Inverosímil Jardiel Poncela
★ 6 · 2014 · 57m · Documentary · TV Movie
The Spanish author Enrique Jardiel Poncela (1901-1952) was one of the best comedy writers of all time, a novelist and newspaper columnist, misunderstood, even censored, both by the Second Republic government and Francoism, an outsider ahead of his time; also a filmmaker and screenwriter in Hollywood, architect of a revolutionary theatrical building and scenographer, cartoonist and illustrator. An implausible genius.
More Like This
Torerillos, 61
1962 · ★ 6.5
This short film "Torerillos 61" is one of the first works of the master Patino, which tries to portray the Spanish society of the time outside the state convention and dodging the hand of censorship. Social commitment is the brand director throughout his long career, starting with short films such as this one, made in the early sixties, in the wake of the statements in Talks Salamanca. The sadness off the characters portrayed is bleak, "Maletillas" (aspiring bullfighters) in search of luck to pull them out of poverty.
More info →
A Heart Set Free: Charles Wesley
2008
A biography of Charles Wesley, father of the Weselyan Church, hymn writer, and preacher.
More info →
The Summer in Gossensass
1964
'To the May sun of a September life', wrote Henrik Ibsen on the photograph of himself that he gave to 19-year-old Emilie Bardach in Gossensass in September 1889. This is a documentary about the sixty-second year in the life of the great Norwegian dramatist.
More info →
Shed Your Tears and Walk Away
2009 · ★ 7.5
Real-life drama about why, in a beautiful and quirky rural town, film- maker Jez Lewis' childhood friends are killing themselves. Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, the film moves into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption as principal character Cass comes to terms with his own mortality and attempts to lift himself out of his cycle of self-destruction. This core narrative carves an upward arc through an intimate study of a place often described as paradise, but which harbours an undertow of lethal hedonism and disillusionment. As people continue to kill themselves during the making of the film, a maelstrom of conflicting values throws up unexpected truths about the human condition.
More info →
Russia 1917: Countdown to Revolution
2017 · ★ 3
Russia, 1917. After the abdication of Czar Nicholas II Romanov, the struggle for power confronts allies, enemies, factions and ideas; a ruthless battle between democracy and authoritarianism that will end with the takeover of the government by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
More info →
Después de… Segunda parte: atado y bien atado
1983 · ★ 8.2
A history of the Spanish Transition told in first person by the main protagonists: on the one hand, the politicians, idealistic or merely opportunistic, who brought it to a successful conclusion in the tribunes and offices; on the other hand, the citizens who, in the streets, supported it sincerely or fought it with ferocity.
More info →
The Secret Life of Brian
2007 · ★ 7.7
A documentary about the making of the controversial Life of Brian and the surrounding accusations of blasphemy.
More info →
Censored: Kuhle Wampe
1975 · ★ 10
A detailed reconstruction of the censorship case against the landmark Weimar-era communist film, Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World? (1932). Directed by Slatan Dudow, the crew and cast included left-wing luminaries, such as playwright Bertolt Brecht, composer Hanns Eisler and balladeer Ernst Busch. The film was the subject of vehement disputes and was banned twice for revolutionary and communist tendencies that were perceived to threaten the state. About 230 meters of the original film fell victim to the censor’s shears. This historic censorship case was argued over the course of three sessions. Censored: Kuhle Wampe re-enacts the censorship hearings, based on original minutes and documents, as well as personal records of the case. In addition to footage from the original film, this docudrama includes original clips of Berlin in the 1920s and '30s and short testimonies, filmed in the 1970s, with some of the actors involved in the original Kuhle Wampe film production.
More info →
The Emma Bovary Trial
2021 · ★ 6.6
On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused, the real one, is, through him, Emma Bovary, heroine with a thousand faces and a thousand desires, guilty without doubt of an unforgivable desire to live.
More info →
Pano Will Not Be Shown
2018 · ★ 7
The relationship between a French journalist and his girlfriend is tested during the ORTF strike of television workers in this half documentary half fiction feature.
More info →UKIP: The First 100 Days
2015 · ★ 4.2
UKIP: The First 100 Days is a 2015 mockumentary which was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2015, and in the run-up to the May 2015 general election. It tells the fictional story of how the country would be run if the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a Eurosceptic party, were to win the election and its leader Nigel Farage become Prime Minister. The programme is filmed in the style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows UKIP's first female Asian MP as she struggles with the party's stance on immigration amid mounting public discontent with its hardline policies. The role of Deepa Kaur, who is elected to serve as MP for the Romford constituency, is played by Priyanga Burford.
More info →Impressões do Brasil
1987
"Impressões" rescues the history of the Brazilian press since 1808, when the "Correio Brasiliense" clandestinely reached Rio de Janeiro after being edited in London by Hipólito José da Costa, and spans until 1986. It's the first documentary to depict the history of the Brazilian journalistic press.
More info →