France

  • Andrzej Wajda – Danton (1983)

    1981-1990Andrzej WajdaDramaEpicFrance

    Quote:
    Gérard Depardieu and Wojciech Pszoniak star in Andrzej Wajda’s powerful, intimate depiction of the ideological clash between the earthy, man-of-the-people Georges Danton and icy Jacobin extremist Maximilien Robespierre, both key figures of the French Revolution. By drawing parallels to Polish “solidarity,” a movement that was being quashed by the government as the film went into production, Wajda drags history into the present. Meticulous and fiery, Danton has been hailed as one of the greatest films ever made about the Terror.Read More »

  • Paul Vecchiali – L’étrangleur (1970)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaFrancePaul Vecchiali

    Quote:
    Unhappy women are being murdered by Emile (Jacques Perrin), a psychotic young man suffering from the delusion that his acts are mercy killings. The detective (Julien Guiomar) assigned to track down the killer resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man. In one instance, he impersonates a psychologist on a TV show he and Emile appear on together and attempts to provoke Emile into revealing himself.Read More »

  • Louis Malle – Le Souffle Au Coeur AKA Murmur of the Heart (1971)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaFranceLouis Malle

    As France is nearing the end of the first Indochina War, an open-minded teenage boy finds himself torn between a rebellious urge to discover love, and the ever-present, almost dominating affection of his beloved mother.Read More »

  • Jean-Claude Carrière – La Pince à ongles AKA The Nail Clippers (1969)

    1961-1970ArthouseFranceJean-Claude CarrièreShort Film

    Quote:
    Quite simply one of the neatest short films ever made. Directed by Jean-Claude Carriere, with assistance on script from Milos Forman, it’s a quite Bunuelian surreal tale, a portrait of a horrible relationship cut short by the sudden intrusion of the uncanny. I don’t want to say more! But OK: it’s a really great HOTEL MOVIE.

    The presence of Michel Lonsdale ought to be enough to sell you on this one, but above and beyond his mere physical appearance on screen, there’s the fact that this is THE ROLE HE WAS BORN TO PLAY.Read More »

  • Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville – The Old Place : Small Notes Regarding the Arts at Fall of 20th century (1998)

    1991-2000ArthouseFranceJean-Luc Godard

    Like its predecessor (De l’origine du XXIe siècle), The Old Place examines the role of art in history, only this time in still rather than moving images. Says Michael Althen of this piece, commissioned by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1999, “[T]he aim is not to give an overview of art history but to cut a path through the forest by asking how art relates to reality and its horrors.” Throughout its mid-length duration, reflections on art and its traces cross swords with future-oriented impulses. The questions it poses are not meant to be answered, but taken as wholesale embodiments of cultural memory, which tends to account for reality via myths and legends. As in the opening image of a monkey dangling from a tree, it is dependent on the presence of gravity to give hierarchical sensibilities a grounding from which to suspend our inhibitions.Read More »

  • Paule Muret – Rien que des mensonges AKA Nothing but lies (1991)

    1991-2000DramaFrancePaule MuretRomance

    Rien que des mensonges is a French film comedy-drama first released in 1991, directed by Paule Muret. The film stars Fanny Ardant, Jacques Perrin, Alain Bashung and Stanislas Carré de Malberg. It has also been released under the title: Nothing But Lies.

    Muriel et Antoine vivent dans le mensonge. Sans se le cacher ni se l’avouer, ils vont chercher avec d’autres la séduction et le désir qu’ils ne savent plus partager. Lorsqu’elle se plonge dans une passion charnelle avec Adrien, elle réalise que chaque baiser échangé avec lui la ramène un peu plus dans les bras de son mari. Elle va alors tout faire pour que ce dernier découvre sa liaison et repose sur elle le regard amoureux de leurs premiers jours.Read More »

  • Blaise Harrison – Les particules (2019)

    2011-2020Blaise HarrisonDramaFrance

    IMDB:
    As winter sets in and P.A. sees the world shifting around him, he starts to observe strange phenomena in the environment. The changes are imperceptible at first, but gradually his whole world seems to be on the brink.Read More »

  • Jacques Rozier – Les naufragés de l’île de la tortue AKA The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976)

    1971-1980AdventureComedyFranceJacques Rozier

    Quote:
    Bonaventure (Pierre Richard) is a semi-competent travel agent. One day, he teases his girlfriend’s jealousy by making a false mistress with a name which happens to be belong to a real girl… Having to make this lie true, his false mistress becomes also a true one and this is how adventure begins…Read More »

  • Claude Chabrol – Bellamy AKA Inspector Bellamy (2009)

    2001-2010Claude ChabrolCrimeDramaFrance

    Synopsis:
    As every year, chief inspector Paul Bellamy spends a few days with his wife Françoise in the family house in Nîmes. Jacques, Paul’s stepbrother, turns up unawares, which is bad news since the fellow is an alcoholic good for nothing. Also annoying is this stranger at bay who asks Bellamy for protection. Farewell peaceful holiday!Read More »

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