Before the student riots up the Champs-Elysee, Sweden came out with this film, which 'Describes the difficulties of a radical in a country with no serious problems'. Random questions asked by a young girl to members of the public compares middle-aged middle-class apathy with the social upheavals of the 60s and, with its added explicit sexual content, it was no wonder it was banned. This dvd also includes Sjoman's follow-up, "I Am Curious Blue", which continues Lena's journey of self discovery.
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ONIBABA (1964)
Certification15 Our Rating
A weird story, based on legend, about a mother and her daughter-in-law who survived in times of hardship by murdering Samurai and selling their armour to buy rice. A wonderfully strange and visually striking Japanese folk tale, unusual in itself, but also a beautiful and detailed character study.
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WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (1960)
CertificationPG Our Rating
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs might be Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse's finest hour, a delicate, devastating study of a woman, Keiko, played heartbreakingly by Hideko Takamine, who works as a bar hostess in Tokyo's very modern post-war Ginza district. Sly, resourceful, but trapped, Keiko comes to embody the conflicts and struggles of a woman trying to establish her independence in a male-dominated society. A profoundly moving masterpiece.
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WOMAN OF THE DUNES (1964)
Certification15 Our Rating
An entomologist, searching for insects in the desert, becomes trapped in a large escape-proof sandpit with a desirable, but inarticulate, woman, and a taught sexual tension gradually builds between them. On such a slight plot the film develops into an exploration of eroticism and the attraction between man and woman. An unusually cruel and suspense filled thriller.
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