72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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Frank Borzage
Films
Films
Frank Borzage
90 min.
Volunteering with the Red Cross, while on duty at the Austrian-Italian front student Frederic Henry strikes up a relationship at a refuge with a nurse called Catherine. Separated by the war, Frederic suffers an injury and is sent to convalesce at Catherine's hospital - an idyll destined to disruption when Frederic is sent back to the front. But lack of response to his letters spurs Frederic's decision to desert and set off in search of the girl.
Frank Borzage
88 min.
Dot is a model used to turning men's heads. Meeting a man called Eddie who dreams of opening a shop, the couple marries and Dot falls pregnant, creating a number of misunderstandings caused by the fact that both believe the other doesn't want children. Dot, whose mother died in labour, suffers from an obssessive fear of giving birth, and Eddie, wanting her to be attended by the best gynaecologist in New York, does what he can to pay the astronomical fees.
Frank Borzage
80 min.
New York taxi drivers are split into two groups: those who work for themselves and those in the employment of the Comet Cab Company. Self-employed Joe Benton is married to a Romanian woman called Anna who had arrived in the States three years earlier with her brother Paul. Comet Cabs hire some thugs to attack the drivers earning their own livings and their ringleader hides a bomb in a box sent by Anna to her brother, with the upshot of the latter's death and destruction of the surrounding premises. Anna is accused of the crime and the Mayor orders repatriation of the young, and by now pregnant, woman.
Frank Borzage
88 min.
Aviator Cliff Brandon runs supplies to and frombetween India and China. One day, when an old Chineseman is trying to sell his daughter to any American soldier who'll have her, Brandon falls drunkenly out of a bar and shoves a handful of dollars at the old man, unaware that he has just purchased Shu-Jen (?Beautiful Gem?). Although his first reaction is to take the girl back, a missionary warns him that doing so would only make her family even poorer. Shu-Jen transforms the soldier's hovel into a flower-filled home and the couple eventually get married, only to be separated by the war.
Frank Borzage
78 min.
Having left home to dedicate his entire life to his passion of painting, Julian's restaurant run-in with a childhood love leads to marriage and a daughter. Returning home after a solitary stay in Paris with the intention of perfecting his style, Julian is a changed man. Telling his wife he no longer loves her, mother and daughter move in with a rich suitor; but when the girl lands in hospital after being crushed beneath the branch of a tree while playing in the garden, Julian makes secret visits to see her.
Frank Borzage
99 min.
Having stolen a magnificent pearl necklace in Paris, Madeleine blazes the trail to Spain in her soft-top. Running into an American, Tom, she takes advantage of his company to get over the border with the stolen jewellery by hiding it in his jacket. They meet again in San Sebastian, where by this time Madeleine is pretending to be a countess while her sidekick Carlos is imitating a Russian prince. During a stay in San Sebastian and later in Aranjuez, the purloiners attempt to recover the necklace as Tom falls in love with the lady thief.
Frank Borzage
90 min.
World-famous surgeon Forster, who's known for being hard on his students, has taken particular delight in unleashing the sharp edge of his fury on one of his students, Beaven, nevertheless the specialist's chosen assistant at the end of his studies. Falling in love with Audrey, an orphaned woman of Chinese origin on whom he has to operate, Beaven asks the girl to marry him and Forster sets about persuading her to refuse the offer for the good of Beaven's scientific work. The young girl's departure for a war-ridden China soon has Beaven hot on her heels.
Frank Borzage
85 min.
When Professor Endicott makes a mistake in the operating theatre causing a woman's death, his assistant Paige takes the blame and sacrifices his career in response to the investigation into the decease demanded by the victim's daughter Phyllis. Out of a job, Paige meets Stafford, a bacteriologist working on a vaccination against meningitis. Paige innoculates himself with the vaccination in an attempt to bear out its efficacity while Phyllis, having learned the truth from Nurse Frances in the meantime, desperately hopes that he'll pull through.
Frank Borzage
93 min.
Indiana-born Ann arrives in New York determined to land an audition with the famous composer Charles Gerard and start a career as a singer. She hopes to enlist the help of her brother Martin, who's lavish apartment has her convinced that he is a millionaire - although he is in reality only Gerard's privileged butler. The thing is that one of the butler's jobs is precisely to keep eager young girls away from his employer.
Frank Borzage
97 min.
Having fled her multimillionaire husband Bruce Vail because of his dreadful bouts of jealousy, Irene lives in Paris waiting for the judges to make their decision. Vail resorts to particularly nasty tactics to stop her from getting her much-wanted divorce, such as paying his chauffeur to slip into her room and allow himself to be caught there. But his plans are upset when the next door neighbour hears Irene's screams and rushes to her assistance.
