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In a French village near Bordeaux, Pessac, a young lady is chosen for her virtue by the townspeople.
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This is the first version that Eustache shot. The second version will be shot 10 years after. May ’68 will have been replaced in the conversations by the unemployment and crisis…Read More »
The Count of Monte Cristo tells the dramatic story of Edmond Dantes, a young French sailor who is falsely denounced as a political traitor and unjustly imprisoned for eighteen years without trial. After a daring escape, Dantes flees to the island of Monte Cristo where he finds a colossal treasure of gold and jewels bequeathed to him by a dying inmate. Using these riches, he assumes a new identity and devises a plan to take vengeance on all those who betrayed him.Read More »
Det Danske Filminstitut wrote:
A very special TV production: In the studio, Leth reads from several of his poetry collections, while a subtitle – as in ‘Life in Denmark’ – meticulously, but double-bound, records observations and describes the process. The subtext thus seems to function as a medium for the director’s reflections as the TV film progresses. (…) Alternating with the poetry reading in the studio, the second part of the film consists of snapshots from the 1970 Tour de France stage race, including the cobblestone roads of northern France, Mont Ventoux and the cathedral sprint in Rouen, which is shown three times.’Read More »
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Almost the entire hour and three-quarters of Jean Eustache’s 1971 film “Numéro Zéro” is filled with the director’s interview of his grandmother Odette Robert on Feb. 12th of that year. Eustache includes in the film the conditions of its production—the director himself is seated at the table with her, pours her some whiskey, speaks with the camera operator, manipulates the clapboard at the head and tail of the reels, and even takes a phone call from a foreign firm that wants to distribute one of his early short films. Odette Robert had come from her home in the provinces to live with Eustache in Paris and help care for his son Boris (who is seen, at the beginning of the film, helping guide her through the streets of Paris—she had recently had eye operations and had to wear dark lenses, including on-camera).Read More »
Second film in the Renoir documentary trilogy directed by Jacques Rivette, featuring a conversation between Jean Renoir and Michel Simon.
A quote from “Projections of Memory: Romanticism, Modernism, and the Aesthetics of Film” by Richard I. Suchenski:
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Musician and independent film personality John Lurie hardly seems like the sort of guy who would host a TV show about fishing. But then again, Fishing With John was hardly a typical nature program; Lurie and guests such as Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper, and Matt Dillon take to the water in search of adventure but usually end up with something else altogether. Discover how to catch fish using cheese and a pistol with Jim Jarmusch, let Tom Waits teach you new ways to store your catch, and build an ice fishing shanty with Willem Dafoe in these surreal, dryly witty outdoor escapades. Fishing With John aired in the U.S. on the Independent Film Channel. — Mark DemingRead More »
First part of an over four hour documentary for TV in which Rivette visited Renoir at his country place, lunched with him, and let him talk about his work, interspersed with extracts from some of his oeuvre.Read More »
In 1893 Massachusetts, 32-year-old spinster Lizzie Andrew Borden is put on trial for killing her father Andrew and stepmother Emma with an ax. The film explores complex family relationships and uses facts to provide a possible solution.Read More »
First filmed theatrically in 1962, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final novel, TENDER IS THE NIGHT, was given a lavish (seven million dollars) treatment in this British-Australian-American miniseries version. Set in Europe’s waning days of the Roaring Twenties, the plot focused upon the tempestuous marriage between jaded psychiatrist Dick Diver (Peter Strauss) and the beautiful, schizophrenic socialite Nicole Warren (Mary Steenburgen). An international cast did an excellent job impersonating the “Lost Generation” for which Fitzgerald was the principal spokesman (the author was himself all but burned out by the time the original novel was published, and his desperation oozes through every page).Read More »