Adaptación de la novela homónima de John Le Carré, ambientada en la época de la Guerra Fría. Barley Scott Blair (Sean Connery), un editor británico que se encuentra en Lisboa, se dedica más a la bebida que a atender a los distribuidores rusos de sus libros. Un día lo aborda un agente de la CIA que le pide que sirva de enlace con una bella espía (Michelle Pfeiffer) que puede proporcionarle unos importantes manuscritos de un disidente ruso. La misión de Scott consistirá en intentar averiguar la veracidad y las claves de esas notas sobre el servicio de inteligencia ruso, pero se trata de una misión que puede poner en peligro sus vidas.

SYNOPSIS: Includes 19 works by filmmaker Jan Peters:

• J'ai 20 ans [by Helena Villovitch] (1984, 4:05 mins.);
• Ich Bin 24 (1990, 2:37 mins.);
• Ich Bin 25 (1991, 2:26 mins.);
• Ich Bin 26 (1992, 2:24 mins.);
• Ich Bin 27 (1993, 2:34 mins.);
• Ich Bin 28 (1994, 2:39 mins.);
• Ich Bin 29 (1995, 2:39 mins.);
• Toi et moi - Tu as 29 ans [by David TV] (1995, 3:22 mins.);
• Ich Bin 30 (1996, 2:38 mins.);
• Ich Bin 31 (1997, 2:15 mins.);
• Ich Bin 32 (1998, 2:28 mins.);
• Ich Bin 33 (1999, 3:17 mins.);
• Ich Bin 34 (2000, 1:08 mins.);
• Wie ich ein Hohlenmaler Wurde - In Kurzfassung (2001, 20:20 mins.);
• Ich Bin 36 (2002, 3:53 mins.);
• Ich Bin 37 (2003, 6:05 mins.);
• Ich Bin 38 (2004, 2:36 mins.);
• Ich Bin 39 (2005, 2:33 mins.);
• Ich Bin 40 (2006, 2:48 mins.).

Lisl Ponger´s photographic and cinematic work investigates the circumstances of places and their territorial occupation by the camera, the acquisation of images, the function of photographic and cinematic representation, and the presentation of cultural values. Her works are characterized by that which is no longer present, which refers to that which is already absent. This is a latent component of each of her images and at the same time the particular political stance of her works. (Amine Haase)

»Almost all of Ponger’s films is concerned in some way with travelling. The sequences, from almost every country in the world, maintain their documentary nature even after the editing and re-working process. The end product, however, is never just about surfaces or recording events. Ponger makes use of structure and poetic associative montage so as to raise questions as to the nature of film itself or the function photographic or filmic representation has in reflecting and propagating cultural values.« Tim Sharp
»This is probably how documentary features should be in the new millennium.« (Imdb.com)

Passagen [1996]

Travelling Shots - Notes on the films by Lisl Ponger

Viewing Lisl Ponger’s films, one might be tempted to ask, as Lewis Carroll’s Alice once did, ‘’...but I wonder what Latitude and Longitude I’ve got to?’’ Almost all of Ponger’s films and indeed, most of her photographic work, is concerned in some way with travelling. The sequences, from almost every country in the world, maintain their documentary nature even after the editing and re-working process. The end product, however, is never just about surfaces or recording events. Ponger makes use of structure and poetic associative montage so as to raise questions as to the nature of film itself or the function photographic or filmic representation has in reflecting and propagating cultural values.

In Passagen [1996] the normality of the travel memories slowly begin to take on another dimension when we concentrate on the sound track. These accounts begin in Vienna. What is being described are individual stories of forced Jewish emigration from Austria, refugees fleeing from Nazi terror. The travelogue-like accounts coolly welded to family films of journeys taken for excitement and pleasure makes the private public and the public familial. It engenders a claustrophobic horror in the mind. But there is no respite.

As the pictures wander the exotic places of the world they have become tainted with the knowledge from the sound-track, the sensual pleasure freezes. At the point when you should be relieved at the escapes you remember those who didn’t. At the same time you realise that there are other stories of flights from imprisonment and torture woven in and on their way back to Vienna. This time they are told by immigrants seeking safety in the West. Specifically in Vienna.

From the beginning, as the images of déjà vu [1999] begin to parade across the screen, the viewer is seduced into their foreign but nonetheless eerily familiar flow. As with Passagen, these are documentary sequences of places and people but also of our longing for distant lands, colourful events and the 1001 star-pierced tropical nights which no camera can ever capture. It is perhaps only in retrospect that awareness dawns; that the film, consisting of amateur footage, is an archive of collective Western clichés of exotic Otherness. Geographical nonsense now dancing to another tune. These sequences may have been shot in all innocence but it is the innocence of unconscious complicity in Western cultural assumptions.

At the outset of the film, the sound effects work together with the images, enhancing their documentary character and colluding with the quasi-narrative flow. The courtship does not last very long. It is punctured in many places by something approaching unsettling irony. An example is the shot from the railing of a ship ploughing through southern seas. Sacred choral music wells up from the soundtrack. It has an emotional impact that sends a shiver down your spine. At the same time as it functions as ‘film music’, it has a narrative function and communicates significant information. The associations are manifold. ‘Big ships’ have visited these waters for hundreds of years, bringing Columbus, Cortez and Cook, but always bringing the missionary word and often the vessels of gun-boat diplomacy in their wake.

These correspondences occur frequently enough to be significant, and, in view of the rest of the sound track, act as life belts to be ignored at your peril because the second layer has a strong undertow. Real people telling true stories in a variety of languages and, as Bob Dylan would say, ‘something is happening, but you don’t know what it is’. The effect is such that it appears that part of the soundtrack has made a unilateral declaration of independence. It hasn’t, instead it is hung like a curtain, making numerous points of contacts to what is happening on screen.

There are eleven native languages in déjà vu, each reflecting a distinctive way of thinking and the cultural assumptions of those who speak them. Viewed historically, some of those languages (English, French, German, Portuguese) represent major export items - spreading the word with missionary zeal in the interest of the politics of power, economic efficiency and cultural presumption. In this post-colonial era we are still only half aware of the hierarchies which language creates. It is also worth considering the physical environment in which one watches the film. We are (willing) prisoners captured by flickering images. The soundtrack, however, turns us temporarily into colonial subjects. Fixed firmly in your seat you can escape neither the desire to understand, nor the improbability of having mastered eleven languages. This linguistic helplessness, coupled with possible annoyance or frustration, creates an emotional counterpoint to the seductive nature of the images and reproduces on a small scale the feelings of puzzlement and powerlessness which is the daily fare of the colonised.

By refusing to use sub-titles déjà vu sails dangerous waters, but it never pretends innocence nor allows itself to be categorised. It simultaneously negates and confirms categories - narrative, experimental and documentary. Its centre of gravity is an issue - the way we structure what we see as knowledge in relation to other cultures and the way those structures, in turn, determine what we see. It is an invitation to dance between paradigms and like all good travel stories, the memory lingers.  - Tim Sharp 2000

Phantom Foreign Vienna (2004) is a configuration of works - a book, a photo series and a film, which confronts various aspects of immigration.
While on a multi-cultural journey round the world in the years 1991 and 1992 during which she never left the city of Vienna, Lisl Ponger meticulously collected Super-8 sequences of celebrations, weddings and dances. The initial concern was with making visible the cultural multiplicity which, from the point of view of their public presence in the city, simply didn’t exist. The return - a good ten years later - calls exactly that act of visualization into question. "What am I really seeing?" asks the commentary, spoken by Ponger herself. But it is not only that which makes it clear how conscious the film is with regard to the problems of how ethnicity is treated.

It appears that in every act of ‘making visible’ there is a simultaneous and inevitable tendency to capture the flee(t)ing and diasporic in fixed, stereotypical imagery as well.
In the process Ponger stages things on a number of ambiguous levels simultaneously. In the form of diary entries she shows that her encounter with the ‘multi-culti’ Vienna of the early Nineties as profoundly subjective. Right from the beginning every form of objective classification is rejected.

The project (originally titled Fremdes Wien (1992)) was a book and a series of photographs for exhibition. It was motivated by the invisibility of immigrant communities in Vienna. True, they were present in the media, but always as an issue defined and discussed as a ‘problem’ by the majority of the population, in this case, Austrians and almost always, therefore in a negative light. It meant, quite simply, that the immigrant communities rarely, if ever, were able to talk for themselves. They were talked about. The project gave the people depicted a platform to say what they wanted and the photographs, taken from blown up single super 8 film frames, made an attempt at avoiding sharply-focused, cliché images of cultural representatives in traditional costume.
Looked at in retrospect, the work is only partly successful and it was this realization that led to Phantom Foreign Vienna.

http://lislponger.com/imaginative/htm/001/page-e.htm

Lisl Ponger born in Nuremberg, Alemania, in 1947.
Her politically motivated work continues to investigate issues of colonialism, ethnology, ideology, and constructions of identity.

Works included:

PASSAGEN 1996, 11 min
DÉJÀ VU 1999, 22 min
PHANTOM FOREIGN VIENNA 2004, 27 min
Total duration: 60 min.

The subversive, ironic analysis of systems of social control; pseudo-scientific technical experiments, for example with objects of daily use; and the »manipulation« of our visual habits with the help of technical apparatus ­ these are central aspects of artistic work of Leo Schatzl. Martin Sturm

KRIEG ETC. 1983, 4 min
MAX./EXTRAMAX. 1986, 4:30 min
MOBILE MATRATZE 1988, 3:40 min
SW-EGO (V.4) 1990, 4 min
AKZIDENZ 1991, 5:10 min
T.Z. USA 1991 - GOING FAST SLOW (V.4) 1991, 5 min
WALL 1992, 5:10 min
MASCHINENKAMPF 1992, 4:20 min
OXO WONDER VISION (2) 1996, 2:30 min
FAX ME / HOMERUN 1996 1996, 4:10 min
TABU ZONE #2 1998, 4:10 min
VANISHING POINTS 2005, 4:20 min

LEO SCHATZL

living and working as freelance artist in Vienna since 1987.
1980-1987, studies at the University of Art in Linz (visual design, metal design). Cooperation with several artists’ groups (Stadtwerkstatt, Unabhängige Filme Linz, Dead Dog Gallery, Kunstlabor, Contained ...). Teaching post at the University of Art in Linz since 1992 (intermedia laboratories). Main fields of work: interdisciplinary room installations, objects, photography, image media. Numerous projects, exhibitions, film and video screenings in Austria and abroad.

FLAMING EARS / ROTE OHREN FETZEN DURCH ASCHE A 1991, 16mm, 84 min  - Pürrer / Scheirl / Schipek
With: Susanna Heilmayr, Ursula Pürrer, Angela Hans Scheirl, Margarete Neumann, Gabriele Szekatsch, Anthony Escott, Luise Kubelka

Flaming Ears is a pop sci-fi lesbian fantasy feature set in the year 2700 in the fictive burnt out city of Asche. It follows the tangled lives of three woman: Sy, comic book artist; Volly, a performance artist and sexed up pyromaniac; and Nun, an amoral alien with predilection for reptiles.

It´s a story of love and revenge, and an antiromantic plea for love in its many forms. It´s also a story laced with sex, violence and a pulsating soundtrack, a cyberdyke movie, stimulating both the body and the brain.

Shot in Super-8 and exploded to 16mm, Flaming Ears is a German Blade Runner - about a sexed-up pyromaniac, her red-plastic-clad mate, and a revengful comix artist - characterized by a fierce, punky throb and gelatinous F/X. As sapphic thrillers go, it's twenty time more fun than Basic Instinct. [...]
Andy Warhol's Interview, June 1992

INVISIBLE ADVERSARIES / UNSICHTBARE GEGNER  A 1976, 16mm, col & bw, 104 Min - VALIE EXPORT

Anna, an artist, is obsessed with the invasion of alien doubles bent on total destruction. Her schizophrenia is reflected in the juxtapositions of long movie camera takes with violently edited montages: private with public spaces; black & white with colour, still photographs with video, earsplitting sounds with disruptive camera angles. Anna uses her body like a map; after a devastating quarrel with her lover, she paints red stitches on herself. Watching their scenes together, we realize how seldom, if ever before, the details of sexual intimacy have been shown in film from the point of view from a woman. Export privileges rupture over unity and never settles for one-dimensional solutions
(Artforum, Nov. 1980)

One of the most original films in this year´s Exposition, Invisible Adversaries is a tour de force of cinematic invention. It should bring international recognition to Valie Export, an Austrian experimental filmmaker known heretofore in America mostly by reputation. This is her first attempt at a feature-length narrative, and it reveals a prodigious talent at work. The title refers to extraterrestrial aliens called ´Hyksos´, malevolent forces that enter human bodies like incubi and initiate the decline of civilization. Not to be taken literally, the Hyksos are a poetic metaphor for the modern Zeitgeist, the apocalyptic mood of the times. Ms. Export uses this theme as a framework for some of the most audacious and amazing experiments since Cocteau. The comparison is appropriate, for on one level Invisible Adversaries is about art and the artist, a modern Blood of the Poet. To this, Export brings a fresh and intelligent sensibility, characteristically self-referential. Her visual resources include mirrors, still photography, video, dance, and films within the film, all employed with a bold and surprising inventiveness.
(Excerpt from the catalog notes of the 1978 Los Angeles International Film Exposition - Gene Youngblood).

