All Films

The Incredible Turk

1958 • 26 min • United States of America

This film is about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and the modernization of the Turkish Republic.

Грибок-теремок

1958 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A mushroom offers the animals of the forest, an ant, a butterfly and a mouse shelter from the storm. A little rabbit, who wants to hide from the fox, also finds a place with him. The mushroom grows, stretches and stretches as it sees the good will of the other animals to help the hare.

Under Night Streets

1958 • 20 min • United Kingdom

After the last train at night and before the first in the morning, 800 people are hard at work behind the scenes making London's Underground fit to travel on. Including brushing dust from ventilation ducts, ‘fluffers’ cleaning up rubbish, routine rail replacement and fixing a broken rail discovered at 3.30am.

Story of an Opera House

1958 • 10 min • Germany

Short by Bernhard Dörries, Edgar Reitz and Stefan Meuschel.

Watercolor

1958 • 10 min • Soviet Union

A man tries to escape from his wife in order to visit an exhibition, where he sees a painting representing his own house.

Dead on Their Feet

1958 • 2 min • Australia

A road safety film for pedestrians in city traffic. Demonstrates typical unsafe practices.

The Living Stone

1958 • 34 min • Canada

The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Goodnight with Sabrina

1958 • 5 min • United Kingdom

Statuesque starlet Sabrina bathes in bubble bath.

The Tale of Chapayev

1958 • 25 min

According to legend, Chapaev does not die, but with the help of magical powers, fairy-tale animals and plants, he becomes a real hero.

The Whirligig of Life

1958 • 28 min • Soviet Union

Ransie Bilbrough and his “other half” came to see Magistrate Binaj Widdep. The couple wanted a divorce. For the judge, this was a long-awaited event, since the judge did not have a penny. And the divorce process happened. But what could have happened that the next day the couple were ready to begin the wedding ceremony? And all this cost them a five dollar bill...

A Desperate Case

1958 • 10 min • United Kingdom

A cautionary tale of a typical holiday suitcase. Crammed beyond its capacity, imperfectly fastened, inadequately and confusedly labelled, the railways transport it from station to station, seeking its true abode. Finally, one of its owners comes to the nightmare tribunal where those who maltreat their luggage are dealt with. Did it happen? Was it a dream? Be warned. See this film. Avoid making yours 'a desperate case'.

Gaston's Baby

1958 • 5 min

A rich woman on her way to a costume party thinks Gaston is a babysitter; Gaston thinks he's there to paint her child's picture. Gaston mistakes her husband, in costume, for the child, and takes extreme measures to make him sit still for his portrait.

Blue Jeans

1958 • 22 min • France

The story of two seventeen year old boys. They are wearing medals around their necks. They have their pockets full of chewing gum something that they chew ceaselessly. They are wearing blue jeans. They spend the day along the beach front in Cannes looking for girls to win over.

Love Comes to Magoo

1958 • 6 min

A female con artist is after Magoo’s wealth.

Fiete im Netz

1958 • 59 min • East Germany

Fiete is nine years old and loves fishing. Each afternoon he spends hours sitting at a creek in his village. On one of these afternoons the peace and quiet is suddenly disturbed when two rowdies catch and kill a neighbor’s drake. The boys bribe Fiete to keep quiet about the incident, and he agrees out of fear. However, Fiete feels uneasy about keeping his secret, especially when the neighbor’s daughter starts desperately searching for the drake.

God's Christmas Gift

1958 • 15 min • United States of America

A young girl helps her parents as she wonders what God's special gift is at Christmas time.

Family of Ghana

1958 • 28 min • Canada, Ghana

The story of a fishing family, their daily lives, and the son’s wish for a modern boat

The Sea and the Days

1958 • 22 min • France

Everyday life of fishermen on Brittany's Ile de Sein.

Der Wunderbogen

1958 • 15 min • East Germany

Indian boys play in front of a tent camp on the prairie. They imitate the buffalo dance of the hunters. One boy doesn't like it. He wants to take part in the hunt, but is still too young. He sets off on his own and shoots a deer. An old chief meets him at the kill and tells him the story of the rainbow: a boy misused his magic bow and shot all the animals he could track down. The bear called him to account for this. The bear threw the boy's bow and arrows into the air. The result was the rainbow, a reminder to all hunters that no animal should be killed without need. The boy returns to the camp and joins in with the children's game.

An Evening with Fred Astaire

1958 • 58 min • United States of America

A one-hour live television special starring Fred Astaire.

Le Bel Indifférent

1958 • 28 min • France

An adaptation of Jean Cocteau's play of a woman lecturing her indifferent lover.

Schwechater

1958 • 2 min • Austria

In 1957, Peter Kubelka was hired to make a short commercial for Schwechater beer. The beer company undoubtedly thought they were commissioning a film that would help them sell their beers; Kubelka had other ideas. He shot his film with a camera that did not even have a viewer, simply pointing it in the general direction of the action. He then took many months to edit his footage, while the company fumed and demanded a finished product. Finally he submitted a film, 90 seconds long, that featured extremely rapid cutting (cutting at the limits of most viewers' perception) between images washed out almost to the point of abstraction — in black-and-white positive and negative and with red tint — of dimly visible people drinking beer and of the froth of beer seen in a fully abstract pattern.

Revenger

1958 • 14 min • Yugoslavia

A film about an unhappy man who catches his wife with a lover. He leaves to buy a gun, while plotting to kill the wife and the lover. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov.

La Joconde, histoire d'une obsession

1958 • 14 min • France

This is the story of an obsession. Mona Lisa keeps smiling quizzically while our poor hero is pursued by her representation in all its forms, in all places. She smiles at him in a museum, at a bookseller along the banks of the Seine, in the streets, at a café. Enough to drive him up the wall!