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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50 From The 50s
Films
Films
Jean-Luc Godard
89 min.
The story begins in Marseilles. Young thug Michel Poicard steals a car and heads for Paris, finally killing the bike-riding cop who's hot on his heels with a gun he finds in the glove compartment. Arriving in Paris, he pockets a friend's money to be able to go and find his friend Patricia, an American who sells the Herald Tribune on the Champs Elysées. Patricia agrees to hide him and the two dodge the police, making love and stealing cars to raise money for a trip to Italy. But Michel's desperation grows as the police net tightens.
George Stevens
122 min.
Young and ambitious, George gets a job at one of his rich relation's factories, where he ignores the rules of not dating the workers and proceeds to put one of the assembly-line girls, Alice, in the family way. Subsequently meeting and falling for the sophisticated and incredibly rich Angela, George feels certain that he is about to climb the rungs of society; but Alice isn't about to be put off quite so easily. A Place in the Sun won 6 Oscars in 1952, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
138 min.
While Eve Harrington is receiving the prize for best theatre performance, Karen Richards remembers the first time they met, when Eve had given the impression of being young and timid. It was Karen who had introduced Eve to her friend Margo Channing, an actress then at the peak of her profession. But Eve's true goal had become increasingly more obvious the more she had become a part of Margo's inner circle of friends: to make a name for herself in theatre thanks to Margo's support, no matter what the cost. Both Karen, married to the writer Lloyds Richards, and Margo, sentimentally related to stage manager Bill Sampson, also see their love lives affected by Eve's presence.
Alberto Lattuada
107 min.
Forced to confront her past when an accident lands her ex-fiance in the hospital at which she works, Anna, a postulant nun, looks back over her life as a nightclub singer, her attraction to the unsavoury Vittorio, her decision to marry Andrea and the violence that had fired her decision to join a religious order.
Joris Ivens
38 min.
Short film
Before Spring is a poetical and apolitical portrait of life in communist China about work on the land and the seasons of the year. Starting with images of the harsh Inner Mongolia winter, it goes on to show the Spring Festival and how the countryside comes to life with the new season as the farmers start taking care of their fields. Initially called Snow, several young Chinese filmmakers were lucky enough to participate on this project alongside Joris Ivens and learn from his enormous experience.
Luis García Berlanga
78 min.
Good-natured, if somewhat hard of hearing, the Mayor of Villar del Río receives news that the group of American authorities granting financial aid to the country are coming to town. He therefore decides, in co-operation with the representative of a famous folklore singer visiting Villar del Río at the same time, to dress all of the inhabitants in the purest of Andalusian styles to welcome the visitors. The locals are already dreaming about what they'll do with their American dollars as on the day in question they make a great turn-out dressed in their Sunday best.
Román Chalbaud
102 min.
Recent arrivals from the countryside, Juana and her son Juan move into the slum belt surrounding Caracas, where the boy finds a job in a workshop. Getting drunk one night, Juan declares his love to Carmen, once romantically involved with one of his workmates, Matías, by whom, Juan later discovers, the girl is expecting a baby. Meanwhile, Juana receives the unexpected visit of a black man called Encarnación who is on the run from the law. Mother and son enter a dark period in their relationship when the latter finds out that she has surrendered to the man in question. In the meantime, the love between Juan and Carmen grows ever stronger, to the extent that Carmen turns to Encarnación, screaming her pleas for him to clean out her womb for Juan.
Paul Verhoeven
104 min.
Penniless and kind-hearted, Peter the charcoal-maker's greatest dream is to marry his beloved Lisbeth. One day, he meets a little glass man in the woods who grants him his wish to become rich and buy the village factory. Naively taken in by the wicked Höllander-Michel who promises him wealth and power, poor Peter's heart turns to stone, making him hard and uncaring. Only another visit to the woods will permit him to recover his good heart.
Vincente Minnelli
118 min.
Two New Yorkers, sports journalist Mike Hagen and fashion designer Marilla, meet on holiday in California. Falling immediately for each other, they decide to tie the knot. However, returning to the Big Apple, they realise just how little they resemble one another. While trying to solve their differences, Mike runs back into his ex-girlfriend Lori and Marilla to her ex-boyfriend, Zachary, though neither of the two know about the recent marriage. Meanwhile, Mike writes a series of articles denouncing corruption in boxing, earning himself the enmity of some gangsters in the process. Gregory Peck received the first Donostia Award in 1986.
Grigori Kozintsev
110 min.
