France

True story of the saga that was hoped to be the long-awaited justice brought to bear upon Augosto Pinochet, Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990. In September 1998, Pinochet flew to London on a pleasure trip but experienced back pain and underwent an operation in the London Clinic. Upon waking, he was arrested by Scotland Yard. Could it be that this was to become the first Latin American dictator to answer for crimes while serving as Head of State? After 500 days of house arrest, he nevertheless eventually returned unscathed to Chile, despite the compelling case built against him before & during this period by a young Spanish prosecutor, Carlos Castresana.Read More »

“Weapons of the Spirit,” Pierre Sauvage’s documentary about the extraordinary French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon during the Nazi rule in World War II, is like a murder mystery in reverse. It’s an examination of crimes that didn’t take place, of atrocities averted, and in such a way that history itself seems to have been subverted by their absence.Read More »

Claire Simon portrays an important time for any individual, from 16 to 18 years of age.

Set in the Paris suburbs in high school (for those lucky enough to go), teenagers chat after and even during class, sitting in the hallway or outside on a bench, looking at the city below them.

Claire Simon sets up a cinematic dialog with the teens, speaking about their personal history, their family, but also passions and loneliness.Read More »

summary from filmsdefrance.com :
“For a year, they have let themselves be seen and filmed – a filmmaker and an actor, the president and his first minister: Alain Cavalier and Vincent Lindon. Now you can see them, both in real life and in the fiction which they have created together… “
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French artist Ange Leccia’s Azé is made of images that seem to be coming from a terrorist hidden in Middle East.
No subtitles, but you don’t need any.

Azé ne conclut en rien ce périple, même s’il en est la troisième étape. Ange Leccia y expose le récit d’un terroriste parti se réfugier au Moyen-Orient. Mais, à l’instar d’Ile de Beauté et de Gold, le scénario se délite pour livrer à l’intuition un ensemble d’images où les choses prennent souvent un caractère pictural. Cette plasticité traduit la curiosité pour l’espace environnant et le transfert possible des signes sous l’impulsion des émotions. Le soleil est ainsi le guide de cette fiction qui donne une version abstraite des films d’aventures romantiques. Sa chaleur va jusqu’à brûler les paysages et la rétine, c’est-à-dire altérer le réel et lui donner l’incandescence d’un mirage. La lumière est un brasier où le voir et le vécu se confondent dans un tremblement érotique.Read More »

“Mimi isn’t a star, she’s just someone. I wanted to make a film about her life. That is, about the life of… someone. I wanted to follow as closely as possible the singularity of a real life in order to encounter its own particular romance, fantasy. Things that I’d discover when filming. In Nice, her hometown, or in the mountains, drifting between familiar and unfamiliar places where I filmed her, I waited for this story as yet unknown to me to come back to Mimi and for her to recount the scenes that make up her personal novel.”
Claire SimonRead More »

Autour de Jacques Baratier & Sweet and Sour
By Elliott Stein – Tuesday, April 14th 2009 – Village Voice

(Jacques Baratier, 1963). This fascinating nearly plot-less feature from eccentric Baratier, a director hardly known in America, is a quirky riff on cinema verite, with guest appearances from a dazzling array of European luminaries from the 60s including Simone Signoret, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Monica Vitti, and Roger Vadim. It was shot by the great Henri Decae, cinematographer of The Four Hundred Blows, Plein Soleil and La Ronde.Read More »

Alice is a successful barrister who lives with her stay-at-home boyfriend Nicholas. When their mutual friend Juliette splits up with her partner Michel, Nicholas takes solace in the fact that his relationship with Alice is a stable one. He does not realise that Alice has been seeing another man, a handsome sports photographer, Gaspard, for the past few months. When he discovers the truth, Nicholas goes to extreme lengths to gain Gaspard’s confidence, with the intention of sabotaging the affair…Read More »

Synopsis:
Fed-up with the inefficiency of the Marseille police, Paris sends drug-enforcement specialist Philippe Jordan to Marseille. He’s supposed to assist the local law enforcement dismantle the drug networks, especially mobster Sauveur Mecacci’s network. So far, Mecacci has managed to elude capture or successful prosecution by local authorities. However, Inspector Philippe Jordan’s unorthodox law enforcement style may prove efficient against Mecacci if Jordan receives a free-hand green-light from the Marseille police bosses and if he survives the frequent attempts against his life, of course. Once at work, Inspector Philippe Jordan’s rough style creates mayhem in the city of Marseille and triggers numerous complaints from the Mayor’s Office, from outraged citizens and from the lawyers of a scared Mecacci who wants to see Jordan dead. These things, in turn, tell Jordan he’s on the right track.Read More »