NEW FILMS from the Library's DVD Collection

 L'Avventura - (1960) [DVD]

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The first part of a loose trilogy by director Michelangelo Antonioni, parts two and three of which were 'La Notte' and 'L'Eclisse'. It concerns Claudia, Anna and Sandro (Sandro being the lover of Anna), who embark on a cruise on which Anna disappears. Sandro and Claudia set off in search for her and become lovers in the process. The film is a triumph of style over content and has been classed as an existentialist film that revolves around its characters being out of place from their environments.

The Magnificent Seven [DVD] [2016]

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In director Antoine Fuqua's modern vision to a classic story, the desperate townspeople of Rose Creek employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns after the town falls under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue. As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

The Seventh Seal (DVD) (Off air recording)

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Ingmar Bergman's best-known film and deservedly so, 1957's The Seventh Seal is an allegorical study of death, God and the meaning, if any, of human existence. It is a film that every human being should see, addressing as it does our deepest hopes, anxieties, curiosities and fears. Yet it's also a magical and captivating experience, close to the state of a lucid dream. Max Von Sydow plays Antonius Block, the knight who has returned, gaunt, weathered and disillusioned, from the crusades, to find his home country in the grip of the plague. He is met by Death, in the pallid, hooded form of Bengt Ekerot, whom he challenges to a game of chess. The longer he can stave off defeat, the longer he can prolong the existence of himself and his own entourage, whom Block acquires in the form of his cynical squire a young family and a band of travelling players.

Block's oft-expressed doubts and fears about his mortality and what lies beyond (hence the biblical Seventh Seal, which reveals this final secret to mankind) were especially relevant in the late 1950s, when the threat of the Bomb hung over mankind as did the threat of the plague many centuries before. The concluding Dance of Death image is, like the movie as a whole, harrowing, yet strangely enchanting.

The lady in the van

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Based on the true story, Miss Shepherd was a woman of uncertain origins who “temporarily” parked her van in Bennett’s London driveway and proceeded to live there for 15 years. What began as a begrudged favour became a relationship that would change both their lives. Filmed on the street and in the house where Bennett and Miss Shepherd lived for all those years, acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner reunites with Bennett (The Madness of King George, The History Boys) to bring this funny, poignant, and life-affirming story to the screen.

Le quattro volte [videorecording DVD] (Off Air Recording)

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An ineffably beautiful meditation on the mysterious cycles of life. Set in Italy's mountainous region of Calabria, it traces the path of one goatherder's soul as it passes from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. Director Michelangelo Frammartino was inspired by Pythagoras' belief in 'four-fold transmigration' of souls, but his film is far more physical than philosophical.

Babette's feast [videorecording DVD] (Off Air recording)

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In a remote 19th-century Danish village, two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, the local minister, and their church. Both had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer. Their father objected in each case, and they spent their lives caring for him. Many years later - their father is now deceased - they take in French refugee, Babette Hersant, who agrees to work as their servant. After winning the lottery, Babette wants to repay the sisters for their kindness and offers to cook a French meal for them and their friends on the 100th anniversary of their father's birth. It proves to be an eye-opening experience for everyone.

Hitchcock [videorecording DVD] AND Hitchcock /Truffaut (Off air recording

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Hitchcock: Plagued by both a reckless ego and nagging self-doubt, Hollywood legend Alfred Hitchcock becomes obsessed with a grisly murder story that the studios won't back. Determined, he risks his reputation, his home and even the love of his wife Alma, as he sets out to make the film.

Hitchcock/Truffaut: Filmmakers Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Wes Anderson and others discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book "Hitchcock" by François Truffaut.

Selma

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Produced by Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt’s company Plan B (12 Years A Slave ) and Christian Colson (Slumdog Millionaire ), the acclaimed film Selma tells the gripping and moving true story of the pivotal moment in Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s epic civil rights struggle - the 1965 protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to secure voting rights for African-Americans. Starring British actor David Oyelowo (The Butler, A Most Violent Year) as Martin Luther King Jr alongside Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey, the 2015 release of Selma celebrates the 50th anniversary of the passing of the voting rights act and this triumphant story of the power of the people.

