Films byTexts by 1977
Article EN
2.06.2021
A Place in Time and Killer of Sheep: Two Radical Definitions of Adventure Minus Women

It would be more than fair to say that in American films, the motif of adventure is one of the favorite story-telling devices. So many films come to mind – from the most banal to the most memorable of the western, detective, and war genre films of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s to the rash of modern-day science fiction films patterned on the Star Wars or Close Encounters formulas. (...) Two other films stand out in my mind that take the adventure story theme to another level, and therefore deserve a closer look: Charles Lane’s A Place in Time, and Charles Burnett’s Killer Of Sheep.

Article EN
31.03.2021
A Woman, a Film, a Different Gaze
Josie Fanon 1977
Translated by

    What does it mean to make a film when you are a woman, an Algerian, a novelist (writing in French) and you decide to make it in your own country, for the people of that country, with the widest distribution possible, as it is a film for television?

    FILM
    Killer of Sheep
    Charles Burnett, 1977, 81’

    Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he works so hard to support.

     

    FILM
    Le diable probablement
    Robert Bresson, 1977, 95’

    Charles, Michel and a few of their friends form a small environmentalist group, concerned about famine, pollution and the future of the world.

    FILM
    Fluchtweg nach Marseille
    Ingemo Engström, Gerhard Theuring, 1977, 217’

    “The theme of the film is the escape route of the German emigrés in France in 1940/41. It describes a research of the past against the background of landscapes and towns which once were scenes of persecution. The leitmotif of the journey is Anna Seghers’ novel Transit.

    FILM
    Angel City
    Jon Jost, 1977, 75’

    “Jost’s outsider is Frank Goya, a guy with a red shirt, a far-fucking-out-in-the-morning-man delivery, and a fist full of Polaroid snapshots. Ever-cool Goya peers into the camera, announces that he’s a motel-haunting divorce-dick and from then on Angel City is kabuki Raymond Chandler.

    FILM
    Suspiria
    Dario Argento, 1977, 98’

    “To begin with, I imagined the story set in a children’s school, not of teens. I thought that it could be interesting that the school was for very young girls, eight, ten years old. This was the first version.

    ARTICLE NL FR
    31.01.2018
    Het beeldenkerkhof

    Dit verhaal is eerst en vooral geluid: geluiden van de bus en de metro, geluiden van neervallende bomen en van creperende dieren, geluiden van deuren die langs alle kanten klapperen en kraken, het finale geluid van de revolver van ‘de vriend’ die door Charles betaald is en hem doodt in de duisternis van Père-Lachaise. Kwellend geknars en geknal. Tevergeefs bedekt Charles zijn oren. De wereld waarin hij leeft, is gemaakt van kabaal zonder betekenis, absurd en overweldigend. Het overschreeuwt de menselijke stemmen, die zijn als korte zinspelingen tussen al het gekrijs van brutale en gebrutaliseerde dingen.

    ARTICLE NL FR
    31.01.2018
    Le cimetière des images

    Cette histoire, ce sont d’abord des bruits : bruits de bus et de métro, bruits d’arbres et d’animaux abattus, bruits de portes qui de tous côtés claquent et grincent, bruit final du revolver de « l’ami » qui, payé par Charles, le tue dans l’obscurité au Père-Lachaise. Craquements et claquements obsédants. En vain Charles se bouche les oreilles. Le monde où il vit est fait de ces bruits sans message, absurdes, envahissants. 

    FILM
    Oi kynigoi
    The Hunters
    Theodoros Angelopoulos, 1977, 168’

    “The Hunters reflects how a man of my generation sees Greek history, a history whose continuation blends with the years of my own life. It is a study of the historical conscience of the Greek bourgeoisie. In Greece, the ruling class is afraid of history and, for this reason, hides it.

    FILM
    News from Home
    Chantal Akerman, 1977, 85’

    News from Home consists of long takes of locations in New York City, set to Akerman’s voice-over as she reads letters her mother sent her between 1971 and 1973, when the director lived in the city.

     

    Dear child,

    Article NL
    18.05.2016
    Ver van de Wetten (Trás-os-Montes)

    Verwijdering is het onderwerp van de film die António Reis en Margarida Cordeiro hebben gemaakt in de streek van Trás-os-Montes (waaraan de film zijn titel ontleent) in 1976. In de dubbele betekenis van het ver zijn (ballingschap) en de daad zelf van het (zich) verwijderen (uit het zicht, vervolgens de vergetelheid in). Verwijdering, zeggen Reis en Cordeiro ons beetje bij beetje, is de geschiedenis van het noordoosten van Portugal.