San Sebastian Film Festival ::

José Cottinelli Telmo

Portugal

118 min.

Medical student Vasco Leitao, lives on money that he receives from his aunts in Trás-os-Montes. They think that he's taking his studies seriously, but Vasco prefers parties and beautiful women, especially Alice, a seamstress, which does not make him popular with her father, the tailor Caetano, who knows very well that Vasco es heavily in debt. Vasco's problems grow. on the same day that he fails his final exam, he receives a letter from his aunts annoucing their arrival time in Lisbon.

Al-mummia

Chadi Abdes Salam

Egypt

102 min.

With the death of the chief of the hourabat tribe, the council of elders reveals to his two heirs, the orgins of the wealth of the tribe: the sarcophagus of the Pharaons which, together with their treasures, remained hidden for centuries and at all times guarded by members of the tribe, which on occasion, "collect" part of this treasure to ensure the group's survival. One of the brothers rebels because of what he considers a scareligious pillage and is murdered. The other, Wannis, is less impulsive, more hesitant, meditative; he ends up turning in the mummies to an archeologist wisiting the city. Thus an entire world including its ancient history, collapses. The Mummy is based on a true evet which took place in Egypt in 1881, while it belonged to the Ottoman Empire and just before Egypt came under British control. It was confirmed by the French Egyptologist, Gaston Maspero, thirty years ago.

Charlie Bubbles

Albert Finney

United Kingdom

91 min.

Despite being a rich and famous author, Charlie Bubbles is bored. He runs into an old friend, Smokey Pickles, and together they get drunk and paint the town red. They return to Charli'es mansion where he receives a phone call from his ex-wife, Lottie, who reminds him that he promised to take his son Jack to a football game. Charlie asks his secretary, Eliza, to come with him, and on the way allows her to make love to him. At the game he loses his son in the crowd and only finds him again when he returns to Lottie's house in the country. The next day, Charlie cuts the moorings to an observation ballon and rises slowly into the sky.

De cierta manera

Sara Gómez

Cuba

79 min.

The neighborhood of Miraflores, constructed in 1962 with the labor of those who would occupy it, was the result of a massive effort shortly after the revolution to erradicate de coutry's slums. These neighborhoods were home to the majority of the previously marginalized sectors of the Cuban population. The film employs both professional actors and real characters to enact a plot that combines several styles - the documental, the analitical, and the fictional- to reveal a conflict between old customs attempting to mantain their influence and a new concept of life.

Der Verlorene

Peter Lorre

Federal Republic of Germany

98 min.

Shortly after World War II, Dr. Karl Rothe practices medicine in a camp of German refugees. One day he discovers that Novak, his new assistant, is actually Hoesch, and old agent of the Gestapo. Hoesch is planning to escape and asks Rothe for help reminding him of the help that he received from Hoesch so long ago. The doctor agrees that he should pay the debt. We are taken back to 1943. Rothe, an inmunologist, completes his esperiments during the bombing raids on Hamburg. His asistant is Hoesch. The results of his experiments are made knon in London. His girlfriend, Inge Hermann, has betrayed him. Hoesch advises Rothe to kill her.

Flor de santidad

Adolfo Marsillach

Spain

109 min.

In the middle of the last century, Galicia, already impoverished, has the situation aggravated by the Carlist War. A pilgrim is picked up by Adaga, a girl sheperd, in a stable. Some mystic rites convince the teenager that she is in the presence of a divine being. The country folk thereabouts see him as diabolic and put him to death. Adega considers them guilty of having killed an emissary from God and announces that she is going to have his child. They believe her and come to see her as "La Santiña". The Carlists use Adega to further their cause, but superstition and the movements of the war quickly convert her into an enemy. She's declared a heretic and concemned to "The Night of the Demons".

Gangster Story

Walter Matthau

USA

70 min.

