Each documentary deals with a filmmaker, even a cinema school (the New Wave …), or a particular issue related to cinema (Critic and cinema …). The choice of directors, as well as the issues addressed, are very impressed by the vision of the Cahiers du Cinéma, of which André S. Labarthe is one of the former editors, Janine Bazin being the wife of André Bazin, founder of the magazine.Read More »
A police officer investigates the life of a bodybuilder. Fascinated by the athlete, the policeman will be carried away on an initiatory journey.Read More »
King Louis XI tries to unify France by all means fair or foul, which does not please his powerful rival Charles the Bold. It is against this troubled backdrop that the loves of the daughter of a wealthy bourgeois and the king’s god-daughter Jeanne Fouquet and knight Robert Cottereau unfurl in spite of all the obstacles in their way. One of these being a pack of hungry wolves trying to stop Jeanne from carrying out an important mission assigned to her by the king himself.Read More »
Here are the two documentaries about Jerry Lewis from the collection Cinéastes de notre temps. The first part (1968) is directed by André Labarthe, and the second part (1971) by Robert Benayoun.Read More »
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Claire Denis’ first-rate video documentary (1990) about filmmaker Jacques Rivette, produced for French television, has many things to recommend it. The main interviewer is the great critic Serge Daney, who, two years before his death, converses with Rivette while relaxing in a cafe and strolling around Paris (Denis interjects a few questions toward the end); since both men were former editors of Cahiers du Cinema, not to mention groundbreaking and highly articulate critics, they have a lot to discuss apart from Rivette’s filmmaking. Clips from many of Rivette’s major films are included, as are interviews with some of Rivette’s actors, such as Bulle Ogier and Jean-Francois Stevenin. Best of all, the film beautifully captures Rivette the man, as both solitary cinephile and exploratory filmmaker. — Jonathan RosenbaumRead More »
A chronicle of the last days of a factory that is about to shut down. Among the workers forced to idle away until the end of the week, Jacques, a young technician is busy dismantling a machine while, without noticing it, turning on some of the men around him!
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Klaus Barbie, also known as the butcher of Lyon was implicated in 4,000 deaths and the deportation of 7,000 Jews from occupied France, before he inexplicably vanished. This Oscar winning documentary, from visionary director Marcel Ophuls, traces the 40-year hunt for Barbie, initiated by the same governments that would later hide him and protect his family.Read More »
