Mimsy Farmer

  • Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani – Allonsanfan (1974)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaItalyPaolo TavianiVittorio Taviani
    Allonsanfan (1974)
    Allonsanfan (1974)

    After the fall of Napoleon, the Restoration begins. Fulvio (Marcello Mastroianni, La dolce vita), an aristocrat who has dedicated his life to the revolution has become disillusioned and his cowardice keeps him from joining his comrades. As he struggles to manage his evasion and lies he gets swept up in a suicidal uprising in Southern Italy. Stunningly photographed with lush period detail and featuring the Taviani brothers’ trademark magic realism and absurdist irony, Allonsanfàn has Mastroianni on top form as the reluctant insurgent and one of Ennio Morricone’s finest scores.Read More »

  • Souheil Ben-Barka – Les mille et une mains aka A Thousand and One Hands (1973)

    1971-1980African CinemaDramaMoroccoSouheil Ben-Barka

    Two families of Moroccan rug-makers are contrasted in this award-winning French-language film. The poor family makes its living by dyeing the wool used in the rugs made in the richer family’s factory. When the boss of the factory refuses to see the son of the poor family following an accident which has injured his father, the poor son breaks into the boss’s house. He is met by unsupportable abuse from the rich wife, who flogs him for dirtying her carpets.Read More »

  • Dario Argento – 4 mosche di velluto grigio AKA Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971)

    1971-1980Dario ArgentoGialloItalyThriller

    Roberto, a drummer in a rock band, keeps receiving weird phone calls and being followed by a mysterious man. One night he manages to catch up with his persecutor and tries to get him to talk but in the ensuing struggle he accidentally stabs him. He runs away, but he understands his troubles have just begun when the following day he receives an envelope with photos of him killing the man. Someone is killing all his friends and trying to frame him for the murders…Read More »

  • Georges Lautner – La route de Salina AKA Road to Salina (1970)

    1961-1970DramaFranceGeorges LautnerThriller

    Quote:
    A drifter in his 20s, having just walked 10 miles through the desert, comes upon a diner/filling station and helps himself to the water pump; the diner’s proprietress, an older woman–possibly mad–welcomes the young man in believing him to be her long-lost son Rocky, a volatile kid who apparently left his mother and sister four years ago after a family row. Unpredictable bughouse melodrama, a French-Italian co-production shot in the Canary Islands, which lends to the story’s netherworld atmosphere. Well-directed by Georges Lautner, who also co-adapted the screenplay with Jack Miller and Pascal Jardin, from the novel “Sur la Route de Salina” by Maurice Cury. Read More »

  • José Giovanni – Deux hommes dans la ville AKA Two Men in Town (1973)

    Drama1971-1980CrimeFranceJosé Giovanni

    Synopsis:
    Thanks to the support and influence of a kindly parole officer, Gino Strabliggi is released from prison and has a chance to start a new life. However, things soon begin to go wrong for him. First his wife is killed in a car accident and then a ruthless police commissioner, Goitreau, begins to taunt him. In spite of his parole officer’s continued presence in his life, Gino soon finds himself on the wrong side of the law – and this time he is unlikely to be given another chance…Read More »

  • John Brahm – Hot Rods to Hell aka 52 Miles to Terror (1967)

    1961-1970CampExploitationJohn BrahmUSA

    This revolutionary masterpiece was, at first, misunderstood as a mere exploitation film. However, the subversive genius shown in its subtext and plot construction was eventually recognized. It now plays quarterly at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which has instituted a lecture series on the various intellectual facets of the film. While the series is still in its infancy we have already heard Barak Obama speak on, “Hope and Hot Rods,” and Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan on, “Christian symbolism and family values in Hot Rods of Hell,” to say nothing of the hilarious speech by Tim Curry, “What exactly is a ‘Hot Rod’.” Those interested in perusing the literature on the subject can contact the Hot Rods of Hell Research Department at Columbia University in NYC. However, you should be prepared to show your research credentials.
    @Unkabunk at TIKRead More »

  • Lucio Fulci – Gatto nero AKA Black Cat (1981)

    1981-1990HorrorItalyLucio FulciThriller

    Synopsis:
    Patrick Magee is a psychic that can communicate with the dead. He also has the ability to control the mind of his cat (who incidently is black). He uses the cat to take vengeance upon his enemies. A photographer (Mimsy Farmer) who happen to be working for the local constables (David Warbeck, Al Cliver) begins to notice cat scratches on some of the accident victims that are turning up. She pays a visit to Magee (kitty just happens to be present) and conveys her suspicions of the cat’s involvement in some of the local deaths. Kitty doesn’t like this at all, and it’s his turn to control the mind of owner Magee to take it’s vengeance out.Read More »

  • Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani – Allonsanfan (1973)

    1971-1980DramaItalyPaolo Taviani and Vittorio TavianiPolitics

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Allonsanfàn
    Against the backdrop of the Bourbon Restoration, Lombard aristocrat Fulvio Imbriani, a former political extremist who once served under Napoleon, is finally released from an Austrian jail, after a lengthy sentence for his part in the secret Sublime Brotherhood. He strives to resume normal family life, but his Hungarian lover, Charlotte, together with his ex-comrades, succeeds in convincing him to take part in a revolutionary cause in the south. In fact, Fulvio considers the effort futile and fails to stop his sister Esther from reporting the conspirators. But the trap fails to catch the intended prey and, evading arrest, the comrades meet and bury Charlotte, who was killed in an exchange of fire with the gendarmerie.
    Read More »

  • Eriprando Visconti – Strogoff (1970)

    1961-1970AdventureEriprando ViscontiItaly

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    A captain in the Czar’s army encounters danger and romance while carrying a secret message across 19th-century Russia.Read More »

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