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Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films - DVD

SKU: 17278606 | Release Date: 10/24/2006

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Format: DVD
Length: 5347 minutes
Screen Formats: Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV/Black & White
Genre: General Dramas
Studio: Criterion
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1/1.66:1

Synopsis

Includes:

H�xan (1922)

Pandora's Box (1929)

M (1931)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Grand Illusion (1937)

P�p� le Moko (1937)

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Pygmalion (1938)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Le Jour Se L�ve (1939)

The Rules of the Game (1939)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Brief Encounter (1946)

Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 (1946)

The Fallen Idol (1948), MPAA Rating: NR

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

Rashomon (1951)

Forbidden Games (1952)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

Umberto D. (1952)

The White Sheik (1952)

Ikiru (1952)

Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)

The Wages of Fear (1953), MPAA Rating: NR

Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)

La Strada (1954)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Richard III (1955)

Summertime (1955)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

The 400 Blows (1959)

Fires on the Plain (1959)

Black Orpheus (1959)

Floating Weeds (1959)

The Virgin Spring (1959)

Ballad of a Soldier (1960)

L'Avventura (1960)

Viridiana (1961)

Il Posto (1961)

Jules and Jim (1962)

Knife in the Water (1962)

The Great Chase (1963)

The Love Goddesses (1965)

I Pugni in Tasca (1965)

Loves of a Blonde (1965)

Miss Julie (1972)

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)

H�xan
Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen's obsession with bizarre lighting effects reached its apotheosis with his 1922 masterpiece H�xan. Beginning in a deceptively sedate fashion with a series of woodcuts and engravings (a technique later adopted by RKO producer Val Lewton), the film then shifts into gear with a progression of dramatic vignettes, illustrating the awesome power of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. So powerful are some of these images that even some modern viewers will avert their eyes from the screen. Though obviously a work of pure imagination, the film occasionally takes on the dimensions of a documentary, a byproduct of the extensive research done by Christensen before embarking on the project (incidentally, the director himself can be seen in the film in a dual role as Satan and the Doctor). H�xan marked a parting of the ways for Christensen and the Danish film industry; thereafter, he confined his activities to the German cinema, before answering Hollywood's call in 1928. A separate version of this film exists, with a shorter running time, retitled Witchcraft Through the Ages and released in 1968. It features narration by the legendary Beat writer William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) and a score by Jean-Luc Ponty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pandora's Box
German filmmaker G.W. Pabst's late-silent classic Pandora's Box (Die B�chse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the "main chance," Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Sch�n (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him. Eventually escaping to London with the doctor's moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her "adopted" father Schigolch (Carl G�tz), where she is reduced to walking the streets, with tragic consequences. Pandora's Box (based on two works by the controversial German writer Franz Wedekind) exudes smoky sensuality in every frame; regarded now as a masterpiece, the film received surprisingly scathing reviews, with most of the critical broadsides aimed at Louise Brooks (this was long before Brooks graduated from just another pretty Hollywood starlet to Cult Goddess). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

M
Fritz Lang's classic early talkie crime melodrama is set in 1931 Berlin. The police are anxious to capture an elusive child murderer (Peter Lorre), and they begin rounding up every criminal in town. The underworld leaders decide to take the heat off their activities by catching the child killer themselves. Once the killer is fingered, he is marked with the letter "M" chalked on his back. He is tracked down and captured by the combined forces of the Berlin criminal community, who put him on trial for his life in a kangaroo court. The killer pleads for mercy, whining that he can't control his homicidal instincts. The police close in and rescue the killer from the underworld so that he can stand trial again in "respectable" circumstances. Some prints of the film end with a caution to the audience to watch after their children more carefully. Filmed in Germany, M was the film that solidified Fritz Lang's reputation with American audiences, and it also made a star out of Peter Lorre (previously a specialist in comedy roles!). M was remade by Hollywood in 1951, with David Wayne giving a serviceable performance as the killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 39 Steps
This classic British thriller was one of Alfred Hitchcock's first major international successes, and it introduced a number of the stylistic and thematic elements that became hallmarks of his later work. Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian rancher on vacation in England, attends a music hall performance by "Mr. Memory" (Wylie Watson); in the midst of the show, shots ring out and Richard flees the theater. Moments later, a terrified woman (Lucie Mannheim) begs Richard to help her; back at his room, she tells him that she's a British spy whose life has been threatened by international agents waiting outside. Richard is certain that she's mad until she reappears at his door in the morning, near death with a knife in her back, a map in her hand, and muttering something about "39 Steps." Discovering that a group of thugs are indeed waiting outside, Richard slips away and takes the first train to the Scottish town on the dead woman's map. Richard learns that he's now wanted by the police for murder, and he must find a way to clear his name. He begins trying to do so with the help of a woman he meets en route, Pamela (Madeleine Carroll), who serves as his unwitting assistant, even after she tries to turn him in. The 39 Steps was later remade in 1959 and 1978 -- both without Hitchcock's participation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Grand Illusion
Frequently cited as both one of the greatest films about war and one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion is an often witty, sometimes poignant, frequently moving examination of the futility of war. During World War I, twoFrench airmen are shot down while taking surveillance photographs in German territory: Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), a wealthy and aristocratic officer; Lt. Mar�chal (Jean Gabin), a burly but intelligent working-class mechanic. The three are brought to a P.O.W. camp, where they encounter and befriend Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a prosperous Jewish banker, and the commander, Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), takes an immediate liking to de Boeldieu.They are members of the same social class and believe that the political and intellectual ideals of the Europe they once knew will soon be a thing of the past with the rise to power of the proletariat. The three Frenchmen discover that their fellow prisoners have been digging an escape tunnel, and all of them agree to help -- Mar�chal and Rosenthal with enthusiasm, de Boeldieu out of a sense of duty. As he puts it, when on a golf course, one plays golf, and while in a prison camp, one tries to escape -- it's the accepted thing to do. As Von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu become friends, and the rank-and-file soldiers banter as much with the German guards as with each other, the characters seem involved less in a war than in some vast, petty game, albeit one with deadly consequences; they often talk about women and food, while never mentioning political ideology. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

P�p� le Moko
Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin) is a well-known criminal mastermind who eludes the French police by hiding in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows he is safe in this labyrinthine netherworld, where he is surrounded by his fellow thieves and cutthroats. Police inspector Slimane (Lucas Gridoux), who has developed a grudging respect for Pepe, bides his time, waiting for Pepe to try to leave the Casbah. When Gaby Gould (Mirielle Balin), a Parisian tourist, falls in love with Pepe, the inspector hopes to use this relationship to his advantage. He tells Gaby that Pepe has been killed, knowing that the heartbroken girl will return to Paris -- and that Pepe will risk everything to go after her. The French Pepe le Moko was remade in the US as Algiers, which followed the original so slavishly (except for changing its ending) that the American producers were able to utilize generous amounts of stock footage from the French film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alexander Nevsky
Like many of Eisenstein's best films, Alexander Nevsky was conceived as a morale-booster, aimed at stirring up Russian patriotism. It is set in the 13th century, but the villainous Teutonic Knights are obviously meant to represent the burgeoning threat of Hitler's hordes. With Russia besieged by both these knights and by the Tartars, only a charismatic leader can save the populace from these barbaric baby killers (yes, we see the villains tossing screaming infants into bonfires!) The hero of the piece is the legendary Prince Alexander Nevsky, portrayed by Nikolai Cherkasov, who bears a striking resemblance to Gary Cooper. The saving turnaround for Nevsky is the battle of ice-covered Lake Peipus in 1242. This bravura sequence is staged in spectacular fashion, underlined by the specially-commissioned music of Sergei Prokofiev. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pygmalion
Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller star in Anthony Asquith's and Leslie Howard's classic version of George Bernard Shaw's satiric comedy. Henry Higgins (Howard) is an upper class phonetics professor who encounters low-class guttersnipe Eliza Doolittle (Hiller) and bets his friend Colonel Pickering (Scott Sunderland) that he can pass her off as a duchess within three months. Pickering accepts Higgins' bet, with Eliza readily agreeing to the proposal, since she will get to live in Higgins' fancy home. Once in Higgins' house, Eliza is subjected to intensely repetitive phonetics lessons in an effort to transform her Cockney accent into the speech of proper English. Things are a bit rocky at first, with Eliza blurting out "Not bloody likely" at a tea party. But when Eliza is presented at the Ambassador's Ball, she is not only accepted as a princess but is the talk of the ball, everyone in attendance commenting on her charm, beauty, and poise. Relishing his success, Higgins abruptly dismisses her. But Eliza has fallen in love with Higgins and is aghast at her cursory treatment by him. She tells him, "I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me, I'm not fit to sell anything else." When Eliza leaves, Higgins realizes that he loves her too, but Eliza has announced to Higgins that she plans to marry high society playboy Freddie Eynsford-Hill (David Tree). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Lady Vanishes
The Lady Vanishes, Alfred Hitchcock's comedy-thriller, came at the end of his British period; this film's success brought Hitchcock to the attention of Hollywood. He would complete only one other British production, Jamaica Inn, before crossing the Atlantic to working for David O. Selznick on Rebecca. The film concerns the young Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), heading home on a train after spending the holidays in the Balkans. Iris becomes friends with a kindly old lady, Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty) after Iris gets hit in the head with a flowerpot meant for Miss Froy. On the train, recovering from the blow, Iris falls asleep. When she awakens, Miss Froy has vanished, replaced by someone else in Miss Froy's clothing. Iris talks to the other passengers, a bizarre collection of eccentrics who think that Iris is crazy for insisting on there even being a Miss Froy -- everyone denies having ever seen the old woman. Finally, Iris finds a young musician, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), who believes her and the two proceed to search the train for clues to Miss Froy's disappearance. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Le Jour Se L�ve
Marcel Carne and Jacques Prevert's classic of French poetic realism stars Jean Gabin in one of his most famous roles as Francois, a rough, barrel-chested loner who hides out in his apartment awaiting for the police to arrive. Francois has killed a man in a crime of passion, the slimy lothario Valentin (Jules Berry). As he listens in the darkness of his Normandy apartment to the police sirens closing in and getting louder, he recalls the two women that he loved -- Francoise (Jacqueline Laurent) and Clara (Arletty) -- and the evil Valentin, who stole both their hearts and forced Francois into this melancholy plight. The film was later re-made in Hollywood as The Long Night. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Rules of the Game
Now often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's La R�gle du jeu/Rules of the Game was not warmly received on its original release in 1939: audiences at its opening engagements in Paris were openly hostile, responding to the film with shouts of derision, and distributors cut the movie from 113 minutes to a mere 80. It was banned as morally perilous during the German occupation and the original negative was destroyed during WWII. It wasn't until 1956 that Renoir was able to restore the film to its original length. In retrospect, this reaction seems both puzzling and understandable; at its heart, Rules of the Game is a very moral film about frequently amoral people. A comedy of manners whose wit only occasionally betrays its more serious intentions, it contrasts the romantic entanglements of rich and poor during a weekend at a country estate. Andr� Jurieu (Roland Toutain), a French aviation hero, has fallen in love with Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor), who is married to wealthy aristocrat Marquis Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio). Robert, however, has a mistress of his own, whom he invites to a weekend hunting party at his country home, along with Andr� and his friend Octave (played by Jean Renoir himself). Meanwhile, the hired help have their own game of musical beds going on: a poacher is hired to work as a servant at the estate and immediately makes plans to seduce the gamekeeper's wife, while the gamekeeper recognizes him only as the man who's been trying to steal his rabbits. Among the upper classes, infidelity is not merely accepted but expected; codes are breached not by being unfaithful, but by lacking the courtesy to lie about it in public. The weekend ends in a tragedy that suggests that this way of life may soon be coming to an end. Renoir's witty, acidic screenplay makes none of the characters heroes or villains, and his graceful handling of his cast is well served by his visual style. He tells his story with long, uninterrupted takes using deep focus (cinematographer Jean Bachelet proves a worthy collaborator here), following the action with a subtle rhythm that never calls attention to itself. The sharply-cut hunting sequence makes clear that Renoir avoided more complex editing schemes by choice, believing that long takes created a more lifelike rhythm and reduced the manipulations of over-editing. Rules of the Game uses WWI as an allegory for WWII, and its representation of a vanishing way of life soon became all too true for Renoir himself, who, within a year of the film's release, was forced to leave Europe for the United States.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943. It so infuriated Winston Churchill, in fact, that he refused to allow its exportation to other countries, particularly the U.S. When Blimp finally did premiere in the States in 1945, it screened in a drastically cut version. The sweeping story covers several decades. It begins at the tail end of the Boer War, when handsome young British officer Clive Candy, recently back from the battlefront, is infuriated by his discovery that Deutschland papers have played up the British atrocities in South Africa, propagandistically. He grows so irate, in fact, that he travels to Germany to address the problem. Once there, he meets an attractive British educator, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) who spends her days teaching English as a second language to German students. They grow close, but Candy so aggravates the local indigenes that he winds up in a duel with a German officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The men wound each other and are sent to the same hospital, where they become friends. Candy - who doesn't yet realize he's fallen in love with Edith -- senses that Theo and Edith are attracted to one another, and encourages the couple's marital union. Candy subsequently returns to England, then falls for and marries Barbara (again played by Kerr), a nurse who bears a strong resemblance to Edith. She later dies, but Candy meets a third woman during WWII, Johnny (Kerr a third time), assigned to drive him from one locale to another during his campaigns. Meanwhile, Theo - disgusted by Nazi atrocities -- absconds to England, where he reencounters his old friend, now a prattering old shuffler rapidly approaching the end of his career and raving continuously about Nazi conduct (or lack thereof) in battle. Powell and Pressberger adapted Colonel Blimp from a comic strip; it became one of the hallmarks of their careers. ~ Sidney Jenkins, All Movie Guide

Beauty and the Beast
Jean Cocteau's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (originally released in France as La Belle et la B�te) stars Josette Day as Beauty and Jean Marais as the Beast. When a merchant (Marcel Andr�) is told that he must die for picking a rose from the Beast's garden, his courageous daughter (Day) offers to go back to the Beast in her father's place. The Beast falls in love with her and proposes marriage on a nightly basis; she refuses, having pledged her troth to a handsome prince (also played by Marais). Eventually, however, she is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. The film features a musical score by Georges Auric. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brief Encounter
Based on No�l Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Ivan the Terrible: Part 2
The second part of Sergei Eisenstein's baroque chronicle of the legendary Russian czar was originally planned as a three-part epic. But Eisenstein had battles with Russian censors over the second part of his trilogy, ostensibly because of a negative depiction of Ivan's secret police force (Stalin feared that Eisenstein was making a veiled reference to himself). Although filmed shortly after Part One in 1946, the film was suppressed and was not released until 1958. In the meantime, Eisenstein, who died in 1948, never completed his project, spending most of his time defending himself before Stalin and his censor boards. Part Two takes up the story of Ivan the Terrible (Nikolai Cherkasov) upon his return to Moscow from Alexandrov. Ivan must deal with a group of unfriendly boyars and becomes even more insulated after his mother is poisoned and an assassination plot is uncovered. The black-and-white film ends with a luminous color banquet scene. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Fallen Idol
Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be implicated in a murder, Bobby does his best to throw the police off the track. The boy succeeds only in casting even more suspicion upon Richardson. As the story progresses, Henrey's hero worship is eroded by Richardson's shifty behavior, and even more so when the boy discovers that the butler's boasts of previous heroism are just so much hot air. The ending of the film differs radically from Greene's story. While it would seem that director Reed was merely paying homage to the "happy ending" philosophy (hardly likely, given the doleful climaxes of such films as Odd Man Out and The Third Man), the director had very solid reasons for altering the story: he was more fascinated by the concept of the boy's imagination nearly sending his idol to the gallows, rather than having the butler entrapped by facts. And though the ending is happy for the boy, the butler's fate is much more nebulous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Alec Guinness gets to die eight times, playing a line of successors to a dukedom, in the Ealing black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) is ninth in line to inherit the dukedom from the aristocratic D'Ascoyne family. Louis vows to kill all eight people who stand between him and the duke's title. Aside from two cases of natural causes, Louis works through the list, eliminating rivals (all played by Guinness). Along the way he romances Sibella (Joan Greenwood), a childhood friend who ends up marrying a dullard, and Edith (Valerie Hobson), the beautiful widow of one of his victims with whom he plans to share his title. But just when Louis is ready to assume the D'Ascoyne mantle, a bizarre irony strikes. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Third Man
In this Cold War spy classic, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a third-rate American pulp novelist, arrives in postwar Vienna, where he has been promised a job by his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Upon his arrival, Martins discovers that Lime has been killed in a traffic accident, and that his funeral is taking place immediately. At the graveside, Martins meets outwardly affable Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) and actress Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), who is weeping copiously. When Calloway tells Martins that the late Harry Lime was a thief and murderer, the loyal Martins is at first outraged. Gradually, he discovers not only that Calloway was right but also that the man lying in the coffin in the film's early scenes was not Harry Lime at all--and that Lime is still very much alive (he was the mysterious "third man" at the scene of the fatal accident). Thus the stage is set for the movie's famous climactic confrontation in the sewers of Vienna--and the even more famous final shot, in which Martins pays emotionally for doing "the right thing." Written by Graham Greene, The Third Man is an essential classic, made even more so by the insistent zither music of Anton Karas. The film is currently available in both an American and British release version; the American print, with an introduction by Joseph Cotten, is slightly shorter than the British version, which is narrated by director Carol Reed. Nominated for several Academy Awards, The Third Man won Best Cinematography for Robert Krasker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Rashomon
This landmark film is a brilliant exploration of truth and human weakness. It opens with a priest, a woodcutter, and a peasant taking refuge from a downpour beneath a ruined gate in 12th-century Japan. The priest and the woodcutter, each looking stricken, discuss the trial of a notorious bandit for rape and murder. As the retelling of the trial unfolds, the participants in the crime -- the bandit (Toshiro Mifune), the rape victim (Machiko Kyo), and the murdered man (Masayuki Mori) -- tell their plausible though completely incompatible versions of the story. In the bandit's version, he and the man wage a spirited duel after the rape, resulting in the man's death. In the woman's testimony, she is spurned by her husband after being raped. Hysterical with grief, she kills him. In the man's version, speaking through the lips of a medium, the bandit beseeches the woman after the rape to go away with him. She insists that the bandit kill her husband first, which angers the bandit. He spurns her and leaves. The man kills himself. Seized with guilt, the woodcutter admits to the shocked priest and the commoner that he too witnessed the crime. His version is equally feasible, although his veracity is questioned when it is revealed that he stole a dagger from the crime scene. Just as all seems bleak and hopeless, a baby appears behind the gate. The commoner seizes the moment and steals the child's clothes, while the woodcutter redeems himself and humanity in the eyes of the troubled priest, by adopting the infant. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Forbidden Games
One of the first films to see the horrors of war through the eyes of children, Forbidden Games was a critical smash, winning prizes from the New York Film Critics, the British Academy, and the Venice Film Festival. Adapted by Francois Boyer, director Rene Clement, and two others from Boyer's novel, the story focuses on Paulette (Brigitte Fossey), a five-year-old refugee from Paris taken in by a peasant family after her parents are killed during a bombardment of a civilian convoy. Michel Dolle (Georges Pujouly), the family's 11-year-old son, becomes her best friend, and they create a cemetery in which Paulette's dog is interred, along with other animals and insects, some of whom the children kill themselves. The Dolle family is too busy feuding with the Gouards, their neighbors, to notice the absence of the children. Eventually, authorities locate Paulette and insist that she be placed in an orphanage for legal adoption. Unsentimental and yet heartbreaking, Forbidden Games demonstrates the strategies of children who witness war to deal with the constant presence of death. It's also a bitter condemnation of the selfishness of adults who could offer their charges more love and protection. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