DVD CONTENTS:

MANN & FRAU & ANIMAL (Man & Woman & Animal) 1970-73, 9 min
Instead of the holy trinity: father, son, holy spirit, instead of the profane trinity: mother, family, state, instead of the social trinity: father, mother, children the film treats the real trilogy in 3 sections. What unites man and woman (not uniquely for sure, but what is being concealed) is the history of nature. (V.E.)

The earlier films of Valie Export, one feels, were motivated by the author´s desire and needs to investigate her own subjectivity, with the audience as a necessary part of the transference and polemic. "Man & Woman & Animal" shows a woman finding pleasure in herself, the whole film a kind of assertion and affirmation of female sexuality and its independence from male values and pleasures. Thinking about my "quite erotic" tag of that film I realize that as a viewer I am experiencing a sexuality like that of childhood - one motivated by curiosity, a prosaic pleasure in looking, but free from fantasy. It is quite unlike the experience of ordinary pornography which is invested with the erotic almost exclusively through its symbolization of power. (Joanna Kiernan)

....REMOTE.....REMOTE..... 1973, 10 min
Human behaviour in contrast to machines (animals) is influenced by events in the past, as far back as these experiences may lie. Therefore there exists a psychic paratime parallel to the objective time, where the prayers of anguish and guilt, the inability to win, deformations which rip open the skin, becoming aware of oneself, have their constant effects. I demonstrate something which represents past and present. (V.E.)

....Remote....Remote.... was one of the films categorized by a considerable number of women as typifying despicable excesses and extreme violence. People frequently reacted to the film with horror, incomprehension and scorn. In showing emotion, gentleness and sensitivity as female qualities, there was no place for aggression - cutting and violently opening were equated with male behaviour; having to pentrate in order to possess.

When Valie Export shaves and trims herself, the sight of her provokes fantasies, revolving around acts done to the body. Yet there is nothing dreadful about a woman trimming her body, especially in the places where she enhances the glamour imposed on her body by the civilizing influences of the world around her. And the fact that you have to suffer to achieve beauty has always brought a knowing smile to a woman's lips.

The way in which Valie Export grooms herself however, involves unconventional touching and violation which goes beyond the familiar sight of a woman "harmlessly" doing herself up. This triggered, and continues to trigger, huge defensive reactions among many women. Such a reaction represents the easiest way of emphatically rejecting something that has got right under the skin. No-one is allowed to encroach into the recesses of our private existence, in which the damage suffered and our own self-mutilation remains safeguarded behind a front of normality. (Renate Lippert)

SYNTAGMA 1984, 17 min
My work in the area of short film focuses on working out what is essential to a film, to define it as a self-sufficient and closed artistic system; so that I can make use of the single operators, such as image and sound and expand on their creative possibilities of association. The actual significant operators such as film strip, framing, image content, image construction, montage, movement of the camera, visual effects, the interaction of the visual with the audio, etc., are combined with the cultural codes to create a syntactic construction, out of which a film is born. Such thoughts also explain certain structures of my feature films. The film sequences themselves are real units, which are semantically related to one another. (V.E.)

Primer largometraje de Pierre Étaix.

Pierre lleva una vida gris y anodina. Está casado con una mujer de su edad y trabaja en la empresa de su suegro. La llegada de una joven secretaria trastoca su estabilidad.

Pierre es un joven serio y estable. Sin embargo se siente incómodo con la época que le ha tocado vivir y todo tipo de contratiempos le acechan. Una pequeña obra maestra satírica y burlesca. Concha de plata en el Festival de San Sebastián 1966.

Granular Synthesis, the name adopted by artists Kurt Hentschlaeger and Ulf Langheinrich, is derived from granulated sound synthesis, an information processing technique for synthesizing digital audio.  A series of very short samples (grains) are sequenced, reassembled to produce a granulated sound synthesis.  Selected whole sounds (and/or images) are fragmented into tiny snippets (grains) and are also recombined to make whole new granulated sound or image continuums.

Employing monumental projected images and bludgeoning sound environments, the multimedia installations of Kurt Hentschläger and Ulf Langheinrich mark a new stage in the esthetic of sensory overload. Christopher Phillips

Un hombre rico que vive solo con la única compañía de sus criados, se aburre mortalmente hasta que un día pasa un circo cerca de su casa.

The Austrian avant-garde filmmaker Mara Mattuschka, who was born in 1959 in Bulgaria, and at the age of 17, as a mathematical wizard, chose Austrian as her second citizenship, is one of the most important figures in experimental film in Europe. She is also the connecting link between Valie Export and the younger generation of experimental Austrian filmmakers.

The most impressive point of her numerous films, and in the latest period video productions (Id, Plasma), is the way she relates to her body. Not only has Mattuschka been the main protagonist on camera in each of her (video) films, since 1985, when she bears the name Mimi Minus, her body is also the canvas, object and subject that is painted, stretched, shaved, deformed with special effects, etc. The other point of reference in her work is a persistent and powerful analysis of past and present experimental and Hollywood film productions, with intensive research into sound and music. Not only does she interpret her texts in the films, she also sings, shouts and integrates sound in different forms in her work, in most of cases as an acousmatic voice, although in the case of Mattuschka, this voice is invisible, but embodied, and subverts the narrative link (the authority) in the image.

NABELFABEL 1984, 3 min

The Mara Mattuschka DVD gets off to a strong start with NabelFabel/Navel Fable (1984, 16mm, 3 min.), by far the darkest film on the DVD. In fact this short is a good deal more terrifying than most horror films, with its striking images of confinement, claustrophobia, and social oppression.

The film begins with a mannequin’s face wrapped up in newspaper which is unravelled in pixilated fashion. The nondescript face is replaced by a human face (Mattuschka’s I presume) wrapped in a stocking. Layers are continually removed only to helplessly reveal another stocking below. Adding to the tension and sense of oppression is the pained expression of the face (also animated) and a soundtrack comprised of a heartbeat, the sound of material being torn, primal screams, photographic shutter clicks, and electronic music. Although the liner notes interpret the film as a symbolic second birth, the foreboding atmosphere can also suggest a person trying to escape from a painful cocoon of imprisonment.

DER UNTERGANG DER TITANIA 1985, 4 min

Of the 12 films presented on the Mattuschka DVD several recall the work of Valie Export, including two which deal directly with female sexuality. The more substantial of the two is Der Untergang der Titania/The Sinking of Titania (1985, 16mm, 4 min.), a comic, scatological love story played out in a bathtub, narrated by an 18 year old woman recounting her perverse sexual awakening.

The short film uses a mixture of live action with primitive stick men animation, but conflates the two forms by filming Mattuschka’s alter ego Mimi Minus, bath cap and all, as if she were an animated cut-out figure. The film’s style is of one piece, with even jerky left-right camera pans mimicking the animated movements of the Mimi Minus character. The tub drain becomes a surrogate anus, first ejecting an animated stick man sporting an erect penis –after which Mattuschka cuts in a subliminal close-up of a hand holding a phallic cigarette– and then ejecting animated feces.

CEROLAX II 1985, 2 min
In this film, a 1 1/2 minute long satire on TV commercials, Mara Mattuschka uses black and white live animation.  

The star, Mimi Minus, has been invited to introduce the sale of a new product: a sticky-black brain washing soap, which M.M. first applies to her reflection, in order to wash one of her brain hemispheres clean, afterwards she applies the soap to her body: she sprays all the marks on her body and changes the spots to a new shade, then she numbs her senses with the miracle soap: first the pubic area, then the armpits, then the eyes, mouth and ears. In the end, the slightly devastated and freshly-cleansed housewife puts on a wig and looks scrutinizingly into the camera/mirror.

KUGELKOPF 1985, 6 min

In Kugelkopf, Mara Mattuschka subversively challenges the printing press and modern technology with her own body's power. Starting by shaving and slitting her head with a razor in sheer pleasure, she proceeds to make marks and patterns with the blood on a glass sheet.

The staccato motion of the ritual duplicates the golf-ball sound of a typewriter. This self-empowering act satirises violence against women, in particular the eye-slitting sequence in Luis Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou.The short concludes with another montage, this time of extreme close-up views of Mattuschka’s face literally being ‘painted’ in blood. This theme of painting on the body introduced in Kugelkopf with the animated blood covering the head and face is continued in later Mattuschka films.

PASCAL-GÖDEL 1986, 5 min

Using the body –in this case the hand– as a painting tool informs much of Pascal-Gödel (1986, 16mm, 5 min.), a formal study in contrast, with black and white, the use of a checkerboard, and positive/negative imagery.

The sparse black and white sets recall a film featuring another ‘tortured’ woman, Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).

PARASYMPATHICA 1985, 4 min

In Parasympathica (1986, 16mm, 3 min.) there is a continuation of the study in polarity and the black and white motif, with Mattuschka splitting her body in half vertically with her left side painted in black and her right side painted in white.

In a Spanish magazine, I found a list of characteristics considered positive and negative by the Catholic Church. With two exceptions, the positive characteristics represent passive attitudes. In my film, I represent them mimetically. Using animated imagery, I let the juices which are stimulated by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system flow over the body: tears, sweat, sperm, vaginal excretions. (Mara Mattuschka)

LES MISERABLES 1987, 2 min

In this film, Mattuschka works exclusively with animation. The cheerful cartoon characters Mimi and Max have a childlike-bisexuality, even when the subject seems to be the desire for and differences from the other sex.

The characters are all spoken by the same voice (Mara Mattuschka's), and the characters' representation is therefore channelled into a single and fictive form of expression...

DANKE, ES HAT MICH SEHR GEFREUT 1987, 2 min

Of lesser value is Danke, es hat mich sehr gefreut/I Have Been Very Pleased a silly one joke film where Mimi Minus masturbates in a sea of overexposed white made to appear like a beach (she wears sunglasses).

Her orgasm is a reverberating, child-like laughter which gives way to a moan and a concluding line of dialogue which forms the film’s title: “Thank you. I have been very pleased.”

KAISER SCHNITT 1987, 4 min

The birth of the alphabet according to Mattuschka.

DER SCHÖNE, DIE BIEST 1993, 10 min

Der Schöne, die Biest/Beauty and the Beast (1993, 16mm, 10 min.) finds Mattuschka in pure comic mode, as a chameleon playing many roles to her baby child: mother (we see her breast feeding in close-up), entertainer/teacher (playing violin to her baby); protector (adopting the role of a samurai by using a kitchen knife as if it were a sword) and prognosticator (a fortune teller seeing into her baby’s future).

Der Schöne, die Biest is evidence of Mattuschka’s continuing exploration of the concept of ‘expanded cinema’ developed by Valie Export and others in the 1960s. An ‘expanded cinema’ trait visible in this and other Mattuschka films, and no doubt influenced by the Austrian Actionist films, is the heightened performative aspect of Mattuschka’s acting (as performed by her alter ego Mimi Minus).

S.O.S. EXTRATERRESTRIA 1993, 10 min

S.O.S. Extraterrestria is by far the most intertextual film in the collection, with a multi-perspective referencing of the classic monster movie. Employing some fairly elaborate miniature and special effects cinematography, Mimi/Mattuschka appears as a giant woman causing city-wide havoc.

The most obvious film reference is to King Kong, with the female replacing the ape as outsider/outcast/oppressed/exploited, but some of the set pieces and actions reference Godzilla and the pseudo-feminist The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
The theme of masturbation also returns in perfect accord with the film’s intertextuality: the oversized Mimi ‘mounts’ the Eiffel Tower and masturbates on it (as revision of King Kong scaling the Empire State Building).
Mimi’s “grotesque body-art-performances”  begins with her in the make-up room putting on a bizarre costume which includes a ludicrous wig, and concludes with her performing all the famous big movie monster gestures: hovering over light towers, trains, and clock towers, swatting at planes, stomping on people, picking people up and eating them, scaling tall buildings, etc.

