Feature Films and Documentaries

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Onetti: Para una Tumba sin Nombre
1 VHS cassette: color. Spanish with English subtitles, Feature Film. Uruguay.

"Onetti is Uruguay's foremost contemporary novelist.Like his spiritual forebear, William Faulkner, he has created his own imaginary world: what Yoknapatawpha County is to American literature, Santa maria (a small town south of Buenos Aires) is to Uruguay. Para una tumba sin nombre seeks the truth about a woman who died just before the story opens. Was she the doctor's daughter? Jorge Malabia's maid? A prostitute? What is the significance of the goat which always accompanied her? Is she really the one who was buried? The doctor has been writing a fictional account of her life; is it any less true than Malabria's actually recollections? The message of Onetti's novella--suggestively and intriguingly presented in this production which shimmers with the resonance of layers of suggestion and a thousand layers of doubt -- is that reality, the truth itself, may not exist at all."

Open your eyes see Abre los ojos.

Ossessione
Luchino Visconti. 2 VHS cassette (140 mins.): color, BW. Italian with English subtitles, Feature Film. Italy, 1942. Actors:Clara Calamai, Massimo Girottilanda.

"Ossessione, made in 1942 and banned in Italy by Mussolini, is a powerful delineation of the ill-fated love between Gino, a virile young drifter who arrives by chance at a roadside restaurant and filling station, and Giovanna, the beautiful young wife of the fat old man who owns the place. Giovanna's husband disgusts he; every time he touches her she wants to scream. Gino leaves, only to return because he can't get her out of his blood. They kill her husband, but his death haunts the guilt-ridden Gino." (from the video jacket)

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Pagador de Promesas, O
1 VHS cassette (91 mins.): BW. Portuguese, no subtitles. Feature Film. Brazil, 1962. Actors: Leonardo Vilar, Dionísio Azevedo.

"Esta é um história que tem sua origin no sincretismo religioso, tão próprio da nossa gente. Zé do Burro, um caboclo simples, fex duas promesas para salvar o seu burro de estimação, ferido por um raio. Uma dessas promeseas era para Santa Bárbara (Iansá no ritual afro). Levaria uma cruz até a sua igreja em Salvador. Foi o que fez. Todavia, depois de peregrinar por mais de 40 quilômetros, esbarrou na intransigência do padre Olavo, que no havia prometido á Santa (ou Iansá?). Começa, então, a série de acontecimientos que movimienta a história. Seus ingredientes: agitação popular, cafajeste, jornalista inescrupuloso, políticos corruptos, aproveitadores... " (from the video jacket)

Palombella rossa
Nanni Moretti. 1 VHS cassette (87 mins.): color. Italian with English subtitles, Feature film. Italy, 1989. Actors: Nanni Moretti, Marella Valentini, Silvio Orlando, Alfonso Santagata, Claudio Morganti, Asia Argento.

"When Michele, a water-polo playing politician, is struck with amnesia, a swimming pool becomes the stage for a hilarious attack on contemporary politics, culture, media, and language. Characters from Michele's life appear and disappear as he frenetically attempts to reconstruct his identity, and to understand the volatile condition of Italian Communism, all during his participation in a surrealistic game of water-polo. Rendered in the style of the Italian classic 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini, this is a film of sharp, insightful social commentary couched in an absurdist comedy that knows no bounds." (from the video jacket)

Pancho Villa
1 VHS cassette (92 mins.): color. English. Feature film. USA, 1972. Actors: Telly Savalas, Clint walker, Chuck Connors, Anne Francis. 1962, USA.

"He couldn't read his name on the wanted posters or count the notches on his gun, but he was the only man ever to invade the United States! Some called him an outlaw, some called him a revolutionary, but everybody called him a legend. He was ... Pancho Villa!" (from the video jacket)

Parapluies de Cherbourg, Les (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)
Jacques Demy. 1 VHS cassette (91 mins.): color. French with English subtitles, Musical/Drama. France, 1964. Actors: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, and others.

