Professor's Picks: 10 Disappearing Movies Still on My Watchlist

    Let me introduce this piece by discussing one of my favorite movies, 1938's Le Quai des Brumes, "Port of Shadows."

    This ancestor to noir film sees a despondent military deserter drifting to the foggy banks of Le Havre. There, he comes across a 17-year-old runaway pursued by several malicious parties. Their chance meeting teases a new and brighter future for these two drifters, forcing even the most nihilistic of us to consider the meaning of love and purpose in a meaningless world. 

    I saw the film for the first time for Media Arts History I, and I was absolutely transported. In a semester that offered some of the most dry, challenging films I had to watch for any class, this film was just a breath of fresh air. Everything you imagine when you think of a "French movie," even if you only know them by pop culture parodies, this was all of that. The moodiness, the melodrama, the romance, it's all there, and to such great effect. I selected this as my favorite movie for 1938, inching ahead favorites like Bringing Up Baby and You Can't Take it With You. 

    Anyways, I bring this up because I don't presently have a way to watch this movie.

    The movie was on FreeVee for a season, and I was grateful to make use of that for a time. But now searching for the movie just draws up a big blank. Not only is it not on Prime Video, I can't even rent it for 2.99 on YouTube like a starving college student.

   The option for seeking out a physical copy still stands, I suppose. But if studios don't really prioritize home media for mainstream titles, I don't know how any of us expect them to curate proper home releases for their niche films either. I have tried on three separate occasions to purchase a disc copy of Picnic with William Holden and Kim Novak, and the DVD I end up with always has something wrong with it. The disc is scratched. The picture quality looks like it was taped over from a 1970s tv broadcast. I accidentally order the French version. The list goes on. Anyways, the DVD for Port of Shadows is currently out of print, which makes my options much more finite.

    Moreover, these days streaming is how larger audiences tend to discover movies. That is how a film takes root in the culture it is selling itself to. Another one of my favorite films is Laurent Cantet's Time Out, pictured in this piece's leading image. This is one of the best representations of male anxiety within the work force, I even managed to fit into my selection of the 25 Best Movies of the Century. And yet, it finds itself in the same situation. I've had better luck securing a physical copy of this film, I just wish it was easier to recommend it to likeminded film viewers.

    And so this got me thinking about endangered film. 

Sorry, vampire fans, about losing London After Midnight (1927)

  I find a lot of people take for granted this idea that films will just always be there. But these things all depend on resources, on interest, on awareness--and all kinds of films are vulnerable to being lost. Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne, Laurence Olivier, Lon Chaney, all of these artists have films that are now considered "lost": it is impossible to track their artistic development in its entirety.

    And it's also not as though the present ecosystem is totally beyond this exact negligence. The same kind of bottom-line thinking that enabled studios in the silent era to just melt down old silent film reels for shoe leather? That is what motivates modern film studios to just cancel film releases--or pull streaming exclusive films from their service. 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

    This is also another part of why film advocates put so much effort into promoting things like classic cinema. If the public simply opts out of watching movies from niche markets, studios will not continue to keep them available, and entire pools of culture will evaporate. I don't think we ought to wait until then to start having these conversations. 

    So, I want to try something a little different this time. To give a sense of the problem, I want to list a range of movies that are on my watchlist that are not available on streaming. (And to keep things fair, I guess, I'll assign one movie per country.) Today's players are all movies I want to see--that I may never see. 

Let's hope I'm Still Here (2024) is still here in 50 years

    To give some sense of context, the movies on this roster all come from the list of movies nominated for Best Foreign/International film of their year. A few of them would even win. These are all movies that have been assigned some measure of acclaim, yet that isn't enough to guarantee they'll be available for future viewing. If I were to expand this search to overseas films that have been passed on by The Academy, I'd have a much larger pool to draw from.

    I don't know how close we are to the silent movie epidemic where a solid 70 percent of all films are just lost to the oblivion, but part of my mission with writing about cinema is securing its future, and so today I'd like to add some urgency to this epidemic by highlighting some movies I'm hoping I can get my eyeballs on before the oblivion claims them. 

    I'll admit it's hard to be professorial about movies I haven't even seen, but I'm choosing to see that as just part of the challenge. To the task at hand ... 

Qitivoq (1956) Erik Balling - Denmark

IMDb Summary: In this visual masterpiece and first Oscar nominated Danish film, young teacher Eva arriving in Greenland, surprises her fiancée in the arms of a woman. Seeking refuge, she meets a man also carrying a broken heart in the scenic landscape.

    This is the oldest film on this list, which might be why it was one of the more difficult to research. I did, however, find this review from Jesper Skovlund. He describes the film's depiction of Greenland, saying (translated from Danish): 

    "Greenland is both an image of the harsh isolation offered to those who are pushed out into the cold, but also a land of opportunities for those who realize that contact with the basics is a prerequisite for love."

