White Whales

[wilder]

A thread for making note of the movies we want to see but are entirely unavailable, only without subtitles, or in extremely compromised versions...




Ray Lawrence's Bliss (1985)

Was restored a few years ago by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, so there's hope yet



An advertising executive dies and goes to hell... except nothing changes. Well, his daughter is buying drugs with sexual favours from her brother, and the number of cancer-causing products is on the increase. But the notes he writes to himself to prove he hasn't gone insane are getting more disjointed, and he runs off with an ex-prostitute called Honey Barbera.

Paulus Manker's The Moor's Head aka Der Kopf des Mohren (1995), the only theatrical feature film written but not directed by Michael Haneke

Was convinced this was unavailable for the longest time. Even a rip on Karagarga has failed to seed for several years. I just came across what is supposedly an English subtitled German DVD release not listed on Amazon DE, on Amazon UK, which I ordered. Still halfway convinced I'm going to receive a bootleg.



Georg, who is happy with his job as a scientist, with his loving wife and with his three children, hears one day that an accident has happened in a chemical plant nearby. All of a sudden, he finds himself face to face with one of the victims. The man, whose face has been eaten away by the sour gas that escaped from the plant, is staring at him in despair. Does Georg really see the man or is this a mere hallucination? Is he becoming insane or is he more alert to the dangers of the world than the common man?

A scientist (Gert Voss) increasingly alarmed at the violence, death and suicide in the world, begins to lose his mind, turning his apartment into self sufficient quarters with rabbits, chickens and vegetables grown under artificial light. Written by Michael Haneke this ultimately worthwhile film tests the patience in the first two thirds and comes across as an art-house version of Falling Down (1993).

A slew of Mexican noirs, but these most of all


The Scapular aka El Escapulario (1968)



A woman who is about to die calls the town's priest and hands him a scapulary, saying that she knows of its great powers. Anybody who does not believe in them will end up dead.

If Val Lewton produced and Orson Welles directed the story of a quiet Mexican Revolution-era pueblo where the lines between the supernatural and the miraculous, the holy and the satanic, blur.

MVP: Gabriel Figueroa's constantly astonishing photography, with loads and loads of beautiful, well-staged compositions. Montage is internalized; the cut disappears, and the statuesque Mexican actors are the glue that keep the off-kilter imagery together. The daring opening: we become one with the camera, as we stalk a priest who's delivering the last rites of a doña on her death-bed. There's no specific source to the ghoulishness: it's palpable, we can sense it in the air and in the murky-muddy photography, but we can't grasp it. The elusiveness of Figueroa's phantom images (fog curls around the actors, zooms serve to make the actor bigger-than-life and ant-sized) is breathtaking. The film becomes a powerful metaphor for the dangers that come to non-believers...but also, how concrete facts seem to vanish when we come face-to-face with the Utterly Irrational (a Jacques Tourneur-like swinging of hanged bodies, Figueroa's camera panning across them one-by-one, like a fascinated morgue inspector). André Bazin would have killed to have seen this. RKO "God is absent" horror, disguised as a Catholic parable.

Apparently restored at some point, as this trailer and clip exist on youtube:

Robert Gavaldón's La Otra (1946)



Delores Del Río delivers some of her best work in dual roles as twin sisters María and Magdalena in this eerie thriller about a poor manicurist who murders her recently widowed, social climbing sister to inhabit her lifestyle, which entails unimagined sinister dimensions. There are undeniable shades of Hitchcock and Clouzot, but Gavaldón, best known for his fantastical B. Traven adaptation Macario, is a unique master of cinema in his own right deserving wider recognition. Though not as well known as Gabriel Figueroa, Canadian-born cinematographer Alex Phillips was a frequent collaborator of Gavaldón, Emilio Fernández and Fernando de Fuentes whose menacing chiaroscuro takes center stage in a number of nightmarish set pieces.

The Spectacle Theater subtitled this themselves and screened it 8 years ago, but I wasn't there for it.





Patrick Tam's Love Massacre (1981)



Set in a surprisingly minimalist San Francisco, Patrick Tam's stylish slasher movie manages to evoke both Antonioni and Mario Bava in this tale of a ravishing young co-ed (Brigitte Lin) whose studly boyfriend (Chang Kuo-chu) turns into a demented stalker after the suicide of his sister.




Cannot fathom how incredible this film might look if restored

Gabi Kubach's Trauma (1983), starring Birgit Doll of The Seventh Continent (1989)

After this mostly for the cinematography, based on stills I've found online. I bought a German VHS tape of the movie several years ago, but have no way to play it. Considered going as far as having it transferred to DVD, but since it doesn't even have subtitles I can't really justify the cost.



