France

In 1943, during the Second World War, a battalion of the French Foreign Legion is tasked with the mission of removing a fortune in gold bullion from the vault of a bank in a North African town, before it falls into the hands of the Germany army. The Legionnaires arrives just in time to be all but wiped out by the German soldiers who surround the town. Only three of them survive: Sergeant Augagneur, Adjutant Mahuzard and Boissier. With the help of a cowardly artillery man, Béral, the Legionnaires manage to defeat the Germans, but instead of fulfilling their mission as planned, Augagneur has other plans for the gold bullion…Read More »

Il Cinema Ritrovato wrote:
Alfred Machin started at Pathé in 1908, in the department called “Service de Voyage”. Its staff had their travel expenses covered by the company and were paid per film accepted (“bande accepté”) so it was a kind of freelancing. The frequency of hunting films, especially from distant countries, is some indication of the popularity of this genre a hundred years ago. According to the Pathé catalogue, Machin was also responsible for Chasse à L’hippopotame, Chasse à l’aigrette, Chasse à la giraffe, Chasse au marabout, Chasse aux singes, and Chasse aux éléphants.Read More »

A documentary depicting the day- and nighttime behaviors of African animals.Read More »

This short documents the important role played by bread in the daily life of the city of Paris.Read More »

After death, people have a week to choose only one memory to keep for eternity.Read More »

A beautiful and sophisticated teenager is placed in a regimented French girls’ boarding school after her father apparently commits suicide over a business scandal. She immediately gains admirers — a lustful middle-aged artist, a handsome young composer, a fellow female student — as well as a jealous rival. With the help of her schoolmates, she attempts to elope with the composer, but the adults catch on to the plot, and she is locked into her room at night.Read More »

“Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Win)” is regarded as the first French documentary film made in support of the Palestinian liberation movement. Shot in 1969 by Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN in a student dorm, the film blends historical testimonies by Palestinians, photographs, stock footage, maps, and music. The documentary centers on the 1968 Battle of Karameh, while also tracing the complex story of the past five decades of Palestinian resistance against oppression and colonialism.Read More »

Filmed in his studio in 1988, in front of Benoît Jacquot’s camera, the painter Robert Motherwell, then aged 73, retraces the main creative stages of his work and describes very precisely his way of working: the importance of the choice of brush , of the support, of the paint used, the accidents which occur and which determine the work… He engages in a discourse on art in the serene atmosphere of his studio in Greenwich. He describes the principles of psychic automatism and comments on the different periods of his work to which dozens of retrospectives, including one in Paris in 1977, have been devoted throughout the world. A rigorous portrait that reveals the painter with his doubts and convictions.Read More »

Celebrating movie theaters’ magic, a film enthusiast follows the footsteps of Paul Dédalus. Memories, fiction, and discoveries intertwine in a torrential flow of cinematic imagery.Read More »