France

  • Jean Epstein – Les berceaux (1931)

    1931-1940FranceJean EpsteinMusicalShort Film

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    Here is the text for the poem by Sully Prudhomme that the song is based on:

    Le long du Quai, les grands vaisseaux,
    Que la houle incline en silence,
    Ne prennent pas garde aux berceaux,
    Que la main des femmes balance.

    Mais viendra le jour des adieux,
    Car il faut que les femmes pleurent,
    Et que les hommes curieux
    Tentent les horizons qui leurrent!
    Read More »

  • Jérôme Reybaud – Jours de France AKA Four Days in France (2016)

    2011-2020DramaFranceJérôme ReybaudQueer Cinema(s)

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    Quote:
    Disillusioned with his life in Paris, Pierre Tomas drops everything to travel through France. Via phone numbers written in bathroom stalls, coincidental rendezvous, and Grindr, a smartphone app, Pierre never ceases to find a parking spot for the car he so dearly maneuvers. As he wanders the country for four days and four nights, his lover, Paul, will try to find him, using the same app that compasses Pierre. In a game of absurdist cat and mouse, these two lovers try, in their own ways, to find their way back to one another.Read More »

  • Pascal Bonitzer – Tout de suite maintenant (2016)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaFrancePascal Bonitzer

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    Nora Sator, a dynamic young thirty-year-old, began her career in high finance.
    When she learns that her boss and wife have frequented her father in their youth, she discovers that a mysterious rivalry still opposes them.
    Ambitious, Nora quickly gains the confidence of her superiors but maintains complicated relations with her colleague Xavier, unlike her sister Maya who quickly succumbs to her charms …
    Between stories of family, heart and professional intrigues, destinies intermingle and the masks fall.Read More »

  • Marguerite Duras – Les Enfants aka The Children (1984)

    1981-1990ArthouseComedyFranceMarguerite Duras

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    A sort of philosophical comedy written and directed by Marguerite Duras (with Jean Mascolo and Jean-Marc Turine), starring Axel Bogousslavsky, Daniel Gélin, Tatiana Moukhine, Martine Chevallier, André Dussollier and Pierre Arditi.Read More »

  • Robert Bresson – Les anges du péché AKA Angels of Sin (1943)

    1941-1950ClassicsDramaFranceRobert Bresson

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    Synopsis wrote:
    A well-off young woman decides to become a nun, joining a convent that rehabilitates female prisoners. Through their program, she meets a woman named Thérèse who refuses any help because she says she was innocent of the crime she was convicted for. After being released from prison, Thérèse murders the actual perpetrator of the crime and comes to seek sanctuary in the convent.Read More »

  • Chantal Akerman – Sud AKA South (1999 )

    1991-2000Chantal AkermanDocumentaryFrance

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    Synopsis
    A look at the troubled area of America’s Deep South, primarily focusing on the sadistic murder of James Byrd, an African-American man dragged to his death by three white supremacists. The film contains interviews with local inhabitants who discuss the problems caused by racism in the area both before and after the advent of the Civil Rights movement. Read More »

  • Andrzej Zulawski – L’Amour braque AKA Limpet Love (1985)

    1981-1990ActionAndrzej ZulawskiCrimeFrance

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    Synopsis:
    Inspired by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot and intended as “a homage to the great writer,” this film is set in modern France rather than 19th century Russia. This is a story of Léon (Francis Huster), who has been recently released from a mental asylum and claims to be a descendant of a Hungarian prince. On his way from Hungary to France, he meets Mickey (Tchéky Karyo), a hood who has committed a successful bank robbery and plans to take brutal revenge on the brothers Venin for what they did to his girlfriend Mary (Sophie Marceau). Léon can hardly understand what Mickey is up to but he follows him everywhere and soon falls in love with Mary. This odd love triangle resolves in a tragic ending. The frantic pace of the film’s action can be compared to that of a runaway, hell-bound train. The colors and sounds go out of control, and violence abounds — all of which is intended to convey to a viewer the craziness of the time.
    — (allmovie)Read More »

  • Jacques Rivette & Suzanne Schiffman – Out 1, noli me tangere (1971)

    Drama1971-1980ExperimentalFranceJacques RivetteSuzanne SchiffmanThe Films of May '68

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    Quote:
    Though Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 is often described as a time capsule, it hardly functions as a medium for concrete historical research. The 1971 film takes place in a major global city (Paris in the late ’60s) for all of its 13 hours, but it’s notable for how radically disconnected it is from the quotidian texture of metropolitan life—from matters like what any of its characters do to make a living, how they get around, what their typical routine is, what they eat or drink, or what they do in their downtime.Read More »

  • Mia Hansen-Løve – L’avenir AKA Things to Come (2016)

    2011-2020DramaFranceMia Hansen-Løve

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    Quote:
    Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie’s husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.Read More »

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