yard Inspector (Anthony Hulme) is on holidays with his friend, a newspaper reporter. The two come into a small village for rest and refreshments before continuing their holiday. Their peace is disturbed when a villager runs into the local pub declaring the owner of a nearby mansion has been murdered.Read More »

  • Seijun Suzuki – Haru-Sakura AKA Seijun’s Different Stages of Cherry Blossoms (1983)

    1981-1990AsianJapanSeijun SuzukiTV

    A man looking to transplant cherry blossoms along the countryside encounters a blind woman who accompanies him for the journey.Read More »

  • Bernard Chaouat & Patrice Duvic – Vampirisme AKA Vampirism (1967)

    1961-1970Bernard ChaouatFranceHorrorPatrice DuvicShort Film

    Synopsis:
    A deadpan examination of vampiric night life in Paris.Read More »

  • Konrad Wolf – Sonnensucher AKA Sun Seekers (1958)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaGermanyKonrad Wolf

    Director Konrad Wolf’s gritty and controversial tale follows two young women who go to work at a uranium mine in Wismut, East Germany. With anarchists, former S.S. soldiers, and ex-Russian officers working in close proximity, the mine becomes a microcosm of world politics and social unrest.Read More »

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