This Soviet production of Don Quixote faithfully portrays the story told in Cervantes' book and is considered to be one of the best adaptations ever to have been made of this work. It includes the most famous episodes in the novel, including the spectacular fight against the windmills, with a splendid display of resources for the time (colour photography, giant screen, stereo sound) and the star role for one of the most famous actors in Russian filmmaking.
Roman Polanski
15 min.
Short film
Two men emerge from the sea carrying a huge, unwieldy armoire, which they proceed to transport into town. A series of hostile encounters on the way bar them from boarding a streetcar and entering various establishments; they are attacked by a gang of young delinquents; chased away when they attempt to rest in a yard full of barrels; and witness a murder. Two Men and a Wardrobe was directed by Polanski while at the Lodz Film School in Poland, going on to become the first Polish film made by a student to be commercially distributed. It won the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco and the Bronze Medal at the Brussels World Fair experimental shorts competition.
Fernando Ayala
90 min.
A group of young delinquents in the new middle-class suburbs of Buenos Aires complies with the wishes of its charismatic leader. Considered by all as strong, capable of confronting and handling any problem, he sweeps them along on the flow of petty crime. Some of them have joined the gang in adolescent rebellion against the conservatism of their parents. But the Boss tumbles like a house of cards when he betrays them all despicably after a woman's death.
Miguel M. Delgado
The caretaker of a working-class building is willing to help anyone who needs it. Smitten by the young and handicapped María Rosa, he makes it possible for her to have the operation she needs to recover the use of her legs. The problem is that the girl is in love with somebody else.
Fred Zinnemann
118 min.
Summer 1941. Having requested a transfer, Soldier Prewitt has been posted to Hawaii. An excellent boxer, Prewitt has sworn to hang up his gloves and refuses to join the company's boxing team. Trainer Captain Dana Holmes, however, thinks otherwise, ordering Sergeant Warden to make the soldier's life a misery until he succeeds in changing his mind. The thing is that Warden is having an affair with the Captain's unhappily married wife and, unbeknownst to all, the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor looms in the distance.
Terence Fisher
United Kingdom
82 min.
Jonathan Harker arrives at Dracula's castle to fulfill the task with which he has been commissioned of cataloguing his library. The Count's sight falls upon a photograph of Harker's fiancée, Lucy. A woman apparently living in the castle asks Harker to help her escape, biting him on the neck when he trustingly attempts to do so. Worried by Harker's disappearance, his friend and vampire expert, Dr. Van Helsing, sets out to try and find him. Meanwhile, Dracula tries to possess Lucy by sucking her blood, but the young girl's increasingly poor physical condition arouses her family's suspicion. The only person who can save her is Van Helsing, who is determined to destroy Dracula whatever the cost.
Pietro Germi
118 min.
A confident railroad man, Andrea appears on the surface to have a united family and numerous friends. But a series of events suddenly brings things to a head: his daughter Giulia has a stillborn baby following her obligatory marriage to the man who had made her pregnant. Andrea, broken, suffers a couple of upsets at work, while his family gradually falls to pieces around him. Il ferroviere garnered the awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress (Luisa Della Noce) at the 1956 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Don Siegel
80 min.
Dr. Miles Bennell returns to his small town practice in Santa Mira, California, to find several of his neighbours suffering from the alarming paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are behaving as if someone has taken their place. Aided by his girlfriend, the doctor discovers that the problem is an extraterrestial invasion. Given that the aliens can only take their victims while asleep, they both try to stay awake, but the girl finally succumbs. Miles sets off on a desperate quest to warn the world of the approaching danger, only to be taken for a madman and ignored.
Nicholas Ray
110 min.
Vienna has built a saloon around which she hopes to construct her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and someone gets killed, the town officials head for the saloon to arrest Vienna's protegés Dancin' Kid and his cohort. Aided by her old acquaintance, Johnny Guitar, Vienna holds out against the mob.
Fernando Fernán-Gómez
89 min.
An enthusiastic couple have problems making ends meet. While she's a psychiatrist and he's a lawyer, they're not particularly well off, and she's the one who has to earn the money to get by on. The husband is forced to take jobs selling cars, drawing cartoons, selling hoovers, working as a compere, as a film extra, as nothing, even staying home and looking after the house... But they've always led a ?decorous? lifestyle: a collective honeymoon in a filthy bus, a flat with rooms not much bigger than cupboards and, at least, a three-wheeler car. Perhaps, they think, things might just get better one day.
Federico Fellini
110 min.
