Movies Pt 3

1. The Temptation of St Anthony / Georges Melies / France / 1898



Saint Anthony is practicing spiritual exercises in a cave in Egypt, but suddenly starts to see a naked woman instead of the body of Christ. What a mess!

2. Bestia / Alexander Hertz / Poland, Russian Empire / 1917



Young Polish lady escapes from home and makes a career in dirty dancing. Wealthy Russian men are all around her, she breaks families, destroys lives.

3. The Goddess / Wu Yonggang / China / 1934



Sad story about a Shanghai street hooker. It's the midst of the civil war between Kai-shek and Mao outside, so the story is biasedly viewed through the prism of social criticism, but the fact that she do it for money still thrills moviegoers.

I've seen some numbers though, and according to them cinema wasn't popular in China at all. Unlike in the early USSR, which, correct me please, in the pre-war period had more screens and audience than the US.

4. Caged / John Cromwell / United States / 1950



Early herald of later popular stories about women's prisons.

I had wondered why this genre has seen decline and I guess I've found the answer. Listen to the statistics: "Since the War on d**gs began, the incarceration rate for women in the US has increased by more than 800%. In 1980, there were just over 13,000 women in state and federal prisons; by 2010 that number had jumped to over 112,000 women.". Not a theme for a joke, right?

If you liked the movie, I'd suggest you "Ladies They Talk About" (1933), it's a fine movie too and I believe John Cromwell saw it.

5. Memories of Underdevelopment / Tomás Gutiérrez Alea / Cuba / 1968



Thirty-something rich Cuban slacker refused the option to emigrate to Miami and stays in Havana alone, despite even his wife has fled the country. He's walking over the streets, picking up Cuban girls, feels a little bit frustrated and so on.

6. Abigail Lesley Is Back in Town / Joseph Sarno / New York / 1975



First wave porn actors are doing a drama about a small American town where nothing is going on, under the instructions of 54 yo New Yorker Joseph Sarno. It's something personal to all of them, because they do a good play and the movie is interesting.

You can see the same cast in "Confessions of a Young American Housewife", with more concentration of pornographic scenes.

7. We Are the Night / Dennis Gansel / Germany / 2010



Tale about female vampires in Berlin. They love nightclubs, expensive cars, five star hotels and don't like men.

Published by gestell
9 years ago
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