ID 2003, 10 min

The final film of the DVD, ID, is also the only non-16mm film on the DVD, and the first she shot on video (Betacam). The film, complex, poetic, and surreal, works well as the last film on the collection.

The film begins with Mattuschka, sporting a black wig, riding up an escalator which leads to a void which she falls into, in effect entering her own psyche, where she turns into a bizarre looking monster, part John Merrick, part lizard. The creature eventually splits into two, manifesting her döppelganger. The monstrous Mattuschka and her double dance in bizarre ritualistic movements that give way to violence and cannibalism (one rips out the other’s umbilical cord and bites it). This film cements another theme prevalent across her work, that of ‘masks’ that conceal one’s true identity, like the pseudonym Mimi Minus, but also through many physical masks (wigs, the stocking tights, the makeup in Beauty and the Beast, the mask in Ball Head, the crown in Parasympathica, and the monster döppelganger in ID). When her transformation begins Mattuschka is floating in a milky cloud, an image which gives the impression of a rebirth –another recurring theme. From this overexposed, white backdrop the film cuts to Mattuschka emerging out of a black marsh, with a backdrop of long straw-like black hair; she struggles with her döppelganger and then returns back to the reality of the escalator. The film is a perfect closer because it brings together the many themes seen across the earlier works: rebirth, the body, masks, the double, and the outsider; in short, the morbid with a touch of comedy.

Works included:
NABELFABEL 1984, 3 min
CEROLAX II 1985, 2 min
DER UNTERGANG DER TITANIA 1985, 4 min
KUGELKOPF 1985, 6 min
PASCAL-GÖDEL 1986, 5 min
PARASYMPATHICA 1985, 4 min
LES MISERABLES 1987, 2 min
DANKE, ES HAT MICH SEHR GEFREUT 1987, 2 min
KAISER SCHNITT 1987, 4 min
DER SCHÖNE, DIE BIEST 1993, 10 min
S.O.S. EXTRATERRESTRIA 1993, 10 min
ID 2003, 10 min
BONUSTRACK :Self-presentation of the artist

DVD PRESENTATION: Accidentally Preserved: Rare and Lost Silent Films from Vintage 16mm Prints is a DVD series of rare/lost silent film shorts, presented in new digital HD transfers with new musical scores on piano or theatre organ by Ben Model. This third DVD release in the series contains 9 more rare/lost silent film shorts.

THE FILMS:
. Wanted, a Nurse (1915) - 12 min. (IMDb User Rating of 7.0/10)
. Service a la Bunk (1921) - 10 min. (No IMDb Link)
. A Citrate Special (192?, unidentified prank film) - 3 min. (No IMDb Link)
. The Whirlwind (1922) - 11 min. (No Rating)
. No Vacancies (1923) - 20 min. (No IMDb Link)
. Love's Young Scream (1928) - 14 min. (No Rating)
. Hot Luck (1928) - 16 min. (No Rating)
. Whose Baby? (1929) - 11 min. (No Rating)
. Half a Hero (1929-30) - 8 min. (No IMDb Link)

Early Russian Cinema Volume Ten: THE END OF AN ERA

- THE REVOLUTIONARY (Revoliutsioner). Director: Evgeni Bauer. Screenplay: Ivan Perestiani. Photography: Boris Zavelev. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released April 3, 1917. Cast: Ivan Perestiani (Granddad, on old revolutionary). Vladimir Strizhevskii (His son). Zoia Barantsevich (His daughter). Mikhail Stal’skii (A dying convict). Also Konstantin Zubov, K. Askochenskii, Vasilii Il’in.
- FOR LUCK (Zo schost em / K schost’iu). Director: Evgeni Bauer. Screenplay: N. Dennitsyna. Photography: Boris Zavelev. Art Director: Lev Kuleshov. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released March 9, 1917. Cast: Nikolai Radin (Dmitrii Gzkotskii, a lawyer). Lidiia Koreneva (Zoia Vrenskaia, a rich widow). Taisiia Borman (Lee, her daughter). Lev Kuleshov (Enrico, an artist). N. Dennitsyna (Lee’s governess). Emmochka Bauer (A girl). Aleksandr Kheruvimov (The doctor).

- BEHIND THE SCREEN (fragment) (Kulisy ekrana). Alternate title: A LIFE DESTROYED BY PITILESS FATE (Razbita zhizn’ bezzhalostnoi sud’boi). Director/Screenplay: Georgii Azagarov (?) & Aleksandr Volkov (?). Photography: Nikolai Toporkov. Production Company: Ermol’ev. Released November 28, 1917. Drama in 2 parts. [Only one reel preserved.] Cast: Ivan Mozzhukhin (Himself). Natalia Lisenko (Herself). Nikolai Panov (Studio director). Themselves: Lirskii, Iona Talanov, and Andrei Brei.

Traditional accounts of Soviet cinema have always stressed its difference from the Russian cinema of the Tsarist period, implying in the process that this earlier phase was actively hostile to social change. Not so, as we begin to realize from the tantalizing fragments that have survived. Indeed commercial producers were keen, as ever, to exploit topicality; and the eight months between 1917’s two revolutions of February and October saw a remarkable upsurge of “revolutionary” sentiment. The Revolutionary, released in April, actually provides a link into the post-October period, since its writer and star, Ivan Perestiani, went on to direct one of the few genuinely popular early Soviet classics, Red Imps, in 1923.

In 1917, the journal Teatr noted sardonically: “The film studios have come up with a number of pictures tailored to ‘the moment.’ They have paid their dues to society though they have taken their cut too. The Revolutionary and The Provocateur were produced hastily in two or three days and are distinguished neither by their plots nor by any originality in their production.” It went on to record, however, that The Revolutionary “is a vivid example of agitational cinema, and that it drew applause when shown.”

For Luck also marked a transition: a tragically early end to the career of Bauer, who died after an injury sustained while on location in the Crimea for this film; and an early appearance by the future pioneer of Soviet montage, Lev Kuleshov. Kuleshov was already working as an art director with Bauer, when he was asked also to play the part of Lee’s hopeless young suitor. The central scheme of the film — a daughter and mother both in love with the same man — and the extraordinary intensity brought to the final scenes, in which the daughter’s psychological blindness becomes physical when she is rejected, show Bauer at the height of his subtle powers.

Behind the Screen is no more than a fragment of the major two-part film, A Life Destroyed by Pitiless Fate, released in November 1917, by which time most of the personnel involved in it would have already moved south on their way into emigration. Its film studio setting, therefore, has a coincidental poignancy, a farewell to the Russian cinema by two of its greatest stars, Mozzhukhin and Lisenko

The discovery of early Russian cinema in recent years has focused on its highly individual characteristics and its hitherto neglected major artists. Relatively little attention has so far been paid to the public image of the industry as a whole — how it appeared to the filmgoer in the Moscow or Petrograd street. This program includes two short items as well as a major film by Bauer in an effort to redress the balance.

Antosha Ruined by a Corset (1916) is one of the 24 Antosha shorts made by the Czech-born comedian Anton Feriner for the Lucifer company between 1915-18. As David Robinson has noted, these made him the most popular Russian comic, with titles in the series like Antosha Sherlock Holmes, Antosha Speculator, Antosha and the Black Hand — many of them topical, others satirical, and like the one seen here, risqué. Robinson traces the influence of French comedy, which would have helped form Russian taste for over a decade.

Khanzhankov explained in a 1937 interview what he wanted to achieve with A Life for a Life. “I wanted to stagger the cinema world with a production of great artistic worth, which would immediately place our firm’s reputation at its rightful level... From a whole range of scenarios offered to him, Bauer, our chief director, selected a dramatization of the French novel by Georges Ohnet. All the studio’s technical resources were mobilized for the production, and the main roles were allocated among the best actors in our company... We had no more than one month to spend on the production and all departments set to work at a feverish pace. Bauer liked this sort of urgent ‘spontaneous’ work and even finished it a few days ahead of the deadline.” [Silent Witnesses, ed. Tsivian et al, London/Pordenone: 1989]

Khanzhankov’s hopes were realized. The Russian film press hailed A Life for a Life as an “artistic treasure” and “a film that deserves a place alongside the best foreign productions,” although Bauer’s taste for columns was also gently mocked, and it was hinted that perhaps he was trying too hard to imitate foreign models. But all hopes of building on this achievement were swept away in the following year; and in 1919 the most-admired star of Russian cinema, Vera Kholodnaia, died in Odessa. Her vast funeral marked the end of on era.

ANTOSHA RUINED BY A CORSET (Antoshu korset pogubil)Director/screenplay: Eduard Puchal’skii. Production Company: Lucifer Film Studio. Released January 26, 1916. Cast: Anton Fertner (Antosha).

A LIFE FOR A LIFE (Zhiznt zo zhizn’) Alternate titles: A Tear for Every Drop of Blood (Za kozhduiu slezu po kople krovi) or The Rival Sisters (Sestry sopernitsy).Director/Screenplay: Evgeni Bauer. Based on the novel Serge Panine by Georges Ohnet. Photography: Boris Zavelev. Production Company: Khanzhankov. Released May 10, 1916. Cast: Ol’ga Rakhmanova (Khromovo, a millionairess). Lidiia Koreneva (Musia, her daughter). Vera Kholodnaia (Nata, her adopted daughter). Vitol’d Polonskii (Prince Bartinskii). Ivan Perestiani (Zhurov, a merchant).

THE FUNERAL OF VERA KHOLODNAIA. Newsreel coverage of the funeral which took place in Odessa in 1919.

EARLY RUSSIAN CINEMA, VOLUME 8: YAKOV PROTAZANOV

PROTAZANOV, PROVOCATION AND PUSHKIN

Nothing in Protazanov’s career before his 1912 Tolstoy film would have hinted at its provocative originality. For this dramatized account of the great writer’s last days, despite its interpolation of documentary footage of the real locations and considerable efforts at authenticity, did not cast his widow in a flattering light. As a result, the Tolstoy family took successful legal action to have it banned. Undaunted, the producers decided to add an even more controversial “apotheosis” for the export market, which shows the heretic Tolstoy being received into heaven. By 1916, Protazanov had become one of the most commercially successful of Russia’s “kings of the screen,” particularly after The Keys to Happiness (1913), co-directed with Gardin. He was also a leader of what was ironically termed the “braking school” of directors, controlling his actors’ stylized rhythm with a conductor’s baton. Backed by Ermal’ev, and with Mozzhukhin as his regular star, he ranged across all the genres, including literary classics.For his adaptation of Pushkin’s novella, The Queen of Spades, already adapted as an opera by Tchaikovsky and filmed five years earlier by Chardynin (see Vol. 5), Protazanov used all the expressive devices at his disposal. To Mozzhukhin’s intense central performance as the callous young officer, he added novel tracking shots, telling superimpositions, and studio-built exteriors; all intended to create the subjective world of German’s obsession with the secret of the cards. Years later, his collaborators recalled how he “demanded unity between the visual and artistic design work and the film’s overall conception” and how everything was bent towards “revealing the characters’ psychological essence by visual means.” In this “good story faithfully rendered” (Jay Leyda), Protazanov demonstrated the sophistication and strength that Russian cinema had achieved only eight years since its inception.

THE DEPARTURE OF A GREAT OLD MAN (Ukhod velikago startso). Alternate title: The Life of L. N. Tolstoy (Zhizn’ L N Tolstogo). Directors: Iakov Protazanov and Elizaveta Thiemann. Screenplay: Isaak Teneromo. Photography: George Meyer and Aleksandr Levitskii. Art Director: Ivan Kavaleridze. Production Company: Thiemann & Reinhardt. Released Overseas: 1912. Cast: Vladimir Shaternikov (Lev Tolstoy). O. Petrova (Sof’ia Andreevna). Mikhail Tamarov (Vladimir Cherikov). Elizaveta Thiemann (Aleksandra L’vovna). Documentary footage, including some shots of the town of Astapovo where he died, was used in the film. As a result of a petition from Sof’ia Tolstoya and Vladimir Chertkov, the film was banned from distribution and shown only abroad.
THE QUEEN OF SPADES (Pikovaia dama). Director/Screenplay: Iakov Protazanov. Assistant Director: Georgii Azagarov. Photography: Evgenii Slavinskii. Art Directors: Vladimir Balliazek, S. Lilienberg, W. Przybytniewski. Screen version of the story by Aleksandr Pushkin. Production Company: Ermoltev. Released April 19, 1916. Cast: Ivan Mozzhukhin (German). Vera Orlava (Liza). Elizaveta Shebueva (The Countess as an old woman). T. Duvan (The Countess as a young woman). Polikarp Paviov (Her husband). Nikolai Panov (Count Saint-Germain).