This movie tells of the rise and fall of a perverse criminal genius called Jack Martin, who eventually makes a pact whith a local mafia leader, Earl Dawson, in order to rob a bank. However, none of the crooks survive the attempt. Carol, a librarian who had a relationship with Martin, gets the news while on her way to Mexico.

Il Cristo proibito / The Forbidden Christ

Curzio Malaparte

Italy

92 min.

After years of war and captivity in Rusia, Bruno retuurns to his home town and discovers that his brother, a member of the resistance, has been denounced by a neighbout and shot by the Germans. Not only Bruno's family, but the entire village knows who the guilty man is, yet no one tells Bruno. He investigateds but to no avail; he discovers nothing and loses confidence in everyone, with exception of the carpenter, Antonio. Antonio tries to talk Bruno out of revenge, but doesn't suceed. He finally bears false witness against himself and is stabbed by Bruno, who then returns home, his hands still covered with blood. Upon seeing him, his mother loses control and screams, "You have killed Pinin!". Bruno now knows the informer's name and heads for his house.

Johnny Got His Gun

Dalton Trumbo

USA

111 min.

On the last day of World War I, American soldier Hoe Bonham is horribly wounded. He's diagnosed as brain damaged, and has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose and mouth. When he recovers conciousness, he realizes all this, and that he can't communicate with anyone. He appeals to Christ and then floats away into a dream world comprised of his memories. A nurse, convinced that his mind is intact, informs him of the coming of Christmas by signing "Merry Christmas" on his chest. She also realizes and informs the doctors that joe is trying to communicate via Morse Code, and this is confirmed by an expert.

Kotch

Jack Lemmon

USA

114 min.

Wilma, daugther-in-law to Joseph P. Kotcher, a man of seventy-two years, contracts Erica Herzenstiel as a nanny for her one year old son. Wilma fires her when Kotcher tells that Erica is having sexual relationships with her boyfriend when she should be looking after the child. Kotcher feels guilty about what happened and asks the now pregnant Erica to move in with him until the baby is born. Kotcher's sense of responsibility resists Erica's bad temper and disagreeable nature. Nevertheless, when the baby is born, Erica secretly packs her bags and leaves, leaving him totally alone.

L'espoir

Andre Malraux

France - Spain

88 min.

Comprises a series of episodes of war at the front and in the rear, linked together by the movements of the characters. A group of farmers from Aragon attempts to organize a defense against the advance of the nationalist troops. Some figthers escape from a village and undertake the job of transporting some dynamite guarded by other Republican aviation camp in order to report the location of some of Franco's planes. A plan to destroy them is developed and a mission launched, but one of the Republican bombers is hit and his plane crashes into the Sierra de Teruel. Some soldiers reach the site of the crash to recover the bodies and bury them with honors.

La veritaaaà

Cesare Zavattini

Italy

65 min.

In September 1981 Antonio, who is in his eighties, finds himself ina mental home for having laughed at situations that made other people cryinstead. one day he decides to run away, to get people to understand that they spout away about peace and brotherhood without knowing what they are saying: this is whay he behaves always in an exactly-opposite manner to the others , in order to protest against a mistaken moral current. In fact, during his escape, he does everything backwards. He proclaims anti-Christian propaganda in the catacombs, which he has entered by chance, and climbing up nto the famous balcony in Piazza Venezia, he speaks of the "liberating vomit", which in his language means throwing away old and useless words to invent new ones in order to create a true atmosphere of freedom. he also invites the populace t omake love, which is the most beautiful thing on earth, to such an extent that he identifies himself with his own thoughts, rousing the rabile to such a point that he decides to impart his message over the television. He thus inaugurates the channel for italians, where anyone can say what he thinks, and this renders him so proud. Convinced that he really has the power to change the world.

Les dents longues

Daniel Gélin

France

75 min.

