Amazing Grace

Appreciation coming from Darren Hughes. Directed by: William A. Wellman Produced by: Written by: Wilson Mizner Robert Lord Gerald Beaumont Lillie Hayward John Francis Larkin Music by: Cinematography by: Sidney Hickox Editing by: James B. Morley Release Date: 1932 Running Time: 73 Language: English Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #43

“What is the true meaning of life?” Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski has asked. “Why get up in the morning? Politics doesn’t answer that.” The Decalogue, Kieslowski’s extraordinary, challenging collection of ten one-hour films made for Polish television in the dying days of the Soviet Union, doesn’t answer Kieslowski’s questions either. What it does is pose them…

Review coming.  Directed by: Luis Buñuel Produced by: Federico Amérigo Manuel Barbachano Ponce Written by: Julio Alejandro Luis Buñuel Benito Pérez Galdós Emilio Carballido Music by: Rodolfo Halffter Cinematography by: Gabriel Figueroa Editing by: Carlos Savage Release Date: 1959 Running Time: 94 Language: Spanish Arts & Faith Lists: 2005 Top 100 — #47 2006 Top…

Appreciation coming.  Directed by: Satyajit Ray Produced by: Satyajit Ray Written by: Tarashankar Banerjee Satyajit Ray Santi P. Choudhury Music by: Ustad Vilayat Khan Robin Majumdar Cinematography by: Subrata Mitra Editing by: Dulal Dutta Release Date: 1958 Running Time: 95 Language: Bengali, English Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #50

Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957) transcends the well-worn cliche of the golden-hearted prostitute. The film stars Fellini’s wife and constant collaborator, Giuletta Masina, as a woman named Maria Ceccarelli but known to everyone in her social strata as Cabiria. Cabiria was pushed into prostitution by her destitute mother when she was young and beautiful, and her…

Victoire Thivisol was four years old when she played Ponette, a girl struggling to understand her mother’s death in a car accident. The range and depth of emotion she displays makes me a little worried about what director Jacques Doillon did to coax the performance out of her. Thivisol became the youngest actress to win…