Una familia contrata a Ana Sullivan para educar a Helen, una niña sorda y ciega. Un trauma infantil, un oscuro complejo de culpa, por la muerte de su hermano, impulsa a la maestra a redimirse mediante la educación de la niña. La incompetencia y la negligencia de los padres han hecho de Helen una niña mimada, incapaz de someterse a ninguna disciplina, y con la que toda comunicación parece imposible. La adolescente vive aislada en un mundo propio completamente ajeno a los demás. Sin embargo, Anna Sullivan conseguirá, con mucha paciencia y rigor, romper esa burbuja, ese aislamiento.

Melodrama sobre el mundo del espectáculo, lleno de tensión sexual y racial. La estrella americana de origen chino Anna May Wong alias "Shosho", era una ayudante de cocina en un club de moda de Londres. Su danza exótica y sensual sobre una mesa llama la atención de Wilmot Valentine, el dueño del club, que se obsesiona con ella, provocando los amrgos celos de Mabel, su amante y bailarina estrella del local.

Un muchacho con una inclinación a problemas es enviado a vivir con su tía y su tío en Indiana. A pesar de que en un primer momento no está feliz con el acuerdo, su amor por los caballos y su afecto por una joven potranca que planea correr le hacen la vida soportable. Él también encuentra el amor con Char, quien comparte su amor por los caballos.

Early Russian Cinema Volume Six: CLASS DISTINCTIONS

THE PEASANTS’ LOT (Krest’ianskaia dolia). Director: Vasilii Goncharov. Screenplay: Arsenii Bibikov. Photography: Louis Forestier. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released November 13, 1912. Cast: Aleksandra Goncharova (Masha). Ivan Mozzhukhin (Petr). Petr Chardynin (Petr’s father). Arsenii Bibikov,
Lidiia Tridenskaia (Maksim).

A contemporary review acclaimed The Peasants’ Lot as a fine picture on a subject “close to the heart of every Russian.” As well as applauding the “well-considered and excellent performances” by Goncharova and Mozzhukhin, the reviewer enthused over its choice of scenes from peasant life: “the scene at the races is wonderfully presented, the fire in the village vividly depicted, the pictures of rural life alternate successfully, hopeless poverty contrasting with the existence of a rich family in the capital.” Here was a ‘balanced’ view of the country, as seen from the city, which
followed Goncharov’s solidly traditional approach, echoing the view of rural life familiar from Russian 19th- century literature. A film that clearly answered the urgent demand for “national” images that confirmed the increasingly unstable status quo.

SILENT WITNESSES (Nemye svideteli). Director: Evgeni Bauer. Screenplay: Aleksandr Voznesenskii. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released April 29, 1914. Cast: Dora Chitorina (Nastia, a maid). Aleksandr Kheruvimov  (A porter, her grandfather). Aleksandr Chargonin (Pavel Kostritsyn). El’sa Kriuger (Ellen, his bride). Andrei Gromov (Nastia’s fiancé, the neighbor’s lackey). Viktor Petipa (Baron von Rehren).

It is impossible for us to see Silent Witnesses today without some degree of hindsight. For this “upstairs-downstairs” drama of life below stairs shows a world that, unwittingly, stood on the brink of extinction.
Fascinating also to compare the figure of the porter with Emil Jannings’ famous doorman over a decade later in The Last Laugh. But the film has an undeniable edge to its portrayal of the upper classes and — is this hindsight?— a marked sympathy for its servant class. It also shows Bauer’s virtuoso visual style at its most ornate, using split-screen and subjective shots, as well as the very architecture of the house, to evoke the social structure that is its subject.
A contemporary review noted: “Running through the film is the idea that people have still not shed their prejudices over white skin and blue blood. It is impossible not to single out the weak-willed, characterless whimperer exclusively preoccupied with his own pitiful ‘me’: he sees himself as the only thing of value in the world. The vitality of the idea, challenging bourgeois morality, is highly characteristic of both Russian and foreign dramas, and increases considerably the undoubted value of the film.” [Silent Witnesses, ed. Tsivian et al, London/Pordenone: 1989]

VASILII GONCHAROV (1861-1915)
A civil servant until 1905, when he tried to enter literary circles, Goncharov was first attracted to literary and art-historical aspects of cinema. He scripted Drankov’s Sten’ka Razin (1908) before joining Thiemann’s company, and then moving on to work with Khanzhonkov, who shared his cultural enthusiasm. But it was during brief
spells with Pathé and Gaumont that he improved his directorial skills — The Dashing Merchant (1910) was considered a landmark historical film before he returned once again to Khanzhonkov for the commemorative spectaculars which were his final directorial achievements: The Defense of Sebastopol, The Year 1812 and Accession
of the House of Romanov (1913).

EVGENI BAUER (1865-1917)
Until recently, Bauer was little more than a name, albeit one cited approvingly, in brief accounts of pre-Revolutionory Russian cinema. Now, with some 26 films known of the 86 he directed in a career that spanned just five years, he has been acclaimed as the major filmmaker of the pre-Soviet period and indeed a director of world stature.

Evgeni Frantsevich Bauer came from a musical and artistic family. He graduated from the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and worked in the theatre and as an “artistic photographer” before entering cinema as a designer on Drankov’s Tercentenary of the House of Romanov (1913). However, the rest of his career
would be with Drankov’s rival, Khanzhonkov, and he was soon renowned (and highly paid) for his spaciously designed, slow-paced and subtly lit melodramas. Many of these were also scripted and photographed by him; and they helped create some of the leading stars of the period: Vera Kholodnaia, Vera Karalli, and his wife Lina
Bauer. Ironically it was a wish to add acting to his other talents that led indirectly to his death in mid-1917, when he contracted pneumonia after an accident while in the Crimea shooting For Luck.

Titles translated by Julian Graffy. Original music by Neil Brand. Produced by Erich Sargeant. Selection and notes by Ian Christie.
Total Running Time: 95 minutes. Program: © 1992 British Film Institute. Film Copyright: Gosfilmofond, Moscow.

THE QUEEN OF SPADES (Pikovaia dama). Director/Screenplay: Petr Chardynin. From the opera by Tchaikovsky, based on Pushkin’s story. Photography: Louis Forestier. Art Director: V. Fester. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released November 30, 1910. Cast: Petr Biriukov (German). Aleksandra
Goncharova (Liza). A. Pozharskaia (Countess). Andrei Gromov (Eletskii).

THE HOUSE IN KOLOMNA (Domik v Kolomne). Based on the verse story by Pushkin. Director/Screenplay: Petr Chardynin. Photography: Ladislaw Starewicz. Art Director: Starewicz(?) & Boris Mikhin. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released October 19, 1913. Cast: Praskov’ia Maksimova (A widow). Sof’ia Goslavskaia (Her daughter Parasha). Ivan Mozzhukhin (Guards officer and Mavrusha).

The modern cult of Pushkin as the idealized “greatest Russian author” was gaining momentum during the period that Russian cinema flowered, which may help to explain why so many Pushkin adaptations appeared among its early output. Indeed, these adaptations may even have helped popularize Pushkin while they contributed to
Russian cinema’s distinctive cultural ambition — as Russian film expert Yuri Tsivian has put it — “inconstructing the edifice of their own cinema, the Russians, as usual, had begun with the roof.”

Chardynin’s experience as a touring actor-manager doubtless colored his approach to these adaptations, encouraging a robust and practical approach uninhibited by excessive reverence. The producer Khanzhonkov remembered how The Queen of Spades was shot on a specially-built set at Krylatskoe, which proved too small to
accommodate Lisa’s suicide by drowning. “The height of the stage prevented the poor girl from concealing herself ‘underwater,’ so a pit had to be dug urgently and the scene was shot again. That was quite an event in itself in those days.”

Another recollection sheds light on the context of The House in Kolomna. Sof’ia Goslavskaia recalled how much Mozzhukhin revelled in his “female” role as the cook: “When we had finished the studio scenes, Chardynin took us to Zhitanaia Street and Kaluzhskaia Square to film the episode in which the three of us — Mavrusha the cook, the old woman and Parasha — go to the bath house... Astonished passers-by gathered round to watch the ‘cook’ walk behind us in a sweeping ceremonial gait carrying a huge bath-house broom.” Chardynin was worried that Mozzhukhin’s
enthusiastic espousal of his female role would lead to accusations of bad taste, especially in the scene where the cook helps put Parasha to bed. Together they worked to find a way of avoiding scandal while retaining “the mischievous content of Pushkin’s work.”

The result is a unique demonstration of Mozzhukhin’s range before stardom trapped him in the steely, demonic roles for which he is now best remembered. And of course Chardynin’s robust Queen of Spades makes a fascinating comparison with the more sophisticated version in which Mozzhukhin was to star six years later.

PETR CHARDYNIN (1873?-1934) Little is known of Petr Ivanavich Chardynin’s origins (or even his exact birth date) until he enrolled at the Moscow Philharmonic Society’s College of Music and Drama in 1891. There he studied acting under Nemirovich-Danchenko, of the Moscow Art Theatre, in the same class as Ivan Moskvin. Subsequently he toured with provincial companies before a meeting with the producer Khanzhonkov in 1908 started him acting in, and soon directing, the latter’s films. During the next ten years of commercial production, Yuri Tsivian estimates he
made about 200 films, of which 34 have been preserved.

Slow to adopt cinematic devices, Chardynin was a leading exponent of the “cine-recitation” form, a combination of live actors’ speech and filmed images which was peculiar to early Russian cinema. As an experienced actor, he encouraged the development of Russian screen acting, and had the distinction of introducing Ivan Mozzhukhin to screen acting.

Yuri Tsivian has identified a characteristic use of deep diagonal space in Chardynin’s films from 1910, but his reluctance to use reverse shots made his work look old-fashioned alongside that of Evgeni Bauer by 1914. He felt that he had lost position with Khanzhonkov and in 1916 moved to Kharitonov’s company. Many of the leading
actors followed him and his films of 1917-18 were highly successful. After the death of Kholodnaia, he attempted to make “revolutionary” subjects, including an Andreev adaptation. In 1920, he moved to Latvia, then to the Ukraine in 1923, where he finished his active career in 1930.

Titles translated by Julian Graffy. Original music by Neil Brand. Produced by Erich Sargeant. Selection and notes by Ian Christie.
Total Running Time: 45 minutes. Program: © 1992 British Film Institute. Film Copyright: Gosfilmofond, Moscow.

Early Russian Cinema Volume Four: PROVINCIAL VARIATIONS

THE WEDDING DAY (Den’venchaniia or Yom Hakhupe). Director/Photography: Evgenii Slavinskii. Based on a play by Iakov Gordin. Producer: S. Mintus (Riga). 1912. Release unknown. Cast: Artists from a troupe of Jewish travelling players.

MERCHANT BASHKIROV’S DAUGHTER (Doch’ kuptsa Bashkirova). Alternative title: Drama on the Volga (Drama na Volge). Director/Screenplay: Nikoloi Larin. Photography: I. Dored. Producer: Grigorii Libken.
Production Company: Volga Co. (Iarolslavl’). Released November 19, 1913. Cast: unknown.

Unsurprisingly, the early Russian cinema industry was predominantly urban and concentrated mainly in Moscow. But as the audience grew rapidly, smaller provincial entrepreneurs sought to establish themselves in what had become a highly profitable business. The two films in this program are examples of how this also introduced novelty into the mainstream of production.

Slavinskii’s own account (from a 1940 interview) of how he came to make The Wedding Day is revealing. He recalled being asked by “Mr. Mintus owner of a film distribution company in Warsaw’’ to make some art films. The concept of the film d’art had recently been popularized by Pathé’s successful development of the original French examples. But as Slavinskii explained “to tell the truth, it was not really a matter of making real films d’art but rather shooting material of a documentary type.”

He continued: “In a small town in Silesia I met a travelling company of Jews whose performances were immensely successful in many Polish cities and we made some films together. We had no proper director and our productions were the result of collective effort.’’ Nonetheless, they were apparently successful, which we may assume was due to the exotic novelty and obvious authenticity of such material as The Wedding Day.

Merchant Bashkirov’s Daughter offers a remarkable insight into the sociology of the early Russian cinema industry. For Libken based his first production closely on an actual murder scandal — apparently with the intention of blackmailing the Bashkirov family! Whether they paid up or threatened legal action, the result was a
solemn announcement in the trade press that the film would be released under the less specific title, Drama on the Volga, “because the heroine’s surname is identical to that of some well-known merchants in a certain town on the Volga — by sheer coincidence of course.” Thanks to the surrounding publicity, Libken also managed to sell his independent production to Pathé.

