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The first edition of this book was published in the early 50s. The author moved to Manaus in 1951, when the cit y lived isolated from the world and was immersed in the Amazon Rain Forest…
When the author went there, the cycle of wealth brought about the rubber was almost over. Amazonia had not awoken yet to its greatness and to the international envy.

Once-beloved Third Reich-era starlet Veronika Voss (Rosel Zech) lives in obscurity in postwar Munich. Struggling for survival and haunted by past glories, the forgotten star encounters sportswriter Robert Krohn (Hilmar Thate) in a rain-swept park and intrigues him with her mysterious beauty. As their unlikely relationship develops, Krohn comes to discover the dark secrets behind the faded actress' demise. Based on the true story of a World War II movie star, Veronika Voss is wicked satire disguised as a 1950s thriller. (-DVD cover)

After a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight challenges Death to a fateful game of chess. More than forty years after its initial release, Ingmar Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking and an essential building block in any collection. criterion.com

This film takes a sharp look at British class relations via a dramatic turning of the tables between a dainty Oxbridge twit bachelor (played by a young and dapper James Fox) and his contemptuous manservant (Dirk Bogarde). Bogarde's servant slowly realizes and exploits his expanding powers over his "master" as Fox steadily loses his authority and becomes enslaved to his own "employee". (http://imdb.com/title/tt0057490/plotsummary)

From internationally celebrated directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre Padrone) comes this extraordinary film about a Tuscan village struggling against Nazi persecution during the last moments of WWII. With its stirring beautiful story Night of the Shooting Stars is a celebration of humanity and majestic entertainment. Six-year-old Cecilia is fascinated by the world and everything in it. And when her family and neighbors flee their village to escape the Nazis, it's the most exciting moment of her life! But the excitement turns to terror when the enemy begins to close in. Little Cecilia prays for rescue, on this, the Night of the Shooting Stars- an evening during which, it is said, all wishes are granted. Can Cecilia's wish be granted… or will this be her eternal night? (-DVD cover)

Working with elements of the traditional horror genre - second sight, ESP, warnings from the dead, a mad killer - and a cinematography of disquieting beauty and dreamlike sense of dislocation, director Nicolas Roeg weaves a fabric of anxiety that questions all reality. The evocative use of the back streets of Venice is a sinister participant in the action based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. This intensely erotic and macabre film boasts outstanding performances by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. (-DVD Product descr.)