Tour of Duty

Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold meda...

Runtime

2h 7m

Director

Leni Riefenstahl

Cast

David Albritton, Jack Beresford, Arvo Askola

Part two of Leni Riefenstahl's monumental examination of the 1938 Olympic Games, the cameras leave the main stadium and venture into the many halls and fields deployed for such sports as fencing, polo, cycling, and the modern pentathlon, which was won by American Glenn Morris.

Runtime

1h 44m

Director

Leni Riefenstahl

Cast

Sheigo Arai, Jack Beresford, Ralf Berzsenyi

A photographer and a filmmaker challenge each other to shoot—one to photograph the other to film—two young actresses, one from Tokyo, the other from the countryside. The photographer seeks naturalism in his compositions, and Kawase observes and comments on his work. The competition between the photographer, the filmmaker, and the actre...

Runtime

1h 21m

Director

Naomi Kawase

Cast

Shinya Arimoto, Machiko Ono, Mika Mifune

Of all the great ballerinas, Tanaquil Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent. With a body unlike any before hers, she mesmerized viewers and choreographers alike. With her elongated, race-horse physique, she became the new prototype for the great George Balanchine. Because of her extraordinary movement and unique personality on ...

Runtime

1h 31m

Cast

Michael Stuhlbarg, Marianne Bower

In early 1970s, the graphic designer Tuulikki Pietilä had seen enough of stative visual art and purchased a film camera from Japan. She filmed the games and chores of the artist couple in their beloved hideout, the island of Klovharun.

Runtime

43m

Director

Kanerva Cederström, Riikka Tanner

Cast

Birgitta Ulfsson, Tove Jansson, Tuulikki Pietilä

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