Frank Borzage
76 min.
In late 19th century in New York's Lower East Side with its hoards of Jewish immigrants Mama Kantor does what she can to raise her numerous offspring, including Leon, who wants to be a musician. Grudgingly equipped by his father with a violin, the boy turns out to be a virtuouso with the instrument and even goes on to make something of a name for himself; but war breaking out in Europe leads the young boy to enlist, unfortunately resulting in an injury to his arm meaning that he can no longer play the violin.
Frank Borzage
117 min.
Philadelphia, 1925. Illustrious pianist Goronoff wearily listens to a series of young scholarship candidates, only one of whom, his old Viennese friend Hassman's daughter Myra, is capable of breaking the monotony with her talent and verve. Only four weeks of intensive training from the maestro have the girl playing the instrument like a virtuoso and professing submissive love for her instructor. Setting off on a highly successful tour, the atmosphere is tainted by Goronoff's treatment of the girl as one of his creations rather than as an equal.
Frank Borzage
78 min.
Well-deserving of his nickname, ?Lazybones?, Steve's amorous advances to Agnes are not exactly to the liking of the girl's mother, who has already decided to marry off her other daughter, Ruth, to the wealthy Elmer Ballister, hence ordering the girl back from her boarding school. Mother of a daughter by a missing seaman, Ruth's attempted suicide fails when Steve saves her life and she decides to entrust him with her child. Steve proves to be a good father and keeps the secret, despite the fact that it means the end of his relationship with Agnes.
Frank Borzage
90 min.
Smooth-talking fairground lady's man Liliom loses his job as an employee on the merry-go-round at Budapest's Luna Park for flirting with Julie, who came to the spend a day off from her job as a maid. Becoming lovers, Julie falls pregnant and Liliom decides to take part in a hold-up to get the money to support his family - but the heist is a failure and Liliom stabs himself to escape dishonour. Out of the blue, a strange and spectral train appears to take him off to the great beyond.
Frank Borzage
90 min.
Hans loses his job for failing to meet the amorous expectations of Marie, daughter of his hateful boss Kleinholtz during the last throes of Germany's Weimar Republic, when unemployment figures rose to somewhere around the 6 million mark. While the boy has until now kept his marriage with the lovely Lämmchen a secret, the couple has no choice but to move to Berlin where Hans' stepmother has promised them work and a place to stay.
Frank Borzage
80 min.
Although millionaire Terry Parker survives the crash when his private jet goes down, his parents and sister are not quite so lucky and lose their life in the accident, sending him into a mad helter-skelter of a life in which he takes outrageous risks while flying. In an attempt to rescue his friend from his desperation, Gibralter introduces him to the elegant young Amy. Despite the fact that they immediately fall for one another and tie the knot, Terry can't adapt and Amy has to muster up all of her strength to save her marriage with the help of the trusty Gibralter.
Frank Borzage
105 min.
A poor, uncouth peasant woman, Mary meets Martin Wrenn, a power line installer, and his employee Tim Osborne. Both go to the war, but Tim comes back in a wheelchair. Mary increases her visits to his house and Tim, eventually convincing the girl to wash and take care of him, succeeds in turning her into a real lady. But it's the medal-bearing Sergeant Wrenn who tries to take advantage of the change.
Frank Borzage
75 min.
Having had nothing to eat for the last two days, young Trina's eyes are rivited on the scene as Bill sits on a Central Park bench in top hat and tails feeding the pigeons. Leading her to a fancy restaurant without a cent to his name, the cheeky tramp gets out of the situation by threatening to create a scandal if they don't let him away without paying. He later takes the girl to a large encampment of homeless people beside Brooklyn Bridge where they set up some kind of an abode together.
Frank Borzage
94 min.
Living in a poor Manhattan district where she and her family get by on her meagre factory wage, Jessie sees her saviour in the local hit-man Eddie and begs him to marry her. At their wedding reception, Jessie and Eddie meet Hennessey, whose honest hard work has helped him to build his humble boat business into a big shipbuilding enterprise. Noting Hennessey's interest in Jessie, Eddie comes up with a plan to swindle the man.
Frank Borzage
90 min.
The other kids, and particularly Jerry, constantly torment Danny by bringing up his father's death by hanging. The rivalry between the two boys continues into adulthood and, while fighting over Gilly, for who's favours they both compete, Danny kills Jerry in self defence. Although he declares his love to the girl, Danny's fear that Jerry's body will be found together with the incriminating knife he lost in the woods drives him to follow his father's fate.
Frank Borzage
78 min.