"A long unsees triumph in cinematic beauty, Jacques Demy's 1964 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize Winner is available for the first time in this digitally remastered, fully restored version. Dazzling sets brought to life by revolutionary use of color and music by Academy Award winner Michael Legrand's (Yentl) classic unforgettable soundtrack (every word of dialogue is sung!), make this bittersweet love story one of the most beautiful films of all time. Catherine Deneuve (Indochine, Belle de Jour) stars in this ageless fairytale of doomed love. The restoration, long thought impossible due to faded prints, is now brought to you as a loving tribute by Demy's widow, filmmaker Agnes Varda. Composer Michel Legrand produced the new Dolby stereo mixing." (from the video jacket)

Paris: Une capitale des arts
Films for the Humanities and Scineces. 3 VHS cassettes (14 mins. ea.): color. French, no subtitles, Documentary. USA, 1998.

• Paris: 1830
  "Beginning in 1830, this first program presents the Paris of revolutionary theater, the Romantics, and the neoclassicists. It also deals with the impact of the Restoration and the Paris Commune on the arts -- Racine, Balzac, and Hugo in literature; Jericho and Girodet in art; Chopin and Liszt in music. The appearance of the feuilletons and the erection of the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, and the Place de Concorde take viewers on a nostalgic tour of a bygone Paris era."
• Paris: 1860
  "This program presents Paris as the city razed and rebuilt by Napoleon III. It features the magnificent salons of Paris, the founding of the Louvre, and the creation of many other buildings and institutions, such as the opera and train stations. The artistic works of Manet and the avant-garde movement conjure a Paris on the precipice of a new, modern era."
• Paris: 1900
  "It is the turn of the century -- fin de siècle. This program captures that magical period in all of its glory on archival film by the renowned Lumière brothers. Take a personal tgour of the World's Fair, attend the Opéra Comique, view Rodin's Gates of Hell, visit with Picasso and the Impressionists. This is Paris at the end of a major cultural epoch."

Paris Through the Ages
Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 1 VHS cassette (61 mins.): color. French, no subtitles, Documentary. USA, 1991.

"From its beginnings as a small fishing village inhabited by the Parisii during the third century BC through Caesar's conquest of Gaul and its acquisition of the name Lutetia, from its consecrayion as the capital of Capetian France in the tenth century through Villion to the student rebellion of 1968, Partis has been synonymous with France as no other national capital. This program tells the story of Paris and its people: kings and councilors, poets and painters, architects and gardeners, rich and poor, aristocrats of ancient lineage and new immigrants." (from the video jacket)

Paris was a woman
Greta Schilller, Andrea Weiss and Frances Berrigan.1 VHS cassette (75 mins.): color & b/w. English, Documentary. Gt. Brit., 1997.

"'Paris was a woman' is a film portrait of the creative community of women writers, artists, photographers and editors who flocked to the Left Bank of Paris in the early decades of this century, when Paris was the undisputed cultural capital of the world. Utilizing groundbreaking research, newly discovered home movies, and intimate storytelling intertwining interview with anecdote, 'Paris was a woman' recreates the mood and flavor of this femal artistic community in Paris during its most magical era. Authors Collette, Djuna Barnes and Gertrude Stein, painters Romaine Brooks and Marie Laurencin, photographers Berenice Abbot and Gisele Fecund, publishers and booksellers Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier, and journalist Janet Flanner all figure in this legendary milieu." (from the video jacket)

Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)
Lina Wertmüller. 1 VHS cassette (115 mins.): color. Italian with English subtitles, Feature film. Italy, 1976. Actors: Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey.

"Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Film Best Actor and Best Director, Seven Beauties tells the story of pasqualino Frafusco (Giancarlo Giannini), a small-time crook and lady-killer, who lives in Naples with his mother and seven sisters during World War II. Director Lina Wertmüller (Swept Away and The Seduction of Mimi) was the first woman director nominated for an Academy Award for htis slapstick-tragedy investigation of an Italian common man's soul."

Paul Gaughin: The Savage Dream
Michael Gill. 1 VHS cassette (45 mins.): color. English, Documentary, 1988.

"Paul Gaughin lived by extremes. In 1901, he traveled to one of the most remote islands in the world. Hivaoa in the Marquesas: 750 miles from Tahiti, 4000 miles from the coast of Peru. There he lived for the last two years if his life until his death in 1903 at the age of fifty-four. Paul Gaughin -- The Savage Dream explores the artist's obsessive search for a 'savage'alternative to his own culture, which drove him to that far point of the earth and became a critical aspect of Gaughin's art and life. Shot on location in Tahiti and the Marquesas, the film focuses on Gaughin's final years and his monumental artistic achievement during that period. The story, to a great extent, is told in Gaughin's own words, revealing his unique philosophy of art, life and civilization." (from the video jacket)

People's Gala Concert
Semyon Aranovich. 1 VHS cassette (143 mins.): color. Russian with English subtitles, 1992.

