Cinematic Era: 1955 Vintage

Highlights of the Belgian Grand Prix from Spa-Francorchamps on June 5th, 1955.

During a camping trip, a group of students learns about the importance of science and its role in understanding the world around us.

A performer goes to a travel agency with hopes of visiting foreign countries. After seeing the performer's juggling act, the travel agent agrees to letting him work his way over to Pamonia, a mythical oriental country where the agent's brother is a Pasha. The performer exchanges words with the Pasha in a comedy routine; watches the Pasha's dancing girls perform and do a series of suggestive dances; performs his juggling act while riding a miniature bike; watches the harem dance and strip; does a comedy-eating routine; watches some more dancing and stripping...and becomes the new ruler of Pamonia.

How Monsanto will protect you during old age, accidents, death and so on.

Black and white documentary about Mexico City, its most emblematic buildings, its main streets and its people, from its pre-Hispanic origins to the mid-20th century.

Documentary on Ferdi Tajiri and her iron welded jewelry. This atmospheric documentary shows Ferdi welding and fashioning her jewelry. The images of the insect-like jewels fade into footage of real insects.

The industrious little red hen is always on the move while the other farm animals just lay around and sleep. She finds a grain of wheat, plants it, harvests the wheat crop, shucks the wheat, grinds it, and then bakes a loaf of bread. When the time comes for the bread to be eaten, the farm animals want a share of it, but all they get from the little red hen is a lecture about when there is bread to be baked, don't loaf on the job. This proves just how hard-working the little red hen really is...not many would do that much work just to be able to make a bad pun.

A 1955 experimental film directed by Jim Davis.

A documentary about a family bringing up a tufted duck.

A modern dance solo interpretation of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring created by dancer/choreographer Jim Huntley and filmed and edited by Pieter Van Deusen.

This vintage stage production of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca was originally mounted and filmed in Milan on September 24, 1955; it stars Renata Heredia Capnist as the title character, Franco Corelli as Mario Cavaradossi, Carlo Tagliabue as Baron Scarpia and Antonio Sacchetti as Cesare Angelotti. Silverio Blasi directed; the Orchestra and Chorus of Radiotelevision Italiana - Milan provide musical accompaniment. ...Puccini: Tosca ( Tosca )

A 1955 promotional short in which an even-tempered gas jockey goes out of his way to explain a car's cooling system to a dizzy dame and her hotheaded husband.

The story of a small locomotive from Little Schnarching that sets out on its own to explore the wide world and, after a series of frightening experiences in the modern world, returns to its quiet home station, timid and remorseful. Based on the children's book by Graham Greene.

"This is considered one of the earliest pure gangster films in local cinema. It’s a fascinating plot about a boy raised by a triad kingpin in the 1930s. When the godfather dies, the young Xiang is given power over the gang and the master’s household. Trying to be faithful to the old man’s principles, Xiang finds himself unable to control his master’s widow and daughter, who are led astray by the widow’s worldly, greedy sister. At the same time, Xiang must ally with other triads to smuggle aid to the forces fighting the invading Japanese. He is torn between devotion to tradition and the need to adapt to modern materialism and the impending world war." (From David Borwdell's blog: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/04/15/genre-%E2%89%A0-generic/)

Rhythmic and indicative documentary that shows how every day 150,000 people hurry to work by public transport from their homes in the suburbs of Warsaw.

Masked cowboy hero, first in a series of four.

Indian Film

David Gladwell (Requiem for a Village) was just 20 years old when he made A summer Discord, an imaginative amateur, silent short film set in the countryside which tells the story of a little girl who is reprimanded by her mother. Of particular note is the film’s dark nightmare sequence which is shot in colour (unlike the rest of the film) and which anticipates Gladwell’s later, highly poetical films.

The Eames House and Studio is explored via a series of slides.

Directed by John Whitney.

A short film from the National Safety Council detailing six commonly held beliefs that can lead to death.

Teresita Arce's figure encompasses the entire realm of 20th-century Peruvian entertainment. This interview was filmed in June 1955, on the occasion of her marriage to Guillermo Mesinas Barrantes.

Christmas 1955: Mrs. María Delgado de Odría, First Lady of Peru, visits the young residents of the Augusto Pérez Araníbar Children's Home in Magdalena del Mar. She then visits the esteemed guests of the Little Sisters of the Poor Home in Breña. Edition 14 of Noticiero Perú

The renowned Mexican tenor Nicolás Urcelay Alonzo (1919-1959) performed at the Radio El Sol Auditorium. In addition to his vocal talent and his appearances in several films (Deseada and El puerto de los siete vicios, both from 1951), Urcelay was highly regarded by the Peruvian public for being the first to introduce the waltz "La flor de la canela" by the Peruvian composer María Isabel Granda y Larco ("Chabuca Granda") to Mexico. The article also mentions his meeting with fans at the Fleischmann Department Store, the event's sponsor. Noticiero Perú (No. 11, Spring 1955)

In 1955, the Social Security Workers' Hospital (now Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen Hospital) in the La Victoria district of Lima presented its recently acquired Philips brand artificial respirator, or "Resuscitator," to a large audience of doctors, nurses, and students. For them, the demonstration became a valuable professional development opportunity. As the news report noted, the "Resuscitator" was very easy to operate, as it was designed to provide rapid respiratory support to anyone experiencing drowning, gas asphyxiation, or electrocution.