Anna visits an isolated house somewhere on the Breton coast to look for a woman who went missing in the area. Her investigative search turns into a trip into her own inner world. She is confronted with a dreadful childhood trauma that she never dealt with, for the stranger's traces she follows are in reality the traces of her own buried past.












Falbalas aka Paris Thrills (1945)

Because Phantom Thread will still be great, but we've gotta know, right?



Philippe Clarence, a famous Parisian dressmaker, seduces his friend's fiancee. But, for the 1st time in his life, this is for real. The film is also a sharp picture of the fashion world.

[jenkins]

the expression is that the mastery of anything requires obsession

[wilder]

Alright I'm going to keep going with this

Many of these clips won't play as embedded but can be watched directly on youtube...



Aleksander Ford's Knights of The Teutonic Order aka Krzyżacy (1960)



A tale of a young impoverished nobleman, who with his uncle returns from a war against the order of the Teutonic Knights in Lithuania. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and pledges an oath to bring her "three trophies" from the Teutonic Knights.

The medieval ages come alive in a wide angle lens and glorious Kodak Eastmancolor [NOTE: I watched this film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the result is stunning]. Black Cross a.k.a Knights of the Teutonic Order while being one of the most popular and successful Polish films ever made still remains underrated and under seen in other parts of the globe. Yet its magnitude in scope and delivery of all facets of cinema appears to be on par if not superior than most the American/Hollywood grand classics of that era. Truly superb filmmaking and an epic vision of a period piece brought to life.

While being noted as one of the biggest blockbuster/box office successes of Poland, it is much more than just a sword and sandal kind of epic (or in this case sword and shield). It is a film directly centering on the historical importance that Poland played (along with a Lithuania union) on turning the tides of power against the Teutonic order during the Battle of Grunwald and thus beginning about the end of the centuries of Crusades. I'm personally not so much of a history scholar to know of how accurate the film's representation of said events were but regardless I think the film sticks close enough to the truth to speak its importance while perhaps maybe dramatizing other portions for high cinematic value. I mean it's no secret anymore that the Knights of the Teutonic Order and other such legions crusading during the middle ages for the Catholic church conquered and plundered their way through the message of god.

In that sense, the grandiose viewpoint of the story could be factual while the smaller scale segments between certain character's relationships, loves, conflicts and tribulations could be felt more personal and involved than just a mere history lesson. This is in my opinion where director Aleksander Ford achieves his greatest feat in combining cinematic characters within a large historical portrait and the degree of importance is leveled equally upon both. While this of course impresses me and is what makes the film so great in comparison to other historical epics, it also doesn't hurt to praise the immense technicality behind this film from costume designs to the choreographed battles. Ford directs everything to a near pitch perfect form.

Second Run put this out on DVD in the UK almost 15 years ago, and it was distributed restored in Milestone's more recent 'Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema Vol. 3' blu-ray box set, but that was $150 even when still available, and is now OOP.





Frank Beyer's Star-Crossed Lovers (1962) aka Königskinder. Recently restored by DEFA

Magdalena and Michael have loved each other since they were children. But when the Nazis come to power, Michael rebels against the regime and is sentenced to fifteen years in a concentration camp. Magdalena, meanwhile, goes underground with the help of a friend and later immigrates to the Soviet Union. Michael, who has joined the Red Army, discovers on the way to Moscow that Magdalena is staying there. But when his plane lands, she is already on her way back to Germany. Michael hopes that one day, he and Magdalena will be reunited.

Star-crossed lovers - and more importantly comrades, in a movie the restorer described as "every shot is amazing". The craft is just that, with the East German director clearly taking Russian and Polish style and running with it. Once or twice I would have like a little less dutch and a little more right-angle - but amazing is fair.

Eduardo de Gregorio's Corps perdus (1980), based on stills, his co-writing credits on Jacques Rivette's films, a post-mortem write-up by Jonathan Rosenbaum (quoted below), and his multiple collaborations with Bulle Ogier, who for my money is one of greatest actresses who ever lived.

From another point of view, these houses in de Gregorio's films function in much the same way as manuscripts, paintings, and films — as time machines that are also thresholds into alternate realities, which in Borgesian terms might be described as alternate fictions. For it's important to recognize that what we call "reality" in de Gregorio's universe is most often a matter of dialectical fictions: two scheming sexpots (Bulle Ogier and Marie France Pisier — whether they're competing in Céline et Julie's film-within-a-film or working in tandem in Sérail); the separate interests of art and commerce (in Sérail, Aspern, and Corps perdus); juxtapositions of the Anglo-American 19th century (via references to Collins, James, Poe, Stevenson, et al.) with the continental European or South American 20th — indeed, nearly always two or more separate national cultures interfacing and interacting across separate time frames and historical periods.

