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The great Fred Zinnemann's last feature is a very personal story, a fairly uncomplicated drama with a mountain climbing backdrop. Sean Connery plays older than his age as a Scotsman on an Alpine vacation, toying with social disaster. With excellent, non- grandstanding performances from Betsy Brantley and Lambert Wilson. Five Days One Summer DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1982 / Color / 1:85 enhanced widescreen / 108 96 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Sean Connery, Betsy Brantley, Lambert Wilson, Jennifer Hilary, Isabel Dean, Gérard Buhr, Anna Massey, Sheila Reid, Emilie Lihou. Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno Film Editor Stuart Baird Original Music Elmer Bernstein Written by Michael Austin from the story 'Maiden Maiden' by Kay Boyle Produced and Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Fred Zinnemann is a filmmaker that I've come to admire, as much for his personal integrity as for the movies he made. He could be inconsistent and...

The 59Th BFI London Film Festival Announces Full 2015 Programme

You can peruse the programme at your leisure here.

The programme for the 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s rich and diverse selection of films and events. BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals. It introduces the finest new British and international films to an expanding London and UK-wide audience. The Festival provides an essential platform for films seeking global success; and promotes the careers of British and international filmmakers through its industry and awards programmes. With this year’s industry programme stronger than ever, offering international filmmakers and leaders a programme of insightful events covering every area of the film industry‎ Lff positions London as the world’s leading creative city.

The Festival will screen a...

Dry Summer

Written by Metin Erksan, Kemal Inci, and Ismet Soydan

Directed by Metin Erksan

Turkey, 1964

In 2013, the Criterion Collection released a Blu-Ray/DVD box-set entitled ‘Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project’. The box set consists of six films from various parts of the world that have received high-quality restorations, thanks to the assistance of Martin Scorsese and The Film Foundation. And yet, it has to be said that some of the films Scorsese had commissioned for restoration and home video release leave a lot to be desired: Djibril Diop Mambety’s The Journey of the Hyena (1973; Wolof title: Touki Bouki) is a Senegalese-made bore of a chore to sit thru as it imitates the horrid French New Wave works of Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard; The Wave (1936; Spanish title: Redes), an American-Mexican co-production between directors Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gomez Muriel and photographer Paul Strand, which is a short...

Top brass at the festival, set to run from September 24-October 8, have announced the selections in Focus Mexico.

The films are as follows:

Focus Mexico

The Obscure Spring (Las Oscuras Primaveras)

Ernesto Contreras

Manuela Jankovic’s War (La Guerra De Manuela Jankovic)

Diana Cardozo

González

Christian Díaz Pardo

Asteroide

Marcelo Tobar

The Absent (Los Ausentes)

Nicolás Pereda

Cumbres

Gabriel Nuncio

We Are Mari Pepa (Somos Mari Pepa)

Samuel Kishi

The Well (Manto Acuífero)

Michael Rowe

Güeros

Alonso Ruizpalacios

Cantinflas

Sebastian del Amo

Los Angeles

Damian John Harper

The Amazing Catfish (Los Insólitos Peces Gato)

Claudia Sainte-Luce

The Empty Hours (Las Horas Muertas)

Aaron Fernandez.

Panorama section

Words With Gods (Palabras Con Dioses)

Guillermo Arriaga, Héctor Babenco, Warwick Thornton, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Amos Gitai, Álex de la Iglesia, Emir Kusturica, Bahman Ghobadi

Short Plays

Daniel Gruener, Carlos Reygadas, Fernando Eimbcke, Felipe Gómez, Alejandro Valle, Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes, Pablo Fendrik, Pablo Stoll, [link...

Redes

Written by Agustin Velásquez Chávez and Paul Strand

Directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann

Mexico, 1936

A River Called Titas

Written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak

Bangladesh, 1973

Touki bouki

Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty

Senegal, 1973

The Criterion Collection set assembling films rediscovered through the efforts of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is one of the company’s premier achievements. Bringing together six diverse titles from six different regions of the globe, the collection is a treasure trove for those seeking obscure, rare, and fascinating works that extend well beyond film history’s conventional canon. As stated by Criterion itself, “Each is a cinematic revelation, depicting a culture not often seen by outsiders on-screen.” The set also emphasizes, through its calling attention to the efforts of the Wcp initiative, just how necessary and beneficial film preservation and restoration can be. The films included here are only...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Dec. 10, 2013

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $124.95

Studio: Criterion

Established by filmmaker Martin Scorsese in 2007, Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project expands the horizons of moviegoers everywhere. The mission of the Wcp is to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions of the world ill equipped to provide funding for major restorations. This collector’s set brings together six superb films from various countries, including Bangladesh/India (A River Called Titas), Mexico (Redes), Morocco (Trances), Senegal (Touki bouki), South Korea (The Housemaid), and Turkey (Dry Summer); each is a cinematic revelation, depicting a culture not often seen by outsiders.

Here’s a breakdown of all six:

Touki Bouki (1973)

Touki Bouki (1973, In Wolof with English subtitles)

With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. In this French New Wave–influenced fantasy-drama,...

This is part of Fred Zinnemann Week, hosted at Shadowplay.

I've found that, for some people, the classic-status ubiquity of certain scenes in From Here to Eternity or High Noon, plus the damned aura of taste and quality which surrounds an AFI-favored filmmaker like Fred Zinnemann, can be intensely off-putting. I've also found that I prefer some of the director's less celebrated works. In other words, I think he deserves his high reputation, but perhaps for reasons and films that aren't so well-trodden.

One of Fred Z.'s undoubted attributes was an eye for acting talent. If he had only introduced Brando, Clift and Steiger to the screen, he would deserve to be remembered, but in fact he directed the first films of Julie Harris, Brandon De Wilde, Tony Franciosa, William Hickey, Don Murray, Claude Akins, Shirley Jones and Meryl Streep. And he directed early film appearances of Jessica Tandy,...