"People's Gala Concert unrelentingly probes the forbidden subject of anti-Semitism during the final years of Stalin's bloody regime."

Phèdre
1 VHS cassette (93 min.): color. French with English subtitles, Feature film. France, 1968. Actors: Marie Bell.

Phèdre
Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 1 VHS cassette (110"): color. French, dramatization, 1991.

"Here is a spectacular French production of Racine's great play that treats the classical past with respect while demonstrating its continued, living interest. If it was the playwright's goal to show people as they are -- not as they ought to be -- then this performance represents French classical drama at its most moving. With equal attention to the language itself, the lavishness of sets and costumes, and the passion and appropriateness of the acting." (from the video jacket)

**Pícaro, El
Films for the Humanities, Inc. 1 VHS cassette: color. Dramatization, Spanish no subtitles.

"The pícaro is a quintessentially Spanish character -- important as a literary non-hero in world literature and critical to an understanding of Spanish cuture and Spanish values. Drwaing on the writings of Cervantes, Quevedo and Alemán, this production defines for us the characteristics of the pícaro: his role in society, his relationship to his master and mistress, his sense of humor and his alienation, and, above all, his reliance on his own wits and his ability to outsmart others -- to land, regardless of how he is thrown or where he falls, on his own two feet." (from the video jacket)

Pixote: a lei do mais fraco
Hector Babenco. 1 VHS cassette (127 mins.): color. Portuguese no subtitles, Feature film. Brazil, 1981. Actors: Marilia Pera, Jardel Filho, Rubens de Falco, Beatriz Segall.

Placard, Le (The Closet)
Francis Veber. 1 DVD region 1 (85 mins): color French with English subtitles, Feature Film. France, 2001. Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, Thierry Lhermitte, Michèle Laroque, Jean Rochefort.

"The always popular Gérard Depardieu stars in a warmly engaging comedy that shows how one little white lie can change everything! A dull and lonely accountant working at a condom factory, François Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) meekly endures office jokes and backroom whispers that he's about to be fired...usually instigated by his loutish coworker Felix (Depardieu). But that all changes when a rumor about him spreads around the office! Much to his surprise, this funny falsehood becomes the catalyst that sends François Pignon's life on an unexpected and hilarious turn for the better! As this outrageous, critically acclaimed story unfolds, you'll laugh along with François as he keeps this improbable charade going in an inspired bid to save his job and transform his life! (from the DVD jacket)

Porte aperte (Open Doors)
Gianni Amelio. 1 VHS cassette (109 mins.): color. Italian with English subtitles, Feature film. Italy, 1990.

"A brutal triple murder puts justice on trial in Fascist Italy. Palermo, 1937. the Fascists promise that their campaign of harsh capital punishment laws - and climate of fear - will let citizens sleep with "open doors." One morning an embezzler calmly murders the boss who fired him, the clerk who replaced him, and then rapes and murders his wife. The town cries for execution under the Fascist law, and the murderer himself demands death. But one judge and one juror are determined to see justice, not vengeance served. Before the trial is over they may risk their own futures and perhaps their lives in an unflinching examination of the law. Propelled by riveting performances by Italy's top stars and set against a gripping trial, "Open Doors" is the winner of over a half dozen major film awards including 1990's European Film of the Year." (from the video jacket)

Portrait of an Artist
Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 5 VHS cassettes.

"This series provides us with a double treat -- a close-up look at both the lives and works of the world's most famous artists. In some of the programs, art history is made on film, as the artist creates a painting or sculpture right before our eyes. We also see the finest examples of the artists' works, often against the backdrop of their favorite settings: Venice, the Southwest American desert, the salons of Paris. These programs show us human beings as well: their personal relationships and their struggles to overcome the skepticism of critics and society. Filmed by award-winning producers such as the BBC, they offer a unique way to collect the whole story of art into a permanent video library." (from the video jacket)