Basically a filmmaker of the fantastique — even when he's rummaging around in a reasonable facsimile of real history in Aspern and an even more persuasive (if chilling) version of real history and politics in La mémoire courte —- de Gregorio also participated in generating the other-worldly fantasies of Rivette's Céline and Julie, Duelle, Noroît, and Merry-Go-Round (as well as the history of Jean-Louis Comolli's 1975 La Cecilia), only the first of which is playing in this retrospective. All of these share with most of de Gregorio's own features a universe where women, many of them divas, are often the ones in control. What they don't share are the conniving and cynical men who try to deceive and outwit them — i.e., the heroes of Sérail, Aspern, and Corps perdus, played respectively by Corin Redgrave, Jean Sorel, and Tchéky Karyo.

Kazimierz Kutz's Nobody's Calling aka Nikt nie wola (1960)

In 1960 Kazimierz Kutz' second film NIKT NIE WOLA / NOBODY'S CALLING, based on a Jozef Hen novel that was never published in Poland, described the fate of Poles on the Eastern Front. Kutz used the film to explore new formal solutions, collaborating closely with cinematographer Jerzy Wojcik to reveal the psychological landscape of a pair of lovers who are strongly affected by wartime events. The camera recorded the couple's inner experiences, contrasting their muted intimacy against the surrounding scenery of a ruined town. The film did not win over critics at the time of its release. It was not until later that critics recognized Kutz's effort to experiment with aesthetics in a manner akin to that pursued by filmmakers of the new wave. NOBODY'S CALLING came to be compared with Michelangelo Antonioni's THE ADVENTURE, which was produced around the same time.

"Nikt nie woła" is a brilliant amalgam of existential exhaustion and nihilistic wandering of love. Director's sharp flaming is powerfully heterogenerous, capturing grey ruins, depression, devastatation stylistically and sinisterly. A sequence about lovers on a bed is like an oneiric apocalypse. Doomed magnificence at its finest. And RIP Kazimierz Kutz, one of the most majestic Polish directors.

Jerzy Kawalerowicz Mother Joan of Angels aka Matka Joanna od Aniołów (1961), also shot by Jerzy Wojcick

A priest is sent to a small parish in the Polish countryside which is believed to be under demonic possession and there he finds his own temptations awaiting.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival and predating Russell's extraordinarily versatile masterpiece of religious fundamentalisms insanity by ten years, Jerzy Kawalerowicz's tremendously potent masterpiece featuring the aesthetics of Dreyer's Day of Wrath (1943), a deeply religious Catholic priest with the piety and trembling faith of Bergman's protagonist in Winter Light (1963) and embellished with naturalistic and minimalist foreshadowings of the majestic cinematographic and visual tints of Vlácil's Valley of the Bees (1968) is a powerful hypothetical sequel set in 17th Century Poland taking place right after the events of Russell's The Devils (1971) in which a priest, visiting a nearby inn, is confronted with the task of getting rid of the collective demonic possessions that has taken over the nuns at the convent in spite of the failure of four previous priests that attempted the same endeavor. This film, however, resorts this time to a novella written by Polish poet Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz.

Much more psychologically focused on the humanity of the characters and never shying away from its controversial religious topics of demonic activity, love impulses and blasphemy, Mother Joan of the Angels, directed by a Polish master responsible for films such as Night Train (1959), is filmed with sublime beauty and humanism featuring a horror sequence in the middle of the film unlike anything filmed at the time. Extraordinarily recommended and filmed with splendor, it is one of the best five films of 1961 and an unforgettable celluloid experience.

While Ken Russell's adaptation is still dementedly brilliant, it is a shame that his over the top and blasphemous rendition of the same source material (or rather prequel of events) overshadows this potent Polish horror film. Imagine the aesthetic of Bergman in filtering out the bleak hopelessness of the human soul filmed in exquisite and vivid monochrome reminiscent of the visionaries of the Czech New Wave (Vlacil in particular). This culmination of minimalistic but sublime cinematography accompanied with naturalistic tones and themes on righteousness and evil are what make Mother Joan of the Angels stellar beyond belief.