Set in Lyon and Paris, 1952. A young and very ambitious journalist, Louise Commandeur, leaves Lyon and moves to Paris. Walter, chief editor of "París-France", an widely read newspaper, is empathetic and decides to help him realize his dreams. Driven by ambition, Commandeur neves ceases trying to usurp Walter, and finally succeeds by using his talents to help a dishonest pollitician. However, his previously loyal wife, Eva, withdraws her love and affection, but, fascinated by his desire to get to the top, she comes back to his side.

Limite

Mario Peixoto

Brazil

95 min.

A man and two women, exhausted from rowing a boat without knowing exactly where they are going, begin to tell the story of their lives. The first woman recently escaped from jail with the help of a guard, but had to flee her hideout when it became apparent that she had been discovered there. The second woman, egged on by the man, tells of her unenviable life. Desperate at being married to an alcoholic pianist who only played in cinemas, she abandoned her home. The man, a widower, confesses that he maintained relations with a married woman, later discovering that she had lepersy. Jumping into the water, the man tries to catch a barrel floating by. He chases after it and doesn't return. The second woman eventually attacks the first and remains the only survivor.

Llegar a más

Jesús Fernandez Santos

Spain

84 min.

In this his twenty-fifth year, Daniel is no happy with his life or with his luck. He works in a service station which ultimately fires him over a misunderstanding. Inspired by the current of workers marching to Germany, he escapes from his house. Amparo, his girlfriend, decides to go with him, but the next day, repentant, she returns home dragging Daniel with her. His father throws him out of the house. The two get married. They decide to emigrate, but Daniel is rejected because he has scar tissue in one of his lungs. His world begins to swing towards crimw and Guillermo who works with robbed articles. Daniel still wants out of the country, so he robs a warehouse and initiall gets away, but is arrested while entering a cab.

One-Eyed Jacks

Marlon Brando

USA

141 min.

Two bank robbers, Rio and longworth, have a posse of Mexican police after them. Rio holds them off while Longworth goes to get a fresh horse. Instead he disappears with the loot. After five years in jail, Rio escapes with a partner, Modesto, and they make it to Monterrey, where they encounter Mongworth, now a sheriff. Rio feigns lasting friendship and denies having been capture. Secretly hankering for revenge, he seduces Longworth's step-daugther, Luisa, and later reveals his true feelings in a most brutal manner.

Short Cut to Hell

James Cagney

USA

89 min.

Kyle, a young professional killer, searches for a man that paid him for two murders with counterfeit money. He meets Glory, girlfriend od the detective in charge od investigating the deaths and keeps her with him by force. Meanwhile the police close in.

Storm Center

Daniel Taradash

USA

86 min.

Alicia Hull, widow od a soldier killed in the Great War, is a librarian at the Kenport Public Library and comforts herself with the thought that her work is helping to guide the city's new generations. The authorities ask Alicia to take out of circulation The Communist Dream, a book which they consider subversive. At first Alicia accepts the petition, but later decides that the book's availability reaffirms her country's ideals of liberty. She is fired and martha Lockridge, her former assitant and good friend, takes her place.

The honeymoon killers

Leonard Kastle

USA

107 min.

martha Beck, a single nurse who works in an alabama hospital, joins a lonely hearts club and receives a letter from the Spanish emigrant, Ray Fernández. Inmmediately attracted to him, she tries to convince him to invite her to come live in his home in New York. Ray quickly writes back to say that he uses his body to obtain money from middle aged women. She is not put off, and she even goes on business trips with him, pretending to be his sister. Finally, however, Martha's jealousy leads to murder.

The Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton

USA

93 min.

During the Great Depresion, the unemployed Ben Harper robs a bank in a small community in West Virginia and kills two men while doing it. Harper manages to hide the loot before being captured and swears his two children, John and Pearl, to secrecy. His cell-mate before his execution is Harry Powell,a former evangelist. After his release, Powell searches out Harper's widow, willa, who, needing affection, agrees to marry him. Ir doesn't take Powell long to determine that she can't lead him to the hidden money, so he begins to harass the children to find out where it is. He finallly kills Willa to terrorize the m into talking, but they escape and take refuge in the home of Rachel Cooper, who protects and takes care of them. One day, however, Powell finds them. Rachel stalls him until the police arrive, he's captured and eventually sentenced to death. The children stay to live with Rachel.