Two rival gangs of high school students in Budapest play at war for the possession of a playground. They are clever schoolboys who aspire to emulate the grownups by imitating their discipline, words and precepts. Under the command of ?captain? Boka, the boys of Pál Street fight against the ?Red shirts? led by Feri Áts. All are ?officers? in Boka's regiment; the only ?private? is Nemecsek, a fragile boy willing to perform any exploit for a rise in position.
Frank Borzage
26 min.
Hal, a rich businessman's disowned son heading West, jumps from the train in Silvertown, where the drunken boor of a miner Nugget Jim allows his daughter Madge to work in a lousy dump. Hal rescues Madge and obliges Jim to start working, succeeding with time in knocking the whole thing into family shape. Just when things are starting to go right, he gets a letter from his father saying that all is forgiven and asking him to go home.
Frank Borzage
90 min.
Watching over her seriously ill husband in her London home, 80-year-old Lady Carlton re-reads an intimate diary entitled ?Secrets? covering her entire life ever she began a secret love affair with her father's secretary, John Carlton, at the age of 18. The couple have weathered all sorts of ups and downs: their hard work as farmers in Wyoming, the death of a son, her husband's infidelity on their return to London... but they've managed to stay together right to the end.
Frank Borzage
85 min.
Mary and John have weathered many a storm as a married couple: her family's opposition, the harshness of life in the West, his infidelities on becoming a famous businessman and politician... But now the couple, still as much in love as they were on the first day despite being in their seventies, unleash their children's indignant stupefaction on deciding to head for California.
Frank Borzage
98 min.
While a New York journalist is reporting on the tulip festival in a hamlet inhabited by Dutch descendents, he stays in a hotel run by the amusing Van Maaster and his seven pretty daughters, all of whom, except the eldest, have men's names and wear men's clothes as a result of the fact that their parents would really have preferred to have sons. The journalist falls for the second eldest daughter, Billie, but family tradition dictates that none of the others can get married before the eldest daughter has tied the knot.
Frank Borzage
120 min.
Parisian sewage worker Chico saves the orphaned petty criminal Diane from detention by claiming to be her husband. Having been warned by the gendarmes that their story will be checked out, the two move into his shelter beneath the rooftops of the city while the investigation goes on. The couple's blooming love is brought to an end as war breaks out and Chico has to join his regiment, with the promise that every day at exactly eleven o'clock he will think of Diane.
Frank Borzage
100 min.
Aged aristocrat Sir John grudgingly accepts to take in the niece of his beloved dead wife with the ghost of whom he has been sharing his years of reclusion. Moonyean, his wife and only love, was killed by a jealous rival right in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Delighted to discover with time that his adoptive daughter bears a remarkable resemblance to Moonyean, Sir John reacts with vehement opposition when the son of his wife's murderer meets the girl and falls in love with her.
Frank Borzage
85 min.
Several years previously, the tenor Sean O'Carolan had renounced his international career when his beloved Mary had been obliged by her aunt to marry a rich man. Now abandonded by her husband to poverty and with two children, the poor woman has nothing better to do but to go home and accept the tyrannical hospitality of her old aunt, a stifling existence causing her to lose the will to live. Deciding to help his friends, Sean comes out of retirement and sets out on a triumphant tour.
Frank Borzage
113 min.
A prisoner on a remote tropical island, Verne is sent to work at the quais where he meets Julie, a prostitute from Marseilles with whom he manages to arrange secret meetings thanks to the help of a mysterious stranger, Cambreau, who takes his place on the chain gang. Hearing of a planned escape, both Verne and Cambreau sign up. Verne collects Julie on his way to freedom, but an unfortunate drop in the wind drops leaves the fugitives at the mercy of the scorching sun.
Frank Borzage
117 min.
Needing an expensive drug to cure her bedridden mother, Angela's desperate turn to prostitution earns her nothing but a year-long jail sentence. Escaping en route to prison, taking refuge with a circus leads to her meeting with a street artist called Gino who proceeds to paint her beautiful portrait. Their ensuing love affair is short-lived when the police track Angela down and put her under arrest, driving Gino insane at the thought that she isn't as pure and innocent as she seemed to be when they first met.
Frank Borzage
149 min.
Arab Princess Fara discovers on her mother's death that her father is Herod Antipas, that she is in fact half-Jewish, and that her forbear had abandoned the family roost. Swearing to take revenge for the affrontery and kill the despot, the young girl heads for Galilee where she finds shelter in the home of Simon the fisherman, discovering his fury with ?this Nazarene who perverts his crew? (John, James and Andrew) as a result of his teachings. Attending one of Herod's sermons, Fara is deeply disturbed at the mandate to love one's enemies.
Frank Borzage
75 min.
