The Boxer and Death (1962)

Director: Peter Solan
Country: Czechoslovakia

We have seen many films about the Second World War such as Roman Polanski's "The Pianist", Samuel Fuller's "The Big Red One" or "The Great Escape" starring Steve McQueen, films that portrayed a variety of themes such as The D-Day, The Holocaust or The Battle of Berlin, but few people have seen this Czechoslovakian film, which is one of best films ever made about this topic. 

A German officer obssesed with boxing finds a contender in a concentration camp, which ignites his hunger for competition, two bodies and two minds against each other, no matter if one is black and the other is white, no matter if one is Jewish and the other is Catholic, the best will win. 

The prisoner suddenly becomes a kind of star inside the concentration camp and he got the chance to train and to take meals to become a decent contender and sparring. 

Also, he has the opportunity to leave the camp during training, which is beautiful because we can see a peaceful enviroment and the mother nature in a quiet atmosphere contrasting with the horrors of war and the atrocities taking place in the concentration camps (one as the viewer can not stop thinking about the historical context of the film which is a great accomplishment of the director who invites you to connect with the characters without explanations, flashbacks or sentimental bullshit, we also can infer that not every soldier in the Nazi Germany was a cold-blooded murderer) 

In addition, and just like in films such as "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", the viewer can realize about the stupidity of war and violence and some questions are brought in to us: is he gonna make it or is he gonna be humiliated and then killed by the Nazis? 

Minimalistically but masterfully directed and photographed this is an amazing underrated gem which deserves more attention and recognition.

                           
                            

Rififi (1955)

Director: Jules Dassin 
Country: France

Silence generates tension, and tension produces anxiety, that's what a thriller is all about. This Dassin's film is a chef d' oeuvre, not only for its well written dialogue and brilliant direction and adaptation from the novel, but also for its atmosphere and dynamic story and choreographies like the robbery sequence, which is brilliantly performed and certainly influenced later movies of the genre. The cinematography is noir-style, dramatic, and not exactly impressionist like many other noir films, the plot and narrative are bleak and twisted, nothing to do with its counterparts from Hollywood. This is a first class heist-thriller, containing all the crime-noir elements executed in a skillful way, a must-see film in the genre.

                              

I Fidanzati (1962)

Director: Ermanno Olmi
Country: Italy 

The Italian filmmaker Ermanno Olmi elaborated one of the simpliest and most beautiful films ever, "I Fidanzati" which is an impressive piece of work, characterized by its minimalistic use of the camera and an inspiring cinematography work, the opening sequence is a long shot masterfully conceived to introduce us two lonely souls, two characters with real emotions and real flesh. 

 

This film is about separation, nostalgia and how emotions and love slowly fade away with time: Giovanni got a new job as a welder in a plant located in Sicily, hence he gotta leaves his girlfriend named Liliana behind. We can find loneliness and sadness between them at the same time as well as we can see the transition of Italy after the Second World War from a destroyed country to an industrial one. The telephone is the intermediary in their long-distance relationship and sometimes Giovanni even misses the fights and arguments he has had with Liliana, he also misses the moments of passion and love between them. 

 

While seeing the film some questions popped out of my head such as: are they better when they are far away from each other?, love is an arduos discipline? or it is just a moment of glory?. The ending is bittersweet, and we have to deduce what happened with them, they waited for each other or they broke up?, indeed love is a big mistery. 

 

 The editing, the diologue and the voice over we listen to in the last minutes when they read the letters they received from each other is very powerful, in addition the black and white cinematography by the prolific Lamberto Caimi (who also worked with Olmi in "Il Posto" another excellent film) moving from noir through novelle vague style is a superb work in conjuction with the flashbacks. Definitely an underrated treasure that deserves more recognition.

                            

Gertrud (1964)

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Denmark 

"One day your visit will be only a memory as all the other memories I cherish."

Every single living thing on earth will born, grow, reproduce (or not) and finally die, and that includes love. I know it fuckin sucks, but whether or not that's a fact we gotta face, and this film is about that. Gertrud is an absolute dejecting work, I felt a dagger in my heart throughtout the whole screening with every single dialogue and scene, and affected me so much in many ways, 'cause Gertrud is a lonely soul who wants to love and being loved in a perfect way, unfortunately that can't happen. 

 

Gertrud's marriage is boring and has techinically ended and fate is cruel with her 'cause Gertrud falls in love with a handsome younger musician who only wants to have an adventure, but not a serious commitment. Dreyer did a magnificent  job, shooting long shots and writing realistic and pesimistic profound dialogues, if you are in the middle of your honeymoon I don't recommend you to see this film, otherwise prepare yourself to face some crude facts about love and life; magnificent movie and one of my all time favorites.

                           
                          

O Pagador de Promessas (1962)

Director: Anselmo Duarte 

Country: Brazil 

A wonderful and forgotten Brazilian gem written and directed by Anselmo Duarte. The first and the only Brazilian movie to this day whom has won the "Palme d' Or" in Cannes, due to its articulated argument, excellent acting and masterful use of simplicity (no technical bullshit here). 