The Importance of Being Earnest
Anthony Asquith's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's witty play of mistaken identities stars Michael Redgrave as rich bachelor Jack Worthing. Jack's friend is Algernon Moncrieft (Michael Denison), a poor bloke living on credit. Jack refers mysteriously to Algernon about his country retreat, which drives Algernon to distraction, trying to figure out where Jack goes on the weekends. Jack is also in love with Algernon's attractive cousin Gwendolen (Joan Greenwood). He also has a ward, Cecily Cardew (Dorothy Tutin), who lives at the country estate and studies with local spinster Miss Prism (Margaret Rutherford). When Algernon learns of Cecily, he arrives at the country home claiming to be Jack's brother Earnest, knowing Jack had previously regaled Cecily with tales of having to bail the fictitious Earnest out of scrapes so he could sneak out to the city. Having set her eyes on "Earnest" in the flesh after having heard countless tales of his intrigues, Cecily immediately falls in love with Earnest. Meanwhile, Jack comes back to the country dressed in black, determined to announce to the group the demise of the fictional Earnest. As a result, Jack is stupefied when he sees Earnest standing in front of him. Meanwhile, Algernon's aunt, Lady Bracknell (Edith Evans) refuses to grant permission for Jack and Gwendolen's engagement. However, when Lady Bracknell finds out that Algernon is in love with Cecily, she asks Jack for his blessing on their marriage. Of course, Jack won't give his blessing until Lady Bracknell gives her blessing to his proposed marriage to Gwendolen. All is at a standstill until Lady Bracknell recognizes Miss Prism as a governess from the past who holds secrets concerning both Jack and Algernon. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Umberto D.
Frequently mentioned on lists of masterpieces of modern cinema, Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D. transforms a simple character study into a painfully poignant drama. Umberto is an aging former civil servant, now retired on his scant government pension. He spends his time in his tiny room in Rome, with only his longtime pet dog for companionship. His lonely life only grows worse when his limited income forces him to fall behind on his rent, leading his landlady to threaten him with eviction. He makes a desperate attempt to raise the needed money and protest the unfair treatment of senior citizens to the government, but he receives little response. His one chance at human contact, through brief conversations with a pregnant servant, proves sadly disappointing. Indeed, Umberto slowly becomes convinced that the situation may be hopeless, and he ultimately considers committing suicide. Considered one of the high points of Italian neo-realist cinema, Umberto D. provides the ultimate example of the movement's unadorned, observational style, which emphasizes the reality of events without calling attention to their emotional or dramatic impact. The unschooled, natural performances also contribute to the film's feeling of verisimilitude, particularly the lead performance by non-actor Carlo Battisti. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

The White Sheik
The White Sheik (Lo Sceicco Bianco), Fellini's first solo flight as director, is a gentle lampoon of the idolatry heaped upon movie stars. An impressionable young bride, Wanda (Brunella Bovo) accompanies her husband Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) on a dull honeymoon, full of meetings with family members and the papal father. Bovo fantasizes over matinee idol Fernando Rivoli, AKA The White Sheik (Alberto Sordi), the hero of a photo strip comic. She repeatedly drifts away from her husband and back, in periodic attempts to find The Sheik, ultimately repairing to the location site where Sordi's latest film, The White Shiek, is in production. Her inevitable disillusionment with the vainglorious Sordi is intercut with her husband's comic (and desperate) attempts to explain his wife's absences at family gatherings to his disgruntled relatives. After a comically inept suicide attempt, Bovo and Trieste are reunited. Featured in the cast is Fellini's wife Giuletta Masina as a prostitute named Cabiria, who'd be given a vehicle of her own, Nights of Cabiria, in 1955. Based on "an idea" by Michelangelo Antonioni, The White Sheik was the main inspiration for Gene Wilder's The World's Greatest Lover (1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ikiru
Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru details the existential struggle of one ordinary man in his desperate search for purpose. Upon learning he has terminal stomach cancer, a low-level government bureaucrat (Takashi Shimura) leaves his job of thirty years without a word to find meaning in the year he has left to live. He is completely alone in the world -- his wife is dead, his son is practically estranged, and his co-workers (the people with whom he has more contact than any others) are little more than strangers. Rather than face a death alone in pathos, Shimura opts to make up for lost time by going to the bar (for the first time in his life), spending every last yen in his wallet and drinking himself to death. There he meets a black-clad artist (a Mephistopheles to his Faust) who leads him on a hellish (and darkly humorous) tour of the city after dark as the two crawl through every booze-soaked juke-joint in town (Kurosawa's classical training as a painter surfaces in this sequence; many critics have noted the striking similarity of the crowded dance hall scenes to the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, (particularly Walpurgis Night). Realizing he has missed nothing, Shimura then sets his sight on a pretty young girl from the office to divert his attention from his looming mortality. Although the girl fails to serve as a lifebuoy, she does give him the inspiration to do something meaningful -- to leave a legacy, however small, that makes the world a better place. A synopsis of Ikiru cannot serve the film justice; it simply must be seen. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Mr. Hulot's Holiday
Already familiar to many, especially following his acclaimed directorial debut Jour De Fete, Jacques Tati came into his own and reached new levels of popularity with 1953's Les Vacances De Monsieur Hulot. The first film to introduce his much-loved alter ego Monsieur Hulot, it sets the pattern for future appearances of the character, throwing the bumbling hero unwittingly into the middle of the action and letting the ensuing mishaps provoke humor ranging from gentle observations to fairly biting satire. The setting this time is a stuffy resort community fond of the peace and quiet that Hulot interrupts without fail. Nearly dialogue-free and driven more by episode than plot (like all of the Hulot films), standout set pieces include a disrupted funeral, an interrupted game of cards, and -- one of Tati's signature bits -- a game of tennis played with rules that can politely be called unconventional. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide

The Wages of Fear
Together with Diabolique, The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) earned Henri-Georges Clouzot the reputation as a "French Hitchcock." In truth, Clouzot's ability to sustain suspense may have even exceeded Hitchcock's; when originally released, Wages ran 155 tension-filled minutes. Based on the much-imitated novel by Georges Arnaud, the film is set in Central America. The Southern Oil Company, which pretty much rules the roost in the impoverished village of Las Piedras, sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. Southern Oil's wages of 2,000 dollars per man are, literally, to die for -- the drivers are obliged to transport highly volatile nitroglycerine shipments across some of the most treacherous terrain on earth. Through expository dialogue, tense interactions and flashbacks, we become intimately acquainted with the four drivers who sign up for this death-defying mission: Corsican Yves Montand, Italian Folco Lulli, German Peter Van Eyck, and Frenchman Charles Vanel. The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations. The second half -- the drive itself -- is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses. The winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival, The Wages of Fear was remade by William Friedkin as Sorcerer (1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ugetsu Monogatari
Presented in a manner as eerie as it is heartbreaking, this film is a gorgeous supernatural fable about the folly of men with dreams larger than their abilities and their women who suffer as a result. Genjuro (Masuyaki Mori) is a potter who longs for wealth and luxury, while Tobei (Sakae Ozawa), a farmer, dreams of the glories of the samurai to the point of ignoring his wife. Though a war rages around them, they venture to town to sell their wares. Genjuro becomes bewitched by a beautiful though vengeful ghost (Machiko Kyo), while his wife is murdered by a soldier; Tobei becomes a noted warrior, while his wife descends into prostitution after being raped while searching for her husband. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

La Strada
Acclaimed Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini drew on his own circus background for the 1954 classic La Strada. Set in a seedy travelling carnival, this symbolism-laden drama revolves around brutish strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn), his simple and servile girlfriend Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife), and clown/aerialist Matto (Richard Basehart). Appalled at Zampano's insensitive treatment of Gelsomina, the gentle-natured Matto invites her to run off with him; but Gelsomina, like a faithful pet, refuses to leave the strong man's side. Eventually Zampano's volcanic temper erupts once too often, leading to tragic consequences. Written by Fellini and Tullio Pinelli and scored by Nino Rota, La Strada was the winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, awarded in 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seven Samurai
Akira Kurosawa's epic tale concerns honor and duty during a time when the old traditional order is breaking down. The film opens with master samurai Kambei (Takashi Shimura) posing as a monk to save a kidnapped farmer's child. Impressed by his selflessness and bravery, a group of farmers begs him to defend their terrorized village from bandits. Kambei agrees, although there is no material gain or honor to be had in the endeavor. Soon he attracts a pair of followers: a young samurai named Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), who quickly becomes Kambei's disciple, and boisterous Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), who poses as a samurai but is later revealed to be the son of a farmer. Kambei assembles four other samurais, including Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), a master swordsman, to round out the group. Together they consolidate the village's defenses and shape the villagers into a militia, while the bandits loom menacingly nearby. Soon raids and counter-raids build to a final bloody heart-wrenching battle. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Richard III
Laurence Olivier was the director, co-screenwriter (with Alan Dent), and star of this robust adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, which, as Bruce Eder has written, "was the final, crowning glory of the British studio system and the end of the great cycle of British films aimed at international audiences." Olivier begins his Richard III with Edward IV (Cedric Hardwicke) being crowned king. In the background of the celebration, Richard (Laurence Olivier) jealously views the proceedings and begins to pick off those obstructing his pathway to the throne. Eventually, Richard becomes king and, after proceeding with a succession of intrigues and duplicities, he finds his kingdom in dire peril, set upon by Henry Tudor (Stanley Baker) and mustering a final defense for his realm at the Battle of Bosworth. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Summertime
Katharine Hepburn stars as Jane Hudson, an Ohio secretary on the verge of spinsterhood. Carefully saving her money, Jane takes an extended trip to Venice, half hoping to find the romance that has always eluded her. Luck of luck, she meets handsome Renato Di Rossi (Rossano Brazzi), who sweeps her off her feet. Jane's flight on Cloud Nine comes to a flaming crash when she learns that Renato is married and the father of a large family. Picking herself up and dusting herself off, Jane is determined to keep her romance alive, and hang the consequences. She ultimately does what's best for everyone, and heads back to Ohio, wistfully clutching to the memory of the happiest summer of life. Gorgeously color-photographed on location by Jack Hildyard, Summertime was an adaptation of (and vast improvement upon) Arthur Laurents' play The Time of the Cuckoo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Seventh Seal
Endlessly imitated and parodied, Ingmar Bergman's landmark art movie The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Inseglet) retains its ability to hold an audience spellbound. Bergman regular Max von Sydow stars as a 14th century knight named Antonius Block, wearily heading home after ten years' worth of combat. Disillusioned by unending war, plague, and misery Block has concluded that God does not exist. As he trudges across the wilderness, Block is visited by Death (Bengt Ekerot), garbed in the traditional black robe. Unwilling to give up the ghost, Block challenges Death to a game of chess. If he wins, he lives -- if not, he'll allow Death to claim him. As they play, the knight and the Grim Reaper get into a spirited discussion over whether or not God exists. To recount all that happens next would diminish the impact of the film itself; we can observe that The Seventh Seal ends with one of the most indelible of all of Bergman's cinematic images: the near-silhouette "Dance of Death." Considered by some as the apotheosis of all Ingmar Bergman films (other likely candidates for that honor include Wild Strawberries and Persona), and certainly one of the most influential European art movies, The Seventh Seal won a multitude of awards, including the Special Jury Prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wild Strawberries
After exploring his disillusionment with religion in his previous films, Ingmar Bergman adopted a humanistic approach for this classic study in isolationism. Legendary Scandinavian director Victor Sj�str�m stars as Isak Borg, an aging medical professor who reassesses his life while journeying to his former university to receive an honorary degree. Borg travels with his estranged daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) and revisits many of the landmarks of his past, conjuring up memories of his family and of his onetime sweetheart Sara (Bibi Andersson). Returning to the present, he meets a teenage girl who resembles the long-departed Sara. She hitches a ride with the professor and Marianne, as do a ceaselessly bickering married couple. These new characters eventually become intertwined with Borg's hazy flashbacks and fantasies, as the old man recalls the disappointments and disillusionments that have left him cold and guilt-ridden, attributes emphasized when he encounters his equally cold and resentful son. Bookending Borg's odyssey of self-discovery are a series of symbolic images at the beginning of the film (a clock without hands, a man without a face) and a hauntingly beautiful finale, in which professor is beckoned back to the "perfect" world he left behind so many years earlier. This classic art movie remains one of Bergman's most accessible films and one of the most influential European art movies of its generation. Its intense focus on one man's thoughts, regrets, and memories set the tone for innumerable psychological character studies in its wake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ashes and Diamonds
This is the last film in the trilogy that began Andrzej Wajda's career as a director. Preceding this wartime drama are Pokolenie (1955) and Kanal (1957). Once again, Wajda presents a strong anti-war statement, this time in the personae of two men who are given orders on the last day of World War II in Poland to murder a leading communist. The orders come from the part of the resistance that opposes the new communist regime. One of Wajda's favorite performers and a friend, Zbigniew Cybulski, plays the man who eventually pulls the trigger and kills the communist leader -- and the results are not what he expected. In 1959, Popiol I Diament won in competition at the British Academy Awards and at the Venice Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The 400 Blows
For his feature-film debut, critic-turned-director Fran�ois Truffaut drew inspiration from his own troubled childhood. The 400 Blows stars Jean-Pierre L�aud as Antoine Doinel, Truffaut's preteen alter ego. Misunderstood at home by his parents and tormented in school by his insensitive teacher (Guy Decomble), Antoine frequently runs away from both places. The boy finally quits school after being accused of plagiarism by his teacher. He steals a typewriter from his father (Albert Remy) to finance his plans to leave home. The father angrily turns Antoine over to the police, who lock the boy up with hardened criminals. A psychiatrist at a delinquency center probes Antoine's unhappiness, which he reveals in a fragmented series of monologues. Originally intended as a 20-minute short, The 400 Blows was expanded into a feature when Truffaut decided to elaborate on his self-analysis. For the benefit of Truffaut's fellow film buffs, The 400 Blows is full of brief references to favorite directors, notably Truffaut's then-idol Jean Vigo. The film won the 1959 Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, even though Truffaut had been declared persona non grata the year before for his inflammatory comments about the festival's commercialism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fires on the Plain
Kon Ichikawa's adaptation of Shohei Ooka's novel Nobi takes place in the Philippines at the end of World War II. The Japanese army is in hasty retreat from the incoming American forces. The soldiers have also been warned that the Americans will take no live prisoners, and so their flight is all the more desperate. One group of men harbors a soldier named Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) suffering from the last stages of tuberculosis. Knowing he is facing imminent death anyway, Tamura is able to resist submitting to the chaos and demoralization that overtake his fellow soldiers (who fall so far as to commit murder, cannibalism, and go insane). Eventually Tamura becomes involved with a couple that has returned in order to pick up a cache of salt. He shoots the wife and chases off the husband, bringing him one step closer to losing his humanity. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Black Orpheus
Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) is literally what its title suggests: a retelling of the "Orpheus and Eurydice" legend enacted by black performers. This time the setting is the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Orpheus (Breno Mello) is a streetcar conductor; Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) has just jilted her lover and is attempting to escape his wrath. Orpheus himself falls in love with Eurydice, whereupon her ex-lover, disguised as the Angel of Death shows up and kills Eurydice. To reclaim his lost love, Orpheus enters "Hell" (the Rio morgue) and uses supernatural methods to revive the dead girl. A multi-award winner on the international film scene, Black Orpheus features a samba musical score by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Floating Weeds
This 1959 Ozu production centers on the likable but fallible leader of an itinerant acting troupe ("floating weeds" being the Japanese name for such groups), Kimajuro, played brilliantly by Ganjiro Nakamura. The film opens on a lazy, stagnant river as the troupe lays spread about on a boat deck drifting downstream. It's obvious that they're a ragged bunch as they sit fanning themselves and smoking on deck. The boat pulls into a quiet fishing village where the troupe proceeds to canvass the town, hanging up posters and performing impromptu stunts for the inhabitants. Kimajuro and his actress mistress, Sumiko (Machiko Kyo), head to the theatre and secure their cramped quarters above the theatre's main hall. Kimajuro leaves to pay a visit to a local saki bar owned by Oyoshi (Haruko Sugimura), who, years previous, had conceived a child with Kimajuro. The child has grown into a strapping young man, Kiyoshi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), who has a good job at the post office. Kimajuro, although clearly proud of his son, has refused to take responsibility for the child and Kiyoshi thinks Kimajuro is merely his uncle. Unbeknownst to Kimajuro, Sumiko has discovered his secret, and, infuriated, hires a young actress to seduce Kiyoshi. Terrified that his son is falling for this woman of loose morals, Kimajuro has to decide what's most important: keeping his secret safe or saving his son by acknowledging his paternity. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide

