My Very Own Library
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- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonTony RobertsAlvy Singer, a divorced Jewish comedian, reflects on his relationship with ex-lover Annie Hall, an aspiring nightclub singer, which ended abruptly just like his previous marriages.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenLouise LasserCarlos MontalbánWhen a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.
- 19721h 28mR6.7 (42K)66MetascoreDirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenGene WilderLouise LasserSeven stories are trying to answer the question: what is sex? Or maybe they are not trying.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonGeorges AdetIn czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonMariel HemingwayThe life of a divorced television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsWoody AllenDiane KeatonJohn BeckA nerdish store owner is revived out of cryostasis into a future world to fight an oppressive government.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudAlbert RémyClaire MaurierA young boy, left without attention, delves into a life of petty crime.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean DesaillyFrançoise DorléacNelly BenedettiPierre Lachenay is a well-known publisher and lecturer, married with Franca and father of Sabine, around 10. He meets an air hostess, Nicole. They start a love affair, which Pierre is hiding, but he cannot stand staying away from her.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudMarie-France PisierPatrick AuffayAntoine Doinel is 17, lives in a hotel and works in a factory making records; he loves music. He falls in love with a woman he meets at a concert. She sees him as a friend, but her parents love him.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJeanne MoreauOskar WernerHenri SerreDecades of a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJean-Pierre LéaudClaude JadeDelphine SeyrigAfter being discharged from the army, Antoine Doinel centers a screwball comedy where he applies for different jobs and tries to make sense of his relationships with women.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsJim SturgessEd HarrisColin FarrellSiberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.
- DirectorDavid FincherStarsJesse EisenbergAndrew GarfieldJustin TimberlakeAs Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
- DirectorJulian SchnabelStarsMathieu AmalricEmmanuelle SeignerMarie-Josée CrozeThe true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.
- DirectorWoody AllenStarsColin FarrellEwan McGregorHayley AtwellLondon brothers Terry and Ian Blaine have serious financial woes. When their wealthy uncle Howard Swann proposes that they turn to crime to solve their problems, things go badly and the two become enemies in Woody Allen's dark tale.
- DirectorMichael MannStarsAl PacinoRobert De NiroVal KilmerA group of high-end professional thieves start to feel the heat from the LAPD when they unknowingly leave a verbal clue at their latest heist.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsDavid SaundersRoger De VlaeminckMarc DemeyerThe film follows the French Paris-Roubaix spring classic, notorious for the hellish paves or cobbled roads of the north "which are no longer used for traffic but only for transporting cattle - and for cycle races". We are there from the dawn preparations and rituals on the outskirts of Paris and through the rigours of the race with special focus on a number of prominent cyclists to the final outcome on the Roubaix cycle track - followed by the filthy riders taking their showers. There is also an eye for life among the spectators and the media event as such. The film alternates among different kinds of shot with a view to establishing the most suitable view of the narrative: shots from motorcycles, which are able to convey the motion of the race and provide close ups of the riders in the style of television cycle race reporting; fixed cameras stationed at strategically important points along the route, where viewers can watch riders passing in real time and thus gain a clear overview of the distance between the leaders and the main field: and the Olympian eye of the helicopter shots.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsMarino BassoFelice GimondiEddy MerckxThe images from the Tour de France in the television production Eddy Merckx in the Vincinity of a Cup of Coffee may be seen as a small sketch for the fully unfurled epic cycling drama Stars and Watercarriers. The film follows the 1973 Giro d'Italia and in his commentary Leth explains the fascination exerted by the great cycle races: "The most beautiful, most pathetic images cycling can give us involve extreme performances in classic terrain." The action literally emerges on the move and the riders readily assume the roles tradition and epic necessity allocate to them, with the central conflict between the accustomed winner and greedy Belgian legend Eddy Merckx and the Spanish mountain specialist José Manuel Fuente. Stars and Watercarriers was created by a small film unit that use a vivid, documentary style to describe the race from close up and sometimes quite from within. The film consist of ten sections, each with a title such as "A road of pain" and "A peaceful day"; thus it alternates between dramatic and more peaceful passages, which Leth's commentary leads the viewer through soberly, empathetically and humorously. The chapter "The trial of truth" stands out with its focus on the Danish star Ole Ritter, his technical, physical and psychological preparations and his performance in the time trials. Ritter is lauded with words such as "power, cycle and style in the simplest manifestation possible", and aesthetically, too, the section stands out: there is no background music or ordinary real sound. Instead, a sound close up of the chain as it seems to sing emphasises the utter concentration of Ritter's venture. Throughout the film Gunner Møller Pedersen's music supports the dramatic and aesthetic aspects of the race and thus sets the mood. The music mimics the light tread of the mountain specialists when they are in focus and seems to indicate the beat as we watch the more powerful riders.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsOle RitterIn continuation of the time trial sequence from Stars and Watercarriers, The Impossible Hour is a concentrated study of Ole Ritter's attempt in Mexico City in 1974 to set a new record for the hour - described in the film as "the noblest, most difficult record that can be set on a bicycle". A brief retrospective in black and white sets the historical framework, with shots of Ritter and Eddy Merckx' successful record attempts in 1968 and 1972 respectively, and a few words about former record holders such as Fausto Coppi. From then on the film is in colour and with one minor exception (a training scene from a motor race track) it takes place in the relatively colourless setting of a cycle track. The film follows Ritter's three record attempts chronologically, which, accompanied by a Mexican marching band on the bandstand, all fail. There are several interview situations in hand-held reportage style in which Ritter is surrounded by a group of reporters and gives his account of the attempts, plus other shots from the inner circle of the cycle track. When Ritter is riding he is captured from a motorcycle moving round the track or we follow him (during the record attempts) in long pans all the way round the track. The only notable visual device is the slow motion used to accentuate Ritter's style in a couple of places, accompanied by a piano theme, with Leth's words on the soundtrack: "The functional mastery of power is an aesthetic experience". Throughout the film Leth talks soberly and informatively about cycling technique, the advantages of the thin air in Mexico City, Ritter's gradual acquisition of his average speed and rhythm, the progress of the record attempts, etc.