 

The film is about a man called "Zé do Burro" in Portuguese (which can be translated as "Joseph The Donkey") who has made the promise of carrying a Cross from his house to the church of Santa Barbara in order to save the life of his best friend, a donkey named Nicolau, we can't see the donkey on the screen but we can imagine that he is a great friend and a fabulous co-worker, but when Zé finally arrives at the entrace of the church the priest denies him the entry acussing him of trying to be Jesus Christ himself! 

 

It is also about prejudice, injustice and a form of modern inquisition, due to the social violence against the main character who is a loyal and devoted catholic, and whose only pupose is to save his best friend's life, but the catholic regime in Brazil is outraged by the fact that he made that promise during local african white-magic ritual called "candumblé", which in the eyes of the catholic church is considered a "crime" and synonym of blasphemy, heresy, paganism, witchcraft among many other "sins", also we can see another fact at the time in Brazil (and in many Latin American countries) which was the predominance of white people in the clergy. 

 

The ending is tragic, but it's a movie that makes you think and revalue your beliefs (in case you are Catholic) and I made myself another question: why films involving donkeys do always have tragic endings?

                            

Il Demonio (1963)

Director: Brunello Rondi
Country: Italy

If you want to know where all those witchcraft-posession and alike modern movies come from, you have to see Brunello Rondi's "Il Demonio", a film about superstition, witchcraft and an exorcism. Certainly the most famous film about exorcism is William Friedkin's blockbuster "The Exorcist" and possibly the best known film about witchcraft is Roman Polanski's American debut "Rosemary's Baby", but Brunello Rondi not only made "Il Demonio" involving both themes, 10 and 9 years before them respectively but also he added the social reality of the poor country life in Italy. 

The film takes action in a rural community in Italy and it is about a woman obsessed with an engaged man who has rejected her many times, in order to destroy his relationship, she invokes the invisible forces, and apparently she becomes possesed by the devil (or by some sort of demon at least) 

Full of powerful close-ups and an impressive acting by Daliah Lavi who shows a great use of the pantomime technique, especially in the exorcism scenes, "Il Demonio" was a groundbreaking film and to my surprise it contains many references to "The Exorcist" or better said Mr. William Friedkin appearently took ('cause he has never mentioned this film as a direct influence in the making of The Exorcist) a lot of angles, concepts and even scenes from Rondi's film! specifically the exorcism scene in the church when the posssesed girl walks in a spider-walk-style! It sounds familiar?

Definitely "Il Demonio" could fit into the Italian neo-realism era, 'cause it portrays perfectly well how Catholic uneducated people thought at the time, and maybe how many catholics around the world and particularly in Latin America (where a huge chunk of Catholics live) still have a huge amount of superstition beliefs. I wish I would have seen "Il Demonio" before seeing "The Exorcist" so in case you haven't seen the latter, now you know which one to see first.

                                   

Au Hazard Balthazar (1966)

Director: Robert Bresson
Country: France

Bresson, the master of simplicity made it again and he only needed a bunch of non-professional actors, specific camera movements, classical music, and a couple of donkeys (a foal and an adult one). This is really the most heartbreaking story I ever seen, it punched my heart and soul so hard and pulverized my feelings completely (I went into a deep funk for two or three weeks maybe) to the point of wanting to turn off my home video equipment and throw away the material. 

The beginning of the film when the little kids christened the little donkey named Balthazar (which is the main character in the film) in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was a very sweet moment that stayed with me, but saddly things get complicated for Balthazar and Marie, his owner, in their respectives lifes. This movie shows us the human condition in every single way: greed, cruelty, sexuality, loneliness, love and hate, and finally death, Bresson made the passion of Christ performed by a simple and beautiful donkey, which as Christ who was christened, then betrayed and finally killed, 

Balthazar becomes a Catholic Saint, only to be betrayed and killed like Jesus, Is it very difficult not being reduced into nothing after seeing Balthazar being mistreated with cruelty by their respective owners like in the sequence when he's in the circus and he looks at other animals (a tiger and a big bear) as well as in the scene when he becomes a mathematician donkey, which honestly I couldn't take it and I wept. 

After finally seeing Balthazar dying surrounded by sheeps I collapsed emotionally (I love donkeys so much, so the feeling was stronger), and my heart blow out, this movie is a complete masterpiece and for the first time in my life I felt myself so vulnerable while watching a movie, and just writing and thinking about it moves me to tears 'cause (paraphrasing Orson Welles) this movie would make a stone cry.

                                       

Cruel Gun Story (1964)

Director: Takumi Furukawa
Country: Japan

I have two words to describe this japanese masterpiece: PURE NOIR, no sentimentality bullshit here, a perfect work in editing, dialogue, storyline and what an amazing performance by the legendary Japanese actor Joe Shishido, this movie goes straight to the point, also it incorporates interesting non-static shots (which were the water-mark of Japanese cinema for many years). Shishido's role as a cold-blooded criminal, who has been released from jail with the help of a powerful Yakuza boss in order to execute a last big hit with fatal consequences, is really impressive. Without a doubt this noir-thriller paved the way for movies like Michael Mann's "Heat" or John Woo's "The Killer", a story about greed, violence and betrayal, a real gem that includes a fuckin brutal shootout!