France

  • Gérard Patris – Histoires naturelles : Max Ernst (1972)

    1971-1980DocumentaryFranceGérard Patris

    A film about German painter Max Ernst made by Gérard Patris.Read More »

  • Jean Georgescu – Directorul nostru AKA Our Director (1955) (HD)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyFranceJean Georgescu

    IMDb wrote:
    Over at the fictional DRGBP institution, events take a settling turn after a mutinied prize festivity.Read More »

  • Claire Denis – Chocolat (1988)

    1981-1990ArthouseClaire DenisDramaFrance

    The international breakthrough of acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis, Chocolat is set in a remote town in Cameroon during the last days of France’s colonies in Africa.

    Claire Denis’s award-winning autobiographical film traces a young white woman’s return to her youth in pre-independence French Cameroon, haunted by strong memories of black African Protee, the family’s “houseboy” and a man of great nobility, intelligence and beauty. Chocolat is a stirring & subtle examination of intricate relationships in a racist society and the human damage exacted on both the colonized and colonizer.Read More »

  • Sarah Maldoror – Scala Milan AC (2003)

    2001-2010DocumentaryFranceSarah Maldoror

    Quote:
    A group of young people from the St. Denis banlieu, from different ethnic and geographic backgrounds, participate in a school contest to tell their neighborhood, whose prize is a trip to Milan. With the collaboration of the historical jazz musician Archie Shepp, they create a poetic hymn to the racialized and invisible France that rises above marginalization. The film, also produced by another filmmaker, Agnès Varda, is a collaboration on its own bill between the filmmaker and teenagers.Read More »

  • Sarah Maldoror – Un dessert pour Constance AKA Dessert for Constance (1981)

    1981-1990ComedyFranceSarah MaldororTV

    In the 70’s, Bokolo and Mamadou sweepers in the city of Paris, looking for a way to pay for the return home of one of their sick comrades. When they discover an old book of recipes in the trash, the idea came to participate in a televised game of decline precisely the ingredients of the best dishes of French cuisine. They memorize the recipes sauces, puddings and desserts.Read More »

  • Éric Rohmer – Nadja à Paris AKA Nadja in Paris (1964)

    1961-1970DramaEric RohmerFranceShort Film

    Nadja is a guest student, who stays at Cité Universitaire and visits the Sorbonne, while preparing a thesis on Proust. Besides her student life she likes to stroll about Paris, to explore the variety of this wide and open city. She knows Saint-Germain-des-Prés well, but feels more comfortable among the bohemians, painters and writers in Montparnasse. Sometimes she wants to get out of the narrow area of intellectual Paris. She then goes to the park Buttes Chaumont and the working class neighborhood of Belleville. There she discovers a world that is simpler and more characteristic of France. This helps her to distance herself from everything that was superficial in her life. She thinks that Paris teaches you more about yourself than you learn about the city.Read More »

  • Chris Marker – Chris Marker-Cornelius Castoriadis : une leçon de démocratie (1989)

    1981-1990Chris MarkerDocumentaryFrancePhilosophyPhilosophy on ScreenTV

    Quote:
    This interview with Castoriadis was conducted in 1989 by famed filmmaker Chris Marker for Marker’s own television series L’héritage de la chouette (“The Owl’s Legacy”). Eighty-one minutes long, the raw footage originally recorded in French has been translated into English (via easy-to-read subtitles) and edited anonymously as a public service. Here, Castoriadis lays out and examines the contributions of ancient Greece to questions of contemporary relevance relating to democracy, politics, philosophy, art, poetry, economic and social reorganization, and the creative chaos that underlies all existence.Read More »

  • Louis Daquin – Premier de cordée AKA Storm Over the Mountain (1944)

    1941-1950DramaFranceLouis Daquin

    Synopsis:
    ‘For many years, Jean Servettaz has worked as a mountain guide in Chamonix but, too aware of the risks of his profession, he gives this up so that he can run a guest house for tourists. He intends that his son Pierre will follow his example and become a hotelier but Pierre is too in love with the mountains to even consider such an idea. A head injury sustained in a climbing accident puts paid to Pierre’s dreams of becoming a guide. Afflicted with vertigo, he leaves for Paris and works as a receptionist in a luxury hotel. It isn’t long before Pierre is drawn back to the snow-capped mountains and, with the help of his fiancée Alice he makes another attempt to overcome his fear of heights. When his father is caught in a thunderstorm whilst taking a tourist across a hazardous stretch of the mountains Pierre has a chance to prove himself…’
    – James TraversRead More »

  • Marcel Carné – Les portes de la nuit AKA Gates of the Night (1946)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaFranceMarcel Carné

    Synopsis:
    ‘In February 1945, Jean Diego is tasked with breaking the news to the wife of a friend of his, Pierre, that her husband has been executed by the Nazis. It turns out that he is mistaken – his friend is still very much alive. After a happy reunion, Jean goes on his way and has a bizarre encounter with a weird old tramp on the Paris metro.The bedraggled stranger claims he can foresee the future and prophecies that Diego is about to encounter the most beautiful girl in the world.Read More »

Back to top button