A young woman is questioned by the police and the judges, suspected of being a modern witch. The girl who shared her apartment has been found dead, and a pair of scissors impaled through her heart, as she lay attached to the bedposts. Apparently, the girl does have powers, to make all people around her fall prey to her spell, glissing progressively into desire, lust, and the unknown.

———-

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) is an artistic storytelling device that shows how witches were persecuted by the church. Robbe-Grillet was nearing the height of his cinematic powers after writing and directing L’Immortelle (1963), Trans-Europ-Express (1966), and Eden and After (1970). Moreover, his numerous novels and filmmaking experience had given him a chance to establish a style and maintain it like a true auteur. Successive Slidings of Pleasure shows witches supernatural abilities by showing repetitive cinematographic shots, sounds of broken glass, whipped women, investigators opening and closing doors numerous times to no avail.

As a the film progresses the feminine beauty of Anicée Alvina (Alice) is too much for men and women. She is a vessel of supernatural powers and is in tune with the cycles of life and death. She is art and art is her as she reenacts a crime, acts as a sex worker, and is beaten by fellow nuns in another dimensions and/or past lives. Alain Robbe-Grillet’s obsession with fetishes including, rope, high heel sling back shoes, blood, vampires, broken glass, whips, doors, windows, and ancient buildings with dungeons is put on display without restraint. Robbe-Grillet was a fierce writer and never compromised his vision of art nor his film making. It is easy to see how Lynch, Anderson, and possibly Verhoeven was inspired by him. Successive Slidings of Pleasure is not for everyone but it is a high brow film that leading up to Playing With Fire (1975). Robbe-Grillet played with fire but was not burned.

	
Glissements.progressifs.du.plaisir.1974.1080p.AC3.x264-KG.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 46 min
Size: 	11.8 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1804x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	5:3
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	15.4 Mb/s
BPP: 	0.329
Audio
#1:  	French 1.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s (French (mono))
#2:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (English (commentary))

https://nitro.download/view/FED19A5C2FB797B/Glissements.progressifs.du.plaisir.1974.1080p.AC3.x264-KG.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – Glissements progressifs du plaisir AKA Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Philippe Noiret plays a rich, Parisian banker whose daughter, Carolina, is kidnapped by a ruthless organization. They threaten to have her abused by the sadistic clients of a brothel they run if Father doesn’t pay the ransom on time.

+Commentary by novelist and film historian Tim Lucas

2.64GB | 1h 52m | 1024×436 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/ED02141875A0FCD/Le.jeu.avec.le.feu.AKA.Playing.with.Fire.1975.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.mkv
or
https://nitro.download/view/BA0D4A0BCF722ED/Le.jeu.avec.le.feu.AKA.Playing.with.Fire.1975.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/90A262F77939B65/Le.jeu.avec.le.feu.AKA.Playing.with.Fire.1975.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/0B7CB32B6124B66/Le.jeu.avec.le.feu.AKA.Playing.with.Fire.1975.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.part3.rar

Language:French
Subtitles:English

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – Le jeu avec le feu AKA Playing with Fire [+ Commentary] (1975) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A sad man meets a beautiful, secretive woman who may or may not be involved in some conspiracy ring dealing in kidnapped women used as prostitutes. After several days of their sadly passionate relationship she disappears. The sad man is unable to locate her as all the local Turkish people pretend not to remember any such woman. He suddenly finds her again (she finds him?) and before she can explain her disappearance she is killed in a car crash while he is in the passenger seat. He replays the accident over and over in his mind trying to remember how she died if he caused the accident himself by grabbing the wheel.

1.91GB | 1 h 41 min | 960×576 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/140D75926194294/L.immortelle.1963.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English (muxed)

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – L’immortelle (1963) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
When you think of art house directors you probably think of some of the more famous filmmakers like Werner Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God), Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) or Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain). Someone you may not know is French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. Robbe-Grillet was part of the “nouveau roman” novelist movement which diverted from the classical style of writing and deviated from the norm with experimental prose. The same could be said with his film Glissements progressifs du plaisir (literal translation is “Gradual shifts of pleasure”) aka Successive Slidings of Pleasure where he blends dreamlike visuals with eroticism and, oddly, nunsploitation.

The narrative follows a young woman after she is arrested and locked in a convent for murdering her female roommate and lover; she insists she is innocent. She blames the violent scissor stabbing on a black-gloved man (a nod to giallo maybe?) who somehow entered their apartment without their knowing. While she is imprisoned for the killing (and possibly being a witch!) and awaiting her trial, she is visited by and questioned by many people; the judge, a young nun, a priest, her attorney, et al… all of whom she sexually manipulates in what seems to be a game to her. She is mistreated, tortured and raped by her religious captures, or is she? Everything she says seems to be a lie to play the game which she seems to think she can win just by using her feminine whiles. It isn’t until the ironic ending that we see that sex can’t get you out of everything.