The Virgin Spring
Inspired by a medieval Swedish ballad, Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukallan) begins with a scene of unspeakable brutality and ends with an image of uncommon beauty. 15-year-old Birgitta Peterson, on her way to church to light candles for the Virgin Mary, is raped and murdered by two older men. The men look for shelter at the home of Birgitta's father (Max Von Sydow), who murders the bestial killers in cold blood. When the deed is done, Von Sydow, a deeply religious man, begins to question the efficacy of a God that would allow his daughter's death, then permit so bloody a retribution. Then, a fresh, virgin spring bubbles from the ground where his daughter had been lying a few moments before. Taking this natural phenonenon as a sign from above, Von Sydow vows to erect a church on the spot where Birgitta met her doom. The winner of the "best foreign picture" Academy Award, The Virgin Spring currently exists in several versions of varying lengths; the longest, and most graphic, is the original Swedish cut. Believe it or not, this hauntingly beautiful film served as the basis of The Last House on the Left (1972). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ballad of a Soldier
The award-winning Ballad of a Soldier was the first Russian film to score an American success during the Cold War era. It is a relatively simple, uncomplicated story of a callow young Russian conscript (Vladimir Ivashov) who yearns for home and hearth during World War II. Unfortunately, only those who have committed a conspicuously heroic act are being honored with liberty. Almost in spite of himself, the boy becomes a battlefield hero, and as a result is allowed to visit his family. En route to his home, the boy uses up much of his valuable leave time through his efforts to help others. He finally gets to see his mother for a few precious moments before being called back to active duty. At the risk of sounding snobbish, we advise that you see Ballad of a Soldier in a subtitled print. The English-dubbed version borders on the ridiculous, with everyone talking in stilted sentences that sound like Soviet Damon Runyon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

L'Avventura
This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro's emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and -- when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever -- become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L'avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Viridiana
After 25 years' exile, Luis Bu�uel was invited to his native Spain to direct Viridiana -- only to have the Spanish government suppress the film on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity. Regarded by many as Bu�uel's crowning achievement, the film centers on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal). Just before taking her final vows, Viridiana is forced by her mother superior to visit her wealthy uncle Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), who has "selflessly" provided for the girl over the years. She has always considered Don Jaime an unspeakable beast, so she is surprised when he graciously welcomes her into his home. Just as graciously, he sets about to corrupt Viridiana beyond redemption -- all because the girl resembles his late wife. It is always hard to select the most outrageous scene in any Bu�uel film; our candidate in Viridiana is the devastating Last Supper tableau consisting of beggars, thieves, and degenerates. As joltingly brilliant today as on its first release, Viridiana won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Il Posto
Better known as The Sound of Trumpets, Il Posto was the first feature-length effort of the highly singular Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi. The director has acknowledged that the young protagonist, played by nonprofessional Sandro Panzeri, was based on himself. Bursting with big dreams and plans, Panzeri arrives in Milan, where he goes to work in a big impersonal office. He yearns after a pretty female coworker, but he is most desirous of moving "up" into the desk next to his. By the time he accomplishes this (via the death of another employee), Panzeri is on the verge of being drained of all his individualism -- though Olmi suggests that he still has time to escape his fate. The director attacks the depersonalization of the business world by continuing pointing out how much potential has been sacrified to conformity; for example, the deceased office worker, whom no one noticed in life, is revealed to have been an aspiring writer. Taking a big chance, Olmi allowed his amateur cast to do their own post-dubbing, rather than hiring professionals to dub in their voices. Il Posto is within the realm of neorealism, but with a tad more humor than one finds in other Italian films of that ilk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jules and Jim
Acclaimed French director Fran�ois Truffaut's third and, for many viewers, best film is an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical novel by Henri-Pierre Roch�. Set between 1912 and 1933, it stars Oskar Werner as the German Jules and Henri Serre as the Frenchman Jim, kindred spirits who, while on holiday in Greece, fall in love with the smile on the face of a sculpture. Back in Paris, the smile comes to life in the person of Catherine (Jeanne Moreau); the three individuals become constant companions, determined to live their lives to the fullest despite the world war around them. When Jules declares his love for Catherine, Jim agrees to let Jules pursue her, despite his own similar feelings; Jules and Catherine marry and have a child (Sabine Haudepin), but Catherine still loves Jim as well. An influential film that has grown in stature over the decades, Jules et Jim was often viewed by the counterculture of the 1960s as a cinematic proponent of the free-love movement, but in actuality the picture is a statement against such a way of life. Despite the bond shared by Jules, Jim, and Catherine, their m�nage � trois is doomed to fail; and Catherine's inability to choose between the two men leads to tragic consequences for all three. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Knife in the Water
Noz w Wodzie was not only Polanski's first feature-length film, but it also marked the first screen appearance of Polish actor Zygmunt Malanowicz who played a young student. In fact, the only experienced thespian in the featured trio is Leon Niemczyk as Andrzej, the self-important, somewhat arrogant husband of Kataryna. Andrzej and Kataryna pick up the student as he is hitchhiking and invite him to join them on their boat for an outing. As the threesome head out to open water, the husband and the student start a kind of jealous interaction that keeps Kataryna mildly amused. What began as a macho sparring ends up in a fight that has the student falling overboard and the husband swimming to shore for help. But appearances are deceiving, as the husband will soon discover. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Great Chase
The art of the movie chase sequence hardly began with Bullitt or The French Connection -- no thriller of the silent era was complete without a hair-raising chase scene, and this compilation pulls together highlights from some of the great films of the early 20th century. Starting with The Great Train Robbery (1903), this documentary follows the history of the silent movie chase sequence, and it includes excerpts from The Mark of Zorro (1920), Way Down East (1920), The Perils of Pauline (1914), and Buster Keaton's masterpiece, The General (1927). The Great Chase also features an original score written and performed by the great harmonica player Larry Adler. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Love Goddesses
One subject that has always been popular in the movies -- and is likely to stay that way for a long time to come -- is beautiful women, and this 1965 documentary explores the history of the Hollywood sex symbol, from the earliest days of Thomas Alva Edison's first silent films to such then-contemporary bombshells as Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor. Along with celebrating some of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen, including Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, Ingrid Bergman, and Greta Garbo, The Love Goddesses discusses the shifting attitudes about the onscreen portrayal of love and sex, and how some actresses found their images changing as they went from ingenues to pinups, and sometimes vice-versa. Actor Carl King serves as narrator; Percy Faith composed the score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

I Pugni in Tasca
Considered one of the great lost classics of Italian neo-realism, this bleak drama was the debut feature of filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. Lou Castel stars as Alessandro, an epileptic from a large family of similarly afflicted siblings, headed up by a blind matriarch (Liliana Gerace). The only healthy member of the family is Alessandro's brother Augusto (Marino Mase), who wants to marry his girlfriend but refuses to saddle a bride with the enormous burden of helping to care for his ailing relatives. Sympathetic to Augusto's plight, Alessandro decides to murder the rest of the family so as to set his brother free and assure him of an inheritance. After hurling his mother into a ravine and drowning his little brother, Alessandro returns home to suffer a seizure. Long hailed by critics and historians as an unjustly ignored film, I Pugni in Tasca (1965) was one of 15 titles selected by New York's Museum of Modern Art for its "Second Act" retrospective of post-war Italian cinema in the spring of 2000. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Loves of a Blonde
Out in the Czech countryside, a shoe factory owner petitions the People's Army to station a division of soldiers in his town, where the women outnumber the men sixteen to one. The arrival of the troops is greeted with great excitement, but the girls in the town are disappointed to see that the men are older reservists, and not the strapping young men they'd envisioned. Still, when a band plays at the local pub, the girls show up to be ogled by the older men, many of whom are married. A trio of reservists sends a bottle of wine to Andula (Hana Brejchova), Marie (Marie Salacova), and Jana (Jana Novakova), and the girls argue over whether or not to acknowledge the gesture. But Andula catches the eye of the comparatively dashing young pianist, Milda (Vladimir Pucholt). Milda convinces Andula to go to his room, where he seduces the mildly reluctant girl. The next morning, the traveling musician assures her repeatedly, "I do not have a girlfriend in Prague." Milda leaves town, as expected, but Andula has fallen in love with him, and decides to journey to Prague to track him down. A low-key black-and-white ensemble comedy, Loves of a Blonde was cast predominantly with non-professional actors. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, drew a lot of attention to the "Czech New Wave," and jumpstarted the international filmmaking career of director Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Miss Julie
Based upon the play by August Strindberg, Miss Julie is concerned with the torturous relationship between the aristocratic title character and Jean (Donal McCann), a mere servant of her father's house. As the play opens, most of the servants are outside celebrating midsummer's eve with dancing, singing, and laughter. Christine (Heather Canning), a cook, is waiting for Jean to arrive so that they may join the revelers, but the imperious Miss Julie (Helen Mirren) comes between them and uses her power and status to change their plans. Julie delights in humiliating Jean, treating him with disdain and mocking his dreams; she even goes so far as ask that he kiss her shoe. Because she is technically his employer, Jean cannot directly express his anger, but he does begin playing a manipulative game of his own that results in an exchange of secrets. They disappear into a secluded room of the house, and when they re-emerge, Jean has gained the upper hand, and they find themselves in an untenable situation which they must still somehow resolve. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

The Spirit of the Beehive
Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fern�n G�mez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist
No synopsis available.