    The phrase "visual masterpiece" is going to catch my attention, naturally. And all the images I've found for the film seem to support this claim. This appears to be one of those movies that uses its romanticized natural backdrop to reinforce a romanticized story and community--similar to what The Quiet Man did with early 20th century Ireland.

Sundays and Cybele (1962) Serge Bourguignon - France

IMDb Summary: Story of a lonely young girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.

    This film actually won for Best Foreign Language Film in its year. The story sounds like it has shades of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid. But I'm also getting little hints of Leon: The Professional, especially as described by David Andersen and his piece for Ion Cinema, 

    "Sundays and Cybèle deftly overcomes its manipulative – and potentially queasy – B movie origins to deliver an experience that’s intellectually and emotionally immersive ... In a way, Sundays and Cybèle was a new kind of monster movie, in which a repulsive creature was created whole cloth out of the frenzied imaginations of supposedly upright citizens. When these outraged defenders of morality lift up their weapons – be they torches, pitchforks or warplanes – the innocent lives lost in the carnage can never be fully restored." 

Tlayucan (1962) Luis Alcoriza - Mexico

IMDb Summary: A man becomes a thief out of desperation. If his identity becomes known, his neighbors might lynch him. The only friendly face in town is the local priest.

    Again, we have the concerns of an underclass as represented onscreen. This is kind of why have art in the first place, especially something like film. The Cine-Latino blog contextualized this work against the backdrop of Mexico's struggling film industry at the time owing in part to a work shortage resulting from studio bureaucracy. In her words,  

    "In this veiled message to the Mexican film industry, Alcoriza is saying that the industry does not need to look to an ephemeral and knowledgeable unknown. What Tlayucan needs is not a leader, but a force that unites these men so that Eufemio, a man who has recently been denied a job after defending the rights of his guild, and others like him do not end up forgotten. An object can change everything and it is not an industrial one brought from rich farms or a camera left by American tourists. It is something natural, belonging to the earth: the pearl." 

The Firemen's Ball (1967) Milos Forman - Czechoslovakia 

IMDb Summary: A volunteer fire department throws a party for their former boss with the whole town invited, but nothing goes as planned

    Milos Forman fits into a long line of overseas directors (Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Denis Villeneuve etc.) who started their career overseas before hopping over to America and finding tremendous success. This would be Forman's last film before going to Hollywood, where he would helm Oscar winning achievements like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. (I'm also personally a fan of Hair.) 

    As with a lot of the films on this list, this movie appears to be very satirical in design. Forman himself described this film in The Czechoslovak New Wave,

    "I didn't want to give any special message or allegory. I wanted just to make a comedy knowing that if I'll be real, if I'll be true, the film will automatically reveal an allegorical sense. That's a problem of all governments, of all committees, including firemen's committees. That they try and they pretend and they announce that they are preparing a happy, gay, amusing evening or life for the people. And everybody has the best intentions... But suddenly things turn out in such a catastrophic way that, for me, this is a vision of what's going on today in the world."

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) Elio Petri - Italy

IMDb Summary: A high-ranking police inspector kills his mistress and deliberately plants clues indicating his responsibility for the crime in a sardonic test to prove that he is above suspicion.

    This sounds like it's either a scathing indictment of the justice system, or far too hilarious to be taken seriously at all. (Or, heck, maybe both.) Either way, I'm in. 

    Kenneth Turan wrote of the film in 2003, “'Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion' is a provocative political thriller that is as troubling today as when it came out in 1970. Maybe more so." He further says our protagonist is "... adamant that freedom breeds the terrors of anarchy and that repression is the most effective way to cure those society-threatening ills."

    Even with the comedic setup, the tone of the review has me anticipating a darker ending, a dire warning about the truth about the construct of society, akin to The Ruling Class. This is something that film lovers have long understood about the medium. Just because a film is "comedic," that doesn't mean it has a comforting ending or that it can't reveal something sobering. 

The Policeman (1971) Ephraim Kishon - Israel

IMDb Summary: One of Israel's most beloved films, this film centers around the policeman Azulai, who is as kind as he as inept.

    Every source I've researched for this film has included some kind of accolade for "director Ephraim Kishon, master satirist of Israeli cinema." These have also typed this film's central character as a sort of benevolent idiot, which is a very useful device for exposing the flaws in a system--Charlie Chaplin was the original benevolent idiot. I find that a very useful starting point, so I'm eager to explore this device across its many manifestations.

The Truce (1974) Sergio Renán - Argentina

IMDb Summary: A man has to come to terms with his wasted youth, estranged family and grim prospects for the future.

    I'm drawn toward this movie's exploration of a midlife crisis. But of all the movies I selected, this was probably the hardest one to research. Even its Wikipedia site looks like the first page of that work planner you were never going to use. So, I guess I'll say ...  Heck, I'm already at the same place as this dude, and I'm in my late twenties.