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Successive Slidings of Pleasure is full of deep meaning, artistic symbolism and a little out of the blue silly humor. Oh, it is also jam-packed with nudity. Lots and lots of nudity, most of which is the nubile, raven-haired French honey Anicée Alvina. She is a young, European version of Liv Tyler; gorgeous face, full lips and a cute little crooked mouth. On top of that, she is a fantastic actress who plays the broken little hyper-sexual young woman to a tee. As I mentioned in the opening, the movie isn’t just art house poetry, it delves into the nunsploitation arena with some pretty sleazy scenes of dark, dank dungeons used to “punish” the bad little prisoner girls with whips, chains and a little hanky-panky with Sister Sexy-pants. The pace is deliberately slow as it methodically shows lots of bizarre imagery to create an atmosphere and dictate symbolism.

2.55 GiB | 1 h 48 min | 960×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/1D529B2AFAABD3E/Alain_Robbe-Grillet_-_(1974)_Successive_Slidings_of_Pleasure.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – Glissements progressifs du plaisir AKA Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
The revered and celebrated Alain Robbe-Grillet’s supernatural drama C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle (AKA That is Gradiva Who Calls You) – a French-Belgian co-production – concerns John Locke, an art historian immersed in Asian research on the Marrakeshi casbah, accompanied by Belkis, his servant and mistress. Amid his studies of Eugene Delacroix, Locke repeatedly encounters a lithe, ethereal female presence in the city’s medina (or Arabic quarter) who draws him seductively through the city’s mazelike streets, again and again, but repeatedly vanishes. He then encounters Anatoli, a self-professed antique dealer and curator of Oriental artifacts for beginners itching for a challenge. Belkis persuades Locke to keep his distance from these individuals, but Locke blatantly ignores her admonitions and forges ahead – never quite realizing that the spirits are toying with him, and drawing him into a dead-end psychosexual black hole.

http://nitroflare.com/view/C28E092A0D8C87B/Alain_Robbe-Grillet_-_%282006%29_Gradiva.mkv
http://nitroflare.com/view/CA6E967216210D5/gradiva__2006_.eng.srt

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – Gradiva (C’est Gradiva qui vous appelle) (2006) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

When Carolina (Anicee Alvina), the daughter of wealthy banker Georges de Saxe (Philippe Noiret), is reported kidnapped, it is upsetting to him even though he knows it isn’t true. The kidnappers have taken the wrong person. The banker hires Frantz (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a disheveled, seedy detective to find his daughter and hide her safely away. She soon finds herself in a fantasyland whorehouse, where all kinds of extreme perversions are routinely practiced. There, a near-double of her father whips and then seduces her. Eventually, she and the private eye escape or leave, having extorted the kidnapping money from the girl’s father. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Quote:
A typically mesmerizing and startling production from the much missed novelist and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, Playing With Fire (Le jeu avec le feu) is a wonderfully satisfying film that proves as captivating as it is unforgettable. Featuring probably the single greatest cast Robbe-Grillet ever assembled (including Jean-Louis Trintignant, Anicee Alvina, Philippe Noiret, Agostina Belli, Serge Marquand and Sylvia Kristel) Playing With Fire was among the biggest moneymakers of the great director’s career but, for some reason, it has almost always been overlooked as one of his greatest works.

Pete Tombs noted in his excellent Flesh and Blood article on Robbe-Grillet from the mid-nineties that Alain was, “on a roll” in the period Playing With Fire came out. While it is true that he had published less in the first half of the seventies than usual, due to his work in the cinema, Playing With Fire was accompanied by the release of his startling bound collection La Belle Captive, a work that Robbe-Grillet would later also turn into a film. Robbe-Grillet’s film career was at its peak by the mid-seventies as well and he had just come off one of his finest features, the hypnotic Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974). Robbe-Grillet was primed for a hit and Playing With Fire was the ideal film for him to make in 1975.

Playing With Fire no doubt probably caught some of Robbe-Grillet’s most ardent admirers a bit off guard. Tombs would note in his Flesh and Blood article that the film, “looked like his most mainstream project”, due to the fact that it was, “in widescreen (and) glossy colour and (featured) a cast of big names.” Tombs would note, with co-author Cathal Tohill in Immoral Tales that Playing With Fire would also prove to be, “one of Robbe-Grillet’s most accessible works to date” and that by all appearances the film seemed to be the most overtly commercial works he had ever been involved with. Perhaps this is why Playing With Fire is often ignored in discussions on Robbe-Grillets works but, while it may appear more commercial, it is just as subversive as the rest of his canon, if perhaps a bit more surprisingly playful and self-defacing.

