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Be Beautiful?

Date produced: 1938

Filmmaker(s):

Cyrus Pinkham

Description:

"Dramatic short of a frumpy woman's dream of the alternate course her life might take were she a beauty." oldfilm.org


Cita, La. [The date]

Date produced:

Filmmaker(s):

Eloy González Gavilán

Description:

El filme muestra a una mujer esperando en su casa, tocando música, leyendo y acordando por el teléfono verse con alguien. Ella ve a una amiga y le dice que su novio, un hombre llamado Javier, está fuera de la ciudad por negocios. Primero van a una feria y después a un bar llamado El Pez Rojo, donde escuchan a una banda en vivo y toman algunos tragos, eventualmente ven que Javier está ahí bailando con otra mujer. Se van y Javier se queda bailando, después aparecen diversas imágenes de letreros de clubes nocturnos. Después se ve Javier manejando por la mañana con la otra mujer y deteniéndose a fumar un cigarro mientras es visto por su novia y su amiga. Mientras la pareja discute, la amiga de la primera mujer golpea a Javier en la cabeza con un arma. Después el filme corta a una escena de la primera mujer despertando y abriendo la puerta a sus amigas, mismas que reclaman haberla esperado demasiado, a lo que responde que se quedó atrapada por una historia que estaba leyendo, implicando que todo había sido producto de su imaginación.

The film shows a woman waiting in her house, playing music, reading and agreeing to see someone over the phone. She meets with a friend and tells her that her boyfriend, a man named Javier, is out of town on business. They first go to the fair and then to a bar called El Pez Rojo [The Red Fish] where they listen to a live band and have drinks, eventually they see that Javier is there dancing with another woman. They leave and Javier keeps dancing, then a series of images of several night clubs signs appear. Javier is then seen driving in the morning with the woman and stopping to smoke a cigar, where he is seen by his girlfriend and her friend. While the couple fights, the friend of the first woman hits Javier in the head with a gun. Then we see the woman waking up and opening the door to her friends who claim that she has kept them waiting for too long, and she says she got caught up in the story of the book she was reading, implying it was all a product of her imagination.


Enamorado fantástico del plástico [Plastic Fantastic Lover]

Date produced: 1972

Filmmaker(s):

Rafael Montero

Description:

"La cinta hacía un recuento de imágenes oníricas, en los que una mujer (Paloma Woolrich) sale de su casa para recorrer diversos espacios que en realidad parecen determinados por su imaginación: desciende los escalones de una calle en una zona peatonal, se muestra aprisionada por una roca gigantesca, aparece catatónica en una azotea con un bebé de plástico, lucha con un hombre contrahecho, apalea a un hombre amarrado, duerme con su pareja y su bebé de plástico en un cementerio, aparece desgreñada en una construcción en ruinas en medio del campo, donde es burdamente pintada por otra mujer" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012)

"The film made a recount of dreamlike images, in which a woman (Paloma Woolrich, goes out of her house to go through several spaces that actually seem determined by her imagination: she goes down the steps of a street in a pedestrian area, then she is imprisoned by a gigantic rock, she appears catatonic on a roof top with a plastic baby, she struggles with a crooked man, she beats a tied man, she sleeps with her couple and her plastic baby in a graveyard, she appears disheveled in a construction site in ruins in the middle of the country where she is roughly painted by another woman" (Vázquez Mantecón, 2012).


Enchanted Hills

Date produced: 1957

Filmmaker(s):

James L. Watson

Description:

"James Watson has made a neat family picture which should be in constant demand by his son and his friends. Mother and son walk in the woods prepared to have a picnic lunch. The story is introduced with Walt Disney's Peter Pan. After reading the book, Mother takes a snooze and Sonny goes for a walk. He comes upon Peter Pan with his flute, the Good Fairy, and a bewitched woman, in the woods. Meantime, his Mother is searching for him. After they join and walk together we again meet these persons in their normal atmosphere and then realize Sonny had supplied the imagination to cloak them as characters in the story-book" PSA Journal, Nov. 1957, 33.


Little Housekeeper, The

Date produced: 1948

Filmmaker(s):

Milton Dowe

Description:

"Young girl plays house, cares for doll, irons doll clothes." oldfilm.org


Magic Boy

Date produced: 1964

Filmmaker(s):

Michael Falco

Description:

"Magic Boy received the special citation for combining animation with live action. A small boy is watching a comic book or drawing board and what he sees comes to life before him. Whether Filmer Falco is a real life artist or not, he did a good job with the cartooning, but a really superb job in combining the boy with the animated character" PSA Journal, Sept. 1964, 51.


Magic Circle, The

Date produced: 1923

Filmmaker(s):

Alexander Black

Description:

"Alexander Black imagines his grandchildren appearing around him in a swirl of double-exposed trick cinematography." UC Berkeley Library.


Mannequin, The

Date produced: 1966

Filmmaker(s):

Jerrold A. Peil

Description:

"The Mannequin is another interesting bit of cinema which calls to our attention an inebriated fellow who, partly in his cups and partly in his imagination, sees beauty in a department store mannequin and tries to strike up an acquaintance" PSA Journal, Sept. 1966, 34.


Mission Alpha Centauri

Date produced: 1967

Filmmaker(s):

David Nason

Description:

"Teenagers...embark on a space mission to explore Alpha Centauri, the second closest star to Earth. The film follows the astronauts during the preparation for their mission, their journey through space, and finally, their encounters with life on Alpha Centauri. The end of the film portrays the astronauts and the Alpha Centaurians coming together in a utopian gathering, complete with cheerleaders, a pony, and an astral princess." Andrea McCarty, http://oldfilm.org/content/mission-alpha-centauri-0


One Summer Day

Date produced: 1949

Filmmaker(s):

Glen H. Turner

Description:

"Neither the lead title nor the unpretentious opening scenes — as a small boy is seen building a crude toy boat — prepares the spectator for the pure enchantment of One Summer Day. For, almost unrealized even as it happens, the film melts with incredible smoothness from live action into animation and make-believe. The toy boat becomes a pirate galleon of old, a flower a maiden in distress and a twig her gallant suitor, as there unfolds a tale of romantic derring-do. Under cover of darkness, the pirates plot to kidnap the lady, whose protector, a humble fisherman, is away at his nets. He returns, only to be bested in the ensuing sword play, yet, undaunted, he still gives chase. With the help of a friendly whale, he overtakes the pirates, frees his lady and, as the galleon goes down in flames, the lovers return to shore, to live happily ever after. Then, as quietly as it all began, we are back at the edge of the sunlit pond. The boy lifts his boat from the water and turns homeward. And yet, through the true magic of the movies, we have entered for a brief moment childhood's enchanted world. Highly imaginative camera handling, technical skill and a keen sense of cinematic values make this an outstanding example of personal filming. The musical accompaniment and sound effects (including the cling-clang-cling of clashing swords) complement the picture perfectly. Glen Turner has added a new dimension to amateur filming with this simple story so superbly told in its brief 350 feet of 8mm. film." Movie Makers, Dec. 1949, 452-453.


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