"Lindsay takes us on one of his family holidays into the mountain and lake areas. We are among the snow-capped hills, lush valleys, and many wild flowers, motoring and water-skiing on the lake" PSA Journal, Nov. 1960, 41.
Visual poem, synchronized to the Arabesques of Claude Debussy, that reflects on the home as a space of cinematic creativity for the amateur. It is the only film from the period directly credited to a female amateur filmmaker.
"Era una película que desarrollaba un tema muy propio de la contracultura de la época: la posibilidad de regresar a la naturaleza para vivir una vida al margen de la contaminación y de la vida moderna. Se trataba de una cinta de menos de diez minutos de duración, que contaba una historia breve pero ilustrativa de la naturaleza de los debates entre los jóvenes mexicanos cercanos a la contracultura. [...] La historia de Sergio García hacía una crítica al escapismo hippie, esperanzado por la posibilidad de crear un mundo alterno al de la realidad del capitalismo industrial" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"It was a film that developed a topic very related to the counterculture of the time: the possibility of going back to nature to live a life away from pollution and the modern life. The film lasted less than 10 minutes, and it told a brief but illustrative story about the nature of the debates between the Mexican youth that was close to the counterculture. [...] The story by Sergio García was a critique of the hippie escapism, hopeful for the possibility of creating an alternate world to the reality of industrial capitalism" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"Se trataba del regreso de un soldado de origen mexicano a la Ciudad de México después de haber combatido en Vietnam con las tropas estadounidenses. El hombre llega a la estación del ferrocarril de Buenavista y recorre la ciudad para acabar finalmente en el departamento de su hermano. Busca trabajo y no lo encuentra. Por la voz off que sigue el hilo de sus pensamientos, nos enteramos que a su mente guerrera le cuesta trabajo adaptarse a la vida pacífica. La película intercala una serie de secuencias oníricas que de alguna manera ilustran su delirio belicista: sueña que es un soldado griego que asesina al niño que lo molesta en el taxi colectivo (un pesero) que lo conduce a casa de su hermano; imagina en el personaje que lo entrevista cuando aplica para obtener un trabajo a Napoleón Bonaparte (interpretado por Juan José Gurrola) dirigiendo una batalla; o sueña que es un caballero medieval que asesina a su familia en un pacífico día de campo. Finalmente el personaje no encuentra cabida en la sociedad pacífica y acude –todavía en traje de caballero medieval – al aeropuerto para comprar un boleto de avión "a la guerra más próxima"" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"It is about the comeback of a Mexican soldier to Mexico City after fighting in Vietnam along with American troops. The man arrives to the train station in Buenavista y goes around the city to end up at his brother's apartment. He looks for a job and cannot find one. The off voice, that follows his train of thought, tells us that his war mind has trouble adapting to a peaceful life. The film inserts a series of dreamlike sequences that in a way illustrate his war delirium: he dreams he is a greek soldier that murders the kid that bothers him in a collective cab that drives him to his brother's house; he imagines the character that interviews him when he is looking for a job is Napoleon Bonaparte (played by Juan José Gurrola) directing a battle: or he dreams he is a medieval knight that murders his family in a peaceful day in the country. Finally the character doesn't find a place in a peaceful society and goes –still in medieval armor– to the airport to buy a by a plane ticket to the "nearest war" " (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).
"documentario cronistico"/documentary chronicle
Umeen desfilea aratusteetan.
Un desfile de disfraces infantiles en una fiesta popular celebrada una vez al año en Lekeitio.
A children's costumes parade in a popular annual celebration in Lekeitio.
