The birth date of film can be established: December 28, 1895. The place where it happened is also known: Paris, Boulevard des Capucines, Grand Caffe. It is also known who did it first: Louis Lumiere. However, the history of film starts in distant, almost unknown times: from drawings of cave people, through reliefs from Egyptian times, to the discovery of photography. Development of film technique: silent film, sound film, color film. Development of film expression: film as a recording of reality, film as an interpretation of reality, film as fiction or new reality. Development of film as an industry.
The turbulent history of the twenty-five years during which, in the midst of Franco's dictatorship, Spain was turned into an immense movie set on which many foreign production companies shot dozens of films, from westerns to historical epics.
A detailed history of documentary filmmaking in the US and the UK from 1929 to 1945. The first part, Working for Change, focuses on 1929-1941 and the social movements of the times, The Great Depression, The New Deal, and the awakening of the Leftwing in the UK. The second part, The Strategy of Truth, focuses on 1933-1946 and explores the role of film as propaganda during World War II, and the different forms it took in the US, the UK, and Germany.
The history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
The history of the peplum genre, known as sword-and-sandal cinema, set in Antiquity, from the silent film era to the present day.
As Hong Kong's foremost filmmaker, Johnnie To himself becomes the protagonist of this painstaking documentary exploring him and his Boundless world of film. A film student from Beijing and avid Johnnie To fan, Ferris Lin boldly approached To with a proposal to document the master director for his graduation thesis. To agreed immediately and Lin's camera closely followed him for over two years, capturing the man behind the movies and the myths. The result is Boundless, a candid profile of one of Hong Kong's greatest directors and a heartfelt love letter to Hong Kong cinema.
In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II. Millions of viewers worldwide make Das Boot the most internationally successful German film of all time. But due to disputes over the script, accidents on the set, and voices accusing the makers of glorifying the war, the project was many times on the verge of being cancelled.
A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.
An exploration of the cinematic history of the folk horror, from its beginnings in the UK in the late sixties; through its proliferation on British television in the seventies and its many manifestations, culturally specific, in other countries; to its resurgence in the last decade.
The story of the abandoned production of 'Day of the Champion', a movie about Formula 1 which was set to film in 1966.
In a career spanning more than half a century, Bernard Blier has shot more than 180 films. He alone represents a history of French cinema without having spent his time cultivating its legend. He crossed his century as an actor with the modesty of a craftsman. He believed in learning, know-how and transmission. He considered himself, like the butcher or the cabinetmaker, as a man useful to his fellow men. Bernard Blier found in Louis Jouvet, who was his teacher at the Conservatory, a master at playing, a mentor and even a spiritual father. Jouvet taught Blier the love of acting, theater and Molière. And if he knew how to take hold of Michel Audiard's best tirades like no one else, notably those of the "Tontons Flingueurs", it is to this apprenticeship that he owes it.
A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.
Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Philippe Noiret - This is the story of a bunch of friends. Comedian buddies. Actors who dreamed of the Conservatory and the National Theater of Paris. The theater was their ideal, cinema will be their paradise. Their friend Jean-Paul Belmondo, the relaxed Parisian, who failed the entrance exam, will make sparks fly. Rochefort, Marielle and Noiret, the three provincials, will climb the steps of recognition one by one. From the little cabarets on the Left Bank to the TV shows of the Buttes-Chaumont pioneers. From the second roles to the first and from the B movies to the classics.
A journey through the work of Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón (1935-2011).
Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner and Sam Warner were siblings who were born in Poland and emigrated to Canada near the turn of the century. In 1903, the brothers entered the budding motion picture business. In time, the Warner Brothers moved into film production and would open their own studio in 1923.
A portrait of the legendary actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, icon of the French New Wave and closely linked to the work of François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Goddard.
Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.
A documentary about film producer Hal Roach.
A nostalgic journey through ’80s Sci-Fi-films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artist who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.
The history of the comic book superhero, Superman, in his various media incarnations.
Documentary illustrating the birth of sound cinema.