Epic

The mightiest adventurer of them all! In this sumptuous sword-and-sandal feast, Rory Calhoun (Apache Territory, The Colossus of Rhodes) stars as Marco Polo, the legendary 13th-century explorer who journeys to China with the aim of expanding world trade. There he meets Princess Amuroy, amorously played by Yôko Tani (The Savage Innocents, Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World), and an old hermit who has just invented gunpowder. With this explosive new “magic,” Marco builds a special cannon and spearheads a rebellion against an evil warlord. Directed by Piero Pierotti (Hercules and the Masked Rider) with additional scenes by Hugo Fregonese (The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse), it’s an epic, action-packed peplum adventure in sweeping CinemaScope and eye-popping Technicolor.Read More »

PLOT: In the late 19th century, a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.Read More »

The life story of the multi-talented German nun Hildegard von Bingen. The film portrays an original woman – best known as a composer and religious visionary – whose grand claims often run counter to the patriarchal world around her.

The monks and nuns at the convent become a kind of family, offering both confidants and enemies. For example Jutta, struggling with her jealousy of Hildegard’s success, and the young Richardis who worships Hildegard both as an intellectual role model and a mother figure.Read More »

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What happens when we die? Probably nothing, and we damn sure can’t take anything with us. But just try telling that to Pharaoh Khufu (Jack Hawkins), who has amassed an ungodly amount of wealth in Howard Hawks’ soapy historical drama Land of the Pharaohs and wants nothing more than to buried with it. Enlisting the help of aging architect/slave Vashtar (James Robertson Justice) to design an intricate robber-proof tomb, Pharaoh Khufu spares no expense — and by that I mean “works thousands of slaves to death and raises taxes” — to ensure that it’s built exactly to spec and will preserve his body and treasures for all eternity. But when his second wife Princess Nellifer (Joan Collins) secretly plots to separate the two of them, a chain of lies and deceit as big as the Great Pyramid itself is set in motion.Read More »

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Soviet censors and Communist Party officials objected to Parajanov’s stylized, poetic treatment of Sayat-Nova’s life and complained that it failed to educate the public about the poet. As a result, the film’s title was changed from Sayat-Nova to The Color of Pomegranates, and all references to Sayat-Nova’s name were removed from the credits and chapter titles in the original Armenian release version. The Armenian writer Hrant Matevosyan wrote new, abstractly poetic Armenian-language chapter titles. Officials further objected to the film’s abundance of religious imagery, although a great deal of religious imagery still remains in both surviving versions of the film. Initially the State Committee for Cinematography in Moscow refused to allow distribution of the film outside of Armenia. It premiered in Armenia in October 1969, with a running time of 77 minutes.Read More »

Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s long gestated film adaptation of Bolesław Prus’ historical novel PHARAOH is an ambitious endeavor, dazzles in its epic scale and formalist gravitas with an exclusive Polish cast, which leads to one prescribed proviso: for purists, it is beggar belief to watch a movie about ancient Egyptians where everyone sports Polish through and through; but other than that, the film is a marvel orchestrated with vigor, mettle and pathos.Read More »

Roman centurion Marcian is captured by Attila the Hun en route to Constantinople, but escapes. On arrival, he finds the eastern Roman emperor Theodosius plotting with Attila to look the other way while the latter marches against Rome. But Marcian gains the favor of Pulcheria, lovely sister of Theodosius, who favors a united Empire. As Attila marches, things look bleak for the weakened imperial forces. But the conqueror has an awe of the power of the Christians’ God…Read More »

In 1990/91 Manfred Eicher and Heinz Bütler co-directed “Holozaen” a film based on the Max Frisch novella “Man in the Holocene”, starring Erland Josephson and Sophie Duez, and with photography by Giorgos Arvanitis. The film was awarded the Special Jury Prize of the Locarno Festival in 1992, but has been little seen, outside the art film festival circuit, since then. Underpinning the striking cinematic images and Josephson’s compelling performance is a rich soundtrack with music of Bach, Bartók, Garbarek, Hindemith, Jarrett, and Shostakovich.Read More »

This magnificently photographed French film tells the ancient legend of Tristan and Isolde to the accompaniment of an operatic musical score by MAGMA. Tristan is a young warrior who has been sent to Ireland from Cornwall to bring back Isolde, the bride of his king. The two of them drink a love potion, fall in love, and, despite the wrath of their people, persist in their tragic love.Read More »