In this very late 60's irreverent, almost anarchic low-budget film, Brian De Palma defines more of his strange, given Hitchcock-like fascination of voyeurism, and attacks the issues of the day. The most prominent of which, both cringe-inducing and just plain funny, is when he focuses on the black-power movement (a black woman handing out fliers asking white people 'do you know what it's like to be black'), which is something that could only work for that time and place, not before or now.
But one of the key things to the interest in the film is 27 year old Robert De Niro (not his first or last film with the director), who plays this character who sits in a room looking out through his telescope at women in their rooms, setting up phony deals, and in the end basically throwing bombs. Those who have said that De Niro can't act and just is himself in every movie should see this movie, if only out of some minor curiosity. A couple of times in the film it's actually not funny, as when there's a disturbance in a black-power meeting (filmed in a grainer, rougher style than the rest of the film).
In the end it's capped off with a rambling monologue in an interview that tops De Niro's in King of Comedy. It's pretty obvious where De Palma's career would go after this, into slightly more mainstream Hollywood territory, but all of his trademarks are here the dark, almost nail-biting comedy, the perfectly timed style of voyeurism, and interesting usage of locals. Think if De Palma and De Niro did a Monty Python film, only even more low-budget and in its New York way just as off-the-hinges, and you got Hi, Mom! It also contains an eccentric and funny soundtrack.
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Experimental short film depicting the life, perhaps real, perhaps a dream, of a young girl named Emi. Emi travels to the city where she encounters her counterpart, Sari, and falls in love with...a vampire?
This apocalyptic parable carries within it a clear echo of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. This unforgiving exploration of the Czech mentality tells the tale of a troupe of wandering actors who perform a passion play in some unnamed village. Fear of some unknown danger breaks out in the village, which is cut off from the surrounding world. Stupidity, selfishness and aggressiveness then come to the surface in this society under threat. In the film's key scene, a woman is raped by the self-styled leader. Zdenuk Mahler, who would later work on Forman's examination Mozart Amadeus, worked on the script.
The director Evald Schorm (1929-1988) was one of the most original members of the Czech "New Wave". During the "normalization" era, Schorm spent many years unable to direct. His last film, Killing with Kindness (1988) was only made in the twilight years of Communism. During that period when he was unable to direct films, he became an outstanding stage director. He directed groundbreaking productions at the "Na zábradlí" Theater and Laterna Magika.
Sally's bond with a special little flower on the baseball field may spell disaster for the big game. For Charlie Brown and the team, it's just the inspiration they need to make a positive impact on their environment.
A heroic fantasy about an artist’s destiny at the tumultuous time of social transformations. One of director Alexander Mitta’s best films. The south of Russia, 1920. In a town square, a mono-performance is on, based on Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”. The film’s hero who took the pseudonym “Revarm”, which stands for “Revolutionary Art for the Masses”, is seriously interested in theatre. The real life and the stage one are intertwined in his destiny. In a provincial town where the power continuously changes hands, going from the Reds to the Whites, from the Whites to a band of the Greens, this youthful stage reformer, endowed with the gift of persuasion, attracts people to his cause, leaving no one indifferent.