No longer exactly a spring chicken, wide-eyed streetwalker Cabiria is taken in time and again, never however losing sight of her naive dream of finding the man of her life and showering him with all that love she has inside. Her hopes look unlikely to materialize until the appearance of Oscar, a shy, timid accountant, with whom the initially sceptical Cabiria finally falls in love. Giulietta Masina won for this part the San Sebastian Festival Best Actress Award in 1957 while the film received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1958.
René Clair
89 min.
A music teacher, young Claude tries hard to produce the work of his life. But the noise made by his neighbours drives him to distraction and he delves into a dream world taking him to other periods of great feats, seducing beautiful women (from a courtesan in the court of Louis XIII to a Moorish woman in Algeria) and fantastic adventures. But his friends get worried when Claude starts preferring his fantasies to life in the real world.
François Truffaut
94 min.
Left more or less to get on with life by his parents, 14 year-old Parisian Antoine Doinel slips off the rails during the period marking the change from childhood into adolescence, occasionally running away from school to go to the cinema or to play with his friends. Having discovered that his mother has a lover, he tries to steal an old typewriter, gets thrown out of school and ends up in reform school. But his longing for freedom isn't so easy to suppress.
Carlos Saura
88 min.
Friends Julián, Ramón, Juan, El Chato, Paco and Manolo get by as they can in the slums of Madrid, committing small robberies to help Juan start out in his dream of becoming a bullfighter. One of them dies on the run after a taxi hold-up. Not only is Juan's bullfighting debut a flop, but they're spotted by the cops in the bullring while watching him perform.
Luis Buñuel
80 min.
Having escaped from remand home, juvenile delinquent El Jaibo rejoins his fellow urchins in a Mexican skid row. El Jaibo attempts to rob the blind Don Carmelo along with another member of the gang, Pedro, the same boy whom, days later, witnesses El Jaibo killing the boy who was supposedly responsible for his having been sent to a remand home, tragically interlinking the two boys' destinies in the doing.
Josef von Sternberg, (Nicholas Ray)
81 min.
An attractive nightclub singer, a man who has travelled to many an exotic port and a salesman meet on a boat on the journey from Hong Kong to Macao. The singer is soon hired by the American owner of the biggest casino in Macao and head of a thriving hot jewel laundering business. Her new boss suspects that one of the singer's companion's is a cop; and he's right, but he's got his men wrong.
King Vidor
89 min.
Ambulant cowboy Dempsey Rae winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East. She needs a tough new top hand and uses all her means of persuasion to get Rae to take the job. But it's not long before he gets caught up in the fight between those who want to fence the ranch in and those against doing so.
Howard Hawks
92 min.
Barnaby Fulton is testing a new organism-rejuvenating formula on chimps. Helping him are his understanding wife, Edwina, and his admiring boss's secretary, Lois, whose lovely legs display the indestructible hose he himself invented. But things take a surprising turn when some of the miraculous potion falls into the lab water cooler and the scientist unknowingly takes a slug.
Juan Antonio Bardem
88 min.
A cyclist is knocked down and killed by a car with a couple of adulterers as its occupants: María José (wife of a rich and influential businessman) and Juan (a university lecturer). After a few moments of indecision, they decide to abandon their victim and hush up the incident in the endeavour to protect María José's social position.
Manoel de Oliveira
27 min.
Short film
Documentary about the city of Porto seen through paintings by the artist Antonio Cruz, who leaves his studio for the streets of the city, alternating real scenes with watercolours showing us the painter's personal impression.
Elia Kazan
108 min.
Terry Malloy dreams of becoming a prize fighter while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for the corrupt boss of the dockers union, Johnny Friendly. Having witnessed a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, Terry's subsequent meeting with the dead man's sister leaves him feeling responsible for the killing. The girl introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to convince him to provide information for the courts and smash the dock racketeers. On the Waterfront won 8 Oscars in 1955, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Eva Marie Saint).
Alessandro Blasetti
96 min.
Driving the lovely Lina and her three friends to the beach, taxi-driver Paolo realises that the foursome's real intention is to steal his cab. Thoroughly confused by the girl's complicated explanations, Paolo decides on meeting her father, Sopriano, that they must basically be an honest family... that is, until he discovers the gold cigarette case Lina gave him is stolen, finds Sopriano lifting a suitcase at the railway station, and catches on that father and daughter pick pockets on buses. Paolo hustles the entire brood to the cops, but the quick-witted, fast-talking father-and-daughter team of con-artists smoothly wriggle out of trouble. Desperate, Paolo asks Lina to go straight, an offer she delightedly accepts: he's the first prize she's not had to steal.
