French

Quote:
Ostensibly framed as a postwar melodrama that loosely evokes Leo McCarey’s Love Affair in its story of a shipboard encounter between two emotionally unavailable people, Joseph Morder’s L’Arbre mort is also a tone piece that seeks to reconcile the space between love and death, history and memory, documentary and fiction. This duality is suggested in the diffused opening image of Jaime (Philippe Fano) abstractedly looking out into the open waters from the deck of a ship that plays out against an asynchronous, voiceover narration describing his long-awaited return to South America after completing his medical studies in Europe.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘Clara Stuart, star of music hall and cinema, arrives in Paris, to great public acclaim. She has everything – fame, wealth, and – through her aristocratic husband – a title. Hence, whilst she is worshipped by the masses, she is the object of hatred for Philippe Lutcher, am impoverished artist and notable anarchist. Lutcher shoots Clara Stuart after she gives a public recital, but he cannot bring himself to kill her. At his subsequent trial, the star attempts to plead in her assailant’s favour, but Lutcher rejects her support…’
– Films deFranceRead More »

Dominican Republic official entry for Academy Awards.

A French woman of African descent manages to escape after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. She finds shelter in the most dangerous district of Santo Domingo, where she is taken in by a group of children. By becoming their protégée and maternal figure, she will see her destiny change inexorably.Read More »

Set on a mysterious island, this adaptation of Adolfo Bioy Casares’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious…Read More »

Quote:
From Provence to Greece, a very personal travel diary shot while Jean-Daniel Pollet accepts an invitation to participate in a conference. Leaving is always a fantastic endeavor and the filmmaker sublimates the experience by gleaning images of places and loved ones. Images of Delphi, Bassae, Ancient Greece … But for Pollet these images are not enough, and he must also speak of the world … News, television and even Peugeot advertising images, which resulted in the film being blocked for many months.Read More »

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La Pointe Courte: How Agnès Varda “Invented” the New Wave

In September 1997, I saw Agnès Varda introduce a brand-new 35 mm print of her first feature film, La Pointe Courte (made in 1954), to an admiring audience at Yale University. More astonishing than the luminous black-and-white images was Varda’s claim that she had seen virtually no other films before making it (after racking her brain, she could come up with only Citizen Kane). Whether Varda’s assertion was true or the whim of an artist who does not wish to acknowledge any influence, La Pointe Courte is a stunningly beautiful and accomplished first film. It has also, deservedly, achieved a cult status in film history as, in the words of historian Georges Sadoul, “truly the first film of the nouvelle vague.”Read More »

1941. A little town in the Jura is cut in half by a river that forms the border between Nazi-occupied France and the free zone.Read More »

The President of an imaginary African country decides to combat a history of colonialism and free their economy from poverty and corruption by nationalizing the mining of their natural resources, much to the chagrin of Western capitalists, in this forward-thinking political thriller from Benin.

“It tackles several hot-button issues including an exit from the CFA franc currency, closer ties with Russia and China as opposed to the West, criticism of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and pride in being African.” – Global TimesRead More »

A French lieutenant makes a bet that he can seduce any woman in town in the two weeks before his regiment leaves for maneuvers, but his chosen target (a Parisian divorcée) isn’t like other girls he’s known.Read More »