
18 Mar 1924

The Thief of Bagdad
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
This two-strip Technicolor record of the 1936 freshman pageant, acted out entirely by women, begins with Dorothy escorting the Wizard to the throne, assisted by Ojo, whereupon he looks in the Magic Picture on the University of Michigan, and the typed students complaining about school. The Wizard decides to bring them all to Oz, transforming them into Oz celebrities: Tippetarius, the Scarecrow, Nick Chopper, Tik-Tok, Old Mombi, Jinjur, Scraps, The Shaggy Man, Betsy Bobbin, and Jack Pumpkinhead. After a party and registration, it's on to class with Professor Wogglebug. When Tip and Jack carry him out of the classroom, he subjects them to a blue book exam, after which they wish to return to the U of M. The equivalent characters are not played by the same people, so there transformation, their "true self" appears behind them in the early scenes.
18 Mar 1924
A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess.
24 Oct 1926
A young woman, Margaret Dauncey, is caught between the forces of a charlatan magician, Oliver Haddo, whom she is unable to resist, and the love of a handsome surgeon, Arthur Burdon, who has saved her from being a helpless cripple by performing a delicate operation on her spine.
06 Oct 1921
As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.
25 Jul 1903
At the royal court, a prince is presenting the princess whom he is pledged to marry when a witch suddenly appears. Though driven off, the witch soon returns, summons some of her servants, and carries off the princess. A rescue party is quickly organized, but the unfortunate captive has been taken to a strange, forbidding realm, from where it will be impossible to rescue her without some special help.
28 Nov 1899
[…] A reel was shot of the Noh drama Momiji-gari (Maple Leaf Hunters, or Viewing Scarlet Maple Leaves), in which Danjuro played opposite Onoe Kikugoro V (1844-1903) as an ogress who has disguised herself as the Princess Sarashina. Filmed by Shibata Tsunekichi in the open air on a windy day in November 1899, Danjuro would allow only the one take, so that when his fan blew away in mid-performance the scene had to stay. The film re-emerged at the Kikikan theatre in 1907 where it was a great success and inspired a wave of fiction filmmaking based on traditional Japanese narratives. (cont. http://victorian-cinema.net/danjuro)
07 Jun 2019
With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.
20 May 2005
A young woman named Dorothy Gale dreams of becoming a singer but is unable to pursue her dreams. After being swept up by a tornado with her pet prawn Toto, Dorothy embarks on a journey to meet the Wizard of Oz, the person who both Dorothy and the citizens of Oz believe can help make her dream come true.
07 Oct 2005
A dying professor leaves his great-nephew a collection of documents pertaining to the Cthulhu Cult. The nephew begins to learn why the study of the cult so fascinated his grandfather. Bit-by-bit he begins piecing together the dread implications of his grandfather's inquiries, and soon he takes on investigating the Cthulhu cult as a crusade of his own.
20 Apr 2017
The cunning and wicked Urfin wants to become ruler of Magic Land. With an army of wooden soldiers, he captures the Emerald City and renames it ti Urfinville. He is all but ready to celebrate victory, when his plans are ruined by an ordinary girl named Dorothy, who arrives in Magic Land just at the right time. She must return home, but not before she helps her friends - the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and new-brave Lion - defeat Urfin. And in order to do that, they need to find out who he really is.
09 Mar 2019
The Tenant continuously fails to escape his deadly apartment under five minute time limit as his blood-thirsty neighbor threatens to break in and exterminate him.
19 May 1918
This film begins with the invocation of 'almighty god' at a river where several people are gathered. The child god Krishna rises out of the water astride the demon snake Kaliya. Then we see Yashoda as she rocks the sleeping Krishna's crib and imagines the god as Gopala. The next scene shows Kamsa fantasizing about Krishna threateningly duplicated many times around him. Kamsa then imagines himself dead as his severed head rises up and descends again. People of all castes pay obeisance to the deity with the title-card: 'may this humble offering be accepted by the Lord'.
01 Jul 2024
A man comes to the beach with one goal: digging a hole. But what he finds beneath will shock him.
03 Sep 1926
Taken from The Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks Prince Achmed into mounting a magical flying horse and sends the rider off on a flight to his death. But the prince foils the magician’s plan, and soars headlong into a series of wondrous adventures.
09 Sep 2010
This is a poetic film set in the times of Lenin's NEP. A ballet dancer steals a brooch and gives it as a present to another dancer. This is a crime of passion. A mysterious black ball is after the heroine. She runs away from it and manages to give the brooch in an exquisite pirouette movement, as shiny as diamond facets. What gives a stone its dazzling luster are its polished facets. But the real gem is love, and it's much harder to get than any diamond in the world.
21 Jan 2023
As an astronaut mourns the death of her canine companions, a pet shop employee sees to help her fill the fluffy void. Unsuccessful, they both despair until a comet an an unexpected visitor descend destructively upon the city. They hatch a plan to save the day with a cosmically large game of fetch.
25 May 1916
The plot is the embodiment of everyday belief about the impact of a certain evil force on a person. The action develops in a peasant environment.
23 Nov 1923
The first part tells the story of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt to the Promised Land, his receipt of the tablets and the worship of the golden calf. The second part shows the efficacy of the commandments in modern life through a story set in San Francisco. Two brothers, rivals for the love of Mary, also come into conflict when John discovers Dan used shoddy materials to construct a cathedral.
22 Aug 1913
Prague, Bohemia, 1820. Balduin, a penniless student, falls in love with Countess Margit, a wealthy noblewoman whom he has saved from drowning.
05 Nov 1919
A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.
01 Aug 1903
A green-skinned demon places a woman and two courtiers into a flaming cauldron.