French

Steve Seid writes:
Clouzot’s final foray into features takes us into another tortured love triangle to explore voyeurism and, by extension, the very gaze that so draws us to cinema. Josée (Elisabeth Wiener) meets her artist-lover’s gallerist, the chic but kinky Stanislas Hessler (Laurent Terzieff), whose hobby is photographing female nudes in S&M postures. Naturally, Josée succumbs to the temptation to pose, but finds she needs bonding not bondage. Enter the obsessive kinetic artist Gilbert (Bernard Fresson), and the triangