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Janus Films
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Janus Films is a film distribution company. The distributor is credited with introducing numerous films, now considered masterpieces of world cinema, to American audiences, including the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, Sergei Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut, Yasujirō Ozu and many other well-regarded directors. Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957) was the film responsible for the company's initial growth. Janus has a close relationship with The Criterion Collection regarding the release of its films on DVD and is still an active theatrical distributor.
The company's name and logo come from Janus, the two-faced Roman god.
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Filmography of Janus Films (33 films)
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This Sporting Life (1963)
, 2h14Directed by Lindsay Anderson
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Sports films, Rugby, Rugby à XIII
Actors Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Arthur Lowe
Set in Wakefield, the film concerns a bitter young Yorkshire coal miner, Frank Machin (Harris). Following a nightclub altercation, in which he takes on the captain of the local rugby league club and punches a couple of the others, he is recruited by the team's manager, who sees profit in his aggressive streak.
Jules and Jim (1962)
, 1h42Directed by François Truffaut, Robert Bober
Origin France
Genres Drama, Romance
Themes Films about sexuality, Films about suicide, Buddy films
Actors Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre, Marie Dubois, Sabine Haudepin, Jean-Louis Richard
The film is set before, during and after the Great War in several different parts of France, Austria, and Germany. Jules (Oskar Werner) is a shy writer from Austria who forges a friendship with the more extroverted Frenchman Jim (Henri Serre). They share an interest in the world of the arts and the Bohemian lifestyle. At a slide show, they become entranced with a bust of a goddess and her serene smile, and travel to see the ancient statue on an island in the Adriatic Sea.
, 1h40Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Gary Raymond, Siobhán McKenna, Niall MacGinnis, Liam Redmond
A young man from a far away village appears in County Mayo announcing to all and sundry that he has murdered his father with a blow to the head. With the tale growing in the telling, the young man becomes a local hero…until his angry father comes to fetch him home.
Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
, 1h29Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Genres Drama
Themes Medical-themed films, Psychologie, Films about psychiatry
Actors Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Max von Sydow, Lars Passgård
The story takes place during a twenty-four hour period while four family members take their vacation on a remote island, shortly after one of them, Karin (Harriet Andersson), is released from an asylum where she has been treated for schizophrenia. Karin's husband Martin (Max von Sydow) tells her father, David, that Karin's disease is almost incurable. Meanwhile, Minus (Lars Passgård), Karin's 17-year-old brother, tells Karin that he wishes he could have a real conversation with his father and cries because he feels deprived of his father's affection. David (Gunnar Björnstrand) is a novelist suffering from "writer's block" who has just returned from a long trip abroad. He announces he will leave again in a month, though he promised he would stay. The others are upset and David gives them unthoughtful, last-minute presents. He leaves them and sobs alone for a moment. When he returns, the others cheerfully announce that they too have a "surprise" for David; they perform a play for him that Minus has written. David, while feigning approval of the play, takes offense since the play can be interpreted as an attack on his character.
L'Avventura (1960)
, 2h23Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Origin Italie
Genres Drama, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films
Actors Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari, Jack O'Connell, Dominique Blanchar, Lelio Luttazzi
Anna (Lea Massari) meets her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti) at her father's villa on the outskirts of Rome prior to leaving on a yachting cruise on the Mediterranean. They drive into Rome to Isola Tiberina near the Pons Fabricius to meet up with Anna's boyfriend, Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti). While Claudia waits downstairs, Anna and Sandro make love in his house. Afterwards Sandro drives the two women to the coast where they join two wealthy couples and set sail south along the coast.
The Virgin Spring (1960)
, 1h29Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Origin Suede
Genres Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror, Historical, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Films based on mythology, Films about sexuality, Transport films, Rape in fiction, Erotic films, Films set in the Viking Age, Rape and revenge films, Films based on Norse mythology, Auto-justice
Actors Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Pettersson, Axel Düberg, Allan Edwall
The Virgin Spring tells the story, set in the late medieval Sweden, of a prosperous Christian whose daughter, Karin (Birgitta Pettersson), is appointed to take candles to the church. Karin is accompanied by her pregnant servant Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom), who secretly worships the Norse deity Odin. Along their way through the forest on horseback, Ingeri becomes frightened when they come to a stream-side mill and the two part and Karin sets out on her own.
, 11minutesDirected by Peter Sellers, Richard Lester
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Actors Mario Fabrizi, Richard Lester, David Lodge, Leo McKern, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers
Un court-métrage sans aucune action directe conçue plus comme une expérience, avec des scènes comiques disjointes sans fil commun.
Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
, 1h43Directed by Janusz Morgenstern, Andrzej Wajda
Origin Pologne
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes Politique, Political films
Actors Bogumił Kobiela, Barbara Krafftówna, Zbigniew Skowroński, Aleksander Sewruk
In an unnamed small Polish town on May 8, 1945, the day Germany officially surrendered, Maciek (Zbigniew Cybulski) and Andrzej (Adam Pawlikowski) are Home Army soldiers who have been assigned to assassinate the communist Commissar Szczuka (Wacław Zastrzeżyński), but fail in their first attempt to ambush him, killing two civilian cement plant workers instead. They are given a second chance in the town's leading hotel and banquet hall, Monopol.
Death of a Cyclist (1955)
, 1h28Directed by Jesús Franco, Juan Antonio Bardem
Origin Espagne
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime, Romance
Actors Lucia Bosè, Carlos Casaravilla, Matilde Muñoz Sampedro, Otello Toso, Manuel Alexandre, Fernando Sancho
While returning to Madrid after an illicit tryst, a wealthy socialite housewife and a university professor accidentally strike a bicyclist with their car. Although they see that he is still alive after the accident, they know they cannot summon help for him without their affair being revealed. They drive away and leave him to die. After the bicyclist's death is reported in the newspaper, the pair deal with ever-rising tension, borne from their fear that their deeds will be exposed.
White Mane (1953)
, 47minutesDirected by Albert Lamorisse
Origin France
Genres Drama
Themes Films about animals, La provence, Films about horses, Children's films, Mise en scène d'un mammifère, Film équestre français
Actors Frank Silvera, Denys Colomb de Daunant, Pascal Lamorisse, François Périer, Jean-Pierre Grenier, Peter Strauss
In the marshes of Camargue, France, a herd of wild horses roam free. Their leader is a handsome white-haired stallion named White Mane (Crin Blanc in French).
I Vitelloni (1953)
, 1h43Directed by Federico Fellini
Origin France
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Actors Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, Franco Interlenghi, Leopoldo Trieste, Jean Brochard, Leonora Ruffo
As summer draws to a close, a violent downpour interrupts a beach-side beauty pageant in a provincial town on the Adriatic coast. Sandra Rubini (Leonora Ruffo), elected "Miss Siren of 1953", suddenly grows upset and faints: rumours fly that she’s expecting a baby by inveterate skirt chaser Fausto Moretti (Franco Fabrizi). Under pressure from Francesco (Jean Brochard), his respectable father, Fausto agrees to a shotgun wedding. After the sparsely attended middle-class ceremony, the newlyweds leave town on their honeymoon.
Umberto D. (1952)
, 1h20Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Origin Italie
Genres Drama
Themes Films about animals, Vieillesse, Films about dogs, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Maria-Pia Casilio, Memmo Carotenuto, Lina Gennari, Lamberto Maggiorani
Police disperse an organized street demonstration of elderly men demanding a raise in their meager pensions. One of the marchers is Umberto D. Ferrari, a retired government worker.
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
, 2h4Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Crime
Themes Serial killer films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Martha Raye, William Frawley, Charlie Chaplin, Isobel Elsom, Edna Purviance, Fritz Leiber
Henri Verdoux had been a bank teller for thirty years before being laid off. To support his wife and child, he turns to the business of marrying and murdering wealthy widows. The Couvais family becomes suspicious when Thelma Couvais draws all her money and disappears, only two weeks after marrying a man named "Varnay", whom they only know through a photograph. As Verdoux (Chaplin) prepares to sell the residence of the murdered Thelma, widowed Marie Grosnay visits the residence. Verdoux sees her as another "business" opportunity and attempts to charm her, but she refuses. In the following weeks, Verdoux has a flower girl repeatedly send Grosnay flowers. In need of money to invest, Verdoux, as M. Floray, visits widow Lydia Floray (Hoffman), who complains that his engineering job has kept him away too long. That night, Verdoux murders her for her money.
The Rules of the Game (1939)
, 1h50Directed by Jean Renoir
Origin France
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Romance
Themes Films about sexuality, Transport films, Films about the labor movement, Erotic films, Aviation films
Actors Roland Toutain, Nora Gregor, Paulette Dubost, Marcel Dalio, Jean Renoir, Odette Talazac
Cœurs sensibles, cœurs fidèles, Qui blâmez l'amour léger,
Grand Illusion (1937)
, 1h54Directed by Jean Renoir
Origin France
Genres Drama, War, Historical
Themes French war films, Prison films, Transport films, Aviation films, Political films, Évasion, Disaster films, Films about aviation accidents or incidents
Actors Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette
During the First World War, two French aviators, aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), embark on a flight to examine the site of a blurred spot on photos from an earlier air reconnaissance mission. They are shot down by a German aviator and aristocrat, Rittmeister von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein, upon returning to base, sends a subordinate to find out if the aviators are officers and, if so, to invite them to lunch. During the meal, von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu discover they have mutual acquaintances—a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper classes that crosses national boundaries.