Version Details

Sound

monaural

Languages/Sound

Eng/Fre/Rus/Italian

Screen Formats

Enhanced Widescreen for 16x9 TV/Black & White

Subtitle Languages

Eng

Chapters

Disc #1 -- Alexander Nevsky 1. Credits (00:02:00) 2. The Thirteenth Century (00:01:33) 3. The Plescheevo Lake (00:08:03) 4. The Free City of Novgorod (00:05:21) 5. Debate in the Town Square (00:04:58) 6. Pskov (00:08:19) 7. Peryaslavl (00:04:32) 8. "Arise, You Russian People" (00:02:27) 9. Novgorod (00:06:38) 10. Off to Hunt the Russian Bear (00:03:59) 11. The Rabbit and the Fox (00:03:00) 12. Chudskoye Lake (00:04:32) 13. April 5, 1242 (00:06:19) 14. The Battle Is Joined (00:02:49) 15. "For Russia!" (00:06:00) 16. German Retreat (00:05:32) 17. Prince Alexander vs. the Master (00:01:21) 18. Germans Overrun (00:02:47) 19. Death of Ignat (00:00:52) 20. Thin Ice (00:03:02) 21. Women and Torches (00:09:13) 22. Pskov (00:04:34) 23. Court of Justice (00:03:57) 24. Alexander the Matchmaker (00:03:38) 25. "And Now...Let Us Celebrate" (00:01:29) 26. Epilogue (00:01:12) 27. Color Bars Disc #2 -- Ashes and Diamonds 1. "The Fight...Has Only Just Begun" (00:08:35) 2. Entertaining Distractions (00:07:01) 3. An Unfinished Job (00:06:12) 4. Mourning and Contemplation (00:03:50) 5. Political Reasons (00:03:28) 6. Expats and In-laws (00:04:11) 7. Commitments and Vigils (00:10:26) 8. A Vow (00:02:31) 9. Debs, Doubts, and Drinks (00:04:57) 10. "Tell Me Something About Yourself" (00:03:28) 11. Futures (00:06:08) 12. Facing Memories (00:04:17) 13. A Diamond (00:06:26) 14. "I Didn't Know What Love Was" (00:03:08) 15. "What's There to Understand?" (00:04:10) 16. "I Want to Live" (00:05:50) 17. Fire for Father (00:05:48) 18. The Last Dance (00:05:39) 19. Running Away (00:06:19) 20. Color Bars (00:00:01) Disc #3 -- L'avventura 1. Opening Credits (00:02:13) 2. The Old and the New World (00:02:09) 3. "Good-bye Cruise" (00:01:34) 4. "Let Her Wait" (00:04:14) 5. "Shall We Swim?" (00:04:38) 6. "Shark!" (00:03:07) 7. "WHich Shall I Wear?" (00:02:33) 8. "There's No Spark" (00:02:03) 9. "I Don't Feel You Anymore" (00:03:19) 10. "And Anna?" (00:11:49) 11. The Storm (00:04:16) 12. "You Love Anna" (00:06:49) 13. "An Ancient Vase" (00:04:05) 14. "Here's Anna's Father" (00:03:40) 15. "I'll Join You at the Montaldos" (00:03:02) 16. "And the Other Boat?" (00:03:00) 17. "When Will I See You, Then?" (00:03:15) 18. "Come Away With Me" (00:05:15) 19. "My Name Is Gloria Perkins" (00:04:11) 20. "A Lovely Clinic for Nervous Disorders" (00:02:05) 21. "How Does It Look?" (00:02:38) 22. "I'd Make a Beautiful Portrait" (00:04:51) 23. "I'm Not Coming" (00:02:10) 24. "Picture of Marital Bliss" (00:04:13) 25. "It's Not a Town, It's a Cemetery" (00:06:33) 26. "A Can of Paint" (00:04:25) 27. "Shall We Get Married?" (00:04:22) 28. "I've Been Twenty-three Too" (00:06:17) 29. "I Feel As Though I Don't Know You" (00:03:41) 30. "A Sensible Childhood" (00:04:15) 31. "I'm Too Sleepy" (00:05:45) 32. "One...Two...Three..." (00:05:59) 33. "I'm Afraid Anna's Back" (00:03:07) 34. "A Small Souvenir" (00:02:24) 35. Conclusion (00:04:36) 36. Color Bars Disc #4 -- Ballad of a Soldier 1. A Son and a Hero (00:03:35) 2. David and Goliath (00:04:20) 3. Six Days' Leave (00:03:10) 4. A Special Present (00:03:25) 5. Good Deeds (00:04:33) 6. Gorisov (00:07:25) 7. Stowaways (00:07:38) 8. Shura (00:07:18) 9. Close Call (00:04:29) 10. Love and Friendship (00:04:39) 11. Separated (00:02:49) 12. A Good Girl (00:02:58) 13. 7 Chekhov Street (00:06:14) 14. The Present Delivered (00:02:37) 15. True Love (00:05:33) 16. Haunted (00:01:56) 17. "Is That Thunder?" (00:05:00) 18. Sosnovka (00:02:31) 19. Mother and Son (00:02:50) 20. A Soldier (00:04:51) 21. Color Bars Disc #5 -- Beauty and the Beast 1. "Once Upon a Time..." (00:03:22) 2. Wicked Sisters (00:03:53) 3. La Belle (00:03:48) 4. Enchanted Forest (00:05:33) 5. La B�te (00:08:33) 6. The Price of a Rose (00:02:22) 7. Beauty Meets Beast (00:08:55) 8. A Strange Proposal (00:03:50) 9. Observations (00:05:07) 10. A Broken Heart (00:10:35) 11. Stripped of Everything (00:01:32) 12. Belle's Promise (00:04:41) 13. A Tearful Reunion (00:02:31) 14. Riches to Rags (00:04:11) 15. Old Ways Anew (00:07:57) 16. The Sisters' Revenge (00:03:27) 17. Mirror Images (00:04:39) 18. Closing In (00:02:50) 19. Miracles (00:05:31) 20. Color Bars Disc #6 -- Black Orpheus 1. Opening Credits (00:03:48) 2. Eurydice Arrives (00:03:31) 3. Streetcar Pickup (00:05:40) 4. One Thousand Years of Love? (00:05:14) 5. Serafina's Visitor (00:03:49) 6. Kisses on Account (00:03:05) 7. "Orpheus Is My Master" (00:08:39) 8. Death in Costume (00:15:20) 9. Houses in Heaven (00:05:58) 10. Sunrise Serenade (00:03:35) 11. Identical Cousins (00:07:02) 12. Carnival Unravels (00:10:07) 13. The Serpent's Bite (00:05:33) 14. Ambulance Chaser (00:06:49) 15. The Descent (00:12:14) 16. Dionysian Onslaught (00:04:34) 17. A New Day (00:02:17) 18. Color Bars Disc #7 -- Brief Encounter 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:33) 2. Milford Junction Station (00:08:54) 3. Laura and Her Family (00:03:23) 4. Rachmaninoff and Recriminations (00:03:50) 5. "I Happen to Be a Doctor" (00:01:46) 6. "You Could Never Be Dull" (00:05:57) 7. "Don't You Feel Guilty?" (00:01:54) 8. Falling in Love Over Alec's Ideals (00:06:42) 9. A Close Call (00:03:40) 10. Love on the Run (00:03:48) 11. Flames of Passion (00:06:28) 12. Laura's Fantasies (00:03:22) 13. A Lie Between Friends (00:03:51) 14. In Flagrante Delicto (00:05:04) 15. Saucy Upstart Soldiers (00:03:19) 16. A Friend's Apartment (00:03:54) 17. At the War Memorial (00:03:59) 18. "Could You Really Say Good-bye?" (00:03:58) 19. "A Long Way Away..." (00:09:02) 20. Coming Back (00:01:30) 21. Color Bars Disc #8 -- The Fallen Idol 1. "Look After the Embassy , My Boy" (00:06:55) 2. Some Lies Are Kindness (00:04:16) 3. What a Fool the Man Is (00:10:10) 4. "You Can Trust Me, Baines" (00:05:50) 5. "They Gave It to Me!" (00:03:45) 6. A Day at the Zoo (00:07:02) 7. "My McGregor" (00:07:40) 8. "What Are You Up To?" (00:06:40) 9. "Picking Up Kids Now?" (00:03:34) 10. Death Is Ugly Business (00:00:43) 11. No, No, No, No (00:12:37) 12. No Evidence (00:09:46) 13. We Make One Another (00:07:50) 14. Color Bars (00:08:27) Disc #9 -- Fires on the Plain 1. "That Will Be Your Final Duty" (00:05:40) 2. A Soldier's Journey/Opening Credits (00:07:04) 3. Native Dish (00:05:19) 4. "If You Can Walk, You're Not a Patient" (00:09:00) 5. Attack! (00:04:36) 6. Many Days Passed...and Many Nights (00:02:25) 7. The Price of Salt (00:08:35) 8. Oshima Company (00:06:39) 9. March of the Dead (00:03:00) 10. "Men Can't Live Without Tobacco" (00:03:37) 11. Boot Exchange (00:02:43) 12. The Road to Palompon (00:05:53) 13. Night Crossing (00:03:33) 14. Take No Prisoners (00:04:05) 15. "Hey, Are You Dead?" (00:02:29) 16. Food for Thought (00:03:43) 17. Reunion (00:11:44) 18. "Monkey Meat" (00:08:11) 19. A Splash of Blood (00:04:16) 20. Fires on the Plain (00:01:31) 21. Color Bars Disc #10 -- Fists in the Pocket 1. Siblings (00:06:01) 2. Propriety (00:06:59) 3. Evaluation (00:06:08) 4. Headlines (00:02:53) 5. Desire (00:03:20) 6. Intentions (00:05:41) 7. Trust (00:04:46) 8. Stopped (00:08:45) 9. Condemned (00:01:49) 10. Control (00:09:28) 11. Ideas (00:07:40) 12. Disposal (00:02:48) 13. Red (00:07:19) 14. Birthday (00:02:39) 15. One (00:08:19) 16. Awakening (00:09:25) 17. Fine (00:04:11) 18. Bars (00:10:12) Disc #11 -- Floating Weeds 1. Credits (00:01:47) 2. The Troupe Returns (00:04:06) 3. Drumming Up Business (00:06:03) 4. Settling In (00:04:32) 5. A Visit to the Patron (00:07:42) 6. Opening Night (00:05:26) 7. Looking for Love (00:04:41) 8. Fishing (00:02:39) 9. The Mistress's Discovery (00:11:22) 10. Mother and Mistress Meet (00:07:26) 11. A Scheme Is Hatched (00:02:56) 12. First Date (00:02:12) 13. Stranded (00:03:47) 14. Love Blossoms (00:02:58) 15. A Father's Anger (00:02:49) 16. No Credit (00:12:01) 17. Moving On (00:05:32) 18. Where's Kiyoshi? (00:07:21) 19. Father and Son (00:09:16) 20. Starting Over (00:08:38) 21. Color Bars (00:05:30) Disc #12 -- Forbidden Games 1. Opening Credits/June 1940 (00:09:11) 2. Paulette and Michel (00:05:01) 3. "She Came From the Road" (00:03:30) 4. "This Is No Time to Die" (00:02:31) 5. Comforting Paulette (00:05:22) 6. "May the Good Lord Receive Them" (00:04:16) 7. The Mill (00:03:56) 8. A Son Dies (00:06:35) 9. Young Gouard Returns (00:07:19) 10. A Funeral...and Accusations (00:08:17) 11. Sins (00:09:02) 12. Trouble in the Cemetery (00:05:16) 13. Michel Goes Missing (00:05:32) 14. The Police Arrive (00:07:24) 15. Little Girl Lost (00:02:27) 16. Color Bars Disc #13 -- The 400 Blows 1. No Recess (00:05:02) 2. Indicative, Conditional, Subjunctive (00:05:06) 3. Latchkey Kid (00:04:49) 4. Mother and Father (00:04:05) 5. Matinee (00:05:00) 6. Stolen Kiss (00:06:30) 7. Maximum Punishment (00:04:54) 8. Food and Shelter (00:05:53) 9. Pampered (00:04:35) 10. Smaller and Smaller (00:01:31) 11. For Balzac (00:03:36) 12. Momentary Happiness (00:01:45) 13. Suspended (00:07:07) 14. Up to No Good (00:04:12) 15. Childhood Magic (00:01:45) 16. Heist (00:05:50) 17. "We've Tried Everything" (00:04:08) 18. Behind Bars (00:07:07) 19. Negotiation (00:01:14) 20. Juvenile Detention (00:03:44) 21. Psychological Questioning (00:03:40) 22. Visitors (00:02:20) 23. Antoine Runs Away (00:05:17) 24. Color Bars Disc #14 -- Grand Illusion 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:02:07) 2. Shot Down in Germany (00:05:36) 3. First Taste of Prison Camp (00:09:22) 4. The Tunnel (00:09:24) 5. Dressing Up (00:02:51) 6. The Sound of Marching (00:00:39) 7. Putting on a Show (00:09:35) 8. Frustration at the Eleventh Hour (00:05:50) 9. Ending Up At Wintersborn (00:03:09) 10. Touring the Property (00:08:14) 11. Officers and Aristocrats (00:02:13) 12. Preparing the Escape (00:13:14) 13. The Magic Flute (00:11:45) 14. De Boeldieu a Hero (00:04:29) 15. Refuge at the Farm (00:12:56) 16. A Christmas Romance (00:04:11) 17. The Parting (00:07:21) 18. Color Bars Disc #15 -- H�xan 1. Chapter 1: Sources (00:05:57) 2. Hell (00:01:58) 3. Witches (00:05:23) 4. Chapter 2: 1488 (00:08:08) 5. Grave Robbers (00:03:03) 6. Deeds of the Devil (00:09:26) 7. Chapter 3: The Trials (00:03:55) 8. The Evil Eye (00:06:37) 9. Chapter 4: Torture (00:06:28) 10. Satan's Sabbath (00:02:57) 11. Rituals (00:04:13) 12. Chapter 5: Sinful Thoughts (00:04:46) 13. Bewitched (00:02:12) 14. Trickery (00:06:46) 15. Thunder from Water (00:03:10) 16. Chapter 6: Techniques (00:05:56) 17. Sister Cecilia (00:04:06) 18. The Mad Nuns Dance (00:01:04) 19. Baby Jesus (00:01:28) 20. Chapter 7: 1921 (00:10:46) 21. Hysteria (00:06:27) 22. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #16 -- Ikiru 1. Credits (00:02:06) 2. The Main Character (00:04:11) 3. Runaround (00:03:53) 4. An Unusual Absence (00:01:29) 5. Amateur Prognosis (00:03:12) 6. Professional Prognosis (00:03:08) 7. Home (00:04:08) 8. Memories (00:08:01) 9. Whereabouts Unknown (00:02:42) 10. A Sympathetic Ear (00:09:43) 11. Night on the Town (00:14:51) 12. Thirty Years for What? (00:09:30) 13. An Afternoon Together (00:03:57) 14. Unwrapping the Mummy (00:04:47) 15. Father and Son Confrontation (00:03:31) 16. One Last Date With Toyo (00:10:26) 17. A New Purpose (00:02:14) 18. Questioning Watanabe's Death (00:04:15) 19. A Matter of Credit (00:04:21) 20. Respects Paid (00:02:19) 21. Making Sense of Watanabe (00:29:38) 22. The Policeman's Story (00:07:07) 23. Business As Usual (00:01:24) 24. Watanabe's Legacy (00:01:40) 25. Color Bars Disc #17 -- The Importance of Being Earnest 1. Opening Credits (00:01:21) 2. The Question of Cecily (00:05:28) 3. The Fine Art of Bunburying (00:02:57) 4. Cucumber Sandwiches (00:05:36) 5. An Earnest Proposal (00:04:44) 6. An Ordinary Handbag (00:07:49) 7. A Genuine Monster (00:02:48) 8. Cecily's Wonderful Secrets (00:03:34) 9. The Latin for Joy (00:02:47) 10. Flowers for Algernon (00:05:04) 11. Jack's Younger Brother (00:03:47) 12. A Great Success (00:02:01) 13. Cecily's Childish Dream (00:07:29) 14. A Perfectly Canonical Practice (00:02:22) 15. Dearest Gwendolyn, Dearest Cecily (00:08:53) 16. "Just One Question" (00:03:44) 17. An Insuperable Barrier (00:04:35) 18. A Life Crowded with Incident (00:03:28) 19. Jack Objects (00:06:26) 20. "Prism, Where Is That Baby?" (00:05:57) 21. The Vital Importance of Being Earnest (00:04:26) 22. Color Bars Disc #18 -- Ivan the Terrible Part II 1. Credits (00:00:32) 2. Prologue (00:01:52) 3. The Polish Court (00:04:40) 4. The Czar Returns to Moscow (00:02:55) 5. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow (00:01:20) 6. Young Ivan's Suffering (00:04:08) 7. Young Ivan Takes Charge (00:02:53) 8. The Lonely Czar (00:03:25) 9. Malyuta, the Redheaded Dog (00:04:36) 10. The Cup? The Cup... (00:02:09) 11. Execution (00:02:22) 12. "I Demand the Czar Be Humbled" (00:03:08) 13. The Fiery Furnace (00:08:59) 14. Suicide Mission (00:04:32) 15. Lullaby, the First (00:05:35) 16. A Strange Invitation (00:03:07) 17. Dance of the Oprichniki (00:07:24) 18. Czar Vladimir? (00:09:10) 19. The Cathedral (00:04:19) 20. Lullaby, the Second (00:05:57) 21. The Sword of Justice (00:01:18) 22. End Credits (00:01:05) 23. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #19 -- Le Jour Se L�ve 1. Opening Credits/A Shot Rings Out (00:04:25) 2. "What Kind of Man Is This Fran�ois?" (00:07:00) 3. Remember... (00:07:31) 4. Jealousy (00:09:31) 5. Valentin and Clara (00:08:37) 6. Cornered (00:06:56) 7. Valentin Comes Calling (00:07:29) 8. "A Youthful Indiscretion" (00:00:10) 9. Lies (00:06:48) 10. "Something to Remember Me By" (00:06:32) 11. Riot! (00:04:41) 12. "It's Not So Easy to Kill a Man, Is It?" (00:05:32) 13. "Ah, yes, lilacs" (00:07:31) 14. Color Bars (00:07:12) Disc #20 -- Jules and Jim 1. Credits/A Freindship (00:02:17) 2. Th�r�se (00:04:52) 3. A Calm Smile (00:03:43) 4. Catherine (00:01:06) 5. Thomas (00:03:14) 6. Burning Lies (00:02:39) 7. Traces of Civilization (00:03:26) 8. At the Beach (00:01:39) 9. Learning to Laugh (00:01:43) 10. Catherine's Leap (00:04:23) 11. Good News (00:03:17) 12. The War (00:04:47) 13. An Angel Passes (00:08:01) 14. Speaking of Catherine (00:02:58) 15. Jim and Catherine (00:07:29) 16. War Stories (00:03:28) 17. "Le Tourbillon De La Vie" (00:02:28) 18. Elective Affinities (00:04:14) 19. Village Idiots (00:04:31) 20. Jim in Paris (00:03:42) 21. Gilberte (00:01:23) 22. Catherine the Queen (00:03:15) 23. Changing Alliances (00:06:38) 24. Parting (00:02:36) 25. Separation (00:03:33) 26. Reunions (00:05:19) 27. Jim's Story (00:04:01) 28. Catherine's Final Gesture (00:05:01) 29. Color Bars Disc #21 -- Kind Hearts and Coronets 1. Noblesse Oblige (00:04:49) 2. A Brief History (00:06:17) 3. Poor Relations (00:06:20) 4. A Humiliating Experience (00:05:23) 5. Fate Worse Than Death (00:07:14) 6. Henry and Edith D'Ascoyne (00:06:30) 7. "An Agony of Suspense" (00:04:40) 8. En Masse (00:05:20) 9. Bachelor Apartment (00:03:18) 10. Reverend Henry and Lady Agatha (00:06:16) 11. Family Curse (00:01:47) 12. Guilty Secret (00:06:33) 13. Extreme Indelicacy (00:06:40) 14. An Adroit Maneuver (00:07:44) 15. The Tenth Duke of Chalfont (00:07:32) 16. The Trial (00:02:52) 17. Miracles (00:07:58) 18. End Credits (00:08:19) 19. Color Bars (00:00:40) Disc #22 -- Knife in the Water 1. The Hitchhiker (00:07:21) 2. The Dock (00:07:44) 3. "Are We Moving?" (00:06:20) 4. The Reeds (00:02:32) 5. Noon (00:06:30) 6. Lunch (00:05:04) 7. In Circles (00:05:22) 8. Sailing (00:06:17) 9. Aground (00:03:20) 10. Forfeit (00:11:43) 11. Light Sleepers (00:07:44) 12. Overboard (00:06:40) 13. "You're Just Like Him" (00:09:09) 14. "Where Are We Going?" (00:08:17) 15. Color Bars Disc #23 -- The Lady Vanishes 1. Logos/Opening Titles (00:00:15) 2. The Hotel (00:03:23) 3. The Guests (00:02:37) 4. Sleeping Arrangements (00:02:05) 5. Iris and Company (00:02:35) 6. "What's Happening to England?" (00:01:52) 7. Dining with Miss Froy (00:02:46) 8. "Good Night's" and MacGuffins (00:02:23) 9. Gilbert's Music (00:03:10) 10. Gilbert and Iris Meet (00:02:59) 11. Music and Murder (00:00:55) 12. A Slightly Sunburned Offering (00:02:19) 13. Iris and Miss Froy (00:01:43) 14. "Froy - It Rhymes with Joy" (00:03:41) 15. "There Has Been No English Lady Here" (00:02:35) 16. "Never Desert a Lady in Trouble" (00:01:16) 17. A More Complicated Case (00:02:01) 18. There Is No Miss Froy (00:03:55) 19. A Most Fascinating Complication (00:03:17) 20. 'It Isn't Her!" (00:02:57) 21. "You're Always Seeing Things" (00:03:38) 22. A Million Mexicans Drink It (00:01:55) 23. The Vanishing Lady (00:04:55) 24. "Kick Him - See If He's Got a False Bottom!" (00:03:26) 25. Something Wrong About the Nun (00:03:22) 26. "To Your Health" (00:03:18) 27. "The Operation Will Not Be Successful" (00:02:12) 28. "You Haven't Been Drugged" (00:02:19) 29. The Tables Turned (00:03:15) 30. Diverted (00:01:50) 31. "Things Like This Just Don't Happen" (00:02:39) 32. "We'll Never Get to the Match Now" (00:03:02) 33. A Message to the Foreign Office (00:02:24) 34. "We Must Get This Train Going" (00:05:17) 35. Home, and Unfinished Business (00:02:49) 36. End Credits (00:00:35) 37. Color Bars Disc #24 -- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1. Prologue, 1942: "War Starts At Midnight" (00:05:40) 2. "A Date with Mata Hari" (00:04:41) 3. General Clive Candy (00:03:55) 4. London, 1902: A Letter from Berlin (00:09:00) 5. Miss Hunter (00:03:08) 6. The German Caf� (00:05:23) 7. Enter Herr Kaunitz (00:06:06) 8. "Is This Fight Really Necessary?" (00:06:37) 9. The Duel (00:07:44) 10. The Nursing Home (00:04:33) 11. "Very Much" (00:06:30) 12. Friends, Yes or No? (00:07:43) 13. Candy's Bittersweet Return (00:04:13) 14. Visiting Aunt Margaret (00:04:17) 15. World War I: At the Front (00:09:22) 16. A Striking Resemblance (00:04:02) 17. "Right Is Might After All" (00:03:28) 18. A Nuptial Announcement (00:04:41) 19. London, 1919: Home Sweet Home (00:03:09) 20. Theo, Prisoner of War (00:04:21) 21. A Surprise Guest (00:08:54) 22. "What Will I Do If I Don't Hum?" (00:02:36) 23. London, 1939: Theo, the Enemy Alien (00:09:00) 24. "I Never Got Over It" (00:05:24) 25. One Girl Out of Seven Hundred (00:02:54) 26. The BBC: "A Little Ill-timed" (00:03:38) 27. A Letter from the War Office (00:07:59) 28. Britain's First Line of Defense (00:03:32) 29. London, 1942: "War Starts at Midnight" (00:05:19) 30. Epilogue/End Credits (00:05:08) 31. Color Bars Disc #25 -- Loves of a Blonde 1. Andula (00:06:31) 2. Girls Without Boyfriends (00:02:51) 3. Greeting the Troops (00:02:09) 4. The Dance (00:06:33) 5. A Solicitation (00:06:09) 6. Overture Denied (00:09:17) 7. The Piano Player (00:15:12) 8. An Old Love (00:06:37) 9. Prague (00:07:28) 10. Interrogation (00:08:49) 11. Memory Lapse (00:05:50) 12. Sleeping Arrangements (00:04:57) 13. Back in Zruc (00:02:15) 14. