A film made in a style of street ballad is a directing debut by Tadeusz Chmielewski. It is also the first film for Barbara Kwiatkowska, then a seventeen year old winner of the contest which attracted thousands of girls from Poland. The film depicts the adventures of an innocent farm girl who comes to the city a day before the new school year starts. A janitor does not let her in the dormitory and Eve is left without overnight accommodation. She meets a friendly policeman and then becomes involved in surreal events, involving unusual figures such as: policemen, thieves and prostitutes.

In the greatest city of the world someone wants to steal the San Gennaro's treasure. Dudu (Nino Manfredi) boss of "La Sanità" (a popular quarter of Naples) is taking time to make the right choice: can they succeed? is it really a great occasion? will San Gennaro be happy? The comedy let us understand lot of things about the city of Naples and its habits: superstitious practices, amazing people (like "the baron": the only man who has the heart on the right) and their passion for music (the Festival of Neapolitan song, and the great singer Sergio Bruni, he always wants to be the last to sing)… And TOTO', playing the role of DON VINCENZO IL FENOMENO: a genius.

This is a heartwarming little comedy from Israeli director Ephraim Kishon. Shaike Ophir plays Azulai, a Hulot-like character who is a bit too nice to be a proper policeman. While his friends have all gone onto the higher ranks of the force, Azulai has always been stuck where he is. In fact, he's only there due to his 'friends in high places' pity. This is mainly a comedy due to Azulai's antics but it's not all laughs. Recommended for any fan of Tati and alike.

Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat (responsible mainly for the writing of birth certificates), a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined. The film is a veritable travelogue across contemporary Italy, as Matteo journeys to Napoli, Roma, Firenze, Milano, and Turino to search for each of his children; he even spends one night on the streets among the homeless. Scuro returns to Sicily, visits his wife's grave, and reports with irony that "stanno tutti bene" (everybody’s fine).

Domingo is a middle class civil servant working hard to provide for his family. He dreams of someday having a house all his own. He finally gets his wish, but his children have grown up and moved out. He is left alone in a house that has become an albatross around his neck more than a coveted dream come true.

The story of a soldier looking after a broken plane in a remote Soviet village. Meanwhile, the German-Soviet war breaks out, but he carries on guarding it, protecting it even against the NKVD and Red Army, brought there on the information of his conscientious fellow-citizens. Based on a book by Russian writer Vladimir Voynovich, published in 1975 in Paris; Voynovich himself emigrated in 1980 following persecution by the regime. The film uses almost exclusively non-professional actors, and its tone captures the atmosphere of the start of the war and also of coloured film.

This star-laden version of Lewis Carroll's novel combines elements of both the title novel and Carroll's sequel, Through the Looking Glass. In England of the 19th century, young Alice finds that the mirror over the library fireplace opens into a strange world. She has odd adventures and changes size several times both before and after she follows a time-obsessed White Rabbit (Skeets Gallagher). Soaked after nearly drowning in a pool of tears, Alice is helped to dry off by a Dodo (Polly Moran), and encounters a caterpillar (Ned Sparks), whose mushroom also changes Alice's size. In a noisy home where the Cook (Lillian Harmer) and the Duchess (Alison Skipworth) are always fighting, Alice takes care of the Duchess' baby, but it turns into a pig and runs away. Asking directions of the Cheshire Cat (Richard Arlen) is no help, and a tea party with the Mad Hatter (Edward Everett Horton), the March Hare (Charlie Ruggles) and the Dormouse (Jackie Searl) is confusing and annoying.

Aldo Francia begins with a real history about a man, a father that have to burgle and is captured. He is convicted, but his family need to live. All this situation is in Valparaiso, and Francia shows this beautiful city with this sad situation: boys that need to survive. Hard like the reality but full of love to life. A. Francia shows how a bad justice punish not only the guilty but his children.
If one movie captures the soul of a city, this is the one. Dealing with the social problems, telling the story of three brothers, sometimes tender, sometimes raw, Aldo Francia made a masterpiece showing us a Chilean neorealism movie. The dark and natural cinematography goes very well with this feature. The bitter story of a family with a father in jail, a mother and three brothers fighting against poverty and an unfair society, who rejects them even between another rejected people. Francia makes this bitter story with no weeping scenes or political speeches: is very real, very beautiful and very shocking.
If you think Italian neo-realism is great this movie will be your favourite, it has all the Italian codes but a much harder reality. A great way to discover Latin America in the sixties. A great way to discover the real Valparaiso. It´s not beautiful but it is real just like life.

Sicilian Sasa Scimoni (Alberto Sordi) learns L'Arte di Arranglarsi, or "The Art of Getting Along", in this perceptive Italian comedy. Over a period of several decades, Scimoni must adapt to the various power structures in Italy. Whether it be the monarchy, the socialists, the fascists or the Church, Scimoni manages not only to acclimate himself to the prevailing winds, but also turn a neat financial profit in the bargain. Only by trying to second-guess himself does Our Hero come acropper. L'Arte di Arranglarsi was the last of three collaborations between director Luigi Zampa and screenwriter Vitaliano Brancati, each one casting a satiric eye on middle-class Italian life.