The film itself, despite such murky origins (and two missing reels), impresses as one of the most unexpected of all early Russian titles preserved. Nothing in our experience of Western popular movie morality prepares us for the
lover’s accidental death and the horrific sequence of events that follows. Is such a non-moralizing perspective, especially associated with heroines, a distinctive feature of Russian cinema — or is it in some way a result of this film’s determined search for sensationalism? There may not be enough evidence to decide, but this fragment
poses a tantalizing challenge.

EVGENII SLAVINSKII (1877-1950)
Evgenii Slavinskii’s career spanned the decade of pre-Revolutionary production, the interregnum before nationalization and the early years of Soviet cinema. Like many of the pioneers, he was primarily a cinematographer who no doubt found it expedient to tackle direction as well, as he did with The Wedding Day. In 1918, he photographed a trio of films written by and starring the poet Vladimir Maiakovskii (Mayakovsky),
one of which — The Lady and the Hooligan — has survived as the only extant film appearance by Maiakovskii.
In the following year Slavinskii contributed to the emergency program of agitki coordinated by the Cinema Committee of the Commissariat of Education, directing the film called Deserters. In 1923, we find him photographing Locksmith and Chancellor, directed by Gardin and adapted from a play by the Commissar of
Education, Lunacharskii. In 1926, he photographed Abram Room’s striking Death Bay. By this point, he seems to have worked exclusively as a cinematographer; and in this capacity at the end of the decade he was responsible for what would be one of the most admired of all Soviet documentaries, Viktor Turin’s Turksib.

[No biographical information on Nikolai Larin is available]

Titles translated by Julian Graffy. Original music by Neil Brand. Produced by Erich Sargeant. Selection and notes by Ian Christie.
Total Running Time: 55 minutes. Program: © 1992 British Film Institute. Film Copyright: Gosfilmofond, Moscow.

El galés Sir Henry Morgan es comprado como esclavo en el mercado de Panamá por Doña Inés, la hija del gobernador español. Se enamora de ella, sin embargo poco después se apodera de la nave que lo transportaba a él y a otros esclavos. Se convierte en el azote del Caribe, saqueando y atacando las pertenencias del poderoso imperio español. Los filisbusteros de Morgan, obedeciendo a la corona británica, tienen un objetivo: atacar y tomar el control de Panamá.

JULY ’71 IN SAN FRANCISCO / LIVING AT BEACH STREET / WORKING AT CANYON CINEMA / SWIMMING IN THE VALLEY OF THE MOON
Peter Hutton
16mm / 35´ / 1971 / USA

"Diary films have become a distinct genre of the independent film movement. Like a written diary, they forego the necessity of plot, character development and other attributes of a well-constructed story and concentrate simply but lovingly on the day-to-day or moment-to-moment events happening to the filmmakers. Peter Hutton’s film is, to my mind, one of the best of the genre – for it truly lets us get inside the filmmaker’s mind and sensations through, and in conjunction with, his role as filmmaker. It is almost as if we see how carrying around the camera and focusing on different people, things and events actually changes and refines the filmmaker’s normal perception of them. The camera becomes an instrument not to record reality but to expand it. And like any diary, it is both an exploration and crystallization of events and impressions in one’s life." – David Bienstock

IMAGES OF ASIAN MUSIC (A DIARY FROM LIFE 1973-1974)
Peter Hutton
16mm / 29´ / 1973 / USA

“Images of Asian Music represents footage compiled during 1973-1974 when Peter Hutton was living in Thailand and working at sea as a merchant seaman. While the film is silent, the title was intended to evoke a comparison to the movement of classical Asian music. Images of Asian Music is a personal celebration of Asia formed by a sensitivity to filmic composition and to the perception of these images in a silent time created by the filmmaker.” – Whitney Museum of American Art

Study of a River (1996 - 1997)
La primera parte de un retrato estacional del río de Hudson. Esta sección retrata las observaciones del invierno durante un período de dos años.
1996-1997, 16 minutos

Skagafjördur (2002 - 2004)
Basándose en las tradiciones de la pintura de paisajes y la fotografía fija del siglo XIX, las películas contemplativas y meticulosamente compuestas de Hutton se desarrollan como una serie de cuadros separados por un líder negro. En este caso, reúne los paisajes del norte de Islandia y los trabajos recientes sobre el río Hudson.
2002 - 2004, 32 minutos

Documental que reflexiona sobre el poder del paisaje, combinando austeras fotografías en blanco y negro con observaciones poéticas, involucrando música con temas políticos.

Will Kane (Gary Cooper), el sheriff del pequeño pueblo de Hadleyville, acaba de contraer matrimonio con Amy (Grace Kelly). Los recién casados proyectan trasladarse a la ciudad y abrir un pequeño negocio; pero, de repente, empieza a correr por el pueblo la noticia de que Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), un criminal que Kane había atrapado y llevado ante la justicia, ha salido de la cárcel y llegará al pueblo en el tren del mediodía para vengarse. El tiempo va pasando lentamente, pero nadie en el pueblo está dispuesto a ayudar al sheriff.

Early Russian Cinema Volume One: Beginnings

- A FISH FACTORY IN ASTRAKHAN (Zavod rybnykh konservov v Astrakhani). Production Company: Pathé Frères (Moscow). Picturesque Russia series 1908. Restored by A. Khakimov, 1957.
A Fish Factory in Astrakhan is part of the Pathé Frères series “Picturesque Russia,” typical of their efficient documentary style. The company had established a Moscow equipment and sales office in 1904, which also rented their French-made films to Russia’s burgeoning cinema network. It was the emergence of Drankov as the first self-declared indigenous producer that prompted Pathé to start production in Russia in February 1908.

- STEN’KA RAZIN. Director: V. Romashkov. Screenplay: Vasilii Goncharov. Based on the song “From the Island to the Deep Stream.
Sten’ka Razin has the distinction of being the first Russian dramatic production — a tribute to the determination of its producer, Aleksandr Drankov. When his first seventeen actualities failed to win serious attention in early 1908, he answered the widespread call for Russian-made films with Sten’ka Razin. This account of the popular brigand leader who dallied with a captured Persian princess was adapted from a traditional ballad “From the Island to the Deep Stream” and Drankov commissioned original music to accompany his film from no less than Ippolitov-lvanov, then head of the Moscow Conservatoire. Energetic promotion ensured the film’s commercial success and launched Drankov’s career as a producer.

- PRINCESS TARAKANOVA (Kniazhna Tarakanova). Directors: Kai Hansen and André Maître. Based on the play by lppolit Shpazhinskii. Production Company: Pathé (Moscow)-Film d’Art SAPF.
Princess Tarakanova marked the arrival of the film d’art formula in Russia. By this time, the original Film d’Art company had become a subsidiary of Pathé, but its first success, The Assassination of the Duc de Guise (1908), remained a prestige model for films aimed at “cultured” audiences with their lavish attention to costume, decor and theatrical acting. This first Russian example was based on a play about the martyred Princess and boasted a cast of well-known actors.

- ROMANCE WITH DOUBLE-BASS (Roman s kontrabasom). Director: Kai Hansen. Production Company: Pathé Frères (Moscow).
“If we are not mistaken, this is the first cinema interpretation of Chekhov’s works. And one must give them their due — they have treated it with all the respect owed to the name of Anton Pavlovich. This excellently acted film is further distinguished by the striking purity and richness of the photography and the beauty of the locations in which the action takes place.’’ (Sinefono, 1911, no.2)

ALEKSANDR DRANKOV (1880 – ? )
Russian cinema’s pioneer producer was an ambitious photographer with international connections — serving as correspondent for both The Times and the Paris L’Illustration — before he turned to cinema in 1907. After a series of newsreels on aspects of Russian life, he attempted unsuccessfully to film Pushkin’s Boris Godunov in 1907 as the first indigenous dramatic production. Undeterred, he produced Sten’ka Razin and set the tone of his subsequent career with its vigorous promotion. Competing furiously with his main competitor Khanzhonkov over the next ten years, Drankov lost no opportunity to scoop his rivals — whether securing intimate coverage of such celebrities as Tolstoy and Gorkii or rushing out “spoiler” versions of their subjects as with his Tercentenary of the House of Romanov released on the same day in 1913 as Khanzhonkov’s Accession of the House of Romanov. By 1914, he had produced about 80 films and formed a partnership with the industrialist Putilov. His output remained populist, often vulgar, with a serial Light-fingered Son’ka (1914-16) among the major successes. In 1917, he fled the Revolution and eventually reached America where, after trying to enter Hollywood, he ended his career in obscurity running a photo-finishing company in San Francisco. KAI HANSEN and ANDRÉ MAÎTRE Hansen and Maître were two of the experienced directors sent by Pathé Frères in 1909 to organize the production of Russian subjects like Princess Tarakanova in an authentic setting. They brought foreign expertise and technicians, from whom Russian filmmakers soon began to learn. While Maître apparently remained aloof from Russian culture, Hansen took local advice from Goncharov, co-directing with him The Life and Death of Peter the Great (1910) and going on to make the first film adapted from Chekhov, Romance with Double-Bass. He also collaborated on Pathé’s major commemorative coproduction with Khanzhonkov, The Year 1812 (1912)

Quote:
Early Russian Cinema Volume Two: FOLKLORE AND LEGEND

- DRAMA IN A GYPSY CAMP NEAR MOSCOW (Drama v tabore podmoskovnykh tsygan). Director/Screenplay/Photography: Vladimir Siversen. Production Company: Khanzhonkov & E. Osh.

- THE BRIGAND BROTHERS (Brat’ia razboiniki). Director/Screenplay: Vasilii Goncharov. Based on Pushkin’s poem. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Unreleased

- A 16TH-CENTURY RUSSIAN WEDDING (Russkaia svad’ba XVI stoletiia). Director/Screenplay: Vasilii Goncharov. Based on the play by P. Sukhotin. Production Company: Khanzhonkov.

- RUSALKA. Director/Screenplay: Vasilii Goncharov. Based on the play by Pushkin. Production Company: Khanzhonkov.

1908 saw the belated start of Russian film production. Up to this point, imported films from France, America, Britain, and the other main European producers had satisfied a rapidly expanding exhibition market. But there was also growing demand for truly Russian pictures — one which the entrepreneurial Drankov first tapped with his Sten’ka Razin, launched with a fanfare in October 1908. The producer who was to become his only real rival over the next ten years did not manage to release his first film until two months later and then it proved a commercial failure — “thus the dream of releasing Russia’s first picture on an everyday theme,” Khanzhonkov recalled in 1937, “failed to materialize.” Today, however, this simple gypsy tale has a plein air freshness and authenticity (it used real gypsies) which Sten’ka Razin lacks.

But this ex-cavalry officer was undaunted. Recruiting the determined Goncharov as his director, Khanzhonkov backed a group of three historical scenarios, of which Russian Wedding was one. Accounts of the filming reveal how little experience was available, but Goncharov’s attention to setting and costume — and his assistant Chardynin’s help with the actors — resulted in films that had immediate appeal, not least for nationalistic reasons.

Rusalka, based on Pushkin’s play about a prince and a mermaid, followed in Goncharov’s resolutely ornate style, with Fester once again creating a decor based on the popular narrative painting of the time. The film’s trick effects and surreal underwater set are less typical of Russian production and may reflect the popularity of Pathé’s trick films at this time. By 1911, when the unreleased Brigand Brothers was started, Goncharov’s pantomime style seemed dated. Yet with the future star Mozzhukhin already showing his quality, and superb locations around the Moscow River, he managed one of the most expressive of all early classic adaptations — in this case Pushkin’s epic poem.

ALEKSANDR KHANZHONKOV (1877-1945)
Early Russian cinema’s foremost producer was a retired cavalry officer who moved from film distribution to production in the breakthrough year of 1908 — but delays in completing Drama in a Gypsy Camp prevented this from being Russia’s first dramatic film. Highly cultivated and well-connected — though soon locked in fierce competition with his rival Drankov — he continued with mainly folklore subjects and classic adaptations, having recruited Goncharov as his main director. Encouraged by the latter, he embarked on ambitious productions like The Defense of Sebastopol (1911) and The Year 1812, which established the pre-eminence of his company and allowed it to support Starewicz’s puppet animation and a scientific-educational department. From 1914, when Bauer became his leading director, the company was identified with sophistication and high production values. Khanzhonkov published a journal Pegas which promoted cinema’s place among the other arts. Abroad from 1918-23, he returned from exile as a consultant to Rus’-film and later suffered persecution before being awarded a state pension in 1934.

