Author Archives: rarefilm

De Mayerling à Sarajevo / From Mayerling to Sarajevo (1940) Max Ophüls, Edwige Feuillère, John Lodge, Aimé Clariond, Drama

De Mayerling a Sarajevo (1940)
In the late 1800’s, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls for Sophie Chotek, a Czech countess. He’s already a problem to the Crown because of his political ideas; this love affair with someone not of royal blood breeches protocol. The Crown allows the union only after the couple agrees to a morganatic marriage. The emperor further neutralizes Franz by making him inspector general of the army, sending him afield for months at a time. In June of 1914, fearing for his safety, Sophie seeks permission to accompany Franz to Sarajevo; protocol dictates that no army troops attend Franz while she is present. An assassin strikes. Their deaths spark World War I.
Read More »

Bakurô ichidai / The Life of a Horse Trader (1951) Keigo Kimura, Toshirô Mifune, Machiko Kyô, Takashi Shimura, Drama

bakuro-ichidai-aka-the-life-of-a-horse-trader-1951
This early gem starring the great Mifune Toshiba tells the tale of Katakana Yonetaro aka “The Shark,” a rough-and-tumble horse trader in Japan’s rugged northernmost territory of Hokkaddo.. always ready to drink, fight, gamble and chase women he falls victim to a crooked game with loaded dice. This little-known film captures the wild ways of early Japan after the fall of the shogunate when men had only their own strengths and skills to rely on. A brilliant yet tragic tale that can now be told.
Read More »

Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016) Bostjan Virc, Ziga Virc, Documentary, Drama

houston-we-have-a-problem-aka-houston-imamo-problem-2016
Cold War-era international intrigue, declassified top-secret documents, and a clandestine deal between John F. Kennedy and Yugoslavia’s president Josip Tito are just the tip of the iceberg in this absorbing directorial debut from filmmaker Žiga Virc. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Houston, We Have a Problem! explores the myth behind the origins of America’s race to be the first country to send a man to the moon, and a supposed multi-billion-dollar deal involving America’s purchase of Yugoslavia’s space program in the early 1960s.
Read More »

Llámale Jess Redux (2014) Carles Prats, Jesús Franco, Lina Romay, Documentary

llamale-jess-redux-2014
Jesus Franco, also known as Jess Franco, was one of the biggest names in cinema “B” worldwide. With more than 200 works and a large and peculiar use of pseudonyms, his work remains difficult to categorize, which makes it more exciting if possible. Through a series of interviews with Franco, “Call him Jess Redux” about the viewer sadist, esoteric and erotic world of the director, as refined as rogue. This new version of “Call him Jesus” (2000), considered the documentary reference Franco and directed by Carles Prats and Manel Mayol, incorporates new unpublished statements irreducible Madrid filmmaker and pays homage to his muse and companion, Lina Romay incorporating their active presence the story.
Read More »

Blues in the Night (1941) Anatole Litvak, Priscilla Lane, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Crime, Drama, Music

Blues in the Night (1941)
“Jigger’ Lane forms a band that includes singer Ginger ‘Character’ Powell, wife of the trumpeter Leo Powelll, and Nickie Haroyen and Peppi. All of them dedicate themselves to work as a unit and to play ‘blues’ music. The dedication isn’t paying off in money and, while riding the rails in a boxcar, they meet and befriend a gangster named Del Davis. He offers them a job at a New Jersey roadhouse, where Powell falls in love with Kay Grant, a former ‘real-good friend’ of Davis. But when Powell learns that ‘Character’ is about to have a baby, he returns to her. “Jigger” tries to make Kay the band’s singer and, when this fails, runs off with her. She leaves him with nothing to show for him except a nervous breakdown.Back at the roadhouse, after his recovery, Kay shows up, has a quarrel with Davis, shoots and kills him and plans to take back up with “Jigger”, who knows better but just can’t help himself. While she is waiting in a car for him, along comes cripple Brad Ames, who she put in …
Read More »

Shenandoah (1965) Andrew V. McLaglen, James Stewart, Doug McClure, Glenn Corbett, Drama, War, Western

shenandoah-1965
In Shenandoah, Virginia, widower farmer Charlie Anderson lives a peaceful life with his six sons – Jacob, James, Nathan, John, Henry and Boy, his daughter Jennie, and his daughter-in-law and James’ wife Ann Anderson. Charlie does not let his sons join the army to fight in the Civil War that he does not consider their war. Jennie marries her beloved Lieutenant Sam, but they do not have a honeymoon since Sam has to return to the front. Charlie’s youngest son Boy is mistakenly taken prisoner by soldiers from the North so Charlie rides with his sons to rescue Boy, while James and Ann stay on the farm. It is time of violence and war, and tragedy reaches the Anderson family.
Read More »

Ostatni dzien lata / The Last Day of Summer (1958) Tadeusz Konwicki, Irena Laskowska, Jan Machulski, Drama, Romance

ostatni-dzien-lata-aka-the-last-day-of-summer-1958
There is something vaguely mythical to the manner in which Konwicki introduces his characters, both to us and to each other, lapped as much by the ethereal eeriness of the score as by the seaside winds that send their hair aflutter. When they tend to speak to each other in whispers, it seems almost out of respect for the otherworldly aura of their locale, as though it is to their eyes as improbably beautiful as Konwicki’s camera renders it to us. They—referred to in the credits only as “He” and “She”, mysterious and mythical in themselves—do not whisper much; there’s a clear silent heritage at work here, conferring meaning to the motion of faces and the movement of the camera along this spectral shore.
Read More »

Matatabi / The Wanderers (1973) Kon Ichikawa, Isao Bitô, Tadao Futami, Ken’ichi Hagiwara, Drama

matatabi-aka-the-wanderers-1973
Follows the fluctuating fortunes of three friends in feudal Japan who are ronin: masterless warriors, who wander from castle to castle, selling their services to whichever lord will fill their rice bowls. These are not the YOJIMBO Super Samurai but rather the rank and file, the spear-carriers. The irony is that even though they use the servants’ entrance, they still feel themselves bound by the samurai code of Bushido; and this tension leads to tragedy.
Read More »

The Night Has Eyes (1942) Leslie Arliss, James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

The Night Has Eyes (Leslie Arliss, 1942)
Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend Evelyn disappeared there. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of Stephen, one-time pianist shellshocked in the Spanish Civil War. Doris flees as soon as the flood subsides; but Marian’s suspicions about Evelyn’s fate, in conflict with her growing love for Stephen, prompt her to stay on among the misty bogs.
Read More »