Filmepoque

At the moment of its production, La Dolce vita raised a series of unrest not only among the ranks of the Catholic Church, but also the small bourgeoisie, the working class or among Rome’s aristocracy, which forms the social target of the movie. It was 1960 and Italy was in reconstruction after the war, a poor country in crisis of all sorts.

The beach is washed by the waves and the dim light of the morning caresses the southern Swedish shore. The sky opens wide and “dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeculum in favilla” erupts. Of course, the characters wouldn’t know the judgment day has arrived. The two horses and the sun apparently rise from the sea, whose waves offer the only sounds yet.

“In our down-to-earth world, do not hope for a UFO, my dear. There is no Bermuda Triangle either. It would have been interesting to live in the Middle Ages, when every house, every church had its god. […] If God himself is a triangle, then I do not know what to believe.” The Writer is about to leave her to enter the Zone with the Scientist and the Stalker.

Having a short look at a picture of Truman Capote, the author of the novel which inspired the movie, we couldn’t keep ourselves form smiling. A guy at 1,60 m, convinced misogynist, homosexual, to speak about the mundane life of a splendid young girl?

Many things have been said about Luis Buñuel, a series of adjectives, from iconoclast, blasphemer, pervert, traitor. Furthermore, he began to Jesuit College and, although having the highest grades, after being hit and insulted by the lecture hall surveyor, left the College without ever returning and told his mother he was expelled.

We are in December 1941 and Africa is a mosaic of European territories and protectorates. The North-West of the continent is what remained of the “Free France”, some colonies without a clear orientation.

The fact that Closely watched trains appeared in 1966 meant good luck for the director Jiri Menzel. Had he waited two more years, until the Prague Spring, he would certainly not have had the opportunity to adapt the Bohumil Hrabal’s novel, written two years before.

In 1962, Pope John the XXIII calls for a dialogue with the non-catholic artists at a seminar in a Franciscan monastery. Pasolini receives an invitation even though the Pope knows that the poet and director is a Marxist, homosexual and atheist. Arriving earlier in the city, Pasolini enters the hotel and realizes he is blocked there by the traffic jam anticipating the Pope’s visit.

The First World War took the lives of millions. Of course, more precisely, the men took the lives of their fellow human beings. The moment chosen by Kubrick is the year 1916, on the Franco-German frontline, where the fighting were dragging for the years already.

The American judicial system, based on common-law, uses jurors in the criminal trials. The twelve jurors must decide unanimously if the accused is guilty or not guilty; there is no such verdict as “innocent”.

The father of Italian neo-realism, alongside two other great directors, Vittorio de Sica and Roberto Rossellini, adapts one of Dostoyevsky’s novels in a modern yet out of time story. The great Russian’s writer beloved St. Petersburg comes here into life as a north-Italian city with atypical architecture, whose heart is a channel crossed by numerous small arched bridges.

“When the Nazis and Communists first came to Czechoslovakia, they declared war on pornographers and perverts. Everyone applauded: who wants perverts running through the streets? But then, suddenly, Jesus Christ was a pervert, Shakespeare was a pervert, Hemingway was a pervert. It always starts with pornographers to open the door a little, but then the door is opened wide for all kinds of persecution.”

Under the Kyoto city gate Rashômon, a priest, a woodcutter and a villager seek shelter from the torrential rain. The tempest units them, the first two are still completely confused about the things they heard in the trial they participated as witnesses, while the third is curios what shocked them to that degree.

When thinking about the western, maybe the first people that come in our mind is Clint Eastwood and the magnificent Sergio Leone. The famous couple offered the cinema classic like For a fistful of dollars and The good, the bad and the ugly.

James Dean could have gone far, far away, if a terrible car accident had not ended his life just before this movie’s premiere. He would have certainly reached Marlon Brando’s sex-symbol status, but doubled by sensitivity. Little bastard, the Porsche 550 Spider tested by the actor for a race broke into pieces, bringing bad look to the following owners as well, if we are to believe the legend, even through its shattered parts.