OK, I know this sounds stupid, I'll do the best that I can.....

About a year or so ago I saw this movie streaming on NetFlix (this was around the time that "Trash" and "Heat" were up), I watched an independent film about a girl that had to work at a library. Most if not all of the film takes place in the library. I remember she didn't care about much but by the end she was reading stories to children and possibly wearing a costume.

If someone gets this one they're good, and thank you very much!!!!

htom:

The scene you describe is the climax of George Roy Hill's production of Lillian Hellman's TOYS IN THE ATTIC a B/W scope feature from the early '60s. The man is Dean Martin but I'm not sure about the actress playing the woman. They're attempting to leave New Orleans but the woman's husband, a sleezy political boss, has his goons attack them when they try to board ship.

Its not stupid at all, I like your analysis. Is it the 1973 made for TV film "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark"? I seem to recall one scene involving a girl working at a library while wearing this costume consisting of shoulder pads with spikes. After she finishes the story these bizarre miniature creatures on motorcycles drive in and attack her as she screams "well" at the top of her lungs.

Deep thanks for the answer. Of course the moment I read that Dean Martin played the man the memory focused a bit more, though it seems certain I never watched the whole film. But this image has stayed in my mind ever since.

In Werner Schroeter's "Malina" there is a scene in which the main characters watch an animated film theatrically. I'm unsure of the title and country of origin but it appears to be an adaptation of "Caliph Stork" from 1001 Arabian Nights. It isn't the Lotte Reiniger silhouette versions and instead the animation resembles 1930's or early 40's American style. The motion of the magician shown in the brief scene is really advanced for the time. If anyone is aware of the name of the animation, that would be highly appreciated.

Might this be Afraid of the Dark (dir. Mark Peploe)? It's from 1991 and if I recall correctly it's some sort of French-English co-production; some of the cast is British, but Fanny Ardant plays a major role, etc. Either way it has a very European feel. I'm not sure if the opening scene matches your description exactly, but the film is a psychological thriller about a 12-year-old boy who may or may not be blind (hence the eye exam scenes). In the first half of the film, his mother (played by Ardant) is also blind and he accompanies her to a clinic for blind patients. I could be wrong about these details because it's been a while and the film is itself very (intentionally) disorienting in presenting information. It's a rather creepy and enigmatic film with a completely unexpected twist halfway through.

I've tried for years to identify this film with no luck--anyone else have any ideas?

Graphic exploitation horror film, probably from the late 60s/early 70s. Color. Period sets and costumes (maybe 17th century?). The premise was ostensibly about witch-hunting; I seem to recall women being burned at the stake. Heavy female nudity. Here's the specific scene I remember: a "virgin test" in which the mother of several nubile teenage daughters has them bend over so that she can inspect their hymens to see if they're still intact (!). I also recall that this was filed near the beginning of the alphabet in the horror section of the video store, so its title may have begun with a "C," "D," or "E"; however, I'm aware that exploitation films like this were constantly being released under different titles, so maybe that's neither here nor there. (And no, it's not Ken Russell's THE DEVILS. WITCHFINDER GENERAL also sounds close, but the title doesn't match up, and I can't find any confirmation that it contains this "virgin test" scene.)

Many thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with this one...

Here's all of the titles with Burned at the stake as a keyword on IMDB that fit with some of your other descriptors.
http://www.imdb.com/search/title?colors ... ovie,short

Thanks; I should have thought to look for it this way. It sounds like it might actually be Jess Franco's LES DEMONS...an IMDb user describes a scene in which an aristocratic woman "sexually scrutinizes" a pair of novices. (Anybody else familiar with this title?)

EDIT: Just discovered that the entire film, hymen-inspection scene and all, is up on YouTube, and it is indeed the film I've been looking for. God bless the Internet.

For those who've watched the documentary The Physical History of M on the CC release, there is a part where archival footage of a Nazi propaganda film about banned Jewish films is shown. Does anybody know the name of the film that evidently involves a man murdering an old man (?) and getting drunk (he shouts for champagne several times)? I thought it looked interesting but I couldn't find anything that seemed to correspond with it when I looked up the name that was mentioned with the clip. (I can't remember what the name was, now - I don't have my copy of the disc on hand at the moment - but I think it was something like Kunstler-Konn, but I don't think that's right.)

I have a tough one here....a foreign film shown during the mid-1990s on IFC (before it became crap) alongside other movies about coming of age (Toto the Hero, Leolo, My LIfe as A Dog, Europa/Europa etc). This one was more disturbing but I can't remember the name. It was set in a countryside, possibly French, and at one point one of the main characters (a male, possibly some sort of blacksmith) is caught red handed molesting a young boy and is beaten severely and cops show up etc. I remember being very disturbed by the movie and having gone back and revisited the those other movies recently I'd like to see if anyone can identify that one?

"Der Bettler vom Kölner Dom"?

German silent detective film about beggars in the slums.

Godard's Nouvelle Vague

Thanks! I suspected it was Godard from the quote and the fact that I'm just starting to get into his 80's/90's output (from which I've heard Nouvelle Vague is amongst his best).

I have another difficult one, this time anime (from the 1970s I believe). Its a cartoon they used to show a lot when I was a young kid growing up in the middle east about a young samurai boy with a shaved head who went on adventures. In the middle east the name they gave him was Yiki-osan. He also had a ratty rag doll that he would hang up that I believe was supposed to be a symbol for his mother (I believe his parents were both dead). It wasn't really a super serious cartoon but I had a fit of nostalgia thinking about it. No info on a Yiki-osan cartoon found online btw.

I figured I'd help with this one.
The name of the series is Ikkyuu-san (or Ikkyū-san).
It ran 296 episodes (!) from 1975 to 1982.


More info here :
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1678
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikky%C5%AB-san

mrb2, thats it! Thanks a lot for the find, I've spent literally like 2 hours pouring over the internets trying to find it. Awesome memories!
Does anyone know where I can find the show with English subs? Thanks in advance.

Czech film:





A brief scene (less than a minute) has survived on an old vhs tape. It's from Norwegian tv (NRK) but probably Czech because of the language. Could be a tv movie. The boy tells the young woman that he has seen her at the brook kissing the magician! She seems very upset/insulted about his accusation. It's impossible from this clip to see whether this is a period piece or not because of the close photography and setting at bedtime (although her clothing could perhaps suggest a period setting).

EDIT: Confirmed as a Czech film.

What movie is the one sampled in The Dreamers when she's about to commit suicide with the woman rolling down the hill?

That's Mouchette, isn't it?

Yes.
A poor choice in a generally disappointing film, I thought.

Thanks, for some odd reason I thought it looked Bergman-esque. I really need to take that out of my Kevyip soon.

The Linklater thread reminded me of a (probably French) film I saw on TV about 15 years ago, about (I think) an adulterous couple, or a couple having some sort of an affair anyway: the entire movie is shot in the male protagonist's POV, and as far as I remember it consists entirely of conversations between the two characters. I don't even remember if it was any good or not, I just remember that gimmick - but rather amazingly I haven't been able to find anything similar on Google, IMDB, anywhere. Anyone know what this is?

I'm sure that's La femme défendue (1997) by Philippe Harel.