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Tomas and Martin are a gay couple living in Paris whose marriage is thrown into crisis when Tomas impulsively begins a passionate affair with young schoolteacher Agathe. But when Martin begins an affair of his own, Tomas must confront life decisions he may be unprepared—or unwilling—to deal with.Read More »
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In Bernardo Bertolucci’s art-house classic, Marlon Brando delivers one of his characteristically idiosyncratic performances as Paul, a middle-aged American in “emotional exile” who comes to Paris when his estranged wife commits suicide. Chancing to meet young Frenchwoman Jeanne (Maria Schneider), Paul enters into a sadomasochistic, carnal relationship with her, indirectly attacking the hypocrisy all around him through his raw, outrageous sexual behavior. Paul also hopes to purge himself of his own feelings of guilt, brilliantly (and profanely) articulated in a largely ad-libbed monologue at his wife’s coffin. If the sexual content in Last Tango is uncomfortably explicit (once seen, the infamous “butter scene” is never forgotten), the combination of Brando’s acting, Bertolucci’s direction, Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography, and Gato Barbieri’s music is unbeatable, creating one of the classic European art movies of the 1970s, albeit one that is not for all viewers.Read More »
Synopsis
Double-agent Brigitte Lahaie is the star attraction at a strip-joint/brothel called “Le Diable Rose” in Nazi occupied France which is frequented by both Nazis and Partisans alike.Read More »
Ten years after they went their separate ways following the breakdown of their marriage, Jacques makes a sudden reappearance in Mado’s life. Whilst Jacques has been unable to move on and build a new life for himself, Mado has married another man, Stéphane, with whom she has had a son, Paul, now seven years old. It was the tragic death of their child which led to Jacques and Mado’s separation, and it is something which Jacques has been unable to put behind him. When she sees how Jacques and Paul warm to one another, Mado becomes concerned and insists that her ex-partner he should never see her son again. Unwilling or unable to let go of the tragedy that still haunts him Jacques holds a private vigil in the basement of the apartment block where Mado and her family live, just so that he can be near to the little boy who has come to replace the one he has lost…Read More »
In a boxcar, three escapees hope to get to Sweden; there’s the military man who wants to resume the fight, the simple private who’s tired of being a fighter, and the intellectual, a schoolteacher fluent in German -which is useful- who does not exactly what he is going to do. Their main problem is water. On the train,their journey will be perilous: every station is a threat, for they may be discovered by the German soldiers.Read More »
The pastor of a mountain village adopts a small blind girl, Gertrude. As Gertrude grows up into an attractive young woman the pastor, now middle-aged, realises that he is in love with her. To his chagrin, his adopted son, Jean, is also in love with Gertrude, even though he is shortly to be married to another woman. Jean’s fiancée is jealous of Gertrude and arranges for her to see a doctor in the hope that she might be cured and to enable Jean to choose equally between the two women. Miraculously, Gertrude’s sight is restored and she returns to the village a changed woman. Unable to accept Jean’s love and disappointed by the pastor’s affections for her, she realises that her former happiness has been lost forever. (Films de France)Read More »
NYT – Janet Maslin
THE great historical pageant that is Ettore Scola’s ”La Nuit de Varennes” unfolds with supreme ease. It begins with a series of casual coincidences and weaves them brilliantly into a vision of one of the most important moments in French history, a vision not the least bit limited by the specifics of its place and time.
The time is the French Revolution, and the occasion is the flight of the royal family from Paris to the small town of Varennes, where they will be captured and sent back to their deaths. But the feeling is utterly modern, or perhaps it’s timeless. The key issues of the film are the issues of any era. And the humor and generosity with which Mr. Scola presents them are correspondingly enduring.Read More »
Story about a girl who, tired of her step-mother and her step-mother’s gigolo, goes to a boarding-school and falls in love with a woman who runs it.Read More »
In a dystopian world where violent misfits reign supreme, one woman and her makeshift family of rehabilitated marauders fight for peace.Read More »