    

Muddy River (1981) Kôhei Oguri - Japan

IMDb Summary: In post-War Japan, a boy from a noodle store-owning family befriends a neighboring boy living in poverty.

    The discourse around Japanese cinema is carried almost entirely on the backs of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu. (And, I suppose, anime film.) I really want to scout out which other filmmakers helped shape their cultural identity. 

    What draws me toward this movie is this idea of exploring class and stratification through the eyes of a child. That's actually very fertile ground for examining real social issues. There's this really intriguing passage written by Nathanael Hood of Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear that has me wanting to check this film out, 

"Throughout the film Nobuo and Kiichi catch glimpses of a legendary giant carp that inhabits the murky bottom of the Kyū-Yodo River. Declaring it their secret, it becomes one of the impetuses for their friendship. In Japanese culture, the carp, or 'koi,' is a symbol of strength and masculinity that is frequently associated with young children. It is believed that this tradition stems from an ancient Chinese legend wherein carp transform into dragons if they manage to swim upstream and jump over a waterfall located at the Dragon’s Gate. Many try, but most fail. 

"In post-war Osaka, some boys were blessed with enough prosperity to escape poverty and become mighty dragons. But many, like Kiichi, were swept away downstream until all that was left of them were memories. Muddy River is one such memory, resplendent in its beauty, agonizing in its honesty." 

Ju Dou (1990) Yimou Zhang, Fengliang Yang - China

IMDb Summary: In rural China, the young bride of a tyrannical owner of a silk-dyeing business finds temporary solace in the arms of her husband's nephew, but problems arise when she becomes pregnant.

    Most of what we'd consider China's most iconic films came from Yimou Zhang--To Live, The Road Home, Hero, The House of Flying Daggers, etc. The next year, Yimou Zhang would direct Raise the Red Lantern (and dang it, I can't find that movie either!), which also put a spotlight on how women were punished under the regime of traditionalism. 

    It also represents an opportunity for internal reflection and growth on a national level. So, this film represents a culture examining its own history and trauma. This might be akin to an American film examining its own history with slavery, though America has also granted itself the privilege of commenting on other countries' business as well. But this kind of thing just hits stronger when it's emerging from the nation that is being examined. (This film was testy enough to actually be banned in China upon its first release.) 

Close to Eden (1991) Nikita Mikhalkov - Russia

IMDb Summary: A curious friendship develops between Gombo, a young Mongolian shepherd living with his wife and family in a hut, deep in the wilderness of the steppes, and Sergei, a Russian worker whose truck breaks down not far from Gombo's hut.

    Mikhalkov also wrote, directed, and starred in Burnt by the Sun which in 1995 would win for Best Foreign Film. That film followed an army officer in 1930s Russian Soviet Republic who, while on vacation with his wife and daughter, is cornered by the Stalinist Soviet Union. The movie straddles idyllic nostalgia with a tragic yearning for something lost to the onslaught of totalitarianism. It's a sobering picture ... whose interior messaging is apparently lost on Mikhalkov, a vocal supporter of both Vladimir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. 

    I don't totally know how the math comes out there, and neither do I fully advocate for the "death of the author" way of approaching media criticism. I do, however, think there is practical use to stepping into the head of someone whose behavior or beliefs seem beyond understanding. It's not our job to excuse their activity, but in learning to understand their process, we do better understand the method of indoctrination and how to defend against or repair it.

_________

The Given Word (1962)

    I genuinely hope that I get to continue discovering not just new individual films, but new subgenres and new movements. That's not easy for me to admit as a person who also wants to become the definitive authority on film--someone who wants people to eventually think that he knows everything that there is to know about movies. Even so, that thrill of discovery is just too appetizing. 

    But it sometimes feel like the edges of the map are shrinking. It's nigh impossible to get most of my circle to watch even something like Parasite. Trying to encourage them to engage with something truly endangered is nearly unthinkable.

    Even so, I've learned not to underestimate the power of creating dialogue wherever you can. The obstacles that keep people from finding art are ... dumb, to say the least, but these same barriers can fall almost incidentally. There's no waste to keeping a weather eye out for opportunity. 

    Anyways, I'll be continuing to browse through these and other films through whatever sources are available, and I'll keep my eye for MAX to add some of these. I do genuinely hope to add all of these movies to my collection here before long. And while we're waiting, consider checking out these other gems of world cinema that are a little more accessible.

    At least for now.

    Denmark - In a Better World (2010)

    France - The 400 Blows (1959)

    Mexico - Roma (2018)

    Czech Republic - Kolya (1996)

    Italy - Nights of Cabiria (1957)

    Israel - The Train of Life (1998)

    Argentina - The Official Story (1985) 

    Japan - Ikiru (1952)

    China - The Road Home (1999)

    Soviet Union - The Cranes are Flying (1957)

                    --The Professor