Grzegorz Królikiewicz's The Dancing Hawk aka Tanczacy jastrzab (1977), shot by Zbigniew Rybczynski, who was also the DP of Angst (1983)



Impossibly produced under Poland's heavily censored Cold War film industry, Grzegorz Królikiewicz's career-defining post-expressionistic masterpiece Tańczący Jastrząb ("The Dancing Hawk") trails the life story of runty opportunist Michal Toporny as he rises from the dirt floor of a rural farm to the top of the communist industrial complex. As his career develops and mindless ambition devours his entire being, Toporny quietly sells out the family and community that produced him, simultaneously a chilling allegory and hilarious satire of Polish society on the brink of collapse.

Wojciech Jerzy Has'How to Be Loved aka Jak być kochaną (1963)



An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator.

and these other two by him


Wojciech Jerzy Has' Goodbye to the Past aka Rozstanie (1961)



An actress visits her hometown to attend the funeral of her grandfather. She realizes that the places and people from her past differ from her cherished memories.



Wojciech Jerzy Has' The Noose aka Pętla (1958)



A day in the life of an alcoholic. With the help of his girlfriend Krysia, Kuba attempts to regain control of his life. But when his girlfriend is at work and Kuba home alone, resisting temptation becomes hard.





Bertrand Mandico's short films Notre-Dame des Hormones (2015) and Depressive Cop (2017)



Two aging actresses take a long weekend in the countryside to practice their latest roles, but become side-tracked when they fall into a violent love triangle with a purring oozing organ discovered in the woods.



On a Scottish island, a depressed cop investigates a girl's disappearance. The distraught mother accuses the island's inhabitants for her daughter's disappearance. Mother and daughter are in fact the same person.

Ivana Massetti's Domino (1988)  because...look at it



A girl in the video industry travels with a jeweled turtle and makes Billie Holliday videos. Though having relations with some of her friends, she is looking for love. She begins getting calls from a stranger who tells her not to worry, that he'll watch over her. But when she wants to meet him he does not show up.






It's , unsubbed, in Italian




In making this post, I'm learning some of these are more available than I thought...




Chen Kun-Hou's Growing Up (1983) is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, and is also available in an English-subtitled but pricey blu-ray box set Taiwan New Wave Cinema



A coming of age tale, following the rebellious youth of Shieng, a teen struggling through the ups and downs of life with his mother and her new, older husband. Co-written by highly acclaimed director Hou Hsiao-hisen ("The Assassin"), "Growing Up" remains an iconic work in the New Taiwan Cinema movement.

Reminds of later films by Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang in its time-period of the 50's, its focus on youth and its key theme of conflict between the residents and the Chinese immigrants. A truly nostalgic movie, with work by many collaborators of those great directors. It won the Taiwan Oscar for Best film and Best director.

Gustaf Molander's Eva (1948), written by Ingmar Bergman, which is streaming on The Criterion Channel

Haunted by childhood tragedy, a young trumpeter returns home on leave from the navy to visit his family and friends, and subsequently becomes involved with a young woman from a neighbouring farm. However, their long-distance courtship is threatened by his twin obsessions of sex and death, but eventually marriage and children follow anyway. Molander's affecting rollercoaster of a film dares to both ask and answer the age old question "what's it all about?" And whilst it's seldom subtle, its daring of script, bravery of performance, and directness of presentation ensure that it's a work of quite some power.

Many stills from it here





Ulrike Ottinger's Madame X: An Absolute Ruler aka Madame X: Eine Absolute Herrscherin (1977)



In this lesbian pirate movie, a motley crew of women escape patriarchal tyranny to follow Madame X (Tabea Blumenschein) aboard her ship, the Orlando. However they soon find themselves exchanging one kind of servitude for another as their leader demands complete devotion.

Ulrike Ottinger has a larger body of work than almost any other lesbian filmmaker, and her rarely seen first feature contains most of the elements that make her work so unique and ahead of its time. In this extravagantly aestheticized, postmodern pirate film she appropriates the male genre for feminist allegory. Madame X — the cruel, uncrowned ruler of the China seas — promises "gold, love, and adventure" to all women who'll leave their humdrum lives behind. Gathered aboard her ship, Orlando, are a range of types: a frumpy housewife, a glamorous diva, a psychologist, a very German outdoorswoman, a bush pilot, an artist (played by Yvonne Rainer), and a "native" beauty. Their utopia devolves into betrayal and self-destruction—leading to eventual transformation—as the power games of the outside world are ritualized among the women. Tabea Blumenschein, who designed the film's outrageous costumes, appears in a dual role as the pirate queen and the ship's lovely, leather clad figurehead. Refusing conventional storytelling and realism for a rich, non-synchronous soundtrack, the film invites its audience along for an unprecedented journey that celebrates the marginal." — Patricia White, Swarthmore College

While a DVD is available to order from Women Make Movies, a DCP of it screened at the Quad Cinema in NY last year, so maybe an upgrade is in order





Ulrike Ottinger's Ticket of No Return 1979)



Ottinger's collision of Hollywood flamboyance and a particularly dour documentary aesthetic suits this Janus-faced tale of two female lushes from two very different walks of life, alike in many ways, but incapable of recognizing their bond. One is a known bag lady barfly; the other a socialite oddball who stays aloof from her surroundings, quietly but intently suiciding with booze. Their paired stories play out in a Berlin peopled by punks and New German Cinema icons, including Nina Hagen, Tabea Blumenschein, Magdalena Montezuma, and Eddie Constantine.