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #26 -- M 1. Elsie Beckmann (00:08:02) 2. Who Is the Murderer? (00:05:43) 3. Investigations (00:07:10) 4. "Show Me Your Papers" (00:08:26) 5. Cops Everywhere (00:12:40) 6. Interfering with Business (00:04:47) 7. Hans Beckert's Apartment (00:09:36) 8. Peer Gynt Suite (00:02:21) 9. The Mark (00:00:05) 10. Abandoned Offices (00:07:21) 11. Surrounded (00:09:18) 12. Alarm (00:02:30) 13. Interrogation (00:02:50) 14. The Hideout (00:09:25) 15. Kangaroo Court (00:03:42) 16. Color Bars (00:16:37) Disc #27 -- M. Hulot's Holiday 1. Opening Credits (00:01:18) 2. The Railway Station (00:01:42) 3. M. Hulot on the Road (00:03:34) 4. Martine Unpacks (00:02:19) 5. Enter M. Hulot (00:04:40) 6. The Hat Trick (00:01:42) 7. Sur La Plage (00:05:09) 8. Lunchtime (00:02:58) 9. The Photograph (00:01:25) 10. The Suitcase (00:03:06) 11. Bridge or Jazz? (00:04:53) 12. The Shark (00:07:52) 13. The Funeral (00:06:03) 14. "15...30...Game!" (00:06:11) 15. Bridge or Table Tennis? (00:03:28) 16. Off for a Ride (00:07:36) 17. The Masked Ball (00:05:15) 18. The Picnic (00:08:04) 19. M. Hulot Vanishes (00:01:44) 20. Fireworks (00:04:19) 21. End of Summer (00:03:14) 22. Color Bars Disc #28 -- Miss Julie 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:02:18) 2. Midsummer's Night (00:06:38) 3. The Engagement (00:07:21) 4. Jean and Christine (00:05:39) 5. Stealing Away (00:04:00) 6. Boyhood Love (00:07:59) 7. "Must Be Dreadful to Be Poor" (00:03:43) 8. The Midsummer's Mob (00:04:04) 9. Morning After (00:07:23) 10. Julie's Story (00:04:00) 11. She's Dead (00:01:42) 12. A Girl, Not a Boy (00:07:19) 13. "The House Is on Fire" (00:05:51) 14. Mother Takes Charge (00:03:57) 15. Desperation and Deception (00:05:32) 16. My Lovebird (00:03:22) 17. A Great Escape (00:03:48) 18. Can't Live, Can't Die (00:05:01) 19. Color Bars Disc #29 -- Pandora's Box 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:05) 2. Act 1: Lulu's Apartment (00:06:47) 3. Dr. Sch�n (00:08:37) 4. Act 2: Invitations (00:01:39) 5. Countess Geschwitz (00:03:07) 6. Volume K (00:04:35) 7. Act 3: The Revue (00:14:23) 8. Act 4: The Wedding Reception (00:06:38) 9. The Bridal Suite (00:12:59) 10. Act 5: The Trial (00:06:59) 11. The Plot (00:02:33) 12. Act 6: The Escape (00:07:19) 13. Train to Paris (00:07:04) 14. Act 7: The Casino Boat (00:11:38) 15. Alwa Starts to Win (00:12:44) 16. Act 8: London (00:03:48) 17. Soho Loft (00:20:32) 18. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #30 -- P�p� Le Moko 1. Le Moko at Large (00:06:28) 2. Good Craftsmanship (00:02:01) 3. No Squealers (00:03:30) 4. Potshots (00:04:10) 5. Pearls and Diamonds (00:03:51) 6. R�gis's Gambit (00:02:39) 7. Les Femmes (00:04:53) 8. Chez Chani/Same "M" (00:06:44) 9. Slimane's Services (00:02:45) 10. 12 Trough Street (00:06:32) 11. Paris in Algiers (00:07:28) 12. Player Piano (00:02:25) 13. A Heavy Heart (00:06:46) 14. Keeping Her Promise (00:04:04) 15. Watercolors (00:03:33) 16. "Pour �tre Heureux Dans La Vie" (00:02:12) 17. Bait (00:06:32) 18. "O� est-il donc?"/"Ayrab" (00:08:38) 19. One Step at a Time (00:03:25) 20. Ville d'Oran, 10:00 A.M. (00:04:46) 21. Color Bars (00:00:01) Disc #31 -- Il Posto 1. "The Chance of a Lifetime" (00:05:19) 2. Fourth Floor (00:06:42) 3. Aptitude (00:04:59) 4. Lunchtime/Aspirations (00:07:48) 5. Further Testing (00:04:55) 6. Magal� (00:05:03) 7. Family Life (00:05:01) 8. The Lucky Few (00:05:09) 9. Administration (00:06:52) 10. Upper Tier (00:08:50) 11. The Bell (00:04:32) 12. Uniform (00:03:08) 13. A New Typist (00:03:07) 14. Heading Out (00:02:31) 15. An Unforgettable Evening (00:00:39) 16. The Steady Job (00:13:22) 17. Color Bars (00:04:46) Disc #32 -- Pygmalion 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:02:07) 2. "I'm a Good Girl, I Am!" (00:06:54) 3. "I Could Pass You Off As the Queen of Sheba" (00:05:15) 4. "I Want to Be a Lady" (00:08:22) 5. "You Have to Be Very Particular" (00:04:34) 6. "I'm One of the Undeserving Poor" (00:07:43) 7. Eliza's Lessons (00:02:50) 8. Eliza Takes Tea (00:09:30) 9. Higgins's Crash Course (00:04:52) 10. At the Embassy Ball (00:04:04) 11. A Hungarian Princess (00:06:54) 12. "There Are Your Slippers - And There!" (00:10:31) 13. "Kiss Me Again!" (00:03:27) 14. "Middle-class Morality Claims Its Victim" (00:08:30) 15. Eliza Speaks Her Mind (00:07:20) 16. "Where the Devil Are My Slippers, Eliza?" (00:02:28) 17. Color Bars Disc #33 -- Rashomon 1. Rashomon Gate (00:07:38) 2. Evidence of a Crime (00:03:51) 3. The Trial Begins (00:04:01) 4. Tajomaru's Story (00:20:57) 5. Lies (00:02:23) 6. The Woman's Story (00:09:55) 7. Confusion (00:01:56) 8. The Dead Man's Story (00:10:19) 9. Frustration (00:00:00) 10. The Woodcutter's Story (00:02:44) 11. The Way of the World (00:14:38) 12. Redemption (00:05:06) 13. Color Bars (00:04:15) Disc #34 -- Richard III 1. Opening Credits and Preamble (00:02:19) 2. Coronation of Edward IV (00:05:29) 3. "Now Is the Winter..." (00:05:10) 4. Gentle Lady Anne (00:05:58) 5. "I'll Have Her..." (00:01:17) 6. "Plots Have I Laid" (00:02:30) 7. Simple, Plain Clarence (00:02:44) 8. "Why Dost Thou Spit At Me?" (00:06:04) 9. "Was Ever Woman in This Humor Wooed?" (00:01:16) 10. Death Warrant for Clarence (00:02:34) 11. Clarence's Dream (00:05:19) 12. A Reprieve (00:03:34) 13. Deciding on an Heir (00:04:31) 14. Dream Come True (00:03:50) 15. King Edward's Bedside (00:02:57) 16. Richard's Good Spirits (00:07:44) 17. "To Sanctuary" (00:04:40) 18. Prince Edward's Arrival (00:04:04) 19. Heir to the Throne (00:03:06) 20. "Go We Unto the Tower" (00:03:01) 21. Enlisting Catesby (00:02:14) 22. Plots Afoot (00:06:29) 23. Council of the Crown (00:08:07) 24. Lord Mayor Takes a Ride (00:02:00) 25. Buckingham's Concoction (00:02:22) 26. "Two Props of Virtue" (00:06:51) 27. Richard's Royal Queen (00:03:54) 28. Coronation of Richard III (00:03:05) 29. Securing the Crown (00:08:02) 30. "Thus Lay the Gentle Babes" (00:02:31) 31. Stanley Consorts with Buckingham (00:00:33) 32. News of Richmond (00:04:39) 33. Bosworth Field (00:02:29) 34. Richmond (00:02:49) 35. Eve of Battle (00:03:36) 36. Ghosts of Victims Past (00:05:14) 37. Battle of Bosworth Field (00:07:20) 38. "My Kingdom for a Horse" (00:02:54) 39. Stanley Crowns Richmond (00:04:11) 40. Color Bars Disc #35 -- The Rules of the Game 1. Opening Credits (00:02:00) 2. Andr� and Octave (00:03:38) 3. Lisette and Christine (00:01:28) 4. Christine and Robert (00:02:00) 5. Robert and Genevi�ve (00:02:50) 6. "You'll See Her Again" (00:03:02) 7. Convincing Christine (00:04:28) 8. "A Dangerous Poet" (00:03:16) 9. Schumacher and Marceau (00:07:17) 10. Guests Arrive at la Colini�re (00:03:03) 11. Upstairs (00:03:29) 12. Downstairs (00:03:33) 13. "Cards on the Table" (00:04:12) 14. La Chasse (00:06:54) 15. A Closer Look (00:04:12) 16. Frankly Speaking (00:03:06) 17. "She Loves Me..." (00:02:41) 18. La F�te de la Colini�re (00:06:21) 19. "There Are Still Rules" (00:05:28) 20. The Marquis' Latest Find (00:01:46) 21. The Chase (00:03:05) 22. "Poor Little Christine" (00:05:18) 23. End of the Affair (00:04:41) 24. "Everyone Lies" (00:06:00) 25. A Dangerous Angel (00:03:20) 26. "You're Making a Mistake" (00:02:43) 27. The Sacrifice (00:03:51) 28. Game Over (00:02:14) 29. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #36 -- Seven Samurai 1. Main Titles (00:02:49) 2. "Is There No God To Protect Us?" (00:07:17) 3. Shopping for Samurai (00:06:41) 4. Death of a Thief (00:07:49) 5. A Master and His Disciples (00:07:58) 6. Samurai Auditions, Part I (00:07:34) 7. Samurai Auditions, Part II (00:09:20) 8. The Seventh Samurai (00:11:20) 9. Frightened Village (00:08:33) 10. False Alarm (00:04:29) 11. Making Plans (00:08:24) 12. "Still a Child" (00:03:52) 13. Samurai Armor (00:07:43) 14. The Secret Garden (00:06:10) 15. Training (00:06:13) 16. Intermission (00:05:14) 17. Harvesting (00:03:30) 18. Night Watch (00:03:35) 19. Building Barricades (00:05:51) 20. The Scouts (00:07:16) 21. The Surprise Attack (00:07:54) 22. Funeral (00:02:16) 23. The First Battle (00:11:07) 24. Night Skirmish (00:07:37) 25. The Second Battle (00:07:47) 26. Behind the Lines (00:11:28) 27. That Night (00:13:12) 28. The Last Battle (00:08:57) 29. Finale (00:04:17) 30. Color Bars (00:00:00) Disc #37 -- The Seventh Seal 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:14) 2. On the Beach (00:07:01) 3. Jof's Vision (00:07:54) 4. At the Church (00:11:07) 5. The Deserted Village (00:05:01) 6. The Seduction of Skat (00:04:05) 7. The Procession of Flagellants (00:06:28) 8. Torture at the Tavern (00:05:45) 9. Strawberries and Milk at Dusk (00:09:48) 10. "Love Is the Blackest of All Plagues" (00:03:46) 11. "The Deadest Actor I've Ever Seen" (00:07:31) 12. The Burning of the Witch (00:08:50) 13. "Mate At the Next Move" (00:07:21) 14. The Last Supper (00:07:59) 15. The Dance of Death (00:02:25) 16. Color Bars (00:00:01) Disc #38 -- The Spirit of the Beehive 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:27) 2. Hoyuelos (00:04:56) 3. A Beekeeper (00:10:29) 4. Frankenstein (00:03:34) 5. A Spirit (00:03:29) 6. Footsteps (00:06:34) 7. Don Jos� (00:04:10) 8. A Farmhouse (00:06:08) 9. Mushroom Hunting (00:03:50) 10. Playtime (00:03:27) 11. Train Tracks (00:02:41) 12. Photos (00:02:54) 13. Black Cat (00:02:51) 14. An Accident (00:07:31) 15. A Fire (00:03:36) 16. A Soldier (00:06:06) 17. A Pocket Watch (00:04:31) 18. Bloodstains (00:02:39) 19. A Monster (00:05:42) 20. Alive (00:07:16) 21. A Window (00:02:13) 22. End Credits (00:02:20) 23. Color Bars Disc #39 -- La Strada 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:02:12) 2. Ten Thousand Lire (00:04:18) 3. The Strongman (00:01:14) 4. Tools of the Trade (00:04:17) 5. Di Constanzo, Gelsomina (00:02:05) 6. Farce (00:02:30) 7. Lamb and Veal (00:05:16) 8. Waiting (00:04:02) 9. Tomatoes (00:02:10) 10. The Wedding Party (00:05:33) 11. Deeee-dee-dee-de-dee (00:03:59) 12. Processions (00:03:17) 13. A Hundred and Twenty-Five Feet in the Air (00:02:34) 14. "Get In!" (00:02:28) 15. Roman Circus (00:03:28) 16. Circo Giraffa (00:05:48) 17. "A Very Sad Song" (00:05:44) 18. The Pebble (00:09:19) 19. The Jail (00:04:15) 20. The Convent (00:03:59) 21. "Do You Like Me a Little?" (00:04:54) 22. Flat Tire, Broken Watch (00:04:38) 23. "The Fool Is Hurt" (00:03:27) 24. "It's Cold" (00:06:27) 25. Circo Medini (00:05:05) 26. Zampan�'s Song (00:05:00) 27. Color Bars Disc #40 -- Summertime 1. A Trip to Venice (00:05:55) 2. The McIlhennys (00:04:25) 3. Pensione Fiorini (00:05:38) 4. Alone in Venice (00:07:26) 5. Mauro (00:01:22) 6. A Well-turned Ankle (00:05:58) 7. "Well, I Give In" (00:12:24) 8. In the Water (00:05:48) 9. "I Came to See You" (00:10:16) 10. A White Gardenia (00:06:37) 11. "Why Did You Do That?" (00:00:54) 12. A Real Italian (00:02:11) 13. A Message (00:02:25) 14. The Loveliest Number (00:01:39) 15. "I'm Not That Hungry" (00:05:22) 16. Fireworks Tonight (00:10:42) 17. "Surprise Me Again" (00:06:09) 18. Good-bye (00:04:49) 19. Color Bars Disc #41 -- The Third Man 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:02:06) 2. Vienna Greets Holly Martins (00:02:55) 3. "A Fellow Named Lime" (00:02:29) 4. "My Name's Calloway" (00:02:33) 5. Mr. Crabbin and Mr. Kurtz (00:04:11) 6. Scene of the Crime (00:03:27) 7. Backstage at the Josefstadt (00:04:22) 8. "There Was a Third Man" (00:04:58) 9. "Leave Death to the Professionals" (00:05:01) 10. "Vinkel!" (00:04:37) 11. Popescu at the Casanova Club (00:06:07) 12. "One of Those Bad Days" (00:03:20) 13. A Date with the Porter (00:04:15) 14. A Literary Celebrity (00:04:39) 15. The Harry Lime File (00:03:50) 16. The Author As Romantic (00:00:34) 17. The Cat in the Doorway (00:05:06) 18. Men Underground (00:02:22) 19. An International Police Action (00:02:48) 20. The Prater Wheel (00:04:28) 21. The Price of Penicillin (00:08:19) 22. "Ballon, Mein Herr?" (00:06:45) 23. The Ghost in the Sewers (00:03:10) 24. Last Respects (00:08:54) 25. Color Bars (00:02:55) Disc #42 -- The 39 Steps 1. Opening Credits/Mr. Memory (00:07:04) 2. Annabella Smith (00:10:16) 3. Tales About Murderers and Foreigners (00:02:26) 4. "Very Good at Charades" (00:07:52) 5. The Crofter and His Wife (00:08:44) 6. Alt-Na-Shellach (00:08:15) 7. "Hymns That Have Helped Me" (00:02:33) 8. Difficult Man to Follow (00:06:50) 9. Flock of Detectives (00:04:47) 10. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hopkinson (00:10:31) 11. Escape (00:08:24) 12. "What Are the 39 Steps?" (00:08:25) 13. Color Bars Disc #43 -- Ugetsu 1. Credits (00:02:30) 2. Great Opportunities (00:05:16) 3. A Wife's Concern (00:04:53) 4. The Villagers Flee (00:07:08) 5. Genjuro Returns (00:03:13) 6. Omen (00:06:21) 7. The Marketplace (00:03:42) 8. Attack (00:03:09) 9. Delivery to Kutsuki Mansion (00:06:02) 10. Lady Wakasa (00:05:41) 11. Seduction (00:06:23) 12. A Day at the Spring (00:02:41) 13. Miyagi (00:03:29) 14. A Samurai At Last (00:04:21) 15. Ohama's New Life (00:04:51) 16. The Priest's Warning (00:03:15) 17. Exorcism (00:09:30) 18. Reunion (00:07:41) 19. Awakening (00:06:23) 20. Color Bars Disc #44 -- Umberto D. 1. Opening Credits/Demonstrations (00:03:40) 2. Umberto Domenico Ferrari (00:05:53) 3. Maria the Maid (00:05:15) 4. Threat of Eviction (00:05:15) 5. "All or Nothing" (00:05:57) 6. No Sleep (00:05:23) 7. Morning Routine (00:08:27) 8. The Hospital (00:07:29) 9. The Search for Flike (00:09:43) 10. An Old Freind (00:06:47) 11. Desperation (00:02:02) 12. "I'm Tired" (00:04:50) 13. Leaving (00:05:28) 14. Change of Plans (00:03:22) 15. Umberto and Filke (00:09:06) 16. Color Bars Disc #45 -- The Virgin Spring 1. Ingeri (00:03:34) 2. Prayers and Morning Chores (00:05:47) 3. A Malicious Gesture (00:01:58) 4. Spoiled Karin (00:06:26) 5. Traveling to Church (00:04:32) 6. Karin and Ingeri (00:04:06) 7. The Old Man in the Woods (00:04:17) 8. Three Goatherds (00:03:30) 9. Princess Karin (00:02:13) 10. Tragedy (00:07:01) 11. Keeping Watch (00:01:43) 12. Hospitality (00:07:58) 13. Frightening Words (00:04:31) 14. M�reta Worries (00:05:09) 15. The Truth/Ingeri's Confession (00:04:50) 16. Preparations (00:03:53) 17. T�re's Revenge (00:09:14) 18. Journey to the Site (00:03:21) 19. T�re's Vow (00:02:38) 20. The Virgin Spring (00:02:28) 21. Color Bars Disc #46 -- Viridiana 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:40) 2. Uncle Don Jaime (00:03:56) 3. A Bed on the Floor (00:02:31) 4. "Just Pull Hard" (00:02:51) 5. Sleepwalker (00:03:08) 6. The Wedding Dress (00:07:29) 7. Rita Sees the Black Bull (00:05:00) 8. "So You Won't Forgive Me?" (00:06:42) 9. "Something Terrible Has Happened" (00:02:59) 10. Mother Superior (00:03:09) 11. New Residents (00:05:12) 12. Two Meals (00:06:09) 13. Don Jorge and Viridiana (00:02:02) 14. Out on the Land (00:07:20) 15. "So You Do Like Her" (00:07:27) 16. The Last Supper (00:08:49) 17. Hallelujah Chorus (00:06:35) 18. "Kill Him!" (00:03:13) 19. Shuffling the Deck (00:04:31) 20. Color Bars Disc #47 -- The Wages of Fear 1. Las Piedras (00:08:06) 2. Jo Arrives (00:07:19) 3. The Date (00:08:00) 4. Old Friends and Lovers (00:07:14) 5. Bar Brawl (00:05:46) 6. Victims (00:03:54) 7. SOC Recruits (00:05:51) 8. The Lucky Four (00:06:51) 9. Scared Stiff (00:07:20) 10. Linda Pleads (00:05:28) 11. Jo's Jitters (00:07:05) 12. Forty Miles Per Hour (00:01:09) 13. Close Call! (00:02:50) 14. Rotten Wood (00:02:20) 15. Jo Flees (00:04:55) 16. The Wages of Fear (00:05:35) 17. A Rock in the Road (00:08:04) 18. "Clear Out!" (00:04:59) 19. "A Presentable Corpse" (00:05:46) 20. "I'm the Strongest" (00:07:19) 21. The Oil Pit (00:05:53) 22. Almost There (00:05:24) 23. The Reward (00:08:11) 24. Color Bars (00:08:32) Disc #48 -- The White Sheik 1. Logos/Opening Credits (00:01:37) 2. Rome (00:02:26) 3. The Honeymoon Itinerary (00:05:11) 4. Via XXIV Maggio (00:05:15) 5. "Dear Passionate Dolly" (00:06:19) 6. A Very Bad Headache (00:05:14) 7. The White Sheik (00:07:11) 8. "More Oriental!" (00:04:49) 9. "Graceful, Sweet, and Teeny..." (00:02:08) 10. At Sea With the Sheik (00:06:44) 11. "A Delicate Matter" (00:08:21) 12. Rita (00:05:55) 13. Cabiria (00:02:11) 14. An Evil Fate (00:06:04) 15. Ward 5 (00:04:18) 16. St. Peter's Cathedral (00:07:43) 17. Color Bars (00:04:44) Disc #49 -- Wild Strawberries 1. Isak Borg (00:02:18) 2. Opening Credits (00:01:13) 3. A Weird Dream (00:04:33) 4. Change of Plans (00:05:03) 5. A Revealing Ride (00:04:33) 6. Wild Strawberries (00:06:57) 7. Family Meal (00:03:31) 8. Tears and Song (00:02:51) 9. Sara, Anders, and Viktor (00:03:08) 10. Hysteria and Catholicism (00:05:53) 11. Old Friends (00:02:51) 12. Philosophy and Lunch (00:03:01) 13. Visiting Mother (00:07:24) 14. Looking in the Mirror (00:05:24) 15. Examination (00:06:38) 16. Loneliness (00:05:30) 17. Evald and Marianne (00:04:13) 18. Marianne's Decision (00:03:14) 19. At Evald's (00:02:03) 20. The Ceremony (00:02:26) 21. No Intimacies (00:03:53) 22. Father and Son (00:02:03) 23. Childhood Memories (00:02:14) 24. Color Bars Disc #50 -- Three Documentaries 1. Legacy (00:05:26) 2. Early Career (00:04:11) 3. Expanding Worldview (00:03:12) 4. Film Roles (00:03:05) 5. Politics (00:00:49) 6. The Battle/End Credits (00:08:24) 7. Color Bars (00:04:04) 1. Customs, Manners, and Morals (00:06:32) 2. Valentino and the It Girl (00:03:40) 3. The Disappearing Vamp (00:01:58) 4. The Twenties (00:10:09) 5. Women to Be Worshiped (00:02:10) 6. Marlene Dietrich (00:04:59) 7. 1930-33 (00:14:38) 8. Mae West (00:10:20) 9. The Girl Next Door (00:03:11) 10. World War II (00:02:45) 11. Marilyn (00:02:44) 12. The Fifties (00:05:03) 13. Beauty, Violence, Sex, and Nudity (00:04:31) 14. Symbolism/End Credits (00:06:01) 1. Opening Credits (00:02:08) 2. The Great-granddaddy of All Chases (00:03:40) 3. D.W. Griffith (00:04:39) 4. Way Down East (00:03:54) 5. DeMille's Chase (00:05:50) 6. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. (00:04:40) 7. The Serials (00:08:00) 8. Jungle Treasure (00:10:17) 9. William S. Hart's Last Picture (00:05:04) 10. Buster Keaton Is Johnny Gray (00:24:18) 11. Sennett's The Extra Girl (00:05:50) 12. The Grand Finale (00:02:22)