THE GAUCHO was made two years after Vittorio Gassman's collaboration with Dino Risi in IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE), perhaps their best of many films together. Although not as strong as the earlier film, this is a movie of substantial merit and deserves to be much better known. Gassman plays Mario Ravicchio, a financially-strapped press agent who accompanies an Italian production company on its trip to Buenos Aires to present a film at a festival there. He spends much of his time, when not seducing women, trying to accumulate some money, whether by gambling or attempting to finagle capital from expatriate Italian Marucchelli (Amedeo Nazzari), now a rich industrialist in Argentina. He gets friendship, nice words, but no money. Mario tries to tap another former friend from Rome, Stefano, but the guy turns out to be more impoverished than he is. The man is played by comic actor Nino Manfredi (of BREAD AND CHOCOLATE fame) in a short but magnificently acted supporting role as a down-and-out emigrant who has given up hope of success. The first encounter between Manfredi and Gassman with the exuberant exchange of affection between old friends is a treasure to behold. Italian actress Silvana Pampanini does a nice turn as an over-the-hills actress trying to marry a well-off Argentine who has been courting her for some time. Mario returns to Italy disillusioned but not without that saving `gioia di vivere' that characterizes him throughout this likable film with its many little rewards for the viewer. Ettore Scola, who later directed Gassman in DOWN AND DIRTY, lent his hand to the screenplay.

One of the last Soviet silent movies, rediscovered and restored by French cine-chameleon Chris Marker in 1971, Happiness proved an easily accessible counterpoint to the exotic obscurities of The Wishing Tree (!) (<- note : Time out point of view ).
For this rare and often hilarious example of socialist slapstick is likewise grounded in the seeming eccentricities of Russian folk culture; but on the less culturally specific dynamics of those hopes and dreams which forever sustain the exploited, and which may or may not flourish after the revolution. Medvedkin's infectiously happy oddity emerged surprisingly from a slough of social-realist orthodoxy, and prompted none other than Eisenstein to the admiring tribute: 'Today I saw how a Bolshevik laughs.'

Two men, tired by the women, leaves all, to go to live in a lost village. There they meet an alcoholic priest and pervert which initiates them with the simple pleasures of the life. Soon, their example inspires by the thousands of men and of the troops of lost males leaves then the cities, fleeing the feminist hysteria of the Seventies. But soon arrive a squadron of amazones nymphomaniacs.
Deux hommes, exténués par les femmes, abandonnent tout pour aller s'installer dans un village perdu. Ils y rencontrent un curé truculent et soiffard qui les initie aux plaisirs simples de la vie. Bientôt, leur exemple inspire des milliers d'hommes et des cohortes de mâles déboussolés quittent alors les villes, fuyant l'hystérie féministe des années 70.Mais bientôt arrivent un escadron d'amazones nymphomanes.

The prolific Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi's debut feature, Struktura Krysztalu (The Structure of Crystals, 1969), is a Chekhovian chamber drama contrasting the divergent lifestyles of two old friends. Marek (Andrzej Zarnecki) is an eminently successful Polish physicist from the city. As the film opens, he journeys to the secluded home of old college mate Jan (Jan Myslowicz), who has achieved "spiritual and moral balance" by removing himself more or less permanently from harried urban life and relocating to a more rural environment. The film appears simplistic on the surface, but only deceptively so, for it places great weight on behavioral observation and Zanussi uses the material to interweave social and ethical questions into the mundanity of day-to-day occurrences, using those events to create natural tension and conflict between his characters. Struktura Krysztalu swept a wide array of international awards, including the Mermaid Award at Warsaw and numerous other honors at festivals including Valladolid, Panama, and Mar del Plata. It brought the 30-year-old Zanussi international acclaim and carried him into the ranks of the Third Polish Cinema, a protégé of such legends as Polanski, Wajda, and Munk.

This movie is based on what many consider one of the greatest novels ever written, Tarjei Vesaas' The Birds.
As in all Vesaas novels, the story takes place in a rural setting, and the proximity to nature is an obvious factor. Also, the immense psychological depth of the characters is important.
The protagonist is Mateusz, perhaps 35-40 years of age, who lives with his sister Olga. He is, in some way or another, "retarded", but apparently not emotionally so. This story gives a captivating insight into his world.
The pace is quite slow, the black-and-white pictures are beautiful, the focus is on building an atmosphere and developing the characters, and the choice of music is of very good taste.
There's nothing to see here for those who want action or fun. This is a sincere movie which mature viewers may find totally unforgettable.

Kalu (Guru Dutt), a taxi driver who was sentenced to prison for speeding, is released two months before his term for good behaviour. His old employer refuses to let him drive his taxi again. Wandering the streets, Kalu helps a young woman Nikki (Shyama) to fix her car. Kalu goes home but his brother-in-law will not have a convict in the house so he finds himself on the streets. Kalu visits a club to deliver a message for Captain on behalf of a former jail mate. He gets a job at Nikki's father's garage and love blossoms between Nikki and him. When her father finds out, he kicks Kalu out. Kalu asks Nikki to elope with him but she hesitates and by the time she decides to do so, he has already left. Kalu returns to the club and takes up a job with Captain and his band of crooks which includes a dancer (Shakila) and a Parsi barman, Rustom (Johnny Walker).