Martin Scorsese is not only a well-known director, but also a die-hard fan. In 2007, Lao Ma partnered with Standards to launch the World Cinema Project, which aims to present and protect films in small languages, effectively preventing these excellent and precious films from being lost due to the erosion of time. At present, the project has included nearly 30 films from all over the world, of which 12 films have been produced and published in two sets of Blu-ray collections. In the "Niche Pioneers" section of the 738 issue of "Watch the Midnight Scene", we will take a detailed inventory of these twelve films for you, and here are six sneak peeks.
(The source of the article is "Watch Movie Magazine" public WeChat moview_weekly)
[Coyote Tour] Journey of theHyenas 1973
Directed by: Dijibril Diop Mambéty
Starring: Magaye Niang/Mareme Niang/Aminata Fall
Producer: Senegal
Release date: 1973
Runtime: 91 minutes
Murray and Anta are a young Senegalese couple who yearn for Western culture and pursue open-mindedness and independence. They imitated the American film "Runaway Riders", riding motorcycles around. Murray made a plan for them: first get some money, come back to their hometown, show off in front of their compatriots who usually look down on them, and then cross the ocean to France, never to come back.
In order to achieve this plan, they steal and deceive, and Murray also gives political speeches to a hypothetical audience in the stolen classic car. When they returned to their hometown, the scene was also expected by them, and the villagers welcomed and envied it, which greatly satisfied their vanity. However, the moment he boarded the ferry, the Arrogant Words and Deeds of the French tourist shattered Murray's Western dream, and he desperately left Anta and ran back to the city's road.
This Senegalese film has obvious traces of the French New Wave, and the loose daily shots are also full of surrealist elements. In vivid and satirical cinematic language, the director depicts the chaotic, absurd, vivid and confusing Senegal of the 1970s, which was shocked by Western culture.
The dream of two young Africans symbolizes the beautiful imagination of the African world for the Western civilized world at that time, their absurd experience reflects the contradictions of society, as well as the illusion of dreams, the director strengthens the restlessness and meditation of the inner world of young people with dazzling images and psychedelic music, and at the end of the youth, at the moment of departure, suddenly realizes his love for the land under his feet, pinning on the director's deep feelings for the African land and a sober understanding of the future of Senegal. [Coyote Journey] is considered by critics to be one of the best African films of the time.
[Wave] Redes 1936
Directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel/Fred Kinniman
主演:Silvio Hernández / David Valle González / RafaelHinojosa / Antonio Lara / Miguel Figueroa
Producer: Mexico
Release date: 1936-07-16
Duration: 60 minutes
The story begins in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico, most of the actors in the film are real fishermen, and the film shows the fishermen gradually awakening under the oppression of the powerful and finally uniting against exploitation in a documentary-style realistic way. The whole film has the radical political atmosphere that prevailed in Latin American films at that time, the picture is rough and wild, and the film is also full of real details, reflecting the living conditions of poor people in Latin America.
Fishermen borrow money from rich merchants, are rebuffed, sick sons die tragically; most fishermen are not angry with the elite at first because of their miserable situation, they either envy the harvest of their peers or have a willing attitude towards a hard life; politicians break into the lives of fishermen, their lies, hypocritical and greedy faces make the people at the bottom more and more impatient, the loose fishermen begin to awaken, and finally unite closely, in the final scene, they rush to the capitalist docks in fishing boats. The film is also filled with a large number of symbolic montages, making the film sometimes resemble a leftist battle story.
Director Fred Kinnemann was born in Austria and later won an Oscar for "Gone with the Wind", and in this film co-produced with Mexican director Emilio Gomez Muriel, he showed his political sensitivity and talent as a director, and the film's photography was the legendary photographer Paul Strand.
[A river called Thetas] A River Called Titas 1973
Director: Levik Gatak
Starring: Rosy Samad/Farid Ali/Fakrul Hasan Boiragi
Producer: India/Bangladesh
Runtime: 159 minutes
The film is the masterpiece of Levik Gatak, one of the three great standard-bearers of Indian cinema in the 1950s, whose works are often based on fate and pessimism, and he has only shot eight works in his lifetime, but each one is enough to rival the best films in the world, [A River Called Detas] is currently the only work by Gatak that has been restored in high definition.
This beautiful work focuses on the turbulent life of a fishing village on the banks of the Tias River in East Bengal, surrounding a widow who is indomitable in the midst of suffering, and presents the tragic story of a closed society on its way to extinction.
The film is full of tragedy and courage to live, the language of the lens is full of poetry, and the director's depiction of the land and the river can be seen everywhere, the Ditas River witnesses the disaster and misfortune of Bangladesh, and also witnesses the separation and reunion, the drying up of this river of life, symbolizing the division of the land and the loss of life. Gattak was invited to Bangladesh to shoot the film, but after the film was not recognized by the mainstream, he returned to India.