Grace has two suitors, Tom and Dick. While Tom, the better behaved of the two, plays cards with his sweetheart's parents, Dick takes the chance to flirt. Eventually marrying Tom, the difficulties experienced by the young couple with their modest lifestyle only get worse when they invite a businessman to dinner to sign a contract and the evening turns out to be a disaster. Grace goes home to her mother, but everything sorts itself out when Tom finally lands the much dreamed-of contract.
Frank Borzage
80 min.
Having come down in the world, Englishwoman Polly Pearl runs a down-and-out bar in the port of Marseilles amid endless drunken insults. Once married to an aristocrat with whom she had a son, she left her husband on discovering his infidelity with other women and had nothing better to do than to make a living for herself in the local whorehouses while entrusting an Anglican priest with the boy's education. Polly is reunited with her son in tragic circumstances.
Frank Borzage
100 min.
In 1933, in a small town at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, Jewish Professor Roth and his family are preparing the celebrations for his birthday party. The overall commotion is interrupted with an announcement from maid that Hitler has been named chancellor. While the three men of the house, Otto, Erich and Rudi are enchanted with the news, their sister Freya and parents show signs of concern. Freya's two suitors, Martin and Fritz, also adopt oppoosing attitudes. Although Freya is engaged to Fritz, she ends their relationship on discovering his unconditional support of the Nazi cause.
Frank Borzage
20 min.
A born punter, Rocky is playing a game of poker with professional cardsharp, Kentuck, in which he has the upper hand. He offers his rival a last chance: double or nothing, the money against the loser's mistress, Nan; Rocky wins and gets the girl, putting the seal on the inevitable shoot-out between the two gun-toting cowboys.
Frank Borzage
49 min.
The site foreman of a hydroelectric power plant in the Rockies, Marsdon is arrested for having killed an engineer who was lusting after his mistress, the mysterious Rosalee, to whom he gives his raven with the intention of ensuring her faithfulness. A new person arrives on the scene in the shape of Allen John, whose plans of heading for the city are spoiled when he misses the only train going in that direction until the following spring. As winter deepens, passion grows between Allen John and Rosalee before the raven's watchful eye.
Frank Borzage
75 min.
Tired of life as a dancer in New York, Olivia gives in to mid-west landowner Henry and agrees to marry him in what is for her part more of a platonic relationship. Judy, wife of her brother-in-law, David, takes a liking to Olivia; the elder sister of the clan however welcomes her with glacial hostility. David's interest for Olivia doesn't go unnoticed by her dire enemy, who does what she can to turn her sister-in-law against the new girl.
Frank Borzage
101 min.
When Dutch Captain Van Horn's ship runs aground just off the coast of Cartagena de Indias, Spanish viceroy Don Alvarado issues orders that the survivors be thrown into jail. Van Horn escapes, becoming a pirate nicknamed ?Barracuda? and kidnapping Francesca, daughter of the Mexican viceroy and fiancée of Don Alvarado. Fear of retaliation leads the ?Pirates' Council? to return the girl, but she is already smitten by the pirate, who unhesitatingly dashes to her rescue.
Frank Borzage
96 min.
Gentle-natured Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peter's discovery of oil on his land sets the dollar signs spinning in his wife's eyes and gets her thinking that the family should make a cultural trip to Paris, an idea to which Pike somewhat reluctantly acquieses. Desperate for noble titles, Mrs. Peters pushes her daughter Opal into the arms of a dowry-hunting marquis. Claudine, a singer in a Pigalle nightclub, helps Pike to convince his wife that it would be a good idea to return home as soon as possible.
Frank Borzage
100 min.
Three comrades in arms, Erich, Otto and Gottfried try to get by fixing cars in post-First World War Germany. Erich is in love with the young tuberculosis-suffering Pat but is too shy to tell her. Otto, who knows his friend's secret, encourages the couple to get married. Political violence is rife in the streets and Gottfried is hit by a sniper. Erich and Otto set out in search of the murderer to avenge their friend's death while Pat's health continues to deteriorate.
Frank Borzage
88 min.
Three men fleeing from the Nazis take refuge in a convent in occupied France. Among them, an American pilot carrying vital information about preparation of the Normandy invasion. When Major Krupp's men kill the Mother Superior, one of the novices resolves to help the fugitives, so that when the partisan who was to accompany the aviator in the role of his wife is arrested, the novice dresses in civilian clothes and takes the woman's place.
Frank Borzage
60 min.
Galloping over the Canadian prairies towards his homestead, Kirby has a run-in with a group of men and ends up killing one of them. Pursued by Selwyn, a young Mounty policeman, Kirby finally makes it home only to discover that his wife has died while giving birth to their child. Escaping from Selwyn with the Indians' help, he promises to return on the same day every year to see his son ?until they get me?.
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