Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1953 • Spain
Starring Lolita Sevilla, Manolo Morán, José Isbert
A distant land shrouded in myth and rumor, America looms large in the cultural imagination of a quiet Castilian village, whose impressionable inhabitants dream of benefitting from the country’s postwar plans to aid Europe. When word gets out that a delegation of U.S. diplomats plans to pay a visit, the townsfolk of Villar del Río waste no time in erecting a fantasy worthy of Uncle Sam’s favor, transforming their austere surroundings into a tourist-friendly vision of Andalusian kitsch. With a sly irreverence that led Cannes juror Edward G. Robinson to declare it un-American, Luis García Berlanga’s international breakthrough lampoons the smoke and mirrors that shape national identities from both within and without.
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Shoulder Arms
Directed by Charles Chaplin • 1918 • United States
From the depths of a trench in war-torn France, Chaplin supplies a little levity to a stark situation as an American soldier dreams of one day becoming a WWI hero. A man can dream can't he?
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A Taxing Woman’s Return
Directed by Juzo Itami • 1988 • Japan
Starring Nobuko Miyamoto, Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko TsugawaNobuko Miyamoto returns to the role of Ryoko Itakura, the tough-as-nails government tax investigator whom you most definitely don’t want to cross, in Juzo Itami’s energetic, genre-twisting follow-up ...