Also on DVD from Women Make Movies





Fred Zinnemann's A Hatful of Rain (1957) which was also restored at some point. Scorsese has brought this movie up as having made a great impact on him again and again. Currently available to rent and buy in HD on Amazon



Based on the stage play by Michael V. Gazzo, this noir-stained drama provides a searing look at the emotional carnage of a drug addicted ex-G.I. (Don Murray) along with his family and friends. Perhaps the harshest and most realistic perspective of a grim topic that holds up better than any other film of its type.

[WorldForgot]

I'm sure there's many more but I'll start with the one that comes to mind first :

Karel Smyczek's Why? (1987)

The film deals with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games.

[Robyn]

This one is on DVD but super expensive for some reason? Can't find it anywhere else online.

[putneyswipe]

https://reviviendoviejasjoyas.blogspot.com/?m=1

https://worldscinema.org/

https://rarefilmm.com/

https://rarelust.com/

http://rarefilm.net/

These sites have come in handy for me

[wilder]

Karel Smyczek's Why? (1987)

The film deals with the hooliganism in Czechoslovakia, particularly with the fans of football club Sparta from Prague, whose supporters were the pioneers of the football fan riots in Czechoslovakia, starting with hooligan actions already in the 1960s, like breaking the trains in which they travelled when they went on Sparta's away games.

Sounds cool, cool poster, too. I'll look out for it.

This one is on DVD but super expensive for some reason? Can't find it anywhere else online.

Robyn - there's both an English-subtitled DVD and Blu-ray available from YesAsia. Hong Kong versions.

The Hong Kong DVD is R3 so you'd need a region-free player. The blu-ray is Region A. Beware there are a couple more releases of that film on YesAsia from China and Taiwan that don't have subs. Shipping to Sweden is $5

There are also some listings for both the DVD and blu-ray on eBay UK and eBay.

[Robyn]

ooooh nice!! thanks!

[wilder]

https://rarefilmm.com/

This site is unreal and I'd never heard of it before. So many interesting-looking obscurities. Among the more familiar but unreleased titles available to stream directly on the site are...


Lodge Kerrigan's Claire Dolan (1998)

Paul Verhoeven's Turkish Delight (1973)

Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange (1977)

Todd Solondz's Fear, Anxiety, & Depression (1989)

Sidney Lumet's The Appointment (1969)

Robert Altman's Health (1980)

Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957)

Robert Downey Sr.'s Pound (1970)

Stephen Sayadian's Dr. Caligari (1989)

Richard Brooks' Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977)

Claude Miller's Moretelle randoneé (1983) - In HD. With subs. what.the.fuck.

Juraz Herz's Beauty the Beast (1977)

Michael Haneke's Fräulein (1985)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Lili Marleen (1981)

Edward Yang's Mahjong (1986)

Francois Ozon's See the Sea (1997)

Alain Tanner's La salamandre (1971)

And the great cinematography documentary Visions of Light (1992)

[WorldForgot]

https://rarefilmm.com/

This site is unreal and I’d never heard of it before. So many interesting-looking obscurities. Among the more familiar but unreleased titles available to stream directly on the site are...

Stephen Sayadian’s Dr. Caligari (1989)

This movie iz fucking perfect -- if you're a fan of cult cinema or skin flicks with a pulse, this iz one to cherish.

[Robyn]

My friend used to a have letterboxd list with all the available titles on rarefilm. I messaged him about it.

In meantime there's still this:

https://letterboxd.com/smiskfisk/list/almost-every-title-from-worldscinemaorg/

https://worldscinema.org/

[wilder]

Amazing.

[Robyn]

He told me that it was taken down by the admin, but he might send me the excel file with all the titles. I could turn that into a letterboxd list and keep it anonymous if you guys wants to.

It's a nice tool since it's easier to navigate and you can filter the list by your watchlist etc.

[WorldForgot]

Yes, would defo appreciate that!

[Robyn]

Yes, would defo appreciate that!

I'm sorry, he never sent it to me