France

  • René Allio – Moi, Pierre Rivière, ayant égorgé ma mère, ma soeur et mon frère… aka I, Pierre Riviere (1976)

    1971-1980DramaFranceRené Allio

    Quote:
    This film is mesmerising, not least because the director, René Allio, chose to use a cast entirely made up of real villagers from the area where the events took place. They serve him well, because the film has an authenticity and naturalness which would have been impossible to capture with trained actors. Based on the book by the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, the film charts the gruesome events that took place in a village in Normandy in 1835.Read More »

  • Serge Korber – Sur un arbre perché AKA Perched On A Tree (1971)

    1971-1980ComedyFranceSerge Korber

    Politician get hitch hikers on road and in one car accident they all end up on a tree above the sea.

    Quote:
    Henri Roubier is an industrialist who has negotiated a contract to build a national roadway, making himself a rich man in the process. On his way to a meeting with the French Prime Minister, he gets caught up in a traffic jam and two hitch-hikers force their way into his car – a young man and a young woman, who have just met. Roubier drives off at great speed – but his car goes over the edge of a cliff.Read More »

  • Yannick Bellon – La femme de Jean (1974)

    1971-1980ArthouseFranceYannick Bellon

    After 18 years of married life, Jean leaves his wife, Nadine, so that he can start a new life with his mistress, Christine. Nadine is distraught by this rejection and sinks into a deep depression, which she finally manages to overcome with the support of her son, Rémi. She gets herself a job with a law firm and begins a relationship with a likeable engineer named David. With the latter’s help, Nadine resumes her studies and acquires a new lease of life. When Jean returns to her, she sends him away.Read More »

  • Guy Lefranc – Knock (1951)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyFranceGuy Lefranc

    Saint-Maurice, an ordinary peaceful village, lived healthily so much so that the local doctor’s practice was scant. But that was before Dr. Parpalaid retired and was replaced by a charlatan by the name of Knock. A real genius this one, for he soon managed to persuade everyone that they were ill. And not only didn’t they resent him but they even loved their physician, who made a fortune and brought prosperity to the village by turning it into a big hospital.Read More »

  • Jean Epstein – La belle Nivernaise AKA The Beauty from Nivernais (1923)

    1921-1930FranceJean EpsteinSilent

    Quote:
    Bargeman Louveau finds an abandoned boy, Victor, and with the authorities permission takes him back to his own family where he raises him. 10 years later Victor and Louveau’s daughter Clara have fallen in love, and it is then that Louveau is called to Paris, where it has been discovered that Victor is really the son of Maugendré, a charcoal shipper on the Nivernaise canal.Read More »

  • Christian Vincent – La discrète AKA The Discreet Girl (1990)

    Drama1981-1990Christian VincentFranceRomance

    Synopsis
    Antoine, an unsuccessful writer, is taken aback when his girlfriend, Solange, leaves him for another man. Usually, it is he who ends a relationship, not his partner. In a fit of pique, he decides to take his revenge, not against Solange, but against all womankind. Jean, an ageing book dealer, suggests that Antoine should avenge his wounded male pride by seducing a woman selected at random and then, once she is in love with him, coldly dumping her. Read More »

  • Gilles Grangier & Georges Lautner – Les Bons Vivants AKA Un Grand Seigneur AKA High Lifers AKA How to Keep the Red Lamp Burning (1965)

    Drama1961-1970ComedyFranceGeorges LautnerGilles Grangier

    Pleasure-seekers deal with the official closing of French bordellos after the passing of the 1949 legislation outlawing the houses of ill repute. Part two finds a former prostitute who is besieged by former associates after she pulls off a successful robbery attempt. The final segment has a wealthy but sanctimonious patron offering a joy girl a place to stay. His house becomes a popular meeting place when his friends and the prostitute’s friends get together for fun and games.Read More »

  • Céline Sciamma – Naissance des pieuvres AKA Water Lilies (2007)

    2001-2010ArthouseCéline SciammaDramaFrance

    Synopsis
    Summer in a new suburb outside Paris. Nothing to do but look at the ceiling. Marie, Anne and Floriane are 15. Their paths cross in the corridors at the local swimming pool, where love and desire make a sudden, dramatic appearance.
    IMDb.comRead More »

  • Pierre Coulibeuf – Balkan baroque (1999)

    1991-2000DocumentaryExperimentalFrancePierre Coulibeuf

    Synopsis
    The autobiography, both real and imaginary, of Marina Abramovic [1], Body Art artistic. The film composes the life aesthetic of a woman in her era, with a personal history strongly marked by the Yugoslavia of Tito, everyday violence, the experience of physical and psychic limits… The voluntary evocation of the past makes something more secret, more intimate crop up: an unknown evolution that is embodied in fictions felt like authentic fragments of truth. Balkan Baroque jumps from one identity to another, from a true story to an imagination, from a dream to a ritual… – the language of the body often taking over from the word, interrupting it or, on the contrary, stimulating it.Read More »

Back to top button