Intl. Notebook

July 23 2024

AROUND THE BLOC

Sights, sounds, and sentiments from the thirty-four countries that made up the Europe of the time.

Above is the cover of the July 1967 issue of Continental Film Review, a magazine produced by London based Eurap Publishing, which updated readers on the latest developments in European cinema. This issue focuses on the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Greece, Italy, and the Cannes Film Festival.

Here’s an interesting quote from within: An indication of Italy’s mammoth production appeared in an Italian trade journal a few weeks back which listed thirty-eight films premiered in the previous few weeks, seventy-six ready to be premiered, twenty being edited, forty-four in production, twenty-one about to start shooting and thirty-one being prepared, making a total of 230 films (including, of course, co-productions).

You probably think that’s an enormous number, but last year Italy released 356 films. It’s amazing how much there is to see from other countries if you care to look, and that’s largely what Continental Film Review was about. We have twenty-plus scans below, and other issues scattered here and there in places around the website.

Britain, Continental Film Review, Cannes Film Festival, Alicia Brandet, Anita Pallenberg, Raquel Welch, Jean Louis Trintignant, Katarina Larsson, Eve Ras, Slobodan Aligrudic, Sylva Koscina

Intl. Notebook

May 26 2020

BOUND FOR EUROPE

Continental Film Review ties modern cinema up in a tidy little package.

Above and below, the cover and assorted interior pages from Continental Film Review, with all the rare imagery and erudite commentary from the European cinema scene readers had come to expect. The cover features German actress Brigitte Skay bound with rope, and those of note inside include Anna Gaël, Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, and Edwige Fenech. Skay and Gaël are featured because of their roles in the 1969 sci-fi film Zeta One, aka The Love Factor, which it happens we discussed way back in 2010. Shorter version: Barbarella it ain’t. Continental Film Review had a secondary focus on non-performance visual arts. This issue looks at animation from Sweden and talks about some hot illustrators of the time, including Jan Lenica and Per Ahlin, drawing comparisons between them and famed painters like René Magritte. All of that and more in thirty-plus scans.

Sweden, Britain, Germany, Continental Film Review, Brigitte Skay, Anna Gaël, Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Edwige Fenech, Michèle Mercier, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Jan Lenica, Per Ahlin, magazine art, cinema

Intl. Notebook

September 30 2019

ENTER CONTINENTAL

For British movie lovers Continental Film Review was their ticket across the English Channel.

Continental Film Review was first published—as far as we can discern—in November 1952. We decided on that month because we saw a copy from February 1953 numbered Vol. 1 Issue 4, and the masthead said the magazine was published the first week of every month. CFR would go on to become one of Britain’s most popular film magazines, exposing English language readers to the wide variety of foreign movies being made across continental Europe. The above issue appeared this month in 1966 with cover star Maria Pia Conte, and numerous film personalities inside, including Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Bates, Rossana Podesta, Evi Marandi, and more. We have other issues we’ll get around to sharing at some point. In the meantime see more here, here, here, and here.

Intl. Notebook

August 18 2012

REVIEW AND REVISE

Continental Film Review was a leading voice of foreign film in Britain, as well as a leading source of cheap thrills.

We’re showing you this August 1966 Continental Film Review for one reason—Raquel Welch. She appears in both the front and back of the magazine, and the latter photo was made while she was in the Canary Islands filming One Million Years B.C. That photo session featuring a blonde, windblown Welch was incredibly fruitful, at least if we’re to judge by the many different places we’ve seen frames from the shoot, including here, here, here and especially here. There had not been a sex symbol quite like Welch before, and in 1966 she had reached the apex of her allure, where she’d stay for quite a while.

On the cover of the magazine are Christina Schollin and Jarl Kulle, pictured during a tender moment from the Swedish romantic comedy Änglar, finns dom? aka Love Mates. Inside you get features on the Berlin and San Sebastian film festivals, Sophia Loren, Nieves Navarro, Anita Ekberg, and more. CFR had launched in 1952, and now, fourteen years later, was one of Britain’s leading publications on foreign film. It was also a leading publication in showing nude actresses, and in fact by the 1970s was probably more noteworthy for its nudity than its journalism. The move probably undermined its credibility, but most magazines—whether fashion, film, or erotic—began showing more in the 1970s. CFR was simply following the trend, and reached its raciest level around 1973, as in the issue here. Fifteen scans below.