Samuel Fuller
83 min.
Three times jailed good-for-nothing pickpocket Skip McCoy steals the handbag of a prostitute named Candy. An unwitting accomplice to her lover Joey, who passes information to the Communists, the girl is being followed by federal agents. The thief runs off, not realizing that the bag holds a reel of microfilm containing confidential information. Everyone, from the police to Joey, are therefore hot on the heels of Skip who, when he finds out how much the microfilm is really worth, tries to sell it to the highest bidder.
Andrzej Wajda
104 min.
The last day of WWII in Poland. Maciek, the youngest member of the underground nationalist movement in a provincial Polish village, receives the order to kill Szczuka, the new local Communist Party chief. The fact that they had fought on the same side against the Nazis plays on the conscience of Maciek, who must resolve the soldier's eternal dilemma: obey or think. While waiting for his victim at a hotel where end-of-the-war celebrations are in full swing, lights and ruins create an unreal atmosphere, heavy with omens and memories: war and the hope of a better world, ashes and diamonds.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos
93 min.
A semi-documentary made in the street with natural scenarios and dialogues. The suffocating heat of the city runs through the tales that take place on a typical Sunday in Rio, starring five little peanut sellers from the the skid row ?favelas?. Copacabana beach, the Sugar Loaf and Maracaná Stadium feature among the various settings for the different episodes.
Stanley Donen
102 min.
Adam, the eldest of seven brothers, goes to town to get a wife to make him decent food. Meeting Milly, he convinces her to marry him that same day and come to his backwoods home. On discovering that she has become a servant for seven brothers, Milly decides to set out to find wives for her six brothers-in-law. Her first task is to reform the uncouth siblings and help them get their own spouses when the harvest festival comes round. Meanwhile, after reading about the Roman capture of the Sabine women, Adam comes up with the brilliant idea of his brothers kidnapping the women they like.
John Cassavetes
87 min.
Black youngsters Ben, Lelia and her brother Hugh share a New York flat. Hugh is a jazz singer and Lelia an aspiring authoress, while Ben, the youngest, goes around with a group of young white kids. The two boys often argue over the fact that Ben finds it so difficult to accept his racial origins. But the tension mounts when Lelia starts going out with the racially prejudiced Tony, leading Hugh to try and end their relationship.
Rouben Mamoulian
117 min.
After the failed attempt by incompetent Soviet agents to capture a Russian composer exiled in Paris, the beautiful and responsible Ninotchka is sent to the same city to complete the mission. Initially finding nothing but faults in western way of life, the girl gradually gives in to its charm with the help of American film producer Steve Canfield.
Ingmar Bergman
91 min.
While travelling to Lund University in order to receive an honorary title for his 50 years of working as a doctor, Professor of Medicine Isak Borg has the intuition that he hasn't got long to live and is suddenly overcome with dreams exposing his darkest fears. Gradually he realizes that his decisions of the past have given shape to a cold, empty life, with no real value to it. Finally, he achieves redemption through forgiveness and the love of his family.
Billy Wilder
110 min.
Bankrupt screenwriter Joe Gillis hides from car repossessors in the garage of a deserted-looking mansion which proves to be the grotesque home of retired silent screen star Norma Desmond. Joe takes refuge there, under Norma's protection, whom, on discovering that Joe is a writer, gives him the job of writing her comeback screenplay, based on her belief that she still has a multitude of adoring fans. Joe feels increasingly closed in as the weeks pass, grasping at reality in the form of a clandestine friendship with script reader Betty Schaefer, who had already rejected several of his originals.
Vincente Minnelli
118 min.
A young director, a Pulitzer-winning screenwriter and a beautiful actress with alcohol problems, explain why they don't want to repeat the experience of working with producer Jonathan Shields. Their stories draw the portrait of this man whom, exploiting people to suit his interests, has progressed from making B-movies to become one of the most important producers in Hollywood. The Bad and the Beautiful garnered 5 Academy Awards in 1953, including Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Gloria Grahame), Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay.
Fritz Lang
89 min.
Police sergeant Tom Duncan commits suicide, leaving a letter in which he confesses having belonged to a gang of gangsters and points the finger of corruption at several other cops. The note is hidden by Duncan's lover, a waitress called Lucy who intends to try and blackmail Mafia boss Mike Lagana. Lucy's murder while he is trying to solve Duncan's death convinces Sergeant Dave Bannion that the girl was telling the truth. Unwilling to give in to crookedness, Bannion finds himself up against extremely powerful enemies who think nothing of trying to kill him with a car-bomb.
