World Cinema Classics Free on Youtube, Curated by Daniel Gauss

Monday, February 15, 2016

Something for the Boys - 1944 - Lewis Seiler

What's wrong with me? How could I neglect Carmen Miranda for so long?

Phil Silvers is also in this film - how can you not smile just seeing Phil Silvers?

And it's a movie based on a Cole Porter musical...

If nothing else the film gives you an idea of some of the escapism Americans enjoyed during World War II - a very difficult time, needless to say.

Dangerous Moonlight - 1941 - Brian Desmond Hurst

One of the better love stories from World War II.

See the film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfzqIKip-9k

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Caravaggio - Derek Jarman - 1986

See the film here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNZimk5itA

Monday, January 18, 2016

Floating Lives (Cánh dong bat tan) - 2010 - Nguyen Phan Quang Binh

Impressive Vietnamese film about a 'timeless' Vietnam - a family out in the remote countryside living as rural Vietnamese have lived for generations, facing the same universal problems.

Not to ruin the plot, but to give you some idea of it, a father and his two children survive on the Mekong River and take in a woman who has been brutally beaten by villagers for promiscuity. As the film develops you learn the backgrounds of all the characters.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Victim - 1961 - Starring Dirk Bogarde - Directed by Basil Dearden

Click on link here to see the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBTgzcpN6mQ

Dirk Bogarde is, in my humble estimation, one of the coolest actors ever.

If I am not mistaken, this film was banned in the USA because it dealt with a gay man suffering the injustice of being blackmailed because of his sexual orientation.

Indeed, it seems as if the film was made to criticize England's anti-gay laws. There is a very sympathetic police detective in the film who often argues against the laws, pointing out that they often lead to blackmail.

This may have been the first English-language film to even address the issue of homosexuality and the persecution of gay folks.

The US just did not want to acknowledge, at this time, that gay folks existed and banned the film.

This was an important film in the UK that helped open eyes and change anti-gay laws.