Britain, Spain, Canary Islands, Berlin, Donostia-San Sebastian, One Million Years B.C., Ð„nglar finns dom?, Continental Film Review, Raquel Welch, Letícia Román, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Christina Schollin, Jarl Kulle, Nieves Navarro, Anita Ekberg, cinema

Intl. Notebook

October 13 2011

CONTINENTALLY YOURS

Deneuve shows off the best hair in French history.

We’re posting scans from this issue of the British film magazine Continental Film Review for one reason—22-year-old Catherine Deneuve and her amazing, shampoo commercial hair. Take one look and you can really understand why the world was so smitten with her. You also get images of Claudia Cardinale, Nadja Tiller and others, all below, October 1964.

Britain, Continental Film Review, Marina Vlady, Nadja Tiller, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Catherine Deneuve, Claudia Cardinale, Dany Carrel, cinema

Intl. Notebook

July 4 2011

LET’S REVIEW, SHALL WE?

Continental Film Review mixed serious cinema scholarship with cheesecake.

We located this July 1965 copy of the British cinema magazine Continental Film Review, and found two good reasons to post it—the great Sylva Koscina cover shot, and the adverts for London’s x-rated Compton Theater, at bottom. In between you get Ugo Tognozzi, Rossana Podesta, Luciana Gilli and more. CFR was actually one of the most serious and informed film magazines of its era, but instead of sharing scans of pages and pages of text, we posted the photos. However, in this issue are articles on the San Sebastian and Berlin film festivals, Canadian and Québécois cinema, and near-scholarly treatments on Italian neorealist director Vittorio De Sica, and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s award winning biblical film The Gospel According to St. Matthew. Doesn’t that all sound great? See a CFR with Christina Lindberg here, and Laura Gemser here.

Britain, Continental Film Review, Sylva Koscina, Ugo Tognozzi, Rossana Podesta, Luciana Gilli, cinema

Intl. Notebook

December 8 2010

CONTINENTAL FLAIR

Continental Film Review specialized in international film coverage and uncoverage.

Above: the cover and assorted interior pages of the spicy British cinema magazine Continental Film Review, with uncovered shots of Laura Gemser, Laura Antonelli, Ursula Andress, Ingrid Steeger and others, December 1977. You can see another issue here.

Britain, Continental Film Review, Laura Gemser, Laura Antonelli, Ursula Andress. Richard Burton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ingrid Steeger, nudity, cinema

Intl. Notebook

April 4 2009

WINKIN’ CONTINENTAL

Was it journalism, pornography, or both?

Here’s one of our favorite old magazines, the great Continental Film Review, with a cover shot of one our favorite vintage actresses, Christina Lindberg, who you may remember from our post about Sex & Fury a while back. CFR was published in Britain and, like other magazines of its ilk, such as France’s Cine-Revue, purposely blurred the line between journalism and smut by publishing sober reviews and features, while not-so-incidentally showing acres of skin. Their wry, we’re-not-really-porn approach was a roaring success across four decades, from 1952 until 1983. We have some racy interior pages below, featuring more Lindberg, as well as Marion Forster, Gabriela Grimaldi, Veronique Vendell and others. And at bottom, in the final panel, we’ve located the orginal image upon which CFR based their cover image. Enjoy.

Britain, Continental Film Review, Ciné-Revue, Christina Lindberg, Marion Forster, Gabriela Grimaldi, Monica Stubel, Veronique Vendell, sex symbol, nudity, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 10

1971—London Bridge Goes Up

After being sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in the resort town of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

October 10

1975—Burton and Taylor Marry Again

British actor Richard Burton and American screen star Elizabeth Taylor secretly remarry sixteen months after their divorce, then jet away to a second honeymoon in Chobe Game Park in Botswana.

October 9

A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed in Bolivia. In an attempt to make it appear as though he had been killed resisting Bolivian troops, the executioner shoots Guevara with a machine gun, wounding him nine times in the legs, arm, shoulder, throat, and chest.

October 8

1918—Sgt. York Becomes a Hero

During World War I, in the Argonne Forest in France, America Corporal Alvin C. York leads an attack on a German machine gun nest that kills 25 and captures 132. He is a corporal during the event, but is promoted to sergeant as a result. He also earns Medal of Honor from the U.S., the Croix de Guerre from the French Republic, and the Croce di Guerra from Italy and Montenegro. Stateside, he is celebrated as a hero, and Hollywood even makes a movie entitled Sergeant York, starring Gary Cooper.

October 8

1956—Larsen Pitches Perfect Game

The New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series against hated rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. It is the only perfect game in World Series history, as well as the only no-hitter.

October 7

1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).