Before the advent of modern-day pornography, a vast and rapidly-paced world of smut peddling was the norm, complete with its own secret history. This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema’s gloriously sordid cinematic past. Starting in the 1920s, expert exploiteer David F. Friedman and Henenlotter navigate us through more than five salacious decades of skin flicks. It’s the true story of dirty movies, traced in elegant detail from the bizarre locations where these nudie shorts were screened to the ongoing legal battles fought by their promoters. And of course there are the stories of the innovators themselves, people who often risked their own security and livelihood to make these films, believing in some way that what they were doing wasn’t a ‘bad’ thing – and that it could rake in some dough.
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A tragicomic film about people from the social periphery. Director Dušan Hanák portrayed his characters with a sensitive understanding, without romanticizing. That was also why the f ilm, similarly to Hanák’s previous works 322 and Pictures of the Old World, ended up on a shelf until 1988. Impressive performances are given by Czech actress Iva Janžurová, Polish actor Roman Klosowski and Serbian actor Milan Jeli?. In 1989, the film won a Silver Bear for Best Directing from the IFF Berlin.
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The Mad Morgans are more than an increasingly popular variety act; they are a family team. But one of them aspires to greater things, and is in a dilemmaas to whether he should go it alone or stick with the group. Despite setbacks and obstacles, Davy finally gets his offer from the top. The entertainment world is his oyster but can the ties of flesh and blood stop him from achieveing his dreams?
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In a seedy section of Rome, Vittorio Cataldi – “Accattone” (“beggar” in Italian) to those that know him – lives off the avails of prostitution, Maddalena being his one and only girl. He is married to Ascenza with who he has one young son named Iaio, but he does not live with them – they who live with her father and brother – provide for them, or play any important part of their lives. He generally hangs out with his similarly slack life friends playing cards and drinking. His source of income is threatened when Maddalena is injured being hit by a motorcyclist, then beaten by rivals of his, which leads to her being arrested and jailed for a year. Largely because of Iaio, Accattone contemplates going straight and getting a real job. Then he meets Stella, a young innocent woman who has had a hard life, but who is not as naive to the ways of the world as she first appears. Accattone falls in love with her, but as the thought of working a steady job now becomes abhorrent, contemplates …
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