France

  • Matthieu Bareyre – L’époque AKA Young and Alive (2018)

    2011-2020DocumentaryFranceMatthieu Bareyre

    In the months following the terrorist attacks in Paris, the youth has taken the night. A community has risen, that looks for belonging in a world they don’t understand and seek to change the rules. Led by new faces and unheard groups, with their values and ideals, they open a new dialog, challenge the state and get ready for a new kind of revolution.Read More »

  • Jean-Pierre Melville – Le deuxième souffle (1966)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaFranceJean-Pierre Melville

    Veteran gangster Gustave (Lino Ventura) escapes from prison to find his sister is being blackmailed by some petty thugs in this crime thriller. He plans one last caper to steal enough money in hopes of retiring to a tropical paradise. He and his gang are sought by a detective (Paul Meurisse), the cop who plays by the book and avoids the sadistic torture practiced by his less-honorable cohorts. Soon Gustave is caught between the police and the double-crossing gangsters and discovers too late that there is no honor among thieves.Read More »

  • René Clément – La bataille du rail AKA The Battle of the Rails (1946)

    1941-1950DramaFranceRené ClémentWar

    La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) is regarded by many cineastes as the one truly great French “resistance” film. Based on fact, the episodic plotline details the courageous efforts by French railray workers to sabotage Nazi reinforcement-troop trains. The film’s thesis is that this underground activity was largely responsible for the allied victory on D-Day. Writer-director Rene Clement enhanced the reality of the story by filming on actual locations and using genuine railway employees and resistance fighters in the cast. Admittedly slow going at times, La Bataille du Rail is more successful as a morale-booster than as pure entertainment.Read More »

  • Philippe Kotlarski & Anne Weil – Les interdits AKA Friends from France (2013)

    2011-2020Anne WeilDramaFrancePhilippe KotlarskiRomance

    In 1979, Carole and Jerome arrive in Odessa posing as a couple to contact other Jews and help them sneak out of the country.Read More »

  • Georges Lautner – La valise AKA Man in the Trunk (1973)

    1971-1980AdventureComedyFranceGeorges Lautner

    Having succeeded in making himself the enemy of the entire Arab world, Commander Bloch, a senior agent in the Israeli secret services, flees to Libya and soon finds himself holed up in the French Embassy in Tripoli. His only hope of leaving the country alive is by being smuggled out in a diplomatic suitcase. Captain Augier is tasked with this delicate mission, but before the suitcase can reach Paris an airport strike takes effect. As a result, Augier and Bloch end up being confined to a hotel, which just happens to be the same hotel where the Israeli spy met the one true love of his life, Françoise. As he recalls this earlier romantic interlude in his life Bloch manages to convince himself that Françoise is the person who betrayed him. Read More »

  • Alain Resnais – Les herbes folles AKA Wild Grass (2009)

    2001-2010Alain ResnaisArthouseComedyFrance

    Marguerite is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it’s found by Georges, a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne, and two children. As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he’s fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession.Read More »

  • Claude Lelouch – Roman de gare AKA Tracks (2007)

    2001-2010Claude LelouchDramaFrance

    The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?Read More »

  • Maurice Lehmann & Claude Autant-Lara – Le ruisseau AKA The Stream (1938)

    1931-1940Claude Autant-LaraDramaFranceMaurice Lehmann

    Synopsis/Review:
    Denise, a young orphan girl who has escaped from a convent, believes that her misfortunes have ended when she meets Paul , a young naval officer upon whose ship she has stowed away. Paul, initially seeks to take advantage of her naivety to seduce her before changing his mind and sending her to live with his mother who works in a cabaret while he returns to sea. But the habits of the girl will push her to the brink of prostitution…Read More »

  • Eduardo de Gregorio – Sérail AKA Surreal Estate (1976)

    1971-1980DramaEduardo de GregorioFrance

    Synopsis:
    An English novelist is lured, with disconcerting and disorienting results, into purchasing a crumbling mansion by what he imagines are the deliberately ‘literary’ ploys of its housekeeper (Leslie Caron) and two mysterious, lurking women.Read More »

Back to top button