Ended on 8/17/2006
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OVERLORD -
(unrated)
1975 - UK - English - 88 minutes - Janus Films
Directed by: Stuart Cooper
Featuring: Brian Stirner, Davyd Harries, Nicholas Ball, Julie Neesam, Sam Sewell
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showtimes and tickets
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 Though heralded by critics since winning the Silver Bear at the 1975 Berlin Film Festival, OVERLORD has never been theatrically released before in the US.
Through a combination of new material and remarkable archival footage shot during actual WW II battles, Overlord tells one soldier’s story from his induction into the British army to his quick and violent death on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Taking its title from the code-name for the Allied invasion plans, the film follows the quiet Tom (Brian Stirner) as he leaves home and enters the world of war with its anxious days of marching and training and waiting.
Cooper and renowned cinematographer John Alcott spent three years researching the Imperial War Museum’s dense collection of World War II archival footage and newsreels. Through use of 1930s German lenses, black and white film stock and period lighting, they combine old and newly shot footage to create a brilliant seamless film which, in almost documentary-like style, details the destruction of innocence that is unavoidable in war.
"Like its hero, who is brave without a trace of bravado, OVERLORD is unusually quiet and thoughtful. The scale and ambition of combat movies has usually been epic, but this one is disarmingly lyrical and subjective."
AO Scott, The New York Times
“The most remarkable discovery at this year’s Telluride Film Festival … a rare discovery.”
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Sept 2004)
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