Three young people leave the psychiatric hospital to lead a “normal life” while working in the factory. They confide in their future prospects. In 1968, alarmed by the catastrophic state of public psychiatry in Italy, the communist municipality of Parma entrusted Mario Tommasini, a former gas worker, with the management of the mental health sector and its reorganization in a revolutionary fashion. This political initiative, inspired by Franco Basaglia, critic of the asylum institution and the origin of psychiatry outside the walls, marked the beginning of a vast undertaking of social integration of patients.
Tag: 1970s
A rabbi is murdered. Detective Llonrot is called in on the case and looks for a ‘rabbinical explanation’ for the murder. Other murders are committed and deliberate clues left in chosen locations. Llonrot, convinced he is on the trail of a ‘mystical intrigue’ is lured to the ‘crime scene’ when the tables are turned by his nemesis, the master criminal Red Scharlach.
Returning from war in 1520s Switzerland, mercenary Hansli Gyr finds his homeland divided by the Reformation. As he embraces the teachings of Zwingli, his beloved Ursula is drawn into the radical Anabaptist movement. Their romance is tested by religious conflict, political unrest, and the bloody upheavals that transform their world.
Race with the Devil director Starrett’s crime-comedy pairs Stacy Keach and Frederic Forrest as working-class West Virginia good ol’ boy brothers who impulsively decide to leave behind their lives of hard labor, relocate to Washington, D.C., and try to get-rich-quick by teaming up with some local stick-up men, with the dream of opening a seafood restaurant called The Blue Grotto. Keach and Forrest, eventually joined by a charming Margot Kidder, exude hillbilly charisma; Starrett gives us a finale for the ages with a shoot-out set in a building undergoing demolition; and the screenplay is co-written by none other than a pseudonymous Terrence Malick, who here anticipates the ”Take this job and shove it” opening of his Days of Heaven.
The world of 15 year old unicyclist Tony Marienthal includes visits to assist the elderly, learning new juggling tricks, and trying to make it home for supper. The film is a wonderful, idyllic “day in the life” film of a teen-ager. It’s also somewhat bittersweet, as Tony Marienthal, who wanted his baby son to see this film, died at the young age of 51.
Thirty-year-old Irén dreams of a separate apartment so she can move in with her lover, the married Attila. Hope is sparked by one of the man’s acquaintances, the construction contractor Hevesi, but in order to apply for the larger apartment, she must first enter into a marriage of convenience with the young Gábor. Irén takes out a loan on her modest kindergarten teacher salary, wanders through the mazes of socialist bureaucracy, while Hevesi and her nominal husband harass her with sexual offers, and by the time the day of moving in is within reach, it turns out that Attila doesn’t want to leave his family after all.
Ulrike Ottinger’s singular debut feature is an extravagantly stylized lesbian pirate spectacle that radically deconstructs decades of male-oriented adventures. Madame X (Tabea Blumenschein) is the notorious pirate ruler of the China Sea who recruits a motley crew of women (among them avant-garde icon Yvonne Rainer as a disillusioned artist) to leave behind their humdrum lives and join her on her outlaw ship, the Orlando. Once aboard, the women’s search for freedom leads them on an odyssey that, in Ottinger’s words, “is not a journey outward into adventure but a journey into the interior.”
A controversial documentary screened in the official competition at the Cannes Festival. It depicts a hypnosis session in which participants, under its influence, inflict pain on themselves and others. The film addresses important themes such as manipulation, abuse of power, and collective obedience, provoking strong reactions from audiences and critics.