Leviathan

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A man employs a lawyer, to help claim the land he lives on from the corrupt grasp of the town Mayor. But this begins a series of events that throw him into a whirlwind of problems infusing every area of his life, from his family to his home. Leviathan is a Russian, critically acclaimed domestic drama with epic themes.

Red Desert (DVD Blu-ray) [1964]

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Red Desert tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitti), a young married woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Vitti Antonioni's lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L avventura, L'eclisse and La notte - gives a magnificent, startling performance. Richard Harris also stars as the restless young man who finds himself drawn to her

Italy's industrial landscape is rendered both beautiful and apocalyptic in Antonioni's hands. Red Desert was a deserved winner of the Golden Lion at the 1964 Venice Film Festival and a high point in modern cinema.

Germany year zero = Germania: anno zero

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Amidst the war-torn ruins of Berlin in the period immediately after the Second World War a twelve-year old boy, Edmund, struggles to support his family his ailing father and un-registered brother unable to provide for them. Left to his own devices, Edmund wanders around the devastated city, getting caught up in black market schemes and falling prey to the pernicious influence of a Nazi-sympathising former teacher with tragic consequences. This heart-rending portrait of a decimated post-war European city is a damning indictment of war and fascism and remains one of the most effecting films in the history of cinema.

Pierrot Le Fou [DVD]

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One of Jean-Luc Godard's most reknowned films in which Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) leaves his wife and child and runs off with the babysitter Marianne (Anna Karina). The pair head south to find Marianne's brother, with Ferdinand getting caught up in Marianne's crimes along the way as they both spiral toward destruction. Memorable for Raoul Coutard's deep and lush photography, it offers a spontaneous musical sequence under the pine trees, elements of the gangster genre and a tragic account of the transience of love, meanwhile Godard manages to address the nature of the film medium itself.

Sunrise [videorecording DVD] : a song of two humans.

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F.W Muranu's long cherished masterpiece tells the story of a naive countryman (George O'Brien), living in an idyllic, bucolic lifestyle with his virtuous wife and young child. The serenity is shattered when a beautiful femme fatale from the city (Margaret Livingston) enters his life, he soon falls madly in love with her, aware for the first time that there may be more to the world than the life he has settled for As their secret passion intensifies, the femme fatale convinces the countryman to kill his wife so they can be together forever. The countryman is then forced to choose between what he desires and what is just.
Regarded as the pinnacle work of the silent era, for SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS Murnau was given complete artistic freedom by his financier William Fox. He took full advantage to chronicle this dark fantasy, dealing with the risque themes such as obsession, temptation, lust and ultimately redemption. With a vision rarely equaled by any film maker today, SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS remains a glorious and lucid journey. Lauded at the very first Academy Awards in 1928 with three Oscars - Jane Gaynor, for best actress, Charles Rosher and Karl Struss for their groundbreaking cinematography and a special Oscar for 'Unique and Artistic Picture', the only time in the history of the Oscars this award has ever been given.

David Lynch : the collection : The elephant man ; Mulholland drive ; Inland empire.

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John Merrick (John Hurt) is 'The Elephant Man', forced into circus sideshows and spurned by society because of the disfiguring disabilities he was born with. rescued by a well meaning surgeon (Anthony Hopkins) he tries to escape a life of prejudice and cruelty as he attempts to fit into a world ruled by Victorian sensibilities.

Mulholland drive :A surreal, film noir influenced mystery starring Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring. amnesiac and wounded, a mysterious femme fatale wanders on the sinuous road of Mulholland Drive. She befriends a young aspiring actress, and together the women decide to investigate in order to discover her true identity. This slick, sinister, psycho-sexual thriller comes from the darkest recesses of Hollywood, a Los Angeles of strange dreams, unrequited love and jealous burning rage.

Inland empire : Laura Dern is Nikki Grace, an actress preparing for her biggest role yet; a Hollywood movie from an acclaimed director (Jeremy Irons), playing opposite an amorous leading man (Justin Theroux). But when she finds herself falling for her co-star, she realizes her life is beginning to mimic the fictional film they are shooting. Adding to her confusion is the revelation that the film they are making is a remake of a doomed Polish production which was never finished due to an unspeakable tragedy.