Fear And Desire (1953)

Virtually unseen since its theatrical premiere in 1953, "FEAR AND DESIRE" was the ambitious first feature film by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. An existential war film often compared with the director's "PATHS OF GLORY" (1957) and "FULL METAL JACKET" (1987), "FEAR AND DESIRE" follows a squad of soldiers who have crash-landed behind enemy lines and must work their way downriver to rejoin their unit. In the process, they encounter a peasant girl (Virginia Leith) and bind her to a tree, where she is tormented by a mentally unbalanced soldier (future director Paul Mazursky). Before making their escape, the soldiers determine the location of an enemy base and formulate a plot to assassinate its commanding officer…

Stanley Kubrick's elusive "First" film. Four Soldiers find themselves behind enemy lines when their plane crashes. They decide to build a raft and travel down a nearby river into an allied country. However, their presence is discovered by a local woman who stumbles across them in the woods, and they learn that an enemy General is nearby, determined to flush them out. Fear and Desire is the only Kubrick feature not available on home video or for theatrical distribution, until now.

A ficticious war in an unidentified country provides the setting for this drama. Four soldiers survive the crash-landing of their plane to find themselves in a forest six miles behind enemy lines. The group, led by Lt. Corby, has a plan: They'll make their way to a nearby river, build a raft, and then, under cover of night, float back to friendly territory. Their plans for getting back safely are sidetracked by a young woman who stumbles across them as they hide in the woods, and by the nearby presence of an enemy general who one member of the group is determined to kill.

A ficticious war in an unidentified country provides the setting for this drama. Four soldiers survive the crash-landing of their plane to find themselves in a forest six miles behind enemy lines. The group, led by Lt. Corby, has a plan: They'll make their way to a nearby river, build a raft, and then, under cover of night, float back to friendly territory. Their plans for getting back safely are sidetracked by a young woman who stumbles across them as they hide in the woods, and by the nearby presence of an enemy general who one member of the group is determined to kill.

A ficticious war in an unidentified country provides the setting for this drama. Four soldiers survive the crash-landing of their plane to find themselves in a forest six miles behind enemy lines. The group, led by Lt. Corby, has a plan: They'll make their way to a nearby river, build a raft, and then, under cover of night, float back to friendly territory. Their plans for getting back safely are sidetracked by a young woman who stumbles across them as they hide in the woods, and by the nearby presence of an enemy general who one member of the group is determined to kill.

Douglas Sirk remains one of cinema's sharpest observers of human nature, and the string of melodramas he made in the 1950s, although glossy and colourful on the surface, reveal a cynical and pessimistic view when examined more closely. Although his movies were derisively labeled as “women's pictures” by critics, directors such as Godard and Fassbinder later praised his films, applauding his use of cinematic distancing techniques to coax the audience into examining the message behind the images. This magnificent box set contains seven of the master of melodrama's finest works, including his masterpiece - All That Heaven Allows, a ruthless depiction of spite in suburbia, and a heavy influence on Fassbinder. Features Imitation Of Life (1959), Magnificent Obsession (1954), Written On The Wind (1956), All I Desire (1953), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and The Tarnished Angels (1958).

On Dry Well Lane in Beijing in 1953, Chen Shujuan and Lin Shaolong marry. A year later their son, nicknamed Tietou (Iron Head), is born. The Party is everywhere: Mao's photograph, loud-speaker announcements, visits from the neighborhood committee. Shaolong dies in a reform camp; a close family friend, who protects Shujuan and her son partly out of guilt for lying to authorities about Shaolong, succumbs to malnutrition; a confrontation with the Red Guard leads to injury, imprisonment and death. Shujuan's love for Tietou sustains her, and the child's blue kite embodies hope: "I can make another for you," says Tietou's dad; by the end, Tietou promises this to a small child.