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsStellan BengtssonLi Fu-JungZhuang ZedongFilm footage in black and white and colour of some of the best table tennis players in the world has been roughly assembled with no apparent attempt to present clear sequences from matches. Instead the film consists of small studies in medium shots of the playing style of various players and of full shots that enable us to enjoy a few artistic duels in full. As the title indicates the focus is on the Chinese players. A matter-of-fact caption relates how they returned to Western tournaments after the Cultural Revolution. In several places their superior skills are accentuated by the use of slow motion, and the subtitle swells to a description of their artistry as "moments in which the score is reduced to an informative frame-work around beauty and imagination." The film turns mute on several occasions, breaking the rhythm created by the sound of table tennis bat, ball and feet, and with director Jørgen Leth's minimalist piano improvisation it lends the film a time-dissolving, dreamlike glow. An experimental attitude to film is clearly revealed when the countdown is suddenly included, and the editing breaks up the already loose sequences still further.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsTorben UlrichMotion Picture is an experimental film with and not about the Danish tennis player Torben Ulrich, who is merely credited as "Example". The film may be viewed as a study of the nature of the medium and more specifically of the phenomena of framing, movement, and synchronicity of sound and picture. The material consists of Ulrich training strokes against a wall, volleys at the net and serves, but also of strange enactments in which Ulrich runs towards the camera, arms and legs twitching, dances a crazy racket dance or fakes slow motion as he sits down at a table and pours a cup of tea. These are all studies of movement. At the same time, the framing is absolute: Ulrich moves in and out of the picture without any attempt by the camera to follow him, thus constantly emphasising the role of framing. The complex nature of film is indicated by Jørgen Leth's little appearances as a living clapperboard for synchronizing sound and image. Jørgen Leth and Ole John ran the film through the camera several takes to create a couple of doubly-exposed scenes, and the result is the mysterious perception of several Torben Ulrichs serving on top of one another almost as if in a choreographed dance. One last narrative element introduced several places in the film is very sparse subtitles, such as "table chair tea". At the premiere at the Carlton cinema Motion picture as shown before Francois Truffaut's L'enfant Savage.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsGeorge BalanchineDaniel DuellSuzanne FarrellA late 1970s look at Danish ballet star Peter Martins's art and an assessment of what makes him unique and highly lauded on the international stage of ballet. Shot inside the New York City Ballet, the film features Suzanne Farrell, Heather Watts, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins among other performers and colleagues.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsBjarne HechtAt danse Bournonville is a portrait of the Bournonville tradition at the Royal Danish ballet that has survived for 150 years on the basis of a few notes and the memories of the dancers and is the basis of the special nature and global reputation the company enjoys. The film was created in continuation of, and drawing on, Leth and Holmberg's experience in making Peter Martins - en danser. It primarily concentrates on the work of the charming, affected Hans Brenå in rehearsal and on stage with two young dancers in a production of Bournonville's Kermessen i Brügge. The film focuses on learning the steps and the gestures as the Bournonville tradition emphasises the combination of the two. The film also includes excerpts from Conservatoriet and Napoli. The camera work is attentive, mobile and occasionally very close to the dancers. Frontal wide shots are also used, often with pans, to show the dance as a whole, especially on stage. Leth's narrative describes the Bournonville tradition in a sober, poetic tone; for example "A new landscape, a new sky, different moods are lowered from the flies". The Royal Danish Ballet is described as "a workshop for dance where the quality of the old steps needs honing and refining every single day".
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsSuzanne FarrellPeter MartinsStep on Silence was made from raw material from Peter Martins - en danser but unlike the traditional way the Martins film communicates its material in this case we have a film that with its slightly dusty, scratchy appearance makes room for all the shots originally discarded for technical or narrative reasons. It fades to black and up again if visual material is lacking at any given moment, for example, while the continuity of the soundtrack is maintained. The establishing by the cameraman of a new frame or focus is not edited out for the sake of appearances. The painstaking repetitions from the rehearsal room are captured by showing several takes of the same detail from the dance one after the other. Leth's notes in white handwriting on a black background serve as small, conciliatory transitions from scene to scene. Step on Silence this gives a uniquely free, very loving treatment of the work of the New York City Ballet's creative workshop as a counter to the "kill your darlings" philosophy of the film world.
- DirectorJørgen LethStarsKlaus RifbjergKlaus Rifbjerg is a portrait that has the author talking about his work in a series of tableaux. Under three major headings, "Talking easily about great things", "Standing freely on all sides" and "Being able to receive" Rifbjerg starts by talking in a self-conscious, posed picture in which he is seated at his desk. From then onwards he is moved around a little as he continues to pronounce a series of deliberations on writing. He poses in the dunes, in his garden, and in front of his car, and we attend a meeting with his publisher, a tennis match, and a family luncheon. In the garden Rifbjerg also reads aloud from one of his many works. This verbose film was mainly shot in wide shots and very few scenes stand out. The final image, however, is a well-performed backward tracking shot showing Rifbjerg as he strides energetically along the beach in a frontal half wide shot.