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films: AMG Review
AMG

Includes:

H�xan (1922)

Pandora's Box (1929)

M (1931)

The 39 Steps (1935)

Grand Illusion (1937)

P�p� le Moko (1937)

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Pygmalion (1938)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Le Jour Se L�ve (1939)

The Rules of the Game (1939)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Beauty and the Beast (1946)

Brief Encounter (1946)

Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 (1946)

The Fallen Idol (1948), MPAA Rating: NR

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

Rashomon (1951)

Forbidden Games (1952)

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

Umberto D. (1952)

The White Sheik (1952)

Ikiru (1952)

Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953)

The Wages of Fear (1953), MPAA Rating: NR

Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)

La Strada (1954)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Richard III (1955)

Summertime (1955)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Ashes and Diamonds (1958)

The 400 Blows (1959)

Fires on the Plain (1959)

Black Orpheus (1959)

Floating Weeds (1959)

The Virgin Spring (1959)

Ballad of a Soldier (1960)

L'Avventura (1960)

Viridiana (1961)

Il Posto (1961)

Jules and Jim (1962)

Knife in the Water (1962)

The Great Chase (1963)

The Love Goddesses (1965)

I Pugni in Tasca (1965)

Loves of a Blonde (1965)

Miss Julie (1972)

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979)

H�xan
H�xan is a fictional horror film in the form of a documentary, featuring crude black-and-white cinematography, a nonlinear structure, and grotesque imagery. If this reminds you of The Blair Witch Project (1999), it's no coincidence -- the makers of that film named their production company "Haxan" as a tribute to Benjamin Christensen's film. H�xan's inconsistent production values and rough visual motifs enhance its effectiveness, adding a sheen of authenticity to the film's passively voyeuristic approach. Multiple versions exist, including sound releases in the 1940s and 1960s. The latter features narration by Beat generation icon William S. Burroughs, though his interesting commentary is somewhat offset by a distracting and inappropriate modern jazz score. Despite censors' efforts to ban it, H�xan was a persistent influence on 20th century filmmakers, in particular on the works of Val Lewton. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Pandora's Box
G.W. Pabst's most famous film featured his first, star-making collaboration with American actress Louise Brooks in a complex exploration of sexual psychology and Weimar Germany's social decadence. Working from Frank Wedekind's play in Pabst's trademark realist style, Pabst and Brooks transformed the character of Lulu from an evil temptress into a hedonistic innocent at ease with her sexuality. Pursued by men and women alike, Lulu is prey as much to social repression as to her own insatiable desires, as she winds up blamed for the troubles that others have brought on themselves through their own sexual hypocrisy. The appearance of Jack the Ripper at the conclusion is a sign less of sensationalist melodrama than of Lulu's internalized victimization. Brooks's subtle, nuanced performance and Pabst's fluid editing style infuse Pandora's Box with a sensuality that remains undiminished to this day. Critically panned on its release, Pandora's Box has since come to be seen as a hypnotic masterwork, remarkable for its frank treatment of sexuality and the sympathetic, inscrutable, fascinating presence of Brooks, who became a Jazz Age flapper icon. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

M
One of the most distinguished and technically accomplished early sound films, Fritz Lang's M (1931) revealed the expressive possibilities for combining sound and visuals, in a metaphorically loaded story about pre-Nazi Germany. Working from the true story of the Dusseldorf child murders, Lang matches a mother's anguished calls for her daughter with images of an empty stairwell and a lost balloon rather than show the killing, while the murderer's obsessive whistling becomes the calling card for his threatening presence. Beyond the use of sound, Lang takes a pessimistic view of German society, using editing to equate the police with the criminals, while Fritz Arno Wagner's fluid cinematography creates a gloomy night world of shadows and paranoid entrapment. Lang's documentary-like attention to the details of the search, combined with the absence of non-diegetic music, matches the stylization with an equally creepy element of realism. The killer may be sick, but the society pursuing him isn't that much better. A worldwide success and a star-maker for Peter Lorre, M influenced movies from those of Orson Welles to the American film noir of the 1940s; Lang himself left Nazi Germany for Hollywood in 1933. The 111-minute version features an added courtroom ending. The movie was remade by Joseph Losey in 1951 as an allegory of Cold War-era Communist "witch hunts." ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The 39 Steps
Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps firmly established the director's reputation beyond the boundaries of the British isles, but it did far more than that: it was also the film where Hitchcock's reach and grasp as a filmmaker began growing by leaps and bounds. He'd already made three excellent thrillers (The Lodger (1926), Blackmail (1929), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)) that had attracted considerable attention in America, but The 39 Steps, as a piece of screencraft, assembled all the best elements in those widely scattered successes (spread across eight years of his career) between two covers in a way that riveted audiences and industry observers. It played exactly the way that British movies weren't supposed to, lively and piercingly funny, rather than stodgy and dignified; it was almost as much a comedy as a thriller, which was something new in any country's cinema; and it was almost as much a battle of the sexes in the jousting of its two leads (Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll) as it was a quest by the hero to prove his innocence of a murder charge; by the end of the movie, we want to see not only how Richard Hanney (Donat) proves his innocence but also how he and Pamela (Carroll) manage to stay together. Not coincidentally, The 39 Steps was also the first of his major films in which Hitchcock ripped up and threw away most of the contents of the underlying source (a novel by John Buchan that had been a best-seller then and which has remained a perennially popular read ever since) -- he later followed this practice in his subsequent treatments of Josephine Tey's A Shilling For Candles (as Young and Innocent), Ethel Lina White's The Wheel Spins (as The Lady Vanishes), and Francis Beeding's The House of Dr. Edwardes (as Spellbound), among other literary properties. In the process, he struck a blow for the director as a creative voice in his own right, independent of and superior to the novelist (at least where actual screen adaptations were concerned), who might take one or two good ideas, a name or two, and perhaps a setting and a scene from a chapter and junk everything else, making it his own. In a time when producers and studios still occupied a place of cultural inferiority (even in their own minds) to the authors and publishers of the printed word, this was no small achievement, especially considering that it was done well and, thus, justified itself. So, in his own way, working within the thriller genre in The 39 Steps, Hitchcock helped open the way for virtually every major director who came after him. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Grand Illusion
A "poetic realist" masterpiece, Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937) eloquently revealed the absurdity of war in a story about escape from a World War I German prison camp. One of the first sound film masters of the mobile camera, Renoir structured his film through a series of long takes in deep focus, moving gracefully yet subtly among the characters to embed them in rather than isolate them from their environments. With this observational style, Renoir examined the "grand illusions" threatening Europe in the 1930s and humankind in general: war and the artificial distinctions of class and nation that drive it. Each of the four main characters stands for a particular social stratum, with their metaphorical places revealed through realistic details of conversation and quotidian behavior. This emphasis on the reality of daily life in prison camps, complete with dialogue in several languages and easygoing camaraderie between prisoners and guards, suggests the core of humanity shared by all, regardless of class, language, and cultural divisions. The poetic final image of an invisible border hidden beneath an expanse of white snow punctuates Renoir's benevolently humanist stance. Grand Illusion was a hit in the U.S. as well as in France, even receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; it also received a special prize at the 1937 Venice Film Festival despite being banned in Italy and Germany. Regularly listed as one of the best films ever made, Grand Illusion's power remains undiminished, while the impact of Renoir's audacious style can be seen from the work of Orson Welles to the French New Wave. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

P�p� le Moko
P�p� le Moko is among the most influential films of the 20th century, a precursor of both 1940s film noir and late 1940s neo-realism. The film quickly generated international acclaim, and it was responsible for director Julien Duvivier's leaving Europe to make films in Hollywood. The film's greatest strengths are its atmospheric visual richness and strong lead performances from Jean Gabin and Mireille Balin. There have been several remakes, though the film's influence has been much wider than that. The setting, ambience, and some of the characters of Casablanca, for example, owe much to Pepe Le Moko, as do numerous English-language crime films. Duvivier's work in Hollywood was of moderate success, as were his later European films, but P�p� le Moko represents the high point of his career. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Alexander Nevsky
Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky was spawned by world events, kept out of circulation due to changing political winds, and then enshrined as perhaps the most influential Soviet-made historical film. Made at the behest of the Soviet government to bolster morale, the film re-enacted a 13th century Russian victory over invading Teutonic knights. Intended to remind the Russian people that they'd defeated supposedly superior German invaders before, the movie proved astoundingly effective as anti-Hitler propaganda within the Soviet Union, and it was also popular around the world, named one of the best films of the year by the very conservative National Board of Review, among others. Then Hitler and Stalin signed their non-aggression pact in 1939, and the movie was withdrawn from circulation, no longer of use to the Soviet government. With the breakdown of the "peace" between the two nations in 1941, Alexander Nevsky was rushed back into release in the Soviet Union, where it proved even more effective the second time around. It had by that time already influenced the work of filmmakers far from the Soviet Union: it was clearly the motivation for the depiction of England's defeat of the Spanish Armada in Alexander Korda's The Lion Has Wings (1940), the first British propaganda film of the war, started the day after Hitler invaded Poland; and Laurence Olivier modeled most of the Battle of Agincourt in his Henry V (1944) after the battle scenes in Alexander Nevsky, virtually recreating entire shots in what proved the first successful film of a Shakespeare play. The movie's ongoing influence extended to the concert hall: composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote a score inspired by the film that he later reshaped into a massive choral/orchestral piece that took on a life of its own in the concert hall, arguably the piece of film music that most successfully made the leap into the orchestral repertory. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Pygmalion
One of George Bernard Shaw's most popular and durable plays concerns the stuffy British professor of phonetics who, on a bet, tries to transform a flower girls' speaking style from lower-class Cockney to proper English, with all it implies. Pygmalion was first filmed in Great Britain in 1938 and became an instant classic. Featuring well-pitched performances from Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller in the lead roles, this Anthony Asquith film has the exquisite timing and tenor of a sophisticated comedy of manners. Barely concealed beneath the story is a devastating satire of British class pretensions. This material was adapted as the musical My Fair Lady in the 1950s and the film of the same name in 1964. It also inspired numerous imitatations, such as Educating Rita. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

The Lady Vanishes
It's easy to forget, with all his successes, that Alfred Hitchcock's career suffered quite a few periods of commercial decline. Following his two international breakthroughs, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935), the director produced three films with relatively disappointing box-office returns. In 1938, he broke out of this slump with the popular and entertaining The Lady Vanishes. The director's penultimate movie before leaving England, it's a very light picture, more dependent on comedy than almost any of his previous films. A good deal of the humor comes from the interplay between the definitively British tourists Charters and Caldicott, played indelibly by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, that the actors would reprise in several other films. Despite (or perhaps because of) its "Englishness," The Lady Vanishes made quite a splash in America, securing Hitchcock a place in Hollywood. The charming script by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat was based on the popular Ethel Lina White novel, The Wheel Spins. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

Le Jour Se L�ve
An exemplar of French poetic realism, Marcel Carn�'s Le jour se l�ve (1939) turns a murder story into an evocative examination of a man trapped by circumstances beyond his control. In the script by Carn�'s main collaborator Jacques Pr�vert, Jean Gabin's working-class Fran�ois shoots a man and holes up in his room, thinking back, in an impeccably structured flashback, to the events that brought him to that moment. Carn�'s camera does not shy away from the desperate, claustrophobic details of working-class life, yet the possibility for human connection gives Fran�ois's existence hope, until the sadistic Valentin intervenes. The play of light and shadows as Fran�ois waits out the night invests the surroundings' realistic drabness with a poetic sense of doom, matching the implacable fate that awaits the decent, tormented man. Trading on Gabin's image as a strong yet tender-hearted hero, Le jour se l�ve's Fran�ois was seen as not just a man condemned by his class and human weakness but also the image of a country about to be overcome by the diabolical outside forces of World War II. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Rules of the Game
Jean Renoir's masterpiece and his last French film before he went to Hollywood, Rules of the Game (1939) is an intricate, tragi-comic indictment of a decadent European culture on the verge of collapse and war. Renoir's innovative "observational" style of long takes, deep focus, and gracefully subtle camera movements relates the characters to their environment and to each other, communicating the complexity of the class-based society seen in microcosm at the film's central country house. Rather than overtly manipulating the viewer's attention and emotional responses, Renoir's style allows the audience to share his ambivalent view of human nature, playing out multiple, metaphorically loaded love triangles among the guests and servants at the estate. Setting up the story around contrasts between tradition and modernity, individual passion and social rules, and nature and culture (revealing the corrupting force of culture in a brutal hunting sequence), Renoir presents a declining society doomed by its intractable conflicts and adherence to superficial manners. In his role as Octave, Renoir literally orchestrates the events but even he, the wise artist, cannot prevent violent tragedy. After provoking a riot at its Paris premiere, Rules of the Game was edited to 80 minutes and finally banned by French censors as "demoralizing"; the Nazis banned it during the Occupation as well. Although the original negative was destroyed in World War II, Rules of the Game was restored under Renoir's supervision to its original length (minus one short scene) in the late 1950s, debuting to great acclaim at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. In this version, Rules of the Game has since come to be considered one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
By today's standards, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp seems a brilliantly written and executed character study with period overtones -- "the British Citizen Kane," as one critic described it in recent years. But the 163-minute movie was one of the most controversial productions in England during the war, and the disputes over its content and distribution overshadowed the film's virtues for nearly 40 years. Powell and Pressburger, also known as "The Archers," had already courted controversy in 1941 with their propaganda movie 49th Parallel. Blimp seemed as if it was designed to engender displeasure from the government: Anton Walbrook, who was the leader of the anti-Nazi Germans in 49th Parallel, plays an even more sympathetic expatriate German in this movie; the title character, who represents the epitome of the British officer class of the First World War, is depicted as a well-meaning but doddering old buffoon, incapable of dealing with the Nazi threat; and the hero, Clive Candy (brilliantly played by Roger Livesey), makes his name on a civilian escapade during the Boer War, just as Prime Minister Winston Churchill had. The movie seemed certain to attract official censure, and it did. Powell and Pressburger were denied the use of military equipment or personnel while Blimp was in production, and the government voiced its further strenuous objections to the parties financing the movie. Once it was completed and released, the film was denied an export license to the United States until almost two years after the war, by which time it had been shorn of nearly an hour of material. It took 40 years for the uncut version to reach America in its original Technicolor splendor. After the wait, audiences found a movie that seized upon many of the structural elements found in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, with its back-to-front-to-back narrative path. The Archers took the class satire and social consciousness found in the best work of Noel Coward -- as well as in the original David Low cartoon whence the Colonel Blimp character originated -- and turned those elements into something uniquely theirs, a film very wry and dry in its tweaking of British sensibilities, universal in its observations on life, love and longevity in the middle of a world war. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Beauty and the Beast
Jean Cocteau's most popular film, this 1946 masterpiece is perhaps the most faithful of the many film versions of the 1756 fairy tale written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Though the ending is a bit on the strange side -- the Beast morphs into a prince who looks exactly like Belle's hapless suitor, and her disappointment is unmistakable -- the film features tight, economical storytelling and enough visual fireworks (including many stunningly executed optical effects) to enrapture viewers from beginning to end. The actors are uniformly wonderful; Josette Day makes a stunning Belle, and Cocteau regular Jean Marais excels in a triple role that includes the magnificent Beast. The real stars of the film, though, are Cocteau himself, who gives the film a shimmering, romantic look, and the brilliant costume and set design. The Beast's makeup, in particular, works beautifully; it's just realistic enough to be convincing, while allowing Marais to emote through his eyes and subtle facial tics. The unforgettable sets, which include human-arm candelabras and moving statues, are a marvel of impressionistic romanticism, filled with symbolism that hints at the story's darker implications. Forget Disney -- this is the closest anyone's come to capturing the essence of a fairy tale on film. ~ Mark Pittillo, All Movie Guide

