Praised by Japanese film critics and much admired by his contemporaries, Tomu Uchida nonetheless remains a little-known in the west. His 1955 masterpiece Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is an excellent entry point for the newcomer. Set during the Edo period, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is a tragicomic road movie of sorts, following a samurai, his two servants - including spear-carrier Genpachi (Chiezô Kataoka) - and the various people they meet on their journey, including a policeman in pursuit of a thief, a young child and a woman who is to be sold into prostitution. Winner of a prestigious Blue Ribbon Award for supporting actor, Daisuke Katô, Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji is a film deserving of much wider international recognition.
An examination of the daily routine at a British auto factory assembly line, set against class-conflict and The Communist Manifesto.
Le Plaisir takes three of de Maupassant's stories as its source: in Le Masque, a masked dandy conceals a secret; in La Maison Tellier, the girls of a small-town brothel are taken on an outing to attend the communion of the madam's niece; and in La Modèle, a painter falls in love with his model, b...
Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al (Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth) and French-born Jacqui (Anna Jemison, Nomads). The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al's native New Zealand to tak...
