A woman who works as employee in a fashion store has to care for her ill mother. At the same time she falls in love with a bohemian man. Read More »
Manuel Mur Oti – Cielo negro AKA Black Sky (1951) (HD)
Spanish cinema under Franco
Eloy de la Iglesia – Nadie oyó gritar AKA No One Heard the Scream (1973) (HD)
A high-class call girl witnesses her neighbor disposing of his wife’s body. The man kidnaps her and forces her to help him. An unexpected relationship develops. Read More »
Ladislao Vajda – Marcelino pan y vino AKA Miracle of Marcelino (1955)
A baby is left at the gates of a monastery. The monks attempt to find a home for it, but end up deciding to raise the boy themselves. However, in the process, they end up offending a high-ranking official in the local town, who resolves to have the monks evicted. Several years later, the boy inadvertently causes chaos at the town fair, and the official (now the mayor) uses the event to force the eviction. With only a month left in their home, the monks need a miracle. And it is then the boy discovers a crucifix in an upstairs room in the monastery… Read More »
Pierre Grimblat – Dites-le avec des fleurs aka Say It with Flowers (1974)
Synopsis:
In this bizarre psychological thriller, a handsome young boy (John Mouder-Brown), who is marred by a strange birthmark on his face, tells a disturbing tale about how his family died. The family had been living for some time in a villa which was overgrown with flowering vines. Some of the vines even penetrate to the inside of the house. It seems that the boy’s father, (Fernando Rey), was part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler, and when the plot failed, he was forced to kill his family in order to prevent them from suffering horrible torture. Unable for some reason to kill himself, he escaped but became the victim of amnesia after a motorcycle accident. When a German governess came to stay, his father’s memory is revived. The boy travels to Germany in pursuit of the governess and learns that her family seeks vengeance from his father. Read More »
Iván Zulueta – Ágata (1966)
Quote:
Short film in black and white directed by legendary Iván Zulueta as practice for the second year of the Official School of Cinema (Escuela Oficial de Cine). Despite not appearing in the credits, the story is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Oval Portrait”. Shot in 35mm.
This is Zulueta’s first professional film job (previously, with just 20 years old, he had filmed La fortuna de los Irureta in super 8 as an amateur). Read More »
Rafael Romero Marchent – ¿Quién grita venganza? AKA Dead Men Don’t Count (1968)
Every good Spaghetti Western begins with a killing, a man bids his wife and baby goodbye and rides off, his wife’s smiling face turns hard and she signals a rifleman in the hills with a mirror, the man dies.
Years later, two opportunistic bounty killers Fred (Anthony Steffen) and Johnny (Mark Damon) arrive in Blackstone to try and swindle the Sheriff (Piero Lulli) out of a $15,000 bounty by posing as the captor and killer. However they are are drawn into a bloody mystery. Who is responsible for the massacre of rancher’s families? Why do the distinctive pistols Fred carries cause such consternation? The answer to events in the present can only be found in the past. Read More »
Luis García Berlanga – Plácido (1961)
Synopsis:
In a small spanish town, a group of old ladies decide to celebrate Christmas Eve with a “Sit a poor man at your table” dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person dining with them that night. The celebrations also include a parade, and in it we find Plácido, the humble owner of a three-wheeler, whose family is forced to live in a public lavatory because of the lack of money to pay the rent, and who has to pay the second bill of his vehicle before midnight or else he will lose Read More »