• Cezanne: The man and his mountain
  RM Arts. 1 VHS cassette (60 mins.): color. English. 1985 "This portrait of Cezanne revolves around the central theme of his painting: his fascination with nature and his love-hate relationship with his birth place, Aix-en-Provence, most specifically the nearby mountain, Sainte Victoire, which he painted repeatedly throughout his life. Richly illustrated with his paintings and with views of the countryside, the story opens with the artist at 67, at odds with both peers and critics, and traces Cezanne's career to his final recognition as the 'father of modern art'." (from the video jacket)
• Chagall
  London Weekend Television. 1 VHS cassette (55 mins.): color. English, Documentary. Gt. Brit., 1985. "For nearly eighty years, Marc Chagall captivated generations of art lovers and frustrated his critics. This film protrait, made very shortly before his death in 1985, takes the viewer on a journey through time and place on the trail of this enigmatic artist. Eventually to become the grand old man of French painting, Chagall began a life in a Jewish ghetto in Russia. He escaped the restrictions of his background and moved to Paris, where he rubbed shoulders with artists such as Matisse, Leger, and Dufy. There he began to create the floating surrealistic style which has remained his hallmark." (from the video jacket)
• Degas: the unquiet spirit
  BBC Television. 1 VHS cassette (65 mins.): color. English, Documentary. Gt. Brit., 1980. "This film portrait explores the life and work of a complex man and an unorthodox artist. Especially controversial was his treatment of women as subjects, whom he dared to show as real people engaged in often unglamorous activities. This program includes many original paintings, drawings, and prints to show Degas' favorite locations -- a ballet class, the racecourse, the railway -- and to explain his innovative use of the camera. A special inclusion here is a private collection of his fragile and rarely viewed wax sculptures." (from the video jacket)
• Monet: legacy of light
  WGBH Educational Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 1 VHS cassette (28 mins.): color. English, Documentary. USA, 1989. "Light and color flood the canvasses of Claude Monet with beauty beyond compare. Graceful images of his home at Giverney, the seasonal, timeless charm of the rustic haystack , and the loveliest of scenes -- luminous waterlilies in a pond -- endure as Monet's legacy to the world of art. This film brings you Monet's story as an asrtist and giant of the Impressionist movement using his own words with excerpts from journals, personal interviews and, of course, his magnificent paintings." (from the video jacket)
• Toulouse - Latrec
  LWT. 1 VHS cassette (60 mins.): color. English, Documentary. Gt. Brit., 1988. "Henri de Toulouse - Latrec (1864-1901), a great artist and devotee of Parisian night life, painted his haunts with a sharp eye that saw beneath the gay surface to the corruption underneath. In the superb lithographic posters he produced for these clubs, Lautrec pioneered a style that shaped the future of graphic art. He created striking images by focusing on simple but dramatic shapes and using flat, pure colors. He and his most famous client, the singer Aristde Bruant, introduced the concept of a single image to be repeated in a variety of advertising formats. This program, produced in conjunction with an exhibit of Toulouse - Latrec's work at London's Royal Academy, follows his colorful life and ground breaking work. Historic photographs and location shots of Montmartre, together with a visit to a present-day lithography print works, bring the drama and poignancy of his career to life. Prominent artists, critics, and scholars add richness to the program with comments on their favorite works from the exhibition." (from the video jacket)
• Portrait of Teresa
  See Retrato de Teresa.
• Portugal's Algarve Coast
  Travels in Europe. Small World Productions. 1 VHS cassette (28 mins.): color. English, Documentary.USA, 1993.

  "From the comfort of your home venture with travel author Rick Stevens to Europe's most memorable destinations and learn the basics of Do-It-Yourself travel."(from the video jacket)

Portugal: land of discoveries
International Video Network. 1 VHS cassette (57 mins.): color. English,1991. Holdings: 2

Postino, Il (The Postman)
Michael Radford. 1 VHS cassette (108 mins.): color. Italian with English subtitles, Feature film. Italy. Actors: Phillipe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinota.

"Mario is a bumbling mailman who's madly in love with the most beautiful woman in town ... and who's too shy to tell her how he feels. But when a world famous poet -- Pablo Neruda-- unexpectedly moves to town, Mario is inspired. With Neruda's help, he finds the right words to win the woman's heart! This unforgettably funny comedy proves that passion . . .with some artful deception ... can win the most improbable love." (from the video jacket)

Prenez Vos Mouchoirs (Get Out Your Handkercheifs)
Bertrand Blier. 1 VHS cassette: color. French with English subtitles. 1978. Actors: Gérard Dépardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Carole Laure.

Prevert, Jacques
1 VHS cassette: color. French with English subtitles.

NOTE: ** indicates does not circulate.