"The curious and, to many of us, unknown peoples of the Bolivian Andes are the subjects of Ciudad de la Paz (City of La Paz), an interesting and colorful film by Eduardo Douglas Di Fiore. The peasants' life, arduous and squalid amid the beauty of their mountain home, has been competently and effectively documented. Their vividly colored costumes and monochromatic, weather-beaten faces take on a new beauty through the dramatic use of an interplay between natural light and shadow, a device which is used tellingly throughout the film. There are times, however, when Mr. Di Fiore tends to belabor his point. These overlong sequences, despite the ever-present beauty and grandeur, detract on occasion from the overall quality of the picture. The music and narrative (in Spanish) complement the mood and tempo of the film effectively." Movie Makers, Dec. 1952, 340.
"The City was entered by its maker as an experimental film and ended up winning the Travel Film Award. Usually travel motion pictures have a difficult time in festival competitions, but this one came out almost on top. George Hood, who also won an Honorable Mention for Goin' Home, shows you 17 minutes of San Francisco that makes you feel you have lived there all your life - and he does all this without one word of narration, just sounds and music plus excellent filming" PSA Journal, Oct. 1968, 48.
"Buildings and activities in Sydney, filmed in colour" (EAFA Database).
"Another of Mr. Horovitz's fine travel films of the Orient. This time the city of some 400 Buddhist temples, Bangkok, where the Emerald Buddha may be seen. the city is old but some of its new areas are modern. We visit several areas of the city including its waterfront where a large part of the population continues to live with its busy traffic of small boats and river merchants" PSA Journal, Nov. 1959, 48.
"Shows various types of commerce and industry in Victoria, including a large department store, a milk bottling plant, a beauty parlour, offices, garbage collection, a weaver's shop, a bakery, etc." (Duffy, 84).
Other sequences included the Ogden Point grain elevators, Royal Jubilee Hospital, shipyards, a plywood plant, and carpet factory. Nanaimo Daily News, 26 October 1953, p. 5.
"a sogg. breve" short fiction
"Parabola, e La città sogna, regia di Guido Pallaro. Questi due film di Guido Pallaro hanno sopratutto un pregio: la buona volontà che dimostra l'autore, giovanissimo, di raggiungere qualche risultato adoperando tutti i mezzi possibili; passato questo periodo di esuberanza non esente da ingenuità stilistiche ed anche da arditezze ingiustificate, Pallaro potrà fornire opere di maggior impegno e più solida struttura. Nella Citta sogna che comprende i sogni di diversi individui il sogno del bambino ha qualche passaggio notevole, e in Parabola si avverte la ricerca di raggiungere nuovi motivi anche se i risultati non appaiono sempre realizzati con equilibrio."
"Parabola, and The City Dreams (La città sogna), directed by Guido Pallaro. These two films of Guido Pallaro have above all one merit: the good will that demonstrates their author, who is very young, to reach here some results using all possible means; having passed this period of exuberance not exempt from stylistic ingenuousness and also from unjustified daring, Pallaro has the capacity to provide works of greater commitment and more solid structure. In The City Dreams, which includes the dreams of various individuals, the dream of the child has some notable passages, and in Parabola one senses the search for new motifs even if the results do not always appear to be realized with balance."
— Il Ventuno 26 (Review of the G.U.F. of Venice) March 1935
Fiction
"documentario a fantasia"/avant-garde documentary
Total Pages: 299
Amateur Cinema