Like many of Robbe-Grillet’s most iconic works, the characters in Playing With Fire are delightfully well-aware of their roles as characters in a written piece. Playing With Fire is punctuated throughout by various characters questioning their roles and the film itself; often staring right into the camera to let the audience know just how aware they are. Dialogue is scattered throughout mentioning the absurdity of the story and the whole film has a real winking quality about it, with the final section turning downright farcical. Playing With Fire finds Robbe-Grillet at his most humorous in tone and at times he seems to be poking fun at his own unwillingness to tell a straight story, even when everything that went into the production of the film suggested he might do just that.

Like in all of his films, the cast of Playing With Fire is a perfectly chosen group of gifted actors who can somehow manage to give great performances while playing anything but typically sharply-drawn and reality-based characters. While much was made of the legendary Trintignant’s return to Robbe-Grillet’s world, after starring in two of his greatest films from the sixties (Trans Europe Express and The Man Who Lies) the real story of Playing With Fire’s success lies with the stunning Anicee Alvina, a superb actress who had proven so memorable the year before in Succesive Slidings of Pleasure. She’s remarkable to watch in Playing With Fire and handles Robbe-Grillet’s mysterious and sometimes skeletal dialogue like she was born for it. His camera also seems totally entranced by her, and Playing With Fire is the least architectural of his films, as often the frame will be occupied by only Alvina’s wondrous face.

While Playing With Fire is controlled by Anicee Alvina’s performance, credit for the film’s financial success has to go to Sylvia Kristel, who sadly only actually appears in a few scenes in the films final forty minutes. Tohill and Tombs would write that it was Kristel’s, “success in Emmanuelle that guaranteed the film’s continual pulling power”. It was indeed a shrewd move of Robbe-Grillet to not only cast her but allow the film to be marketed on her name, even though she is featured so little. Kristel would recall the making of the film in her stirring memoir Nue:

“Robbe-Grillet is quite a character, erudite and with hair like a mad professor’s. My first scene in Playing With Fire is disturbing and sadomasochistic: my hands are bound, my skirt is torn and I have been whipped. I am reassured only by the kindness and skills of my fellow actors, Jean Louis Trintignant and Philippe Noiret! We became friends for the duration. Playing With Fire…that could be the title of my life story.”

Sylvia Kristel makes the most of her small role in Playing With Fire and she proves quite moving in the film’s two most sadistic set-pieces. Agostina Belli is also quite memorable in a small but important role as Phillipe Noiret’s secrative servant. Also, Fans of Jean Rollin will want to keep a look out for the scrumptious Joelle Coeur in a bit part as a kidnapped bride.

Technically Playing With Fire is one of the most impressive productions Robbe-Grillet ever shot. His direction is at its most confident and it has a certain freewheeling swagger absent from his early films. Playing With Fire also looks great, thanks to the color photography of cinematographer Yves Lefaye, who had also shot Successive Slidings of Pleasure. Playing With Fire is also one of Robbe-GRillet’s most fluid works thanks, at least in part, to the editing skills of Bob Wade, who came of age as a masterful cutter with Robbe-Grillet on several of his key films. Of the film’s many indoor and outdoor locations in and around Paris, special note has to go to The Paris Opera House, which Tombs would note in Flesh and Blood, gave the film, “an amazingly grand opulence, recalling the palace of Last Year At Marienbad”.

Pete Tombs would write that, while Playing With Fire was a big hit it, “marked the end of a phase in Robbe-Grillet’s film making career”, and that, “it was nine years before he would make another movie”. In fact, Robbe-Grillet would only make three more features after Playing With Fire before his passing in 2008. I find this particularly tragic as Playing With Fire is the work of a filmmaker fuelled by genius and invention. It feels much more like a vital middle chapter rather than an ending.

http://nitroflare.com/view/02A2F9FFF854FA4/Le.Jeu.avec.le.feu.1975.DVDRip.x264-SMz.mkv
http://nitroflare.com/view/25E664CDE702978/Le_Jeu_avec_le_feu_%28Alain_Robbe-Grillet%2C_1975%29-eng2.srt

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet – Le jeu avec le feu AKA Playing with Fire (1975) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Plot summary
A sailor who was accused of killing a teenage girl and who was presumed to have drowned while making his escape, returns to the Mediterranean island where the alleged crime took place. But all is not what it appears. Robbe-Grillet keeps us guessing as to whether the murder actually took place and teases the viewer with the possibility that the sailor may be a restless spirit or a figment of the imagination conjured up by the victim’s father to assuage his own guilt. Too many questions and not enough answers make for a very frustrating investigation.

https://nitro.download/view/B481A2407BA2F5D/BlueVilla.avi
http://www.nitroflare.com/view/D5B5C68E58019AC/bluevilla.srt

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English [srt]

The post Alain Robbe-Grillet & Dimitri de Clercq – Un bruit qui rend fou aka Blue Villa (1995) first appeared on Cinema of the World.