Both “Jaguar” and “The Lion Hunters” took years to make and found their story lines in the course of their production and editing. Shot in Ivory Coast on the cusp of its independence, “The Human Pyramid” is largely an improvised group psychodrama in which African and European students try, with varying success, to break through the informal segregation that separates them. Kovacs (1919-62) was both a hilarious lowbrow comic and an artist who intuited and knowingly exploited the nature of his chosen medium. To that end, Kovacs provides three outlandish skits — clues that mainly serve to render the panel clueless. The films are available on both Blu-ray and DVD; extras include introductions by the knowledgeable critic Tony Rayns.

Source: New York Times November 23, 2017 15:00 UTC