PLOT: The fantasies and dreams of two over-the-hill actresses are intertwined with their realities, as the two roommates struggle to survive their day-to-day lives in the expensive and difficult world of Paris. In the end, their struggles are eased when the widow of a man they had both been married to gives them a small legacy.Read More »
The filmography of John Ford, most specifically his westerns for which he is arguably best known, is presented, those movies which largely made western stars out of John Wayne and James Stewart as two sides of the hero or antihero as the case may be, but also the majestically beautiful landscape of Monument Valley. The films are discussed as a reflection of him as a man – which is arguably the best representation of him as he was a highly private man who often answered evasively or flippantly in interviews, even about his work – and as a commentary on or his hope for American society. That hope largely was for a better world for the disenfranchised, especially the ethnic minority with Native Americans the usual stand-in as ubiquitous to the genre. Those movies in relation to politics, either his own are that of others who want to capitalize on very specific messages, is also discussed. As an interlude to his Hollywood life, his military service in WWII where he used his filmmaking.Read More »
Three French conscripts with diverse political motives, are sent to a disciplinary battalion in the midst of the Algerian war. Major Lecoq is to build an elite unit with these wayward soldiers who are exposed to war, torture and death.Read More »
Since his early masterpiece Pain In The Arse [L’emmerdeur, as writer, 1973; remade as director, 2008], Francis Veber, primarily as writer, occasionally as director, has been the genius behind many of the funniest French comedies and filmed farces of the last four decades, including such cheeky pleasures as La cage aux folles, Three Fugitives, and Le dîner de cons. His stock-in-trade is PC-tickling, broad knockabout, duo- or trio-based character comedy tied to tightly-scripted narratives, spot-on timing and slaying reaction shots. These are all present and correct in his highly enjoyable Paris-set latest, a criminal caper that harps back in many ways to that first triumph, this time with cow-eyed Jean Reno and strawberry-nosed Gérard Depardieu as the hard man/idiot couple playing off each other with the same delicious stupidity as did Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel 30-odd years ago. Okay, Tai-toi! isn’t exactly sophisticated entertainment: if you don’t find Depardieu’s electric-shock hairdo funny, you’ll probably hate it. Among the excellent support, Richard Berry gives good deadpan as the police commissaire and André Dussollier is superb as the prison psychiatrist who unwittingly unites the fifth arrondissement’s sharpest, most silent, criminal brain with its dumbest, most talkative ox.
— Wally Hammond, Time Out LondonRead More »
Un Ange follows the encounter of a prostitute, Fae, and a world-famous athlete, Thierry.Read More »
A young mother caught up in an uncontrollable spiral of passion after meeting a stranger abandons everything and leaves Paris. Clemence lives a happy but predictable life with daughter and husband-to-be in a sleepy town somewhere in the Auvergne. Then one day, she meets Camille, a man who turns her life upside down.Read More »
Paris, summer 1942. Irene is a young, bubbly, 19-year-old Jewish girl. Her family watches her discover the world, friends, new love and a passion for the theatre. The aspiring actress is living her youthful life without a care in the world, but she does not know that time may be running out.Read More »
The original “grumpy old men,” Jean-Marie (Jean Gabin), Baptiste (Pierre Fresnay), and Blaise (Noel-Noel) raise havoc in this entertaining comedy by director Gilles Grangier. The trio of irritable, temperamental grouchy men abandon their village to go take up residence in a senior citizens’ home. They have a great time playing tricks on others and venting about the inadequacies of modern youth. Each elderly eccentric has his moment in the spotlight, as their story unfolds in an episodic manner. In the end, the retirement-home staff become convinced that taking care of these characters lies above and beyond the call of duty.Read More »
A young couple out for a walk decide to take a stroll through a large cemetery. As darkness begins to fall they realize they can’t find their way out, and soon their fears begin to overtake them.Read More »