Franco Solinas — Playwright (8)
Burn! (1969) [Movie] Eggplant.place
Queimada
other title: Queimada / Queimada - Insel des Schreckens
The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent again to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.
Rose of the Winds (1957) [Movie] Douban WikiData IMDb TMDB
Die Windrose
director: 尤里斯·伊文思 Joris Ivens / 雅尼克·贝隆 actor: Angela Brunner / Aracy Cardoso
other title: 指南针 / Die Windrose
An international anthology about the struggles of female workers around the world.
The Mercenary (1968) [Movie] Douban WikiData IMDb TMDB
Il mercenario
director: 赛尔乔·科尔布奇 actor: 弗兰科·内罗 / 托尼·穆萨蒂
other title: 无情职业快枪手 / Il mercenario
While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul of the guerrilla general Paco, as Mexicans threw off repressive government and all-powerful landowners in the 1910s. Tracked by the vengeful Curly, Paco liberates villages, but is tempted by social banditry's treasures, which Kowalski revels in.
Queimada (1969) [Movie] WikiData IMDb Douban TMDB
Queimada
director: 吉洛·彭泰科沃 actor: 马龙·白兰度 / 埃瓦里斯托·马奎兹
other title: 奎马达政变 / Burn!
In the 1830's, the island of Quemada in the Antilles is a Portuguese colony - that is, until an English agent provocateur arrives and inspires the black slaves to rise and expel the colonial authorities. However, as is always the way with revolutions, a group of middle-class power brokers seizes political control and the people's aspirations are betrayed.
Ten years pass, and the sugar industry now requires peace and stability on Quemada. The continuing guerilla campaign by the dispossessed blacks is harming profits. The very same English adventurer is once more despatched to the island, this time to hunt down and eradicate the revolutionaries he created.
Marlon Brando plays Sir William Walker in his best Fletcher Christian English accent and a blonde wig with a life of its own. His is a thoughtful performance, putting across the complexity of the man, a character who is undoubtedly cynical and unscrupulous, but who is also an emotional man and something of a political philosopher. He is certainly effective at what he does.
The direction of Gillo Pontecorvo is somewhat erratic at times. There are points where the narrative is confused, and the gold robbery which drives the plot somehow got left on the cutting-room floor. Jose Dolores' rise to power is the most significant event in the story, but we see nothing of it. During the voodoo carnival, two of the participants are wearing 20th-century soccer shorts. The film's central pivot, the passage of ten years between Walker's two visits to the island, is handled very sketchily by means of a few incongruous London scenes and a voice-over narration.
But there are good things, too. When Santiago's widow hauls her husband's body away, the masonry of the fort stands as a silent metaphor of colonial power - harsh, overbearing and sterile. Brando has some fine speeches, musing on the nature of political legitimism. The fire scenes are visually arresting (though it would have sufficed to have two or three guerillas being shot as they emerged from the burning sugar cane: seven or eight is labouring the point), and Walker is positively luminous against the tortured black shapes of the charred forest, showing in symbolic form that this man thrives on the suffering of the blacks, and that destruction is his natural element.
The Battle of Algiers (1966) [Movie] IMDb TMDB Douban WikiData
La battaglia di Algeri
8.6 (122 ratings) director: 吉洛·彭泰科沃 actor: 卜拉欣·哈贾季 / 让·马丹
other title: 알제리 전투 / La battaglia di Algeri
Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French colonial rule as seen through the eyes of Ali from his start as a petty thief to his rise to prominence in the organisation and capture by the French in 1957. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell the revolt.