VASILII GONCHAROV (1861-1915)
A civil servant until 1905, when he tried to enter literary circles, Goncharov was first attracted to literary and arthistorical aspects of cinema. He scripted Drankov’s Sten’ka Razin (1908) before joining Thiemann’s company, and then moving on to work with Khanzhonkov, who shared his cultural enthusiasm. But it was during brief spells with Pathé and Gaumont that he improved his directorial skills — The Dashing Merchant (1910) was considered a landmark historical film before he returned once again to Khanzhonkov for the commemorative spectaculars which were his final achievements: The Defense of Sebastopol, The Year 1812 (1912) and Accession of the House of Romanov (1913)

Early Russian Cinema Volume Three: LADISLAW STAREWICZ

- THE DRAGONFLY AND THE ANT (Strekoza i muravei). Director/Screenplay/Photography/Art Direction: Ladislaw Starewicz. Based on Krylov’s fable. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released February 22, 1913.

- CHRISTMAS EVE (Noch’pered rozhdestvom). Director/Screenplay/Photography/Art Direction: Ladislaw Starewicz. Based on the story by Nikolai Gogol. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released December 26, 1913. Cast: Ivan Mozzhukhin (Devil). Ol’ga Obolenskaia (Oksana). Lidiia Tridenskaia (Solokha). P. Lophukin (Vakula). A. Kheruvimov (Golova). Pavel Knorr (Chub).

- THE LILY OF BELGIUM (Liliia Bel’gii; also known as The Suffering and Resurrection of Belgium and An Allegory of Today). Director/Screenplay/Photography/Art Director: Ladislaw Starewicz. Text: Boris Martov. Production Company: Skobelev Committee. Released 1915? Cast: Irina Starewicz.

“Starewicz is one of those cinemagicians whose name deserves to stand in film history alongside those of Méliès, Emil Cohl and Disney.” Charles Ford’s 1958 claim could scarcely be verified until recent years — as Jayne Pilling noted in her 1983 booklet — due to the unavailability of most of Starewicz’s films to view. During the 80s, his stock rose rapidly as archival co-operation made at least some of the key films visible. These, however, were mainly from his French period and were vastly different from his very earliest Russian insect fables. What the opening up of Romanov cinema has revealed is the much wider range of his work in the years 1913-17, including a few surviving examples of his all-live-action films.

This collection includes examples of the three main strands of his early work. First, The Dragonfly and the Ant, based on a fable by the classic Russian writer Krylov, reveals the poetic elegance of Starewicz’s debut. The film was shown at court and rewarded by a gift and praise from the Tsar — which also reflected well on Starewicz’s patron, Khanzkonkov.

Adaptations of Gogol were another constant thread running through Starewicz’s work up to 1919, giving full rein to a love of the grotesque and the macabre which is also evident in the animal puppet films. Christmas Eve — which includes one of Mozzhukhin’s oddest character roles, as the devil — was apparently a great success, hailed by a contemporary reviewer as “sparkling with pure Gogolesque humor and ... accompanied by continuous laughter from the public.” Russia’s entry into the Great War produced a wave of patriotic propaganda from artists in many media.

Starewicz’s contribution varied from the knockabout satire of Mars’ Stepson and How the German General Signeda Pact with the Devil (both 1914) to the curious and touching Lily of Belgium. This uses one of his favorite techniques of mixing live-action with stop-frame animation to create an unashamed allegory of the German rape of Belgium.

LADISLAW STAREWICZ (1882-1965)
Born into a Polish-Lithuanian family which had moved to Moscow, Starewicz was brought up by his grandmother in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas. He was a rebellious child who took little interest in formal education, but showed early graphic ability. He was also fascinated by photography and by entomology. His search for backing to make documentary films about the Kaunas region eventually brought him to the attention of the Moscow producer Aleksandr Khanzhonkov and led to the fusion of his twin passions. Apparently his planned film of a stag beetle fight was frustrated by one of the subjects dying under the studio lights. This led Starewicz to improvise a moving puppet beetle and in mid-1910 launched him on the series of insect fables and sly satires which soon attracted a wide following, abroad as well as in Russia.

In 1913 he began to make feature-length live-action films, albeit relying heavily on special effects, for two fantastic tales by Gogol, The Terrible Vengeance and Christmas Eve. The following year brought the outbreak of war and Starewicz’s eclectic animation skills were soon pressed into service to make a variety of propaganda shorts for the patriotic Skobelev Committee. Polish subjects entered his repertoire at this time, together with the “decadent” themes typical of the last years of Russian private production.

By 1918, Starewicz had joined many of his colleagues in Yalta, seeing no future for his talents under the Soviet regime. From there he traveled to Italy, then to Paris, where he worked with the Russian émigré community as a cameraman. In 1920 he secured a modest studio at Fontenay-sous-Bois, where he returned to making mainly puppet-based animal fables, later interspersed with publicity and advertising films for clients from many countries. After Le Roman du renard (1931), he did not succeed in mounting another feature-length production, but continued working until his death in 1965.

Titles translated by Julian Graffy. Original music by Neil Brand. Produced by Erich Sargeant. Selection and notes by Ian Christie.
Total Running Time: 58 minutes. Program: © 1992 British Film Institute. Film Copyright: Gosfilmofond, Moscow.

Durante la II Guerra Mundial (1939-1945), en una pequeña ciudad eslovaca, el humilde carpintero Anton Brtko (Jozef Króner) intenta llevar una vida apacible. Aunque observa con ironía y desprecio a los seguidores de los nazis, que tratan de imponer su disciplina sobre la comunidad, erigir una absurda pirámide de madera en honor a Hitler y darle un toque ario a las tiendas judías; sin embargo, la presión de su esposa Evelyn (Hana Slivková) y de su cuñado Markus (Frantisek Zvarík), un caudillo fascista local, no le permiten vivir en paz. Cuando Markus le ofrece hacerse cargo, en calidad de ario, de la mercería de la anciana Sra. Lautmann (Ida Kaminská), su vida queda trastocada. Mientras Evelyn se ilusiona con la idea de enriquecerse, Anton intenta que la Sra. Lautmann comprenda que tiene que renunciar a su negocio por ser judía; a pesar de lo cual entre ambos surge una relación de ternura y comprensión mutua. Las situaciones cómicas en la tienda se suceden mientras la fiebre antisemita se va intensificando en el exterior.

This collection includes all of the short films Louis has made throughout his career as of 2001.

Films Include:

• Ice Cream
• Brunch
• Hello There
• Highjacker
• the Legend of Willie Brown
• The Letter V
• Caesar's Salad
• Ugly Revenge
• and one more...

Conocida en España como El compromiso.

Sinopsis: Una mañana, en la autopista, de camino al trabajo, Eddie Anderson intenta suicidarse. Al regresar del hospital, se encierra en un mutismo que sólo rompe para intentar que su mujer comprenda las razones de su malestar. Trata de explicarle cómo su éxito como ejecutivo y su relación amorosa con su secretaria Gwen sólo han servido para poner de manifiesto la falsedad de su vida. A partir de ese momento, Eddie intenta cambiar, pero sus esfuerzos fracasan: vuelve a la agencia y reanuda su relación con Gwen, pero no puede evitar que su esposa intente recluirle en un hospital psiquiátrico.

George Caldwell, un editor de libros, durante un viaje en tren de Los Ángeles a Chicago, conoce a la secretaria de un profesor y escritor de arte que acaba siendo asesinado. Todo parece indicar que el autor del crimen es Roger Deverau quien intentará eliminar a Caldwell, que ha sido testigo de la desaparición del profesor.

Norman Maine, un famoso actor adicto al alcohol, descubre a Esther, una joven con un gran talento para la canción, y decide impulsar su carrera cinematográfica. Ella triunfa y, pocos meses después, la pareja contrae matrimonio. Pero, a medida que el éxito de Esther aumenta, el de Norman declina y esa situación lo empuja a la autodestrucción.

Napoleón es un joven cajún vive en medio de los animales en los pantanos de Louisiana. Su salvaje universo se verá conmocionado por la llegada de un equipo de perforación que trabaja para una campañía petrolera.

Documental sobre la historia del cine alemán, a partir del libro De Caligari a Hitler de Siegfried Kracauer.

Nota: Subtítulos solamente en francés

Sinopsis: En París, Victor Larnois conoce a Gisèle Berthier, bailarina en el music-hall "Le Palace". Gracias a su ingenio, Victor se convierte en ordenanza del establecimiento, después en secretario de Suzy Dorfeuil, la vedette, y se hace "indispensable" para el propietario, Villary. Pronto se encarga de que Gisele sustituya a Suzy.

Silverado es una vieja población fronteriza del Oeste. En 1880, cuatro hombres cabalgan por el polvoriento camino que lleva a la ciudad: son los hermanos Emmett, el aventurero Paden y un duro vaquero de raza negra. Al llegar, se encuentran con un ambiente hostil. Sus principales enemigos son el sheriff y un despótico ganadero.

El arrogante Arizmendi, campeón de pelota vasca, vive intoxicado por sus triunfos y desdeña a las mujeres que lo aman. Un chantaje compromete a Arizmendi a perder un partido. Convencido de poder salirse con la suya, Arizmendi no cumple el pacto y debe enfrentar la venganza del villano Marcial Gómez.

Un marinero atormentado por sus recuerdos en un campo de concentración alemán (Burt Lancaster), mata involuntariamente a un individuo. En su desesperada huida, entra en la casa de una enfermera (Joan Fontaine), que le ayudará a demostrar su inocencia haciendo frente a un chantajista (Robert Newton), que presenció la pelea.

Produced in conjunction with the American Film Institute and the American Society of Cinematographers, Visions of Light is an unprecedented look at the evolution of motion picture photography. In addition to interviews with twenty-six leading directors of photography who discuss their influences and relate anecdotes about their work, Visions of Light contains 125 remarkable clips chronicling the changing role of the cinematographer.

Informative, entertaining and even inspirational, Visions of Light traces cinematography from its beginnings, before Griffith, through the influences of sound technology, color, Citizen Kane, film noir, and Cinemascope, into contemporary film making where the Directors of Photogrpahy are relentless in their experimentation with new ideas and special effects

Originally released in 1973 but never before available on DVD, PAINTERS PAINTING is the definitive documentary on the New York School of painters, from 1940-1970.

Director Emile de Antonio (Point of Order and Millhouse) interviews artists in their studios about their art from the period of Abstract Expressionism, through Hard Edge and Color Field painting to Pop Art.

Among the featured painters are Robert Rauschenberg, William de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Barnett Newman, Hans Hoffman, Jules Olitski, Philip Pavia, Larry Poons, Robert Motherwell, and Kenneth Noland.

PAINTERS PAINTING is newly digitally remastered and restored by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the University of Wisconsin Film Department.

Cast: Andy Warhol, Leo Castelli, Helen Frankenthaler, Henry Geldzahler, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Barnett Newman, Hans Hofmann, Jules Olitski, Philip Pavia, Larry Poons, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland.

Extras:
. New Digital Transfer from the Original 35mm Print Negative
. Emile de Antonio on Painters Painting

El rock'n'roll potente y agresivo de The Stooges, que apareció en Ann Arbor, Michigan, durante una revolución contra-cultural, fue como una bomba en el paisaje musical de finales de los años sesenta. Con su mezcla de rock, blues, R&B y free jazz, el grupo en el que debutó Iggy Pop plantó los cimientos de lo que se conocería posteriormente como rock alternativo. Este documental narra la epopeya de The Stooges, uno de los grupos de rock más importantes de todos los tiempos. "Gimme Danger" presenta el contexto en el que The Stooges evolucionaron musicalmente, culturalmente, políticamente, históricamente, a través de sus aventuras y sus desgracias, evocando sus fuentes de inspiración y las razones de sus primeros desafíos comerciales, hasta su llegada al Panteón del rock.

Documental sobre la historia de la productora Universal. Digitalizada de su transmisión televisiva.

Gunji, un yakuza envejecido y liberado tras pasar 10 años en prisión, quiere reunir a su antigua banda para recuperar su lugar en el mundo del crimen de Yokohama.

La Sra. Togashi (Sachiko Hidari) es la viuda de un sargento que fue sometido a un tribunal de guerra y ejecutado hacia finales de la guerra. Como resultado de esto, ella es privada de recibir una pensión del gobierno. Pasan muchos años, y el ejército no le revela las circunstancias de su muerte, por lo que decide comenzar su propia investigación. Realiza entrevistas a varios camaradas de su marido y descubre una historia al estilo de Rashomon; una historia de heroísmo y villanía, cobardía y valor.

Un cantante y bailarín de éxito, a pesar de que atraviesa una etapa muy crítica, está decidido a volver a Broadway, el escenario que le dio la gloria y la fama.