A 1955 advertorial transports us to a time when cycling meant freedom, new ways of connecting, sustainability, and a glimpse into the future. In the lightheartedness of these gestures—young people conversing, passing each other, recognizing one another—an idea of ​​modern, open, and shared life also emerges, very much in tune with the culture from which the Monark bicycle arose.

Documentary about Faustino Sánchez Carrión. Directed by Enrico Grass. Produced by Franklin Urteaga.

Documentary funded by the Ministry of Public Works.

Documentary. Accompanying the re-release of Palomillas del Rímac at the Biarritz cinema.

A Japanese House is a film MoMA produced in 1955 to document the installation of an actual, full-scale 17th-century Japanese house, designed by Junzō Yoshimura and named Shofuso (or “Pine Breeze Villa”), in the museum's Sculpture Garden.

In the studio of painter Shun Kumashiro, curls of pipe smoke signal the work that is about to unfold. A line is drawn across a blank canvas, as alternating shots of the painter’s face and the surface reveal moments of pause, contemplation, and exuberance. Colours blend on the palette, and the brush moves swiftly across the canvas, forming a piece shaped through the interplay of image and music.

After the hero of this story saw hundreds of boys and girls participating in the first national camp of the Youth Companies Brigade that took place in Gardosh (Kibbutz Parod), he decided to join the movement. Taking part in the third camp, he, together with his fellow brigade members, set up the camp tents on the beach next to Kibbutz Gesher Haziv, and after a march, they prepared a big meal. The camp held sports activities and martial arts, games, and an art exhibition.

The daily routine in the small village of Großdingharting near Munich.

A beauty pageant for Miss California held in Santa Cruz, California

Seminal Danish documentary detailing Nazi Germany's occupation of Denmark in the Second World War between 1940 and 1945.

Tour of Scotland.

Thailand’s first animated movie made by Payut Ngaokrachang, mater animator who would go on to make several other animated films. “Amazing Incidents” was first screened with live dubbing on July 5, 1955 at Sala Chalermthai in Bangkok.

A poetic short film that describes Nordmarka, the forest located north in Oslo. ***** Oslofilm was a series of public information films about life in and around Oslo, produced between 1940 and 1980. Funded by the state, the films offer valuable insight into postwar Norwegian society. A wide range of Norwegian filmmakers contributed to the productions, resulting in a rich variety of styles and expressions. Several of the films also possess notable cinematic qualities, standing out as more than just informational material. The Oslofilms represent a unique and important chapter in Norwegian film history.

The film shows images of the "Solidarity" vacation home in Oberhof.

A writer's fiction becomes terrifying reality, sucking him into his own novel being played out. Ray Ericson writes of a lovely woman who leaves her steady boyfriend for a man out to kill her. Suddenly he realizes life is imitating art: he is in the killer role! How can the novelist prevent destroying the woman he's come to love?

A German Film Award winning colour documentary about life in Düsseldorf.

Betty Page film in black and white made about 1950

Short by Madeline Tourtelot (1955)

Set during World War I, Enrico Toti takes up a job on a railway. One day he rescues a kid and needs his leg to be amputated. He leaves his girl, Nina, and in 1915 when the war begins, he is enlisted but wants to be in the front as a postman. When he comes back from the war there will be a surprise in store for him.

In December 1955, the professional community around Sahia celebrate the fifth anniversary of their institution by producing this films meant to be screened in the opening of the anniversary party and only for insiders of the studio. The film copy available at the National Film Archive has no credits therefore we cannot be specific about the type of involvement of each member of the studio in the making of this film.

This animated film features an average fellow who meets the Devil (or his envoy, anyway), who has a plan to turn his nice neighborhood into a slum.

The neon lights of Time Square’s BOAC sign…in Kodachrome kaleidoscope.

Correa’s MIT Master’s Thesis.

An abstract film in which Jesús Soto's art and André Almuro's musique concrete combine to evoke the modern age.

Betty Page dances flirtatiously.

A Swedish film about ore mining and processing in Kiruna, Malmberget and Grängesberg.

On a theater stage, the four seasons of the year are presented by Santista, one of the most traditional textile industries in Brazil. A stop-motion animated advertisement by Eugênio Marcus.