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God's Country | |
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Directed by | Louis Malle |
Release date |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
God's Country is a 1985 documentary film about Glencoe, Minnesota, by French filmmaker Louis Malle. Original footage of a farming community, 60 miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota was filmed in 1979 for a PBS documentary. But for the next six years Malle was too busy with other projects to finish this work. He returned in 1985 for a follow-up and found the community reacting to the mid eighties crisis of overproduction in farm country. Malle documented a sense of frustration and apprehension from the same participants he had befriended in better times half a decade earlier.
The film is occasionally shown on Turner Classic Movies, and is available on DVD from the Criterion Collection.
The name of the film comes from the widespread belief in American folklore that the United States of America has an exceptional status in the world as "God's country" or "the promised land" because, metaphorically, early European settlers such as the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay believed they were founding at God's behest a shining city upon a hill.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the Aqua-Lung, which assisted him in producing some of the first underwater documentaries.
Glencoe is a city and the county seat of McLeod County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 5,744 at the 2020 census.
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, information, and entertainment for millions of moviegoers. Newsreels were typically exhibited preceding a feature film, but there were also dedicated newsreel theaters in many major cities in the 1930s and ’40s, and some large city cinemas also included a smaller theaterette where newsreels were screened continuously throughout the day.
Louis Marie Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made documentaries, romances, period dramas, and thrillers. He often depicted provocative or controversial subject matter.
Jeanne Moreau was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Moreau began playing small roles in films in 1949, later achieving prominence with starring roles in Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (1961), and François Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962). Most prolific during the 1960s, Moreau continued to appear in films into her 80s. Orson Welles called her "the greatest actress in the world".
André William Gregory is a French-born American theatre director, writer and actor. He is best known for co-writing and starring in My Dinner with Andre, a 1981 comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle. Gregory studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.
Pretty Baby is a 1977 American historical drama film directed by Louis Malle, written by Polly Platt, and starring Brooke Shields, Keith Carradine, and Susan Sarandon. Set in 1917, it focuses on a 12-year-old girl being raised in a brothel in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans by her prostitute mother. Barbara Steele, Diana Scarwid, and Antonio Fargas appear in supporting roles. The film is based on the true account of a young girl who was sexually exploited by being forced into prostitution by her mother, a theme which was recounted in historian Al Rose's 1974 book Storyville, New Orleans: Being an Authentic Illustrated Account of the Notorious Red-Light District; it is also based on the life of photographer Ernest Bellocq, who photographed various New Orleans prostitutes in the early twentieth century. The title, Pretty Baby, is derived from the Tony Jackson song of the same name, which is featured on the film's soundtrack.
My Dinner with Andre is a 1981 American comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle, and written by and starring André Gregory and Wallace Shawn as fictionalized versions of themselves sharing a conversation at Café des Artistes in Manhattan. The film's dialogue covers topics such as experimental theater, the nature of theater, and the nature of life, and contrasts Andre's spiritual experiences with Wally's modest humanism.
Sven Vilhem Nykvist was a Swedish cinematographer and filmmaker. His work is generally noted for its naturalism and simplicity. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. He is best known for his collaboration with director Ingmar Bergman. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Cries and Whispers (1972) and Fanny and Alexander (1982). Nykvist also worked with Bergman on The Virgin Spring (1960), Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1973), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), Face to Face (1978), and Autumn Sonata (1978).
My Best Fiend is a 1999 German documentary film written and directed by Werner Herzog, about his tumultuous yet productive relationship with German actor Klaus Kinski. It was released on DVD in 2000 by Anchor Bay.
American Dream is a 1990 British-American cinéma vérité documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple and co-directed by Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, and Lawrence Silk.
Vijaya Mulay was a documentary filmmaker, film historian, writer, educationist and researcher.
Viva Maria! is a 1965 adventure comedy film starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as two women named Maria who meet and become revolutionaries in the early 20th century. It also starred George Hamilton as Florès, a revolutionary leader. It was co-written and directed by Louis Malle, and filmed in Eastman Color. The costumes were by Pierre Cardin.
Luther Metke was an American folk poet and early central Oregon pioneer who served in the Spanish–American War. He was the subject of Jorge Preloran's documentary Luther Metke at 94. Metke moved to Central Oregon in 1907 and built nearly every bridge between Bend and Crescent and over 30 log cabins.
Alamo Bay is a 1985 American drama film about a Vietnam veteran who clashes with Vietnamese immigrants who move to his Texas bay hometown. The film was directed by Louis Malle, and stars Amy Madigan and Ed Harris. Future Texas A&M and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen, who was aged 9 at the time has a small role as a Little League ballplayer. The film's soundtrack, composed and recorded by the artist Ry Cooder, was released as an album Music From the Motion Picture "Alamo Bay" in the same year, and its title track "Theme from Alamo Bay" can be also found on Music by Ry Cooder, a compilation album of Cooder's soundtracks from movies released between 1980 and 1993.
And the Pursuit of Happiness is a 1986 documentary film for television directed by Louis Malle about the experiences of immigrants in the United States during the 1980s. It was originally released as part of HBO's America Undercover series on Independence Day 1986. The film "appeared at a time when immigrants from Latin America and Asia for the first time outnumbered those coming from Europe". It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. It was released on public television in 1988 and won a Peabody Award the following year.
Roger Ross Williams is an American director, producer and writer and the first African American director to win an Academy Award (Oscar), with his short film Music by Prudence; this film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film in 2009.
René Vautier was a French film director. His films, which were often controversial with French authorities, addressed many issues, such as the Algerian War, French colonialism in Africa, pollution, racism, women's rights, and apartheid in South Africa. Many were banned or condemned, and one caused him to go to prison for a year.
L'Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage is a 1969 French seven part television documentary miniseries about India, directed by Louis Malle. It was shown on BBC television as Phantom India.