[A river called Thetas] shows Gattak's extremely personal style of creation. There are a large number of close-up shots in the film, rough, real, and exuding endless power. The way the figure's head is cut off by the frame is also a foreshadowing of the tragic fate of the character.
[Dry Summer] Dry Summer 1964
Directed by David E. Durston/Wheaton. Elksan
Starring: Irol. Tashi/Horia. Kozogidt/Ulvi Dogan
Producer: Turkey
Language: Turkish
Release date: 1967-01-06
Duration: 90 minutes
In the Turkish countryside, where water symbolizes power, villages suffer from drought, good brothers, selfish and cunning brothers, beautiful wives, and complex villagers all together form a story of desire devouring souls.
My brother, a tobacco farmer, built a small dam so he wouldn't let his stored water be irrigated into other people's fields. The simple brother has to work hard for the villagers to share the right to share the water. In the process, the brother unfortunately killed someone, and the kind brother stood up for the brother's guilt, and as a result, his wife was also possessed by the brother.
In 1964, the film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a milestone for Turkish cinema, but for various reasons, the film has not been effectively protected, resulting in its film nearly completely destroyed. Scorsese's World Cinema Project repaired and rescued the film in a timely manner, preserving a rare masterpiece for world cinema.
The film has a naturalistic image style, the director's shooting method is novel and imaginative, the actors' performances are also very wonderful, and the whole film is full of lashing and mocking the greed of human nature.
[Out of mind] Trances 1981
Directed by Ahmed El Maanouni
Starring: Larbi Batma/Nass-El Ghiwane/Abderrahman Paco
Producer: Morocco/France
Release date: 1981
Duration: 88 minutes
This is a documentary about the famous Moroccan band "Nassar Gnawa", and scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" soundtrack benefits from this band. Using "Nassar Gnawa" as a clue, the film traces back more than a thousand years to Africa and discovers the origin of soul music.
Through the music of the band, the film shows a state of mind, full of poetry and intoxicating. The director led the crew to explore the inspiration of the band's creators, and in the process, reflected the various phenomena of Moroccan society. The lyrics of the band Nazar Gnawa were closely linked to the political atmosphere of the time, with a strong story and appeal, and the band drew extensively on elements of traditional Moroccan music, making its works beautiful, rich in content and full of experimentation, known as the "Rolling Stones of North Africa".
The director shows the music itself in a large number of pages, and connects the creation and growth of the band with the development of the entire Arab world, the artistic conception is lofty, at the end of the film, the director combines reality and music, expressing the view that the essence of music and the human soul is freedom, so that the documentary rises up with a strong humanistic spirit and touching heart.
Martin Scorsese called it a video poem, a rare musical documentary that was perfectly cared for by the World Cinema Project, with beautiful melodies that blended with African culture and reality, and played a deafening hymn of humanity.
[Next Female] Housemaid 1960
Director: Kim Ki-young
Starring: Jin Zhenkui / Zhu Zengnu / Li Enxin
Producer: South Korea
Release: 1960-11-03 (Korea)
Duration: 111 minutes
Dong Zhi, a male teacher in the music department of the textile factory, is handsome and charming, and the female worker Guo Shanying, encouraged by her friend Zhao Qingxi, wrote a love letter to Dong Zhi, not wanting Dong Zhi to report Guo Shanying to the house supervisor, resulting in the latter being expelled. However, Zhao Qingxi took the opportunity to tutor the piano and enter dongzhi's family. Dong Zhi's wife is weak, and he entrusts Cho Kyung Hee to find a daughter for himself. Taking advantage of the opportunity of Dong Zhi's wife returning to her mother's home pregnant, Zhao also expressed his love for Dong Zhi and was expelled by Dong Zhi.
The next daughter on the side saw all this and also took the opportunity to seduce Dong Zhi, and three months later the next daughter became pregnant. Subsequently, a series of revenge and tragedies were staged in the family. In retaliation, the wife pushed the woman down the stairs, causing the latter to miscarry. In retaliation, Shimo-nu pushes Dong-sik's two children down the stairs as well. At the end of the matter, the following woman commits suicide by taking poison, and Dong-sik returns to his wife in order to tie the knot.
In this melodramical drama by South Korean director Kim Ki-young, lust, betrayal, jealousy, and revenge are intertwined, with ups and downs, boldness and a priori, and there is no lack of political metaphors. The daughter of the people at the bottom plays conspiracies and suffers oppression in a bourgeois family, and the hypocrisy and selfishness of the music teacher and the jealousy of his wife burn, bringing this peaceful-looking family to the brink of collapse. The film caused a huge sensation at the time, and its themes of class contradictions and moral disintegration had a profound impact on future Korean films.