"Frances Christeson and Harry Merrick have shown in their film, Architecture and Fine Arts, what can be done with the motion picture camera by sensitive, yet systematic, movie makers. Produced under the supervision of A. C. Weatherland, dean of the College of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, the picture shows students at work and gives glimpses of class room technique in teaching most of the fine arts. Although no section of the film is long or detailed enough to serve the purpose of teaching, the film, as a whole, gives a very clear and concise picture of the scope of the work of the architecture and fine arts college of the University of Southern California. Technically and cinematically, this record is superb; beautiful compositions, carefully selected and composed scenes, combined with titles of distinction, make it a truly outstanding production. Included in the picture, that is for the most part in black and white, are color sequences of stained glass windows." Movie Makers, Dec. 1936, 542.
"a soggetto lungho normale"/Fiction feature film
"Arco felice, realizzato da Domenico Paolella: collaborazione generale di Remigio del Grosso. È’tra i film a soggetto, a formato ridotto, quello che più di tutti gli altri tiene conto della importanza dello scenario - montaggio, della continuity per dirla con una precisa espressione. Infatti la continuità narrativa e visiva e mantenuta costante e precisa dal principio alla fine, in unione ad una singolare efficacia descrittiva, piuttosto sintetica dell'ambiente e dei tipi: sono questi ragazzi della strada e del porto, gli scugnizzi napoletani, di cui il film si propone di mostrare la rigenerazione, compiuta attraverso la organizzazione dei ragazzi nelle colonie permanenti dell'Opera Nazionale Balilla. La dimostrazione e assolutamente priva di ogni elemento retorico e il racconto non ha incertezze; assolutamente senza didascalie, il film non richiederebbe nemmeno il parlato, tanto gli autori si sono preoccupati di rendere tutto attraverso immagini, in un procedere di andante mosso che ben si addice al tema del film. Sopratutto e chiaramente espresso il contrasto tra uno dei ragazzi e gli altri; questi ormai nella via della rigenerazione, quello invece ancora perplesso e scontroso di fronte alla nuova vita· i due motivi sono seguiti parallelamente secondo il sistema caro ai suoi tempi a Griffith, col mostrare i ragazzi inquadrati nelle loro diverse attività, in una gita, e l'altro solo di fronte al mare; il ragazzo fugge ne alcuno lo richiama; ma quando si trova nel porto, una assordante confusione lo invade ed egli ritorna alla colonia al momento dell'ammaina bandiera. Forse in quest'ultima sequenza il film riesce un po' sbrigativo; ma tuttavia anche qui come nel resto si avverte la freschezza e la sincerità della narrazione e delle espressioni degli interpreti scelti dai realizzatori tra gli stessi ragazzi di una colonia."
"Arco felice, directed by Domenico Paolella: general collaboration by Remigio del Grosso. More than any other small format fiction film, it takes into account the importance of the relationship between screenplay and the montage, of the continuity, to use a precise expression. In fact, the narrative and visual continuity is kept constant and precise from the beginning to the end, together with an original rather concise description of the environment and characters: these boys of the street and of the port, the Neapolitan street urchins, of which the film proposes to show the rehabilitation, accomplished through the organization of the boys in the permanent camps of the Opera Nazionale Balilla, The development is absolutely devoid of any rhetorical element and the story has no ambiguities; absolutely without inter-titles, the film would not even require sound, to such an extent have the authors have taken care to render everything through images, in a proceeding of a moving andante that well suits the theme of the film. Above all, the contrast between one of the boys and the others is clearly expressed; the latter are now on the road to rehabilitation, while the former is still perplexed and surly in the face of his new life. The two motifs are followed in parallel according to the system dear to Griffith in his day, showing the boys framed in their various activities while on an excursion, and the other alone in front of the sea; the boy runs away and no one calls him back, but when he finds himself in the port, a deafening confusion invades him and he returns to the colony at the moment of the lowering of the flag. Perhaps in this last sequence the film is a bit hasty, but here, as in the rest, you can feel the freshness and sincerity of the narrative and the expressions of the interpreters chosen by the makers among the same boys of a camp."
—Il ventuno 28 (Review of the G.U.F. of Venice), May 1935, p. 16
"a soggetto lungho normale"/Feature-length fiction film
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema