French

  • Luc de Heusch – Michel De Ghelderode (1957)

    Documentary1951-1960BelgiumLuc de HeuschShort Film

    From DVD booklet:
    After Perséphone, his first film which he describes as “an experimental, mythological poem” and shoots under the pseudonym Luc Zangrie, he makes a portrait of playwright Michel de Ghelderode together with his friend Jean Raine. It introduces us to the world of a creator obsessed with and fascinated by death. If biographic references are present, they are only there in order to place the writer in the right setting: nostalgia for Bruges and Flanders, solitary wanders through a backward-looking, legendary Brussels. Ghelderode’s gravelly voice is the leitmotiv of the film, which focuses on rehearsals of his plays at the Théâtre de Poche and with the puppets of the Théâtre Royal de Toone. We accompany him into his study, a place of dreams and fantasy, full of baroque objects that define his world.Read More »

  • Marcel Hanoun – La vérité sur l’imaginaire passion d’un inconnu (1974)

    Drama1971-1980FranceMarcel Hanoun

    Synopsis
    A very personal interpretation, to say the least, of the passion of the Christ According to St. John. (imdb)Read More »

  • John Berry – Je suis un sentimental AKA Headlines of Destruction (1955)

    1951-1960Film NoirFranceJohn BerryThriller

    Synopsis:
    ‘Barney Morgan is a reporter who works for a French journal. His editor-in-chief Rupert finds his lover Alice murdered. His boss is the main suspect but Barney doesn’t believe his boss could possibly be a murderer. Subsequently he tries to prove the man’s innocence.
    Barney suspects Alice’s husband and gathers enough circumstantial evidence to make his point. But the widower’s lawyer can prove he didn’t do it either. Barney concedes he was wrong and commences a new investigation.’
    – WikipediaRead More »

  • Simon Rieth – Nos cérémonies (2022)

    2021-2030DramaFantasyFranceSimon Rieth

    Brothers Tony and Noé pass the long sweltering summer days playing games of chance and death – until the accident that will change their lives forever. Ten years later, their paths cross that of Cassandra, their childhood love.Read More »

  • Claude Chabrol – La décade prodigieuse AKA Ten Days Wonder (1971)

    1971-1980ArthouseClaude ChabrolFranceThriller

    Anthony Perkins, a young sculptor with a weird penchant for waking up in strange hotels with his memory wiped clean and bloodied hands, invites a former professor (Michel Piccoli) to the Gatsby-like provincial manor presided over by his powerful tycoon father (Orson Welles). Welcomed by Welles’ young wife (Marlene Jobert), Piccoli soon finds a nest of rats beneath the bourgeoisie voluptuousness — a clan bound in a circle of illicit romance, blackmail, faked burglaries and, of course, murder.Read More »

  • Gaspard Augé, Xavier de Rosnay, Romain Gavras & So-Me – A Cross the Universe (2008)

    Gaspard Augé2001-2010DocumentaryPerformanceRomain GavrasSo-MeUSAXavier de Rosnay

    Synopsis
    Extraordinary things always happen when unexpected. During the 18 months Justice spent touring, “extraordinary” didn’t necessarily mean “amazing”, or “great”, (though it sometimes did) but “surreal”, “weird”, “horrendous”, “fascinating”, “paranormal”, etc. To cut a long story short, it means that without anyone to film you twenty-four/seven, no one will believe or get the essence of every moment you’d like to tell them about. So as Justice were about to tour the USA for the second time, multi-awarded directors and intimate friends of the band Romain Gavras and So-Me taped every second of that 3 week tour that looks like it lasted 3 years. This documentary isn’t a report of a Justice live show (the audio CD is here for that), but is all about the extraordinary things that can happen when a bunch of frogs get dropped in dreamy America.Read More »

  • Denys de La Patellière – Le tonnerre de Dieu AKA The Thunder of God (1965)

    1961-1970Denys de La PatellièreDramaFrance
    Le tonnerre de Dieu (1965)

    Synopsis:
    ‘Léandre Brassac is an ageing veterinary who lives in a large house near to Nantes with his wife Marie, whom he openly despises and frequently abuses. Léandre resents the fact that his wife has failed to bear him any children, and as a result he has become a violent and moody old man, contemptuous of others and all too willing to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Whilst he may loathe people, Brassac shows a remarkable tenderness for animals, especially the dogs who have become his closest companions in his declining years. During one of his night-time excursions to Nantes, Brassac runs into a prostitute named Simone. Concerned by the young woman’s plight, he invites her to live with him and his wife.’
    – James TraversRead More »

  • Agnès Varda – Pier Paolo Pasolini – Agnès Varda – New York – 1967 (2022)

    2021-2030Agnès VardaDocumentaryFranceShort Film

    Anna Masecchia wrote:
    With her 16mm camera in hand, the optical prosthesis of a 20th-century flâneuse, Agnès Varda filmed 42nd Street in 1967, shooting a crowdof passersby to the beat of The Doors. Pier Paolo Pasolini is with her, getting lost in the lights, bodies, faces and chaos of a crowded and multicultural New York. Opening in soft focus and closing on Pasolini’s blurred face, the images shot in a direct style and without audio are merged with a dense dialogue between the two artists and intellectuals, which was recorded later. Prompted by Varda, Pasolini reflects on the relationship between reality and fiction, the Christian figurative tradition and the function of audiovisual language in contemporary society. All of which is enhanced by the audio-visual décalage that simultaneously reveals the camera as a device while emphasising the real and political information of the images, which emerges from the background and comes into the foreground. In a matter of minutes,Varda’s art captures Pasolini talking about himself and the essence of cinema as a whole, which for both is an expression of reality itself.Read More »

  • Louise Archambault – Familia (2005)

    2001-2010CanadaDramaLouise Archambault

    Michele, a divorced aerobics instructor with a gambling addiction, loses her job and seeks refuge with a childhood friend, Janine, who lives in a seemingly comfortable middle-class suburban neighborhood. Michele’s rebellious teenage daughter, Marguerite, and Janine’s shy and reserved daughter, Gabrielle, become friends, leading to unforeseen tensions that force both generations to reassess their values. Familia explores the question of how value systems are passed on from mother to daughter and asks: Is it possible to avoid passing on to our children those traits that we despise in our parents?Read More »

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