Un joven e idealista campesino se hace soldado, llega a ser cortesano y, finalmente, ingresa en un monasterio. A través de la vida del protagonista se realiza una incisiva crítica de las instituciones y de todos los estamentos de la sociedad italiana.

Basada en la novela homónima de Alain Fournier.

Sinopsis: En la Francia rural de finales del siglo XIX, el colegial Augustin Meaulnes vive una peculiar aventura al perderse en el bosque y encontrar un castillo donde se celebra una misteriosa fiesta de compromiso; allí conoce a Yvonne y ambos se enamoran. Tiempo después, al oír que Yvonne se encuentra en París, Augustin se lanza en una búsqueda desesperada para encontrarla.

Con varios días de permiso que disfrutar, pero sin un céntimo en el bolsillo, el marinero Moby Dikerson y sus compañeros Joe Carter y Skip Edwards se enrolan como tripulantes de un barco que va a la isla Catalina. Una vez allí, deciden organizar un espectáculo benéfico.

Explora la vida de varias personas en una comunidad rural de Checoslovaquia.

La lucha por la supervivencia, contra el mar y la tradición, marcan un conflicto amoroso y una pasión que renace.

Nevada, 1885. Gil Carter (Henry Fonda) llega a una pequeña población del oeste en busca de su antigua novia, una mujer de dudosa reputación. Le acompaña su amigo Art (Harry Morgan). La inesperada noticia del asesinato de un conocido ranchero provoca que, ante la ausencia del sheriff, se forme un grupo de linchamiento del que tanto Gil como Art formarán parte. (

Morel es un aventurero que viaja a una colonia francesa en África para luchar contra el exterminio indiscriminado de elefantes. Cuenta para ello con la ayuda de una nativa, de un excombatiente y de un presentador de televisión que se encargará de realizar un reportaje; pero tendrá también que enfrentarse con personas, cuyos intereses son opuestos a los suyos.

Inglaterra, II Guerra Mundial. Sarah Miles (Deborah Kerr) es la aburrida esposa de un funcionario británico. Cuando, durante una fiesta, su marido le presenta al escritor americano Maurice Bendrix (Van Jonson), Sarah no puede evitar sentirse atraída por él. Entre ambos nace un amor apasionado que los lleva a soñar con un futuro común, pero, inexplicablemente, Sarah pone fin a la relación. Con la ayuda de un detective privado (Albert Parks), Maurice intenta averiguar por qué.

Uno de los primeros largometrajes de stop-motion realizados en la historia del cine.

Sinopsis: En el reino de animales, el Zorro engaña a todo el mundo. Como el Rey (el León) recibe cada vez más quejas sobre él, ordena que el Zorro sea detenido y llevado hasta él.

Ganadora del Oso de Oro del Festival de Berlin 1952.

Sinopsis: Göran es un estudiante que pasa las vacaciones de verano en la granja de su tío. Allí conocerá a Kerstin, una chica de 17 años con la que entablará grata amistad. Entre ambos el amor irá surgiendo poco a poco, pero la relación encontrará la oposición de algunos familiares, y el apoyo de otros. La animadversión, en todo caso, vendrá instigada por la severidad y la rigidez moral del pastor de la iglesia local.

No editada oficialmente en DVD, la presente edición corresponde a la digitalización de su emisión televisiva.

Sinopsis: Una mujer dominante se casa con un hombre rico por su dinero, y después utiliza su posición para llevar a cabo sus ambiciones de dinero y poder.

Primer largometraje en Hollywood de Jacques Tourneur. Nunca editado oficialmente en DVD, esta edición corresponde a la digitalización de su emisión televisiva en Francia, hasta el momento la copia de mejor calidad disponible.

Un marido que nunca ha sido bueno para nada, después de abusar de su esposa durante años, desaparece con su hijo y termina vendiéndolo a una familia rica. Años más tarde, la esposa, convertida ahora en famosa cantante de ópera, tiene suficiente tiempo y dinero para empezar a buscarlo.

Las peripecias amorosas de un joven aprendiz de motorman durante su entrenamiento en una pequeña estación de trenes.

Teleteatro basado en la obra de Percy MacKaye, emitido el 10 de enero de 1972.

Jack Thornton, un buscador de oro, compra un magnífico San Bernardo al que llama Buck. Los problemas surgen cuando Buck muerde a Smith, otro buscador de oro, que quiere matarlo para vengarse. Jack y Smith llegan a un acuerdo que consiste en hacer una carrera de trineos, cuyo vencedor se quedará con Buck.

Un científico loco, llamado Dr. Zabor, se dedica a mutar seres humanos en monos.

Mediometraje escrito, dirigido y narrado por Marguerite Duras. Nunca editado en DVD, la presente edición corresponde a su transmisión televisiva francesa, con el agregado de subtítulos en inglés y francés.

Filmografía integral (4 cortometrajes) del cineasta de Burkina Faso. Incluye los cortometrajes:

• L'oeuf (1999)
• L'enfant et le caïman (1991)
• Le neveu du peintre (1989)
• The Street Is Ours! (1987)

Yevgeni Bauer fue el cineasta más importante del primer cine ruso y realizó cerca de ochenta películas mudas en los cinco años anteriores a la Revolución Rusa de 1917.

Early Russian Cinema Volume: Seven EVGENI BAUER

A CHILD OF THE BIG CITY (Ditia bol’shogo goroda). Alternative title: The Girl From the Street (Devushka s ulitsy). Director/Art Director: Evgeni Bauer. Photography: Boris Zavelev. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released March 5, 1914. Cast: Elena Smirnova (Monechka/Mary). Nina Kozlianinava (Mon’ka, the heroine, as a child). Mikhail Salarov (Viktor Kravtsov). Arsenii Bibikov (Kramskoi, his comrade). Leonid Iost (Kravisov’s lackey). Lidiia Tridenskaia (Masha, a laundress). Emma Bauer (A dancer).

THE 1002ND RUSE (Tysiacha vioraio khitrost’). Director/Screenplay: Evgeni Bauer. Based on the play 1001 khitrost’ (The Thousand and First Ruse) by Vladimir Azov. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released May 29, 1915.
Cast: Lina Bauer (The cunning wife). S. Rassatov (Her husband). Sergei Kvasnitskii (Her lover).

DAYDREAMS (Grezy). Alternative title: Deceived Dreams (Obmanutye mechty). Director: Evgeni Bauer. Screenplay: M. Bosov & Valentin Turkin. Based on the novel Bruges la Morte by Georges Rodenbach. Photography: Boris Zavelev. Production Company: Khanzhonkov. Released October 10, 1915. Cast: Aleksandr Vyrubov (Sergei
Nikolaevich Nedelin). N. Chernobaeva (His wife and Tina Viarskaia, an actress). Viktor Arens (Sol’skii, an artist).

THE EROTIC WORLD OF BAUER
These three contrasting films by Bauer reveal something of the distinctive eroticism of his work and indeed of early Russian cinema as a whole. The two longer films share the common feature of a male victim, in marked contrast to the female victim of most melodrama; while the comedy The 1002nd Ruse celebrates a knowing female sexuality that would almost certainly not be found in any contemporary American equivalent (although it has much in common with the contemporary sex comedies of Lubitsch and DeMille).
A Child of the Big City traces the heroine Mon’ka’s evolution from a poor innocent seamstress to a monster of depravity and egotism. Her “rise” is paralleled by the fall of her idealistic admirer, Viktor, who finally commits suicide in face of her callous disregard. Film historian Miriam Hansen has noted this unusual variation on the familiar melodrama schema of the male aggressor and female victim: “Bauer’s contemporary urban and upper-class settings display male ruin and inadequacy as an effect of the real or imagined revenge of a powerful woman.”
Daydreams is regarded by many as Bauer’s surviving masterpiece. Film historian and archivist Paolo Cherchi Usai describes it as “a masterful balance between subject technique and narrative development. The tension in the plot (reminding one of Hitchcock’s Vertigo) reaches its climax in the extraordinary tracking shot during which the camera quite literally follows the main character along a deserted street, stops when he stops, then tracks back slowly, while he retraces his route. Necrophilia, mysticism and abstraction are the main ingredients of a tale with an astonishing and eerie finale.’’
[Silent Witnesses, ed. Tsivian et al, London/Pordenone: 1989]

EVGENI BAUER (1865-1917)
Until recently, Bauer was little more than a name, albeit one cited approvingly in brief accounts of pre-Revolutionary Russian cinema. Now with some 26 films known of the 86 he directed in a career that spanned just five years he has been claimed as the major filmmaker of the pre-Soviet period and indeed a director of world stature.
Evgeni Frantsevich Bauer came from a musical and artistic family. He graduated from the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and worked in the theatre and as an “artistic photographer” before entering cinema as a designer on Drankov’s Tercentenary of the House of Romanov (1913). However, the rest of his career would be with Drankov’s rival Khanzhonkov and he was soon renowned (and highly paid) for his spaciously designed, leisurely-paced and subtly lit melodramas. His background in photography helped him improve the quality of film lighting making use of top and back lighting, for many of his most admired effects — and necessitating the use of the ornamental columns that became a trademark to hide the numerous lights.
He also scripted and photographed many of his films and helped create some of the most popular stars of the period including Vera Kholodnaia, Vera Karalli, and his wife Lina Bauer. Ironically it was a wish to add acting to his other talents that led indirectly to his death in mid-1917, when he contracted  neumonia after an accident while in the Crimea shooting For Luck.
Titles translated by Julian Graffy. Original music by Neil Brand. Produced by Erich Sargeant. Selection and notes by Ian Christie

Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945), una organización mafiosa dirigida por un tal Palinov se dedica al tráfico ilegal de personas que desean entrar en los Estados Unidos. Karczag Peter, un agente de los servicios de inmigración americanos, es enviado a La Habana, donde debe hacerse pasar por húngaro y encontrar a Palinov. Durante su peligrosa investigación, se enamora de la refugiada Marianne Lorress.

Raro documental de 40 minutos, nominado al Oscar®, escrito, producido y dirigido por Carroll Ballard, conocido más tarde por The Black Stallion y Never Cry Wolf entre otras películas. Fue producido para la Agencia de Información de los Estados Unidos. Esta copia fue transferida de 16mm a Betacam y luego a DVDR.

Sinopsis: Un registro maravillosamente fotografiado del ciclo anual de la siembra y el crecimiento que culmina en cosechas abundantes a través de las tierras de labrantío de los Estados Unidos. Panorámica en su tratamiento, la película muestra algo de la diversidad de técnicas de cultivo y cosecha, el transporte rápido al consumidor lejano, la investigación universitaria para aumentar el rendimiento de los cultivos y el ingenio industrial en la elaboración de maquinaria mejorada para aligerar la tarea del agricultor y aumentar la productividad de la tierra . Lo más importante de todo, presenta una visión comprensiva del agricultor estadounidense y su modo de vida.

El suicidio de Madeleine es inexplicable para su marido. La única pista es un valioso collar de perlas que alguien le regaló.

Western ambientado en la América pionera sobre las relaciones que se establecen entre Cole Harden, un vaquero honesto, y Roy Bean, un juez caprichoso y de singular moralidad.

Edición remasterizada editada por el BFI. Incluye como extra el videoensayo "Haunted memory: the cinema of Víctor Erice", realizado por Adrian Martin y Cristina Álvarez López.

Sinopsis: “La Gaviota” es un caserón situado en las afueras de una ciudad del norte de España. En ella viven Agustín, médico y zahorí, su mujer, maestra represaliada por el franquismo, y su hija Estrella. La niña, desde su infancia, sospecha que su padre oculta un secreto.

Una mujer que ha perdido a su marido cerca de los pantanos del sur, lo halla, por fin, en la mansión de la familia, pero parcialmente convertido en un cocodrilo. Para salvarlo tendrá que encontrar al científico culpable de tal metamorfosis.

El doctor Julio Denis es un médico psiquiatra y trabaja en un neuropsiquiátrico. Un día llega al hospital un joven, Rantés, que dice ser un ser de otro planeta. Lo trata como paranoico, pero Rantés irá introduciéndose en su vida, haciéndolo dudar de si realmente está loco, con lo que, sutilmente, lo obliga a replantear su vida y profesión.

Video Data Bank is pleased to announce the publication of the DVD box set edition of Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. Since its original release in 1995, this comprehensive two-volume, eight program package on the history of experimental and independent video has only been available on VHS tape. The DVD launch will bring this essential tool for the understanding of the development of media arts to a whole new generation of teachers, libraries, students and researchers.

The entire anthology (Volumes 1 & 2) includes more than 16 hours of historic video: 68 seminal titles by 60+ artists curated into eight programs ranging from conceptual, performance-based, feminist, and image-processed works, to documentary and grassroots community-based genres. The box set is accompanied by REWIND, a 200+ page study guide with curator’s essay, program and tape descriptions, extended bibliography, biographies and videographies of artists and a guide to collections of early video materials.