Time Limit

Karl Malden

USA

95 min.

Geegee concentration camp in Korea. A communist patrol attacks a concentration camp in Korea, forcing the Americans guarding it to flee. One of the prisioners is shot trying to escape. The witnesses to the treason of commander Cargill are taken to the offices of Colonel Edwards, who plays along with the communists. He suspects the authenticity of the testimonies because they use exactly the same wording to describe the death of Captain Connors. Cargill makes Lt. Miller confess who strangled the General's son and who told on the official who tried to escape and was killed.

Un chant d'amour

Jean Genet

France

35 min. Medium-length film

This film was shot shortly before publication of the novel Journal du voleur (Diary of a Thief) in1949. In his novel and in the film, Genet again partakes of his personal experiences in order to adapt a poem about the homosexual love that developes ina prison and in the fantasies of the men held there. Genet made the film without a script and employed only the language of images. Given the moral imperatives of the time, the film remained unedited for several years. Its first public projection took place in New York, in March 1964. the asession's organizer, the underground filmmaker Jonas Mekas, had problems with the New York justice system and tribunals following claims that the film was "scandalous" and that it presentated numerois "immoral" scenes.

Vida en sombras

Lorenzo Llobet Gracia

Spain

90 min.

Born in the Photography of Movement booth at a fair, an amateur filmmaker by the age of fourteen, Carlos Durán becomes a professional cameraman and marries Ana after proposing during Cukor's Romeo and Juliet in the Teatro Coliseum. with the coming of the Civil War he leaces home to document it, and upon his return, finds Ana dead. To escape remorse, he becomes a front line journalist. Years later he meets Clara, whom helps him overcome his traumas by showing him Rebecca by Alfred Hitchcock.

Wanda

Barbara Loden

USA

105 min.

Wanda has just left her husband and two children. Knowing that she was less that what might be called the perfect homemaker, she accepts her divorce gracefully, believing that her children will have a better life if they stay with their father. From this moment on, Wanda's life becomes somewhat irregular. She finds a job that pays by hour and has relations with a variety of men, all of whom ultimately abandon her. In a cinema, she is robbed of money that she just received. Finally, she meets Dennis while he is in the act of robbing a bar. He escapes in a stolen car, taking Wanda with him. For a while they live together on money obtained by Dennis via a series of small robberies. Wanda wants to leace him, but can't, and he finally convinces her to collaborate in an attack on an important back.

Wechma

Hamid Benami

Marocco

100 min.

Mekki, a rich peasant with no children, visits the orphanage and adopts a boy called Messaoud. He swears on the sacred tree, a traditional symbol, that he will make Massaoud into a honest man and a good muslim in spite of his unknown background. Kamla, Mekki's wife, welcomes her adopted son with happiness and affection. Mekki starts to educate him making him learn all of the verses of the Koran by heart, but the boy gets distracted. Instead, he steals a fruit wich he hides in order to eat it later. Mekki punishes hi mseverely but Kamla comes to the boy's rescue saying that she gae him the fruit. Upset by his father's attitude, Messaoud reacts by stealing other things. Even worse, he makes friends with a small time thief and rund away from home. Mekki goes to look for him. Wilst he is away, Kamla tells Sidi el Harti, the local "doctor" of preoccupation for the bad relations between father and son. Mekki finds Massaoud and punishes him by burning the back of one of his hands. Shortly afterwards, Mekki becomes ill and dies. Messaoud grows up. He works in an attraction park but ends up fooling around with his friends, leaving his job to join them in their mischief.

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