Epic

  • Albert Serra – Tardes de soledad AKA Afternoons of Solitude (2024)

    2021-2030Albert SerraDocumentaryEpicSpain

    Quote:
    Yes, a bullfighting movie

    It is increasingly rare, within a very fragmented public opinion, where there are few common facts or experiences, for a work of art to provoke what we could call a cultural event. That is to say, that it becomes an event of sufficient importance to channel public debate and to signify, in a certain sphere, a memorable event. Tardes de soledad, the film by Albert Serra, starring the maestro Roca Rey, has achieved something like this. Since its premiere in San Sebastian, this work has aroused a reflection that goes far beyond the criticism itself and that this is so is explained, I think, because we are facing a creation that places us in a stark and unusual way, to such atavistic questions as what is the value of life, what is man, what is art and what is the freedom of the artist. And all this, of course, without hiding the certain fact of death. Tardes de soledad somehow forces you to think in shock.Read More »

  • Andrew Grieve – On the Black Hill (1988)

    1981-1990Andrew GrieveDramaEpicUnited Kingdom

    Based on the famous novel by Bruce Chadwick, a tale of twins growing up on a welsh hill farm in the 1900s.

    Starring Bob Peck and Gemma Jones as an embittered married couple, the film charts their efforts to raise identical twin brothers in the turbulent early years of the 20th century. Sharing a unique bond, the brothers journey through eight decades of life, death and hardship together, all the while tied to the land on which they were raised. Featuring stunning photography and steeped in authentic rural imagery.

    On the Black Hill has been described as one of the best British films of the 1980s.Read More »

  • Artavazd Peleshian – Nash vyek aka Mer dare aka Our Century (1983)

    1981-1990Artavazd PeleshianEpicShort FilmUSSR

    Google Translate wrote:
    Always processions, to the glory of “our century”, always this impression of a threat which cannot be said, of a rumor which manifests itself, but does not take shape; our century, we will not forget, it is the century of conquests and genocides, the century of all vanities too: men are going to put all their pretensions to the test. They will fight against the determinisms of nature, will fabricate their legend with cross-dressing, intimidating protocols, daring and obstinacy, to leave as testimony only a few images that tirelessly repeat the absurdity of this vocation. instinctive and totalitarian to colonization and occupation of worlds.Read More »

  • Spike Lee – Malcolm X (1992)

    1991-2000DramaEpicSpike LeeUSA

    One of the most electrifying heroes of the twentieth century receives an appropriately sweeping screen biopic, rich in both historical insight and propulsive cinematic style, courtesy of visionary director Spike Lee. Built around an extraordinary performance from Denzel Washington, Malcolm X draws on the iconic civil rights leader’s autobiography to trace his journey of empowerment, from a childhood riven by white-supremacist violence to a life of petty crime to his conversion to Islam and rebirth as a fearless fighter for Black liberation, whose courage and eloquence inspired oppressed communities the world over. Impeccably crafted by Lee and his closest creative collaborators, and buoyed by commanding performances from Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Al Freeman Jr., and others, this is a passionate monument to a man whose life continues to serve as a model of principled resistance.Read More »

  • Artavazd Peleshian – Menq AKA We (1969)

    1961-1970Artavazd PeleshianEpicShort FilmUSSR

    Artavazd Peleshian wrote:
    “It was during my work on the film We that I became convinced that my interests were elsewhere, that the very essence and main thrust of montage for me was found less in assembling scenes and more in the possibility of disjoining them, not in their juxtaposition but their separation. It became clear that what interested me above all wasn’t joining two elements of the montage, but rather separating them by inserting a third, fifth, even tenth element between them.Read More »

  • Eddie Romero – Aguila (1980)

    Eddie Romero1981-1990DramaEpicPhilippines

    From Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino website:
    Daniel Aguila, a Filipino born in 1892, confronts and recoils from the weakness he sees among Filipinos at critical periods in our history. As a boy, he sees his revolucionario father betrayed by the man who eventually becomes his stepfather. As a young officer in Mindanao, he protects his stepfather who has come to grab lands from the Muslims, who retaliate by killing his mother and step-brother. He also has a son by a Muslim lass, whom he is forbidden to marry. As a PC officer, he gets involved in a legal tussle between an anti-American mass religious sect and the pro-American town-elite. Read More »

  • John Ford & Leslie Goodwins – Mary of Scotland (1936)

    Leslie Goodwins1931-1940DramaEpicJohn FordUSA

    The recently widowed Mary Stuart returns to Scotland to reclaim her throne but is opposed by her half-brother and her own Scottish lords.Read More »

  • Douglas Hickox – Zulu Dawn (1979)

    Douglas Hickox1971-1980EpicUSAWar

    A 1979 war film about the historical Battle of Isandlwana between British and Zulu forces in 1879 in South Africa. The screenplay was by Cy Endfield, from his book, and Anthony Story. The film was directed by Douglas Hickox. The score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

    Zulu Dawn is a prequel to Zulu, released in 1964, which depicts the historical Battle of Rorke’s Drift later the same day, and was written and co-directed by Cy Endfield.Read More »

  • F.A. Brabec – Král Ubu AKA Ubu Roi (1996)

    1991-2000ComedyCzech RepublicEpicF.A. Brabec

    Quote:
    F. A. Brabec’s Král Ubu is a film for wide audiences made for the centennial of the first performance of French playwright Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896). It is a cruel picture of the ways in which human beings acquire power and then cling to it. The story of Father Ubu, an idiot who climbs over the bodies of the dead to his royal post, is presented with a touch of the grotesque where naive comic elements meet black humor. Using a human touch, the film- makers were able to transform the original into a film aimed at a contemporary audience while remaining faithful to the vision of Father Ubu and Mother Ubu venturing everything in their efforts to seize power and mammon. Read More »

Back to top button