“The release of this fabulous comprehensive history of independent video art couldn’t be more timely. It is especially critical for this vital and diverse history to appear now, when there is a whole new generation of videomakers and viewers.”
--Martha Rosler, artist, educator and critic

SYNOPSIS:

Program 1: Explorations of Presence, Performance, and Audience
1:57:25

Performer/Audience/Mirror, Dan Graham, 1975 22:45
Selected Works (Dog Duet, Used Car Salesman, Dog Biscuit in Glass Jar),
William Wegman, 1972, 08:44
Baldessari Sings LeWitt, John Baldessari,1972, 03:38 (excerpted from 12:50)
Undertone, Vito Acconci, 1972, 09:15 (excerpted from 37:20)
Vertical Roll, Joan Jonas, 1972, 19:37
My Father, Shigeko Kubota, 1975, 14:46
Exchange, Robert Morris, 1973, 36:02

Program 2: Investigations of the Phenomenal World – Space, Sound, and Light
1:55:45

Black and White Tapes, Paul McCarthy, 1970-75, 06:30 (excerpted from 33:00)
Stamping In The Studio, Bruce Nauman, 1968, 05:00, (excerpted from 1:01:35)
Double Vision, Peter Campus, 1971, 14:22
Boomerang, Richard Serra with Nancy Holt, 1974, 10:27
Island Song, Charlemagne Palestine, 1976, 16:02
Cycles of 3s and 7s, Tony Conrad, 1976, 02:51 (excerpted from 30:54)
The Children's Tapes, Terry Fox, 1974, 29:36
Soundings, Gary Hill, 1979, 17:41
Lightning, Paul and Marlene Kos, 1976, 01:17
Sweet Light, Bill Viola, 1977, 09:07

Program 3: Approaching Narrative – "There are Problems to be Solved"
1:57:30

The Red Tapes Part II, Vito Acconci, 1976, 57:55
Out of the Body Travel, Richard Foreman, 1976, 23:50 (excerpted from 42:00)
The Continuing Story of Carel and Ferd, Arthur Ginsberg and Video Free America, 1972-75, 33:15 (excerpted from 1:00:00)

Program 4: Gendered Confrontations
1:56:20

Art Herstory, Hermine Freed, 1974, 14:49 (excerpted from 22:00)
Female Sensibility, Lynda Benglis, 1973, 13:05
Ama L'Uomo Tuo (Always Love Your Man), Cara DeVito, 1975, 18:52
The Mom Tapes, Ilene Segalove, 1974-78, 03:39 (excerpted from 26:52)
Primal Scenes, Linda Montano, 1980, 09:52
Nun and Deviant, Nancy Angelo, 1976, 14:08 (excerpted from 20:28)
Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained, Martha Rosler, 1977, 39:16

El teniente John Harkness se dispone a dirigir su primer barco, pero la inexperiencia suya y de su tripulación le pondrán en más de un aprieto.

Accidentally Preserved: Rare and Lost Silent Films from Vintage 16mm Prints is a DVD series of rare/lost silent film shorts, presented in new digital HD transfers with new musical scores on piano or theatre organ by Ben Model. This second DVD release in the series contains 9 more rare/lost silent film shorts. The films on volume 2 are all new to DVD, and two of them have not been seen by anyone in several decades. Renowned silent film accompanist/historian Ben Model has taken eight more of the rare and lost silent films in his 16mm collection – plus one from the collection of film archivist Dino Everett – and produced this 2nd Accidentally Preserved DVD, bringing these rarities to a new audience in new HD transfers. Each film on this DVD has a new musical score by Ben Model performed on piano or theatre organ. Unavailable to the public for decades, these delightful shorts return to screens to entertain us once more.

Accidentally Preserved: Rare and Lost Silent Films from Vintage 16mm Prints is a collection of nine short films made from 1920-1928, presented in new HD transfers with new musical scores on piano or theatre organ by Ben Model. The films are all new to DVD, and three of them have not been seen by anyone in several decades. During the 1930s and 1940s companies like the Kodascope and Universal Show-At-Home libraries made 16mm copies of silent movies for people to rent and watch at home. It was like Netflix for the art deco era. Because these movies were on 16mm safety film, many of them have outlived the original 35mm nitrate prints of silent films that are now lost or extremely rare. It's as if these movies were… accidentally preserved. Renowned silent film accompanist/historian Ben Model has taken nine of the rare and lost silent films in his 16mm collection and produced this Accidentally Preserved DVD, bringing these rarities to a new audience in new HD digital transfers. Each film on this DVD has a new musical score by Ben Model performed on piano or theatre organ. Unavailable to the public for decades, these delightful comedy shorts -- as well as the lost, unknown Elgin Watch factory film -- return to screens.

Durante la guerra de Secesión, en un campo de prisioneros, un grupo de prisioneros sudistas logra escapar a bordo de un globo. Sin rumbo y en medio de una gran tormenta, llegan a una isla desconocida. Su primer paso es sobrevivir y explorar la isla, para saber si existe alguna clase de vida... Adaptación de la popular novela de Julio Verne. Con efectos especiales a cargo del legendario Ray Harryhausen.

Medio siglo después de la publicación del libro "El cine según Hitchcock" de François Truffaut, el director Kent Jones documenta exhaustivamente la historia de esa publicación clave e invita a algunos de los mejores directores de nuestro tiempo (Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, James Gray, Olivier Assayas) a compartir sus pensamientos sobre el maestro del suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.

En 1941, durante 10 semanas, Walt Disney, su esposa lilly y dieciseis colegas del estudio visitaron distintas naciones de Latinoamérica en busca de material para una serie de películas inspiradas en las regiones de sudamérica. El nuevo documental Walt & El Grupo muestra como estos artistas que formaron parte de la Edad Dorada de Disney exploraron las relaciones interamericanas y nos da la oportunidad de conocer a un Walt que a sus 39 años se enfrentó a uno de los momentos más difíciles de su vida.

En una terraza de Roma se reúne un grupo de personas. Algunos son amigos, otros conocidos y otros se acaban de conocer. Todos son intelectuales y pertenecen a la clase media. En una de esas reuniones se encuentran Enrico, un guionista en crisis, Amedeo, un productor, Luigi, editor y periodista, Sergio, un ejecutivo de TV, Galeazzo, que acaba de regresar de Venezuela, Bruno, productor de anuncios de TV, y Mario, un diputado del Partido Comunista.

Guión de Dalton Trumbo.

Sinopsis: El inmigrante sueco, Sven Hansen, es asesinado por negarse a vender su granja al gamonal Ed McNeil (Sebastian Cabot), un ser ambicioso dispuesto a apoderarse de esta y demás tierras aledañas... porque ha descubierto que tienen petróleo. Los granjeros se sienten intimidados e incapaces de enfrentar al temible asesino,Johnny Crale (Nedrick Young), quien sirve a McNeil, pero entonces llegará el hijo de Hansen, Georg (Sterling Hayden), un experimentado pescador quien no tiene nada de pistolero... pero sí muchas ansias de justicia.

Probably the most exciting film discovery of recent times, the films of Sagar Mitchel and James Kenyon were commissioned by travelling exhibitors at the dawn of the twentieth century for screening in town halls, at village fetes or local fairs. Advertised as 'local films for local people', the audience paid to see their neighbours, children, family and themselves on the screen, glimpsed at local football matches, leaving work, marching in civic processions or enjoying the annual works holidays.

The films of Mitchell & Kenyon take us on a tour of everyday life in Edwardian Britain. They have been identified and researched by Dr Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon, the hugely successful BBC TV series, subsequently released on DVD by bfi Video, introduced audiences to these miraculous views of the past. Now this new DVD offers the opportunity to explore the Collection in greater depth.

The material is taken from 28 hours of footage and represents a cross-section of the subjects covered in the Collection. From factory gates to football matches, the leaving of Liverpool to the leaving of work, the workers on holiday and at play, it provides an unparalleled opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the working communities of the time.

The films are grouped into five sections: Youth and Education, The Anglo-Boer War, Workers, High Days and Holidays and People and Places; a total of 35 full-length films in all, plus five 'hidden' items. They are set to a specially commissioned score by Sheffield-based duo In The Nursery and presented in a digipack, with extensive extras offering much background material.

Tras presenciar un asesinato cometido por la mafia, una mujer (Jodie Foster) será perseguida por un hombre (Dennis Hopper) que pretende eliminarla. Film dirigido por Dennis Hopper pero firmado con el nombre de Allan Smithee, nombre ficticio que se utiliza cuando un director no desea que figure su nombre real en los títulos de crédito.

En plena Guerra Fría, se sospecha que un enigmático general pretende derrocar al Presidente de EE.UU. por medio de un golpe de estado. El Presidente dispone sólo de siete días para encontrar pruebas que le permitan abortar el golpe.

Un sheriff escolta a un hombre acusado de un crimen y a su hija al pueblo donde debe ser juzgado, Al mismo tiempo, tendrá que evitar que sea linchado.

Robert Frost. This lovely color film from 1961 was shot over the course of a year, mostly in the region of Robert Frost’s solitary mountain cabin in Vermont. Probably the most celebrated American poet of the twentieth Century, Frost in his mid eighties is seen in three seasons walking the landscape while he is heard reading from about twenty-five of his poems inspired by what is shown. We hear all or part of “October,” “The Sound of Trees,” “Unharvested,” “Birches,” “The Road Not Taken,” “Gathering Leaves,” “Flower-Gathering,” “Good-Bye and Keep Cold,” “The Onset,” “Two Tramps in Mud Time,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Pasture,” among others. In one sequence Mr. Frost is seen in a college seminar answering questions from students. The nature photography of New England is outstanding, as is the quality of this print, mastered in high definition from the original negative.

A Publisher is Known by the Company He Keeps. Alfred A. Knopf and his wife Blanche founded the publishing house bearing his name in 1915. He claimed that he never published an unworthy book, and the Knopf catalog includes 17 winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature and 47 Pulitzer Prize winners. Knopf (1892-1984) maintained a close personal friendship with many of his authors, and in 1926 he bought a Bell & Howell 16mm camera and began to film them. These home movies form the heart of A Publisher is Known by the Company He Keeps, along with scenes of Knopf in 1960 at his home in Purchase, New York. With a warm and personal narration spoken by Mr. Knopf, we see footage and hear his comments about Knopf authors including Thomas Mann, Willa Cather, H. L. Mencken, Max Beerbohm, Sigrid Undset, Walter de la Mare, Rebecca West, Kahlil Gibraan, Eleanor Wylie, Emma Goldman and other literary notables of Knopf’s generation. This edition is digitally mastered from the original negative. (As it enters its second century, the Knopf imprint, together with Random House, Doubleday and Penguin, is owned by Bertelsmann A.G. and Pearson Publishing Group, U.K.)

This is a videotaped recording of a performance, in English translation, of two of Bertolt Brecht's largely unknown and seldom performed works, Übungstücke für Schauspieler and Practice Pieces for Actors. Brecht wrote these scenes to train actors in his own method for doing classical drama. These scenes were meant to be vigorously rehearsed but then omitted when the play was presented. The idea was to oblige the actors to embody their characters' human weaknesses. Brecht felt this would undercut any tendency on the part of the actor to adopt an "heroic" interpretation. Not surprisingly, the "human weaknesses" betray economic dependency.

This video contains the scenes for "Romeo and Juliet" and "Hamlet." Featured are Lotte Lenya, Roscoe Lee Browne, Micki Grant, Oliver Clark. Lenya and translator Michael Lebeck briefly discuss the theater of Brecht. Black and White

Una atractiva viuda llamada Laura (Angie Dickinson) requiere los servicios de Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds) para recuperar unas barras de oro que robó su difunto marido y que se encuentran en un barco hundido.

El rodaje de una película en la pequeña localidad kurdo-iraní de Siah Dareh provocará una pequeña revolución entre los habitantes del pueblo, convencidos de que los miembros del rodaje son en realidad buscadores de un tesoro que se halla en el cementerio local.

Un tranquilo y pequeño pueblo de Maine está siendo aterrorizado por una fuerza malévola oculta tras la máscara de un payaso, y que tan sólo se la conoce como "It". Tras sus primeras víctimas, una pandilla formada por siete amigos de la infancia dedicen volver a reunirse para atacar el mal y destruirlo, intentando librar así del terror a su pueblo natal.

Un director de cine independiente sale a cenar y se encuentra con una pintora. A partir de ese instante, las cosas empezarán a cambiar.

Adaptación de la obra de Henry Bataille.