Il trono di fuoco (1970)

The Lord Chief Justice of seventeenth century England condemns women as witches to further his political and sexual needs.

Pier Angeli

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

 

A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way. 

Not really a faithful adaptation of Truman Capote's novella, the plot is quite messy and the male lead a bland miscast; nevertheless, this movie became an instant classic thanks to a lively and witty direction and the irresistibly charming Audrey Hepburn.

On re-watching: Despite all its flaws this is a movie I come back to every soften mainly for Audrey and quite a few memorable scenes.

Halliwell*: "Impossibly cleaned up and asexual version of a light novel which tried to be the American I am a Camera (qv). Wild parties, amusing scenes and good cameos, but the pace is slow, the atmosphere is unconvincingly clean and luxurious, and the sentimentality kills it."

Maltin***1/2: "Charming film...Dated trappings don't detract from high comedy and winning romance." 

Frank Sinatra

(ph: Yul Brenner)

 

Bio:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra

Summer '82: When Zappa Came to Sicily (2013)

 

The historic but disastrous concert held by Frank Zappa at the La Favorita stadium in Palermo on July 14, 1982 and the journey of the Zappa family to discover the artist's Sicilian origins.

Although this documentary is made within the Italian director's quite personal view of a specific (but not insignificant) moment in Zappa's life, it is extremely well-made, very thorough and manages to present revelatory insight and some very moving scenes.  

 

Ewa Aulin

El ángel exterminador (1982)

 

The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.

This true Buñuel masterpiece is made under his unmistakably flawless direction and presents his favourite theme of exposing and ridiculing the bourgeois mindset and way of life - with surrealist means, of course.

Halliwell***: "Fascinating surrealist fantasia on themes elaborated with even more panache in The Discreet Charme of the Bourgeouisie. Nevertheless, one of its director's key films."

Maltin***1/2: "Wry assault on bourgeois manners by master surrealist Buñuel." 

Milla Jovovich

 

(ph: Chris Brenner)

Pyaasa (1957)

Danza macabra (1964)

A journalist takes a bet that he can spend the night in a haunted castle on All Hallow's Eve. During his stay, he bears witness to the castle's gruesome past coming to life before him, and falls in with a beautiful female ghost.