Brief Encounter
A model of narrative restraint and emotional power, David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) won over post-war audiences with its fidelity to the ordinariness of its story and ambiance. Through subtle details of character, manner, expression (and a Rachmaninoff score), Lean reveals the profound impact of unexpected passion on the lives of his middle-class, middle-aged couple, despite the final restoration of routine. Praised for its feeling and its realism, including the lack of Hollywood-ized glamour of its stars Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter became a rare foreign import hit. Johnson won the New York Film Critics' Circle award for Best Actress, while the film garnered Oscar nominations for Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. It was Lean's first great film, and its intimate romanticism reveals the skill at portraying human relationships that would distinguish his later, spectacular epics, such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970), and A Passage to India (1984). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Ivan the Terrible: Part 2
The second film in director Sergei Eisenstein's planned trilogy of the life of Russian czar Ivan the Terrible, Ivan Grozny II was filmed in 1946 (following the first installment), but went unreleased until 1958. The delay was due to Stalin's obvious unhappiness with the resemblance, intentional or not, between Ivan the Terrible's totalitarian ways and his own. Though parts of the third film were shot around the same time, the trilogy would never see completion; Eisenstein died in 1948. In the director's body of work, Ivan Grozny II was perhaps most significant for its two color sequences. For someone who never cared much for technological advances in film sound, Eisenstein did remarkably well incorporating color into his film. Though the sequences may seem thematically random, they fit the movie's tone and are very modern in their use of color to evoke a mood. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

The Fallen Idol
In the first of his three collaborations with screenwriter Graham Greene, he and Carol Reed fashion a memorable film on one of the writer's pet themes: a child's discovery of the world of adult morality. In this case, the hero-worship of a young boy (Bobby Henrey) for the kindly butler (Ralph Richardson), in whose care he has been left, is damaged when he stumbles on the servant's adulterous affair. Told from the boy's point of view, it underlines his complete isolation when, in spite of his disillusionment, he tries to protect the butler during a police investigation. The filmmakers have maninpulated the plot to create a more suspenseful ending in allowing the boy to be tortured by his imagination, a childhood affliction which fascinated Greene. Richardson gives arguably his finest performance on film as a gentle, even noble character, whose concern for his charge eventually contributes to his undoing. Reed was especially gifted with child actors, and here, he elicits a higly nuanced performance from Henrey. Working without his usual cameraman, Robert Krasker, Reed nevertheless gets superb work from Georges P�rinal, who transforms the narrow physical confines of this story into a fully dimensional world. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Kind Hearts and Coronets
Kind Hearts and Coronets is an elegant black comedy that is perhaps too much remembered for the gimmick of having Alec Guinness play eight different murder victims and too little remembered for the fine performance of Dennis Price as the murderer. One of several comedy classics of the post-WWII era from Ealing Studios, the film is both ironic and bitingly funny. While the ending of the British version leads the audience to believe that Price will escape punishment for his crimes, American censors insisted that the criminal had to be punished for U.S. distribution, and so a less amusing ending was tacked on for the benefit of overly sensitive Yanks. Also of note is Joan Greenwood's performance as the murderer's childhood friend Sibella. Ealing was often an underfunded studio, so the production values are modest, though adequate. If there is an area in which the tech credits shine, it is the make-up and costuming of Guinness. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

The Third Man
Carol Reed's The Third Man is one of the odder successes among international films of the late 1940s: at a time when movies were supposedly getting dulled-down, in keeping with audience sensibilities, here was a quirky movie from England, with Hitchcock-like touches and an odd sense of humor, that manages to be grim, topical, and wryly witty, while retaining, even augmenting, a good bit of author Graham Greene's sensibility. For all the film's virtues, its making was a tale of compromises turned into inspiration. Producer Alexander Korda wanted No�l Coward to play the mysterious Harry Lime, but, once Orson Welles was cast in the part, the movie became a testament to his presence and impact; he's only on screen for about a quarter of the movie, but he's the actor that everyone remembers. In fact, Welles was off shooting another movie, reporting to The Third Man only late in the shooting, and he was doubled for many scenes: that was Carol Reed's assistant, future Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton, in the black trench coat running down Vienna's darkened streets, and those were director Reed's fingers reaching through the sewer grating at the chase's end. Recasting Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins as an American in turn allowed Greene to bring to the screen for the first time his antipathy toward Americans and their bright-eyed, bushy-tailed innocence in approaching the world's problems, a theme that would manifest itself even more directly in relation to Vietnam in The Quiet American. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Rashomon
Rashomon's winning the Golden Lion in the 1951 Venice Film Festival is one of the key events of world cinema. Not only did it establish director Akira Kurosawa as one of the masters of the medium, but it compelled European and American audiences to look seriously at non-Western cinemas. Without Rashomon, the international critical successes of Kenji Mizoguchi, Satyajit Ray, and others are difficult to imagine. The film's structure, which replays the same event though different characters' eyes, layers ambiguity atop ambiguity. Not only are the witnesses' testimonies completely incompatible but the reliability of the film's primary narrator, the woodcutter, is seriously questioned. If the woodcutter initially lied about his role in this crime, then what else could he be lying about? The film comes precariously close to nihilism--the denial of all objective truth and the utter senselessness of existence. Yet Kurosawa pulls back from the abyss in the film's final moments. Though most of Rashomon is adapted from two short stories by famously misanthropic Japanese author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Kurosawa himself penned the final sequence, an elegant summation of his signature humanism. The truth may be inscrutable, even unknowable, Kurosawa argues, but hope and compassion remain. This vision struck a chord in European audiences for whom the horrors of war were still fresh and the existentialist philosophies of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were gaining popularity. Kurosawa's dynamic editing and swaggering camerawork seemed vibrant and sophisticated for a national cinema thought at the time to be second-rate, and the film proved influential to several generations of filmmakers. Ingmar Bergman included a sequence in The Virgin Spring (1960) strongly reminiscent of the film's most memorable sequences--the woodcutter's walk through the forest--and Alain Resnais acknowledged Rashomon's influence on the bold plot structure and existential content of his art-house classic Last Year at Marienbad (1961). In both artistic achievement and historical importance, Rashomon remains one of the masterpieces of cinema. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Forbidden Games
It should come as no surprise that filmmaker Rene Clement spent five years in search of financing for this unsparing look at the ravages of war on children. It's not that the violence in the film is so intense; even both of the story's young protagonists, Paulette and Michel Dolle, survive without a scratch. But the portrait Forbidden Games paints of its adult characters is unsparingly disdainful; this is not exactly a tribute to the imperishable spirit of the French people during wartime. Paulette and Michel have their own way of dealing with war, by building a cemetery for animals in an abandoned mill. Michel's parents and older siblings and their neighbors, the Grouards, have their way, too, by sniping at each other and jockeying for position among the community as to who is perceived as the most generous -- or least selfish. The Dolles' decision to take in Paulette is based in part on their fear that if the Grouards do the same, they'll earn another civilian medal. There is more than one set of forbidden games being played here: The secret that Paulette and Michel share runs parallel to an affair between Michel's teenaged sister, Berthe, and the Grouard's son, Francis, a soldier on leave. But even here, the children come off as more noble than their furtively groping adult counterparts. For a story with the potential to drip with easy sentimentality (generous peasant family takes in adorable war orphan), Forbidden Games offers something more bracing: a clear-eyed view of the innocence of children and the myopia of adults amid the ravages of war. Nothing else in Clement's career matched the achievement of this classic. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

The Importance of Being Earnest
Wordplay and situation comedy rule in this 1952 Anthony Asquith adaptation of the Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) play satirizing the marriage and social customs of the English upper crust of the 1890s. All the cast members perform wonderfully, but it is Dame Edith Evans who most engages the audience as snooty Lady Bracknell. Dressed in gaudy Victorian laces and a hat growing a garden of flowers, she turns the queen's English into windy tirades in which every syllable becomes two and parallel sentence structure becomes a lethal weapon. Of her nephew, she says, "He has nothing and looks everything." Of a family that boasts three residences but still comes a-cropper, she says, "Three addresses always inspire confidence, even in tradesmen." Lady Bracknell unwittingly epitomizes a central motif in the film -- and, of course, in the Wilde play -- when she disingenuously criticizes the aristocracy's preoccupation with appearances, "We live in an age of surfaces." Michael Redgrave and Michael Denisor sprinkle zesty wit into their performances as suitors vying to be called Earnest in order to win the hands of their ladies fair, two featherbrains portrayed with charming stupidity by Joan Greenwood and Dorothy Tutin. Meanwhile, roly-poly Canon Chasuble (Miles Malleson), who is given to napping at his desk under a kerchief, woos Miss Letitia Prism (Margaret Rutherford), tutor to one of the featherbrains. Once upon a time, Miss Prism mistook a baby for a book manuscript and placed the poor little chap in a handbag in a railway station and the book in a baby carriage. The fates of all the central characters depend on Miss Prism's recollection of that unfortunate incident. All in all, this is a delightful film that succeeds magnificently with nary a hint of violence or untoward behavior. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Umberto D.
A masterpiece of Italian neorealism, Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D. would also prove to be the last great film from the movement. This poignant story about a poor retiree facing eviction dutifully follows the neorealist template, with its plotless narrative, location shooting, and nonprofessional actors. Not unlike the movement's other exemplars, Umberto D. doesn't entirely sidestep sentimentality. Indeed, any movie about an old man and his faithful -- and amazingly well-trained -- dog is bound to come across as cute or cloying at certain points. Nonetheless, the purity of expression is undeniable. De Sica captures the vicissitudes of a difficult life with unblinking earnestness and affectless nobility. His moral outrage tempered by his eloquent style, De Sica laces this social tract with a touch of tenderness; it's a graceful movie about callousness and despair. It's a film of unexpected beauties as well. One scene in particular stands out, a seemingly extraneous bit about the landlady's maid rising for the day and doing her early morning chores. Neither advancing the movie's plot nor its political agenda, this sublime scene comes closest to approximating the stated neorealist dictum of capturing dailiness unvarnished. Apparently, the dailiness was too much for some: despite winning international praise, De Sica's portrait of an indifferent society was savaged by some politicians for presenting a negative view of Italy to the world. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

The White Sheik
With a script principally written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Fellini, The White Sheik is a rather light and somewhat inconsequential comedy, chronicling the romantic misadventures of Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste)) and his his bride Wanda (Brunella Bovo), who have come to Rome for their honeymoon. Ivan has drawn up a minute-by-minute schedule for their stay in the Eternal City, including an audience with the Pope; Wanda is more distracted, and dreams of meeting Fernando Rivoli (the great comic actor Alberto Sordi), the leading man in the well-known "fumetti" "The White Sheik" ("fumetti" being the popular Italian comic strips that substitute photos of real-life actors for drawings). This leads to a series of clashes between the couple, as Wanda has been carrying on a secret correspondence with Rivoli, and is soon whisked away to the set of his latest comic-strip adventure, where the "star" makes romantic advances to her. In the meantime, Ivan is left to make clumsy explanations to his relatives, and drowns his sorrows with a visit to a prostitute. All of this leads to an eventual reconcilation of the couple, their illusions now vanished, as they start their lives together. This early Fellini film is a modest and gentle satire, though some count it among the director's finest works; for myself, I'm more taken with the passionately romantic La Strada (The Road, 1954); or Il Bidone (The Swindlers, 1955), a stark tragedy in which American tough-guy actor Broderick Crawford gives his finest performance; or Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria, 1957), which forever cements Giulietta Masina's iconic presence as the ultimate prostitute with a heart of gold. Fellini's comedies always seem to me to have tragic threads waiting to be teased out, which the films then shy away from at a crucial juncture; Fellini is best as a social essayist when he plays his material straight, rather than attempting to send it up. All in all, minor Fellini, but completists will certainly want to see it, if only to get a better idea of how the director's genius eventually developed. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, All Movie Guide

With a script principally written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini, The White Sheik is a rather light and somewhat inconsequential comedy, chronicling the romantic misadventures of Ivan Cavalli (Leopoldo Trieste) and his bride, Wanda (Brunella Bovo), who have come to Rome for their honeymoon. Ivan has drawn up a minute-by-minute schedule for their stay in the Eternal City, including an audience with the Pope. Wanda is more distracted, however, and dreams of meeting Fernando Rivoli (the great comic actor Alberto Sordi), the leading man in the well-known fumetti "The White Sheik" (fumetti being the popular Italian comic strips that substitute photos of real-life actors for drawings). This leads to a series of clashes between the couple, as Wanda has been carrying on a secret correspondence with Rivoli, and is soon whisked away to the set of his latest comic-strip adventure, where the "star" makes romantic advances on her. In the meantime, Ivan is left to make clumsy explanations to his relatives, and drowns his sorrows with a visit to a prostitute. All of this leads to an eventual reconciliation of the couple, their illusions now vanished, as they start their lives together. This early Fellini film is a modest and gentle satire, though some count it among the director's finest works. Fellini's comedies always seem to have tragic threads waiting to be teased out, which the films then shy away from at a crucial juncture; Fellini is best as a social essayist when he plays his material straight rather than attempting to send it up. All in all, The White Sheik is minor Fellini, but completists will certainly want to see it, if only to get a better idea of how the director's genius eventually developed. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, All Movie Guide

Ikiru
This contemporary drama from Akira Kurosawa, better known for such sweeping samurai epics as The Seven Samurai (1954), is arguably his best film and the most articulate vision of his existential philosophy. The film's protagonist seems to spring directly from the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre or Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych: a tragic, pathetic figure who has so immersed himself in daily routine that he never learned to live. Only when confronted with his own imminent demise does he give his live meaning by building a playground over an open sewer in an impoverished section of town. The film is structured in a peculiar bifurcated arrangement: it begins as a straightforward plot that, halfway through, shifts into a fragmented narrative recounted in flashbacks by mourners at Watanabe's funeral. In the second half, we witness Watanabe's dogged struggle through the lenses of his baffled co-workers' own unexamined lives. Initially viewing his efforts with suspicion if not contempt, his workers fail to give Watanabe any credit for his single-handed effort to build the park. This section of Ikiru becomes compelling and ironic thanks to Kurosawa's deft depiction of Watanabe's inner state in the first half. Ikiru opens with an X-ray of Watanabe-a literal manifestation of his interior world. The rest of the section, through a tour-de-force of impressionistic and expressionistic cinematic devices, shows Watanabe's slow awakening from his quarter-century stupor to learn what it is to live. Takeshi Shimura delivers a staggering performance as Watanabe; his large pleading eyes and hangdog face burn a haunting image in the viewer's mind long after the film ends. The emotional force of Ikiru leaves the viewer feeling both transformed by Watanabe's evolution and contemplative about one's own life. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Mr. Hulot's Holiday
No reviews available.

The Wages of Fear
Le Salaire de la Peur is among the most suspenseful films of the 1950s, notable for slowly building character development and atmosphere before its dramatic climax. In its original 148-minute version, the story lags in spots as director Henri-Georges Clouzot indulges some anti-United States propaganda. Not surprisingly, the film was re-edited for release in the U.S., and many critics preferred the faster pacing and more focused narrative. International acclaim came quickly, including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. Yves Montand gives one of his best performances, though current-day audiences may find his character's chauvinism and condescension toward women unappealing. The female lead is strikingly played by V�ra Clouzot, the director's wife. She had only a brief film career but appeared in two classics, this film and Les Diaboliques, which was also directed by her husband. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Ugetsu Monogatari
Displaying all of the hallmarks of Kenji Mizoguchi's quietly affecting style, this landmark film has been one of the most highly praised Japanese movies, garnering the admiration of such directors as Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette, as well as a Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival. Mizoguchi's fluid camerawork expands this otherworldly tragedy into a profound meditation on the transience of human life. In one of the film's most noted scenes, Genjuro relaxes in a hot spring as his beautiful spirit-lover disrobes. The camera coyly pans away, tilts downwards, and tracks along the ground. The barren ripples of ground dissolve to a Zen rock garden; then the camera tilts up to reveal the couple picnicking at a lakeside park. In this one elegant device, Mizoguchi evokes not only the passage of time but also emptiness and impermanence, as he passes the viewer through an unpeopled space. His signature lyricism frames unfolding human dramas as one small part of life's immutable ebb and flow. A brilliant summation of Mizoguchi's motifs and visual poetry, Ugetsu remains one of the masterpieces of world cinema. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

La Strada
La Strada is often considered one of the masterpieces of 20th century filmmaking, a sad and poignant remembrance of innocence lost and of the roads that each of us must choose. As with much of the work of director Federico Fellini, man is viewed as suspended between the heavens and the earth, adroitly symbolized here by Il Matto/The Fool (Richard Baseheart), a high-wire circus performer. Fellini's motifs are among the most influential of all post-WWII filmmakers, and you'll find clever Fellini and La Strada references in such unlikely films as John Landis's Blues Brothers 2000. Giulietta Masina's Chaplin-like Gelsomina is among the screen's most poignant and tragic performances, and she, like the entire film, is aided by Nino Rota's evocative score. Fellini had few production values to work with, but here he doesn't need them. La Strada is among the most studied films of late Italian Neo-Realism and a classic of the first rank. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Seven Samurai
Widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, Seven Samurai was both the apex of Akira Kurosawa's long career and the high-water mark of the Japanese period drama. The film's action rivets the viewer in spite of the three-hour-plus running time: the battle sequences, among the best ever filmed, are immediate and visceral; and the characters are complex and so well-rendered that the viewer grieves when one dies. Like few other historical films, it captures not only the physical look of the time but also its essence. Like Jean Renoir's masterpieces Grand Illusion (1937) and Rules of the Game (1939), Seven Samurai illustrates the collapse of social distinctions and the growing irrelevance of old traditions in dangerous and chaotic times. Kambei shaves his much-prized topknot--the symbol of a samurai--to save the kidnapped child, while master swordsman Kyuzo is gunned down by an anonymous bandit with a musket. Kurosawa questions the division between samurai and bandit, between good and evil. In one scene, peasant-born Kikuchiyo heatedly argues that the samurai have been abusing and exploiting the peasants for centuries. In this framework, the samurais' acts of bravery, selflessness, and honor seem absurd, if not pointless. The peasants' choice of the samurai over the bandits is merely one of a lesser evil. Once the bandits are gone, the samurai will no longer be needed. This is underscored in the film's poignant end, when the surviving three samurai leave the village, receiving neither acclaim nor reward, as the villagers plant rice. American audiences were so impressed with Kurosawa's epic masterpiece that it was remade into John Sturges's Magnificent Seven (1960). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Richard III
This 1955 film offers a rare boon, the opportunity to see three of the 20th century's greatest British actors -- Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Ralph Richardson -- acting together in the same production. Olivier, the director and star of Richard III, overarches the film in a portrayal of Richard that ranges from impishly wicked to fiendishly diabolical. Early on, he is perversely endearing. His hooked nose, his hunched back, and his halting gait make him a quaint sideshow. Later on, he is unabashedly horrifying. His serial murders of men, women, and children make him a grotesque main attraction that, curiously, still attracts as well as repels. We like Richard, for he is more audaciously sinister and wicked than the sum of all villains since Cain. He dares to do what we all would like to do to a haughty boss or a nincompoop neighbor, if we had no conscience. Often during his performance, Olivier turns away from his interlocutors and looks directly at the audience, confiding his inmost thoughts and feelings. This visual technique works well to establish a relationship with the audience. Gielgud and Richardson support Olivier with wonderful performances. Other distinguished British actors -- including Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Claire Bloom, and Stanley Baker -- also perform with savoir-faire. But the film is not perfect. Olivier sometimes takes unnecessary liberties with Shakespeare's text. Also, because the production was filmed in Technicolor, the reds and blues and yellows scream for attention in their vividness, often overpowering the importance of a dagger or a menacing smile. Nevertheless, Richard III is an extraordinary film that will likely survive the test of time. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Summertime
No reviews available.