Robert Wise
92 min.
In full swing of the post-WWII ?cold war? taking place between the USA and the USSR, an alien ambassador, Klaatu, lands in Washington with the mission of communicating the annoyance of the other inhabitants of the Universe over the nuclear tests being carried out on the planet. The aliens consider that the earthlings have become a threat to the entire galaxy, and the message brought by Klaatu is clear: if the Earth doesn't stop its atomic experiments, it will be attacked by inter-planetary forces. The expedition gets a hostile welcome, and Klaatu is shot immediately he sets foot on earth, although he is saved by the powerful Gort.
Alexander Mackendrick
97 min.
A senile old biddy living with her parrot, Mrs. Wilberforce rents out a couple of rooms to the mysterious Professor Marcus and his four musicians. The thing is that the band is anything but musical and is planning a robbery, but they didn't reckon on Mrs. Wilberforce getting in their way.
Basil Dearden
116 min.
Involuntarily-retired Colonel Hyde recruits seven other dissatisfied ex-servicemen for a special project. Each has a skeleton in the cupboard, money problems and is an expert in his field. The job is a bank robbery in the centre of London, directed military-style by Hyde and his second-in-command. Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richard Attenborough and Bryan Forbes won the Best Actor Award for this movie at the San Sebastian Festival in 1960.
Fred Zinnemann
152 min.
Sister Luke, a postulant nun with a Belgian order, is sent to the Congo to work as a nurse. She follows the sensible example of the head surgeon, Dr. Fortunate, putting her idealism to one side, rolling up her sleeves and getting on with the job. When WWII breaks out, she tries to obeys the laws of the order and not become involved, which she is no longer able to do when the Nazis kill her father. Realising that she can't respect her vows, Sister Luke abandons the habit and returns to civil life. The Nun's Story won the Golden Shell at San Sebastian in 1959, while the Zulueta Prize for best actress went to Audrey Hepburn. Peter Finch attended the Festival in 1968 to present Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare.
Anthony Mann
93 min.
Veteran bounty-hunter Morg Hickman rides into a town in danger. The sheriff has been killed, and the young inexperienced Ben Owens named temporary replacement. Aiming to make his stay in the post permanent, Ben needs to impress the townsfolk. When he discovers that Morg was a sheriff before he became a bounty-hunter, he asks the older man to teach him. Morg thinks that being a sheriff is a foolish goal, but grudgingly agrees to instruct the boy.
Orson Welles
111 min.
Mike Vargas, from the Mexican Police Narcotics Department, is honeymooning on the border between Mexico and the USA with his new American wife, Susan. Soon to give evidence at a trial against several drug traffickers from the Grandi mob who have been arrested as a result of his investigations, Vargas gets caught up in another case when a car-bomb kills a rich American estate agent, surprising Hank Quinlan, a legendary local cop, while the latter is falsifying evidence to incriminate a Mexican citizen. Quinlan ends up joining forces with the Grandi's to get rid of Vargas.
Mikio Naruse
123 min.
Yukiko's lover, Tomioka, has promised to divorce his wife. However, not only does he fail to keep his word, but he shuns the girl when she becomes pregnant, instead lavishing his attentions on the young Osei. Despite the terrible humiliation, Yukiko follows the recently widowed Tomioka to his new job on a far-off jungle-covered island where she falls ill.
Robert Bresson
95 min.
French Resistance activist Lieutenant Fontaine is imprisoned by the Nazis and condemned to death. Although he has devised an escape plan, he doesn't trust his cellmate, suspecting him of being a German informer, and wondering whether or not he should kill him to prevent him from scuppering his plans. Fontaine's character takes its inspiration from the memories of André Devigny, member of the French Resistance who succeeded in escaping from a Nazi prison.
Alfred Hitchcock
127 min.
Scottie, a one-time police inspector who lost his job because of his fear of heights, is given the task of tailing a beautiful woman, Madeleine, whose behaviour is giving rise to the suspicion that she's going to commit suicide. Despite following her everywhere and even finally falling in love with the woman, Scottie's vertigo makes him unable to stop her from throwing herself off a church belfry. Some time later, he meets a girl who is Madeleine's double. Vertigo won the Silver Shell and Best Actor Award for James Stewart at the San Sebastian Festival in 1958.
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