France

Citroën AK 400 unleashes the deepest longings of whomever comes in touch with it.Read More »

Quote:
Straub-Huillet’s first color film, Othon (Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour) adapts a lesser-known Corneille tragedy from 1664, which in turn was based on an episode of imperial court intrigue chronicled in Tacitus’s Histories. The costuming is classical, and the toga-clad, nonprofessional cast performs the drama’s original French text amid the ruins of Rome’s Palatine Hill while the noise of contemporary urban life hums in the background. Their lines are executed with a terrific flatness and frequently through heavy accents; the language in Othon becomes not merely an expression but a thing itself, an element whose plainness here alerts us to qualities of the work that might otherwise be subordinated. “If at every moment one can keep one’s eyes and ears open to all of this,” Straub wrote, “it’s possible to even find the film thrilling and note that everything here is information—even the purely sensual reality of the space which the actors leave empty at the end of each act.Read More »

Swaying between pleasure and despair, Elric throws himself into his pathological passion for the casino. Meeting Suzie could have saved him, but the young woman also sinks into gambling hell. The couple then start getting involved in the fearsome world of professional cheaters…Read More »

Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:
“Pialat’s third feature takes up a theme which, on the face of it, could not seem more uninviting: a middle-aged woman dying of cancer, and how this affects her husband and son. But what Pialat makes of this is so recognisable, embarrassing and moving – even, on occasion, funny – that he more than justifies his use of a forbidding subject. He has ideas about how emotions involving sex and death are intimately related – and about the clarity and lack of it that they shed on everything else, as son and father each go lusting after every woman in sight. He has ideas about cinema, too, and an expressive style that can encapsulate a lifetime of memories in a single shot. Without a trace of sentimentality or easy effect, this seemingly semi-autobiographical work is as intense in its way as The Mother and the Whore, and unforgettable.”Read More »

Synopsis:
Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a postapocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.
— Criterion Collection.Read More »

Quote:
VAN GOGH deals with the last three months of the painter’s life. It was shot in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village 30 kilometres outside Paris where Van Gogh actually spent the last three months of his life (May-July 1890). He had just spent a year at the asylum in Saint Remy and although still suffering from depression he was in better health. His three months in Auvers-sur-Oise was a time of great creative activity. He painted a canvas every day spent in Auvers and some of his greatest masterpieces.Read More »

Synopsis:
Emmanuelle is a beautiful young model and lives in Bangkok together with her husband Jean, who’s several years older. She likes him because he’s taught her much, and he likes her because she’s learning so well – and wants to often. Both are very tolerant in matters of extramarital affairs, so he doesn’t mind the young Marie-Ange coming over every so often, although she obviously wants more than talk from his wife. But Emmanuelle is more fascinated by the older Bee, and joins her on a trip into the jungle.Read More »

Synopsis:
After two-month of separation, Emmanuelle must find her husband, Jean in Hong-Kong. She goes there by boat. Once in Thailand, she finds her husband and meets Christopher, a mysterious airplane pilot. At a dinner, she also meets Laura, Jean’s mistress and her troubling stepdaughter Anna Maria. She proceeds to have several extramarital affairs — with Jean’s knowledge, of course.Read More »

Quote:
While in San Francisco for the promotion of her last film in October 1967, Agnès Varda, tipped by her friend Tom Luddy, gets to know a relative she had never heard of before, Jean Varda, nicknamed “Yanco”. This hitherto unknown uncle lives on a boat in Sausalito, is a painter, has adopted a hippie lifestyle and loves life. The meeting is a very happy one.Read More »