In this intricately layered film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
Set in the early 1970s, it tells the story of a Chinese-Japanese student who returns to her native Hong Kong after graduating from a university in London. Once she arrives back home, she and her family begins to fight, largely due to cultural and societal conflicts between her mother and herself.
The story takes place in medieval France. Poet-rogue Francois Villon, sentenced to hang by King Louis XI for writing derogatory verses about him, is offered a temporary reprieve. His hanging will be postponed for 24 hours, and in that time he must defeat the invading Burgundians and win the love of the beautiful Katherine.
Having previously portrayed Adolf Hitler in 1951’s The Desert Fox, Luther Adler once more dons the postage-stamp moustache of Der Fuhrer in The Magic Face. This time, however, Adler essays a dual role, playing both Hitler and a famed theatrical impersonator known as Janus the Great. While performing in Vienna, Janus attracts the attention of Hitler, who makes a play for Janus’ wife Vera. When Janus protests, he is beaten and thrown into prison by the gestapo. Janus escapes and vows to destroy Hitler and to that end poses as the German leader, the better to bollix up the Nazi war plans.
Two young people are finally able to marry, but the war intervenes almost immediately and the husband never returns from it. The wife, however, lives on like an ever-reviving phoenix through her destructive experiences.
Naples, 1959. Renato Caccioppoli, university professor in pure mathematics, is a disillusioned and tormented man who lives the last days of his life. Grandson of Bakunin on his mother’s side, interned in a psychiatric hospital for his anti-fascist acts, abandoned by his wife, and now become estranged from his own Communist Party comrades and his University collaborators, he lives his life with disenchanted detachment until his last act, suicide.
——UPGRADED——
The story, based on an ancient legend, concerns Hagbard, the son of a slain Norse king. Seeking revenge against the rival clan responsible for the killing, Hagbard calms down long enough to establish a truce. He also falls in love with Signe, daughter of his onetime enemy. Signe’s former beau, sizzling with jealousy, breaks the truce and makes it appear that Hagbard was responsible. The young prince escapes, but returns disguised as a woman to his beloved Signe.