Premiers résistants, seuls contre tous

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno conce...

Runtime

9h 26m

Director

Claude Lanzmann

Cast

Simon Srebnik, Michael Podchlebnik, Motke Zaidl

“The Soviet Story” is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now...

Runtime

1h 26m

Director

Edvīns Šņore

Cast

Jon Strickland, Vladimir Lenin, Alfred Rosenberg

This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

Runtime

38m

Director

John Huston

Cast

Mark W. Clark

Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.

Runtime

53m

Director

Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak

Cast

Max Schmeling, Walter Huston

Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.

Runtime

1h 48m

Cast

Mstyslav Chernov

Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always discreet and use what he learns to his own advantage; but the turbulent tides of hist...

Runtime

1h 55m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Ivan Barnev, Oldřich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch

The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík...

Runtime

1h 38m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

János Bán, Marián Labuda, Zdeněk Svěrák

In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a young man who pines for a female convict.

Runtime

1h 34m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Rudolf Hrušínský, Václav Neckář, Jitka Zelenohorská

Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed r...

Runtime

1h 33m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Magda Vášáryová, Rudolf Hrušínský, Petr Čepek

An episodic film about the inhabitants of Kersko, their hardships and their joys, most prominently hunting. A lyrical and humorous adaptation of writings by Bohumil Hrabal.

Runtime

1h 23m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Rudolf Hrušínský, Jaromír Hanzlík, Josef Somr