The Seventh Seal
For filmgoers of a certain age (baby boomers who attended college between the late '50s and late '60s), The Seventh Seal was their first exposure to the films of Ingmar Bergman. And indeed, the film has been referenced by other directors, from Woody Allen to Barry Levinson, as well as becoming the subject of a popular parody short, Dove. Although other filmmakers, such as Jean Cocteau in Orpheus, had dealt with similar concerns, Bergman made them more accessible. The Seventh Seal is a skillful blend of realistic drama (the disillusioned knight returning from the Crusades in a land wracked by plague and madness) and the allegorical (most famously, the chess game and further encounters with a black-robed figure representing Death). The historical setting provides a convenient vehicle for Bergman to deal with issues of death and spirituality that are ultimately timeless. The film also gave major exposure to actors Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson, who both had small roles in Bergman's Wild Strawberries. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Wild Strawberries
Smultronst�llet/Wild Strawberries is one of the masterpieces of world cinema, a key early representative of the European art films that would change how people thought about movies in the late 1950s and 1960s. While the film posits a frightening questioning of life, it ultimately offers hope and redemption to its aging protagonist, and ultimately to us all. Director Ingmar Bergman effectively alternates emotional warmth with coldness to create one of the screen's greatest philosophical character studies. His shot composition is remarkable, particularly his close-ups of legendary Swedish director Victor Sj�str�m, here playing the elderly professor. The film is full of masterful symbolic imagery and allegorical storytelling. Most important, Bergman makes his film accessible to the ordinary viewer. This is a warm and human film, strongly filled with a richness rarely experienced on screen. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

Ashes and Diamonds
Ashes and Diamonds is the strongest of Andrzej Wajda's early films. Wajda's father was killed in the early days of World War II, and Wajda himself fought with the resistance against the Nazis. In Ashes and Diamonds, he revisits the themes of choice and consequences, with an overriding anti-war sentiment. Ironically, the central factor influencing Wajda's later, more mature work was the 1967 death of his close friend Zbigniew Cybulski, who plays the assassin protagonist in Ashes and Diamonds. Cybulski's performance is generally regarded as the finest of his brief career, and it brought to Poland the same sort of restless youth motif that Western audiences had found appealing in the also dead-too-young James Dean. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

The 400 Blows
Dedicating the film to his mentor Andr� Bazin, 27-year-old critic-turned-director Fran�ois Truffaut put his critical views into practice in his debut feature, The 400 Blows (1959). Unlike the French "Tradition of Quality" literary adaptations that he reviled, Truffaut looked to his own childhood for the source of Antoine Doinel's delinquent exploits in The 400 Blows, evoking Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct (1933). Inspired by the stylistics of favorites like Orson Welles and Jean Renoir, Truffaut's moving camera and long takes, combined with location shooting and natural sound, lent Antoine's tribulations a fresh, fluid immediacy that caught critics' and audiences' attention. His innovative final freeze-frame suspending Antoine in an indeterminate future spawned numerous imitations. The Cannes Film Festival gave The 400 Blows the Best Director prize one year after banning Truffaut for his critical harshness; the New York Film Critics' Circle awarded it Best Foreign Film. Released the same year as Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, The 400 Blows' international success helped put Truffaut at the forefront of the nascent French New Wave. He would continue Antoine Doinel's story in three more features, Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970), Love on the Run (1979), and one short, Antoine and Colette (1962). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Fires on the Plain
Few films have captured the horror and futility of war with the bleak power of Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain. Near the end of World War II, as Japanese soldiers attempt to flee the Philippines before the arrival of invading American troops, soldier Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) is perhaps the most damned of all men. Suffering from a severe case of tuberculosis, Tamura is unfit for duty, but the Japanese field hospitals have no beds for a man destined to die soon of consumption, so he is doomed to wander the jungles as his fellow soldiers sink deeper into hunger, disease, and madness. His journey reaches a shocking conclusion when he encounters a band of soldiers who have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. While it's hard to imagine a film presenting a more unrelentingly grim portrait of war, Fires on the Plain does not concern itself with shock for its own sake. Ichikawa (with the help of cinematographer Setsuo Kobayashi) wrings a dark poetry from this story, as the soldiers struggle to hold on to the last threads of their dignity and humanity, until they finally submerge into insanity at its most beastly. There is a terrible desperation as the men cling to such precious commodities as potatoes and salt, but also a flash of human compassion as they share their meager treasures. And Funakoshi delivers a unforgettable, profoundly moving performance as Tamura; from the first time his deep, haunted eyes meet the camera, we sense that we are visiting a ghost sent to give us a vision of hell, and, as we follow him through the Philippine jungles, that is exactly what he presents to us. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Black Orpheus
Black Orpheus was something of a phenomenon of its time, an international success with a best-selling soundtrack that was crucial to launching a bossa nova craze in the United States. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Since then, the novelty of seeing Rio de Janeiro's Carnival played out backed by the strains of seductive Brazilian jazz has worn off, revealing a winningly energetic movie with some noticeable faults. Director Marcel Camus reworks the Orpheus myth for no discernible reason, and while the straightforward transliteration is agreeably unpretentious, he doesn't add much to the story. The Technicolor cinematography is notable for its vivacious use of saturated colors and real-life location shooting in Rio's favelas and mountainous countryside. The choreography of people and color in front of the camera is well executed, but not much is done with the camera itself. There is little movement and the action occasionally feels constrained by the frame. During moments of play, when the characters are flirting, dancing, or playing music, the filmmaking gels into a sensual reverie, but in moments of seriousness the movie feels rather pedestrian, and the actors in particular are drab and unconvincing. However, time has not effected Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfa's charming samba score and it's hard to be too disappointed in a movie that begins and ends with the upward lilt of "Samba de Orfeo." ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide

Floating Weeds
Like the majority of director Yasujiro Ozu's work, Floating Weeds is concerned with family relationships and interactions between different generations. It also shares the director's amazingly serene yet appealing visual style, created through the use of the simplest means possible: no tracking shots and no use of dissolves or fades, just long, steady shots, often in a wide frame, interrupted only by judicious editing, with occasional symbolic or atmospheric "pillow shots," which offer moments of contemplative pause. The effect is hypnotic and enthralling and used to particularly good effect in Weeds. The script is also typically Ozu, dealing with a subject that could easily fall into heavy melodrama or even soap opera, but which for the most part skillfully avoids this through the use of implication and nuance rather than direct statement; it is only in the second half that the schematics of the story come into play a bit too strongly. The actors are uniformly excellent, creating a genuine ensemble piece (entirely appropriate for a film dealing with a troupe of actors) and providing many memorable moments, such as the touching final segment in which Machiko Kyo deftly signaling her love and forgiveness of Ganjiro Nakamura merely by the manner in which she pours a glass of wine for him. Weeds is a film of quiet beauty, a gem that discriminating viewers will treasure. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide

The Virgin Spring
One of Bergman's simplest yet most powerful films, it fuses medieval Christianity with paganism in its enactment of rituals sacred and profane. Eschewing all but the most basic of symbols, the director roots his tale of death and transfiguration in the natural world, implying the unruly force of both instinctive human drives and the primitive beliefs that held sway long before the arrival of the Christian faith embraced by the family of Max Von Sydow's farmer. Bergman sketches the small joys and petty jealousies of the family with a bold economy, including some nasty foreshadowing in the prank played by spiteful servant Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) on the slightly spoiled daughter, Karin (Birgitta Pettersson). The director orchestrates the confrontation of her innocence and the shepherds' brutality with the utmost care and deliberateness, in fashioning a scene of sexual assault all the more disturbing for its naturalism. In the film's most indelible moment, Karin's mother leans back in frozen horror as one of the rapists unwittingly offers her the girl's bloodstained garment. But Von Sydow is the focal point here, a man of deep faith and strict self-discipline, he's shocked both by a God who would allow such a tragedy to befall him and by his own transgression, in savagely dispatching his daughter's murderers. In a denouement that restores the farmer's belief, Bergman pays tribute to the simple faith of the medieval world. While the flawless acting of the director's stock company and the outstanding work of Sven Nykvist is almost too familiar to require mention, the film's fortress-like set is particularly noteworthy in its evocation of an entirely foreign world. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Ballad of a Soldier
Made in the post-Stalin thaw in Soviet filmmaking, Ballade o Soldate is refreshingly apolitical, choosing to ascribe the humanitarian impulses of its characters to their nature rather than to an adherence to state ideals. Alyosha (Vladimir Ivashov) is a scared soldier of 19 who, as much out of self-preservation as anything, manages to disable two German tanks. The film's first extended scene of dialogue sets the pattern for a portrayal of the military for the rest of the drama; Alyosha is teased by hardened officers but treated kindly by top brass. Giving one soldier a six-day pass in the middle of the war seems an extraordinary kindness, but the film resolutely insists on the basic goodness of nearly all its characters. On his journey homeward, Alyosha initiates acts of charity and is treated generously by nearly everyone he meets. His only nemesis, a bully of a guard on a freight train, winds up getting his comeuppance from-you guessed it-a lieutenant. The scenes between Alyosha and his female traveling companion Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko) are packed with yearning but again reflect the soldier's basic honesty, since he's led to believe that she's on her way to visit her fianc�. This is one of the least horrific war films ever made, which isn't to say that it glorifies combat or ignores suffering. It also contains one of the saddest expressions of motherly love ever spoken, when Alyosha's mother bids him farewell by crying out, "I didn't wait for your father, but I'll wait for you." Director Grigori Chukhrai, after some virtuoso camerawork in the man vs. tank sequence, settles down for some lovely compositions, with deep focus shots framed by a glorious Russian sky. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

L'Avventura
Catcalls greeted its Cannes Film Festival premiere, but filmmakers and critics recognized the artistic importance of Michelangelo Antonioni's experiments with psychologizing film narrative, and L'avventura (1960) was awarded a special Jury Prize. Abandoning the kind of cause-and-effect plot line that might be expected in a film about the search for a missing woman, Antonioni instead sought to examine the barren inner lives of the postwar rich; the "adventure" is in the encounters between characters as they attempt and fail to make emotional connections. Limiting the audience's knowledge of Anna's disappearance to what Sandro and Claudia learn, and depicting screen actions in real time, Antonioni turns viewing the film into a direct experience of the initial excitement over the search and the waning of involvement as the effort becomes fruitless. Antonioni's carefully controlled deep focus widescreen compositions further communicate the characters' existential ennui and psychic disconnection from each other in evocatively barren environments. Bolstered by the Cannes experience, L'avventura became Antonioni's first worldwide success; released within a year of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1959), L'avventura helped announce a vital new era in international art cinema. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Viridiana
One wonders just what Francisco Franco and the leaders of his regime were thinking when they invited arch surrealist and stubborn anti-Fascist Luis Bu�uel back to the land of his birth to make Viridiana. Bu�uel had made a career out of confronting his audiences and defying creative authority, and anyone who imagined that he had meekly begun sleeping with the enemy was in for a shock. Viridiana was a gleefully blasphemous tirade against Catholicism and the Spanish bourgeoisie that proved something of an embarrassment to Spain despite winning top honors at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. Fernando Rey, one of Bu�uel's favorite actors in his late period, is deliciously sleazy yet refined as Don Jaime; Rey's easy charm and understated wit are the perfect match for the elegantly corrupt man whose sense of propriety does not rule out drugging and seducing his niece, who happens to be a nun. Silvia Pinal's performance as Viridiana often suggests that she isn't entirely in on the joke, but the distance works in her favor, as the young novitiate seems blissfully unaware first of her uncle's designs upon her, and later of the contempt that the beggars and street people she tries to help feel for her. The final scene -- in which the beggars freeze into a recreation of The Last Supper as a filthy woman "photographs" them by lifting her skirts -- is, along with Simon of the Desert, one of Bu�uel's strongest and funniest anti-clerical moments. Like the best of Bu�uel's work, Viridiana is smart, witty, deeply cutting, and thoroughly uncompromised, a fitting bit of revenge from an old Loyalist against the dictator who defeated him. Bu�uel would have the last laugh yet again when he returned to Spain nine years later to make Tristana, a fitting companion piece to Viridiana. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Il Posto
No reviews available.

Jules and Jim
His third and most popular film, Fran�ois Truffaut's adaptation of the Henri-Pierre Roch� novel is a lyrical, elliptical meditation on the possibilities of love. Shot in widescreen black-and-white by Raoul Coutard in beautifully detailed pre- and post-World War I settings, the central m�nage � trois of Jules, Jim, and mercurial Catherine reveals the limits placed on a woman's freedom by the men's desire to mold her to their fantasy ideal. Catherine remains an enigma to Jules and Jim, though they adore her, as they tragically misjudge how absolute her refusal to choose between them will be. Truffaut's eclectic technique (bolstered by Georges Delerue's score) evoked the shifting emotions in this ultra-modern romance, ranging from kinetic handheld shots communicating the trio's joie de vivre to freeze-frames briefly suspending Catherine's beauty in time. An international smash and instant classic, Jules and Jim cemented Truffaut's reputation as a cinematic artist, rather than just a brash critic. Despite Jules and Jim's tragic end, audiences embraced the possibility of alternative romantic arrangements, while Truffaut's bravura, resonant style inspired even Truffaut's idol Jean Renoir to say that he wished he had made the film. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Knife in the Water
After directing a string of acclaimed shorts, the young Roman Polanski assembled a small crew and mostly unprofessional cast in his native Poland to shoot this full-length thriller. The spare, tense film remains one of Polanski's most striking efforts, a cool, detached character study with stark, high-contrast black-and-white visuals to match. Polanski may have seen himself in the character of the cunning, disaffected drifter, a possibility bolstered by the fact that he dubbed his own voice over Zygmunt Malanowicz's for the film's final cut. Though Polanski was obviously taking cues from the late 1950s/early 1960s work of Michelangelo Antonioni and even Ingmar Bergman, the movie retains a hip, modern feel all its own; throughout his career, Polanski would revisit the concept of the disaffected anti-hero and his tortured relations with women. Knife in the Water brought Polanski to the attention of the European film community, as well as the American Motion Picture Academy, who nominated the film against Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 for Best Foreign Language Film in 1964. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

The Great Chase
No reviews available.

The Love Goddesses
No reviews available.

I Pugni in Tasca
No reviews available.

Loves of a Blonde
Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde is a modest and delightfully naturalistic comedy. The film opens with a plaintively sung Beatle-esque love song (in Czech, naturally, except for the "yeah, yeah, yeah"s) that perfectly captures the film's playful spirit, and the hint of melancholy underneath. In the first extended setpiece of the film, three older, married, reservists contemplate putting the moves on a table of young women, and bicker endlessly about how to proceed. Meanwhile, the women are also in disagreement as to whether acknowledge the attentions of the men. Forman cast mostly non-actors in the film, and he demonstrates a fine eye for faces, which make the shorthand of his characterizations that much more effective. Forman adeptly mixes the verbal humor in the scene with low-key physical comedy, as in the close-ups of Andula's (Hana Brejchova) frowning face as she dances with a clumsy bespectacled soldier. There's a sweetly amusing post-coital scene between Andula and Milda (Vladimir Pucholt). But the film gets even better when the scene shifts to Prague, where Andula encounters Milda's confused, worried mother (Milada Jezkova) and father (Josef Sebanek). Jezkova and Sebanek deliver superb comic performances as the grumpy couple, and when Pucholt enters the scene later, the film reaches its comedic heights. Forman's sublime portrait of family dysfunction makes the quiet unassuming Loves of a Blonde a memorable work of cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Miss Julie
No reviews available.

The Spirit of the Beehive
Director Victor Erice's films, with his painterly images, languid pace, and patient working methods (three films in the past 30 years), are reminiscent of the lyricism of Terrence Malick. The Spirit of the Beehive is about a little girl who, in the child's dreamy desire to make sense of her world, constructs a Frankenstein monster of both benevolence and violence. Its depiction of childhood is tender, the story simple and clear. Yet what makes the film so gorgeously affecting is its summoning of a difficult to grasp intensity beneath its placid surface, where emotional extremes take on a supernatural aura and hover in the chest like a thick tremulous cloud. Realizing one's "spirit" involves a melancholy understanding of life's random potential for joy and sorrow and that the switch can be sudden, as when the Frankenstein monster switches from playing with to killing a child. This amalgam of conflicting emotions comes from humanity and yet seems to operate from without, and is a wonderful metaphor for the swirl surrounding war. (The Spanish Civil War has ended but the stink still hangs in the air like an uneasy mist.) Ana's spirit is her own, but the title refers to the universality of this essence. With her wide and brown-as-a-chestnut eyes and shyly bold demeanor, Ana Torrent is exceptional as Ana. In her search for the spirit she registers the complicated layers of a child realizing death. Erice elicits another fantastic young performance from Isabel Telleria, who plays Ana's older sister Isabel with a mischievous, vaguely menacing air. Achieving a beauty of ache-inducing intensity, cinematographer Luis Cuadrado shoots the Castilian village and countryside using astounding gradations of wheat and amber colors. ~ Michael Buening, All Movie Guide

Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist
No reviews available.

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Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films - DVD

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