Balzac Video:

Another small label with an assortment of exclusives and other features of interest, especially to Rossellini fans. You can even find John Ford silents and a Kurosawa martial arts film! Some films are packaged with short subjects by the same director, or with restored sequences -- look for details.

A Nous la Liberte
Bizarre Bizarre
Carnival in Flanders
Day in the Country
Gervaise
Miracle, The
Quiet One
Zero for Conduct

Age of the Medici
Roberto Rossellini. Color.
Art, money, and politics, in Renaissance Florence.
Italy, 1972, filmed in English, 255 min., $129.99

Anatahan
Josef von Sternberg's last film. B&W.
Japanese soldiers and one woman on a desert island. Plus: The Town, a 1944 Sternberg documentary, 12 min.
Japan, 1954, 104 min., $59.99

I Bambini Ci Guardano (The Children Are Watching Us)
Vittorio De Sica. B&W.
A little boy suffers as his parents' marriage dissolves. De Sica's most heartrending film; a critical look at Mussolini's Italy.
Italy, 1942, subtitled, 84 min., $59.99

Le Beau Serge
Claude Chabrol. B&W.
Young Parisian comes home to Auvergne -- the first New Wave film.
France, 1958, subtitled, 97 min., $59.99

La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast)
Jean Renoir. Jean Gabin, Simone Simon.
Zola, adultery, murder.
France, 1938, subtitled, 100 min., $29.99

Blaise Pascal
Roberto Rossellini. Color
A detailed depiction of 17th century French mores; one of the best history films ever.
in original French, 1971, subtitled, 130 min., $75.99

Chikamatsu Monogatari (The Crucified Lovers)
Kenji Mizoguchi. B&W
In 17th-century Japan illicit love leads to tragedy.
1954, subtitled, 110 min., $59.99

Culloden and Wargame
Peter Watkins.
"You Are There" style enactment of Bonnie Prince Charlie's battle in 18th-century Scotland, plus his famed portrait of life after nuclear war.
England, 123 min., $59.95

Les Cousins
Claude Chabrol.
A provincial finds bitter truths in Paris.
France, 1958, subtitled, 110 min., $59.99

Era Notte a Roma
Roberto Rossellini. B&W. Giovanna Ralli, Leo Glenn.
Allied POWs hide in occupied Rome during WW2.
Italy, 1961, subtitled, 140 min., $75.99

Exile, The
Max Ophuls. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Swashbuckler as Charles II.
US, 1946, 90 min., $29.99

Fear
Roberto Rossellini. B&W. With Ingrid Bergman.
In Germany, an unfaithful wife is blackmailed.
in English (Note: Fear was shot first in English, then in German.), 1954, $59.99

Francesco Giullare Di Dio (Francis, God's Jester)
Roberto Rossellini. B&W.
Neo-realist recreation of Francis of Assisi -- one of Rossellini's major masterpieces. (Note: Includes a sequence missing from earlier editions)
Italy, 1950, subtitled, 88 min., $59.99

Germany Year Zero
Roberto Rossellini. B&W.
Ex-Hitler Youth, 12, confronts postwar horrors. (Note: This is the original edition in German with English subtitles, not the Italian dubbing (not overseen by Rossellini) released later.)
Germany-Italy, 1947, subtitled, $59.99

Liebelei
Max Ophuls. With Magda Schneider.
One of the best and most popular of pre-war German films; a tragic love story that established Ophuls's reputation. Plus: Ophuls' Valse Brillante (1936).
Germany, 1932, 90 min., subtitled, $59.99

Listen To Britain
True Story of Lili Marlene; Diary for Timothy; Cumberland Story; Humphrey Jennings. Poetic documentaries set during World War II.
England, 1942-47, 120 min., $59.99

La Marseillaise
Jean Renoir
A Popular Front reading of the French revolution, and the end of Louis XVI.
France, 1937, subtitled, 140 min., $29.99

Ordet
Carl Th. Dreyer.
Two puritanical families.
Denmark, 1955, subtitled, 125 min., $34.99

Paisan
Roberto Rossellini.
6 episodes during Italy's WW2 liberation.
Italy, 1946, subtitled, 120 min., $29.99

Le Plaisir
Max Ophuls. With Jean Gabin, Daniele Darrieux.
3 DeMaupassant tales.
France, 1951, subtitled, $29.99

La Prise De Pouvoir Par Louis XIV (The Taking of Power by Louis XIV)
Roberto Rossellini. Color.
A detailed reconstruction of 17th century France.
France, 1966, subtitled, 102 min., $59.99

Sanshiro Sugata (Judo Saga)
Akira Kurosawa (his first film).
Ju-jitsu masters oppose intro of judo.
Japan, 1943, subtitled, 80 min., $29.99

Sansho The Bailiff
Kenji Mizoguchi.
Noble children, sold into slavery, persevere in virtue.
Japan, 1954, subtitled, 125 min., $34.99

Sin Heike Monogatari (Tara Clan Saga)
Kenji Mizoguchi. Color.
Samurai family struggles for power in medieval Japan. One of two Mizoguchi films in color.
Japan, 1955, subtitled, 108 min., $59.99

Shoeshine (Sciuscia)
Vittorio De Sica.
Orphaned boys in postwar Italy.
Italy, 1946, subtitled, 90 min., $59.99

La Signora Di Tutti
Max Ophuls
Among the greatest of all pre-war films.
Italy, 1933, subtitled, 90 min., $39.99

The Sisters Of The Gion (Gion no shimai)
Kenji Mizoguchi.
Two geisha sisters contrast new and traditional morality.
Japan, 1936, subtitled, 66 min., $59.99

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
Kenji Mizoguchi
The life of a Kubuki actor.
Japan, 1939, subtitled, 142 min., $79.99

Straight Shooting
John Ford. Harry Carey
First feature by America's greatest director.
Plus: Blazing the Trail -- Thomas Ince; 101 Bison 1912, with Francis Ford; Under the Stars and Bars -- 1910; Melies Star -- made in Texas, Francis Ford directs and stars; Unmasked -- 1917 reissue of Black Masks (Universal, 1913), by Francis Ford & Grace Cunard.
US, ca. 1917, with music, 60 min. $59.99

Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman plays a refugee trapped by marriage on a primitive island. Rossellini's own, drastically different, shot-in-English edition. (Note: *not* the RKO release.)
Italy, 1949, 105 min., $59.99

La Terra Trema
Luchino Visconti
Neo-realist saga of Sicilian fishermen.
Italy, 1948, subtitled, 161 min., $49.99

Vanina Vanini
Roberto Rossellini. Color.
Stendhal's story of love.
Italy, 1961, subtitled, 125 min., $59.99

I Vitelloni
Federico Fellini. With Franco Sordi.
Shiftless youths in Ravenna.
Italy, 1953, subtitled, 104 min., $59.99

Voyage In Italy
Roberto Rossellini. With Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders.
Shot in English.
Italy, 1953, 88 min., $29.99