Rut Hillarp’s film interpretation of the legend of Tristan and Isolde. She borrowed this classical theme from her collection of poetry The False Farewell. The White Hands is an attempted surrealistic visualization of a poem, using symbolic image sequences.
Tag: 1950s
This program presents excerpts from German plays written in the 1920s that illustrate tensions that contributed to the rise of Nazism. The plays are “Gas” by George Kaiser, “Hoopla! Such is Life!” by Ernst Toller, and “The Private Life of the Master Race” by Bertolt Brecht.
The heroine of this drama played out at the beginning of the Horthy era is a chambermaid who has travelled up from the countryside to work in the capital. Through her vulnerability we clearly see the interdependency of society at that time. Anna moves from paradise to a family lacking in love or compassion, where she loses everything and everyone who once loved her. The director of the film based on the novel of the same name by Dezső Kosztolányi worked out the scenes with absolute precision. Thanks to this and the finest actors of the age, we have one of the most moving films ever made in Hungary.
During the Mexican Revolution, Angustias, a proud and rebellious mixed-race woman, defies gender and racial oppression in her rural village. After killing a man who tries to rape her, she flees to the mountains and joins the Zapatista rebels. Proving her courage and leadership, she rises to become a coronela, fighting for justice and equality. Torn between love and her revolutionary ideals, Angustias ultimately dedicates herself to the struggle for freedom.
Sudo and Mori are two university students who make money by picking up rich girls in dance clubs and conning them into giving them cash. Mori is the brains of the operation, and Sudo is the suave dancer who picks up the girls. Over the course of the film, Sudo becomes involved with three different girls and is drawn into the gangster milieu, which he seems unable to resist even though he is responsible for his mother, grandmother, and sister, Masako. In this world of bad boys and girls, Masako is the pillar of strength and moral virtue who finally enables Mori to straighten out.
Together is set in London’s East End, with its bombsites, narrow streets, riversides, warehouses, markets and pubs. It follows two deaf-mute dockers who are completely cut-off from the outside world and are constantly pursued by groups of jeering children. Its modern depiction of everyday working-class life and its new approach to realism were inspired by Italian neo-realism and by the techniques used by Mazzetti’s Free Cinema friends.
In the only episode of this series filmed in color (but probably broadcast only in black-and-white), legendary crooner Bing Crosby is guest star. Crosby joins Sinatra in performing many classic Christmas songs, among them Sinatra’s version of “Mistetoe and Holly” and Crosby’s famed “White Christmas”. Some of the songs are performed on a set with a backdrop of Victorian England; other songs were performed on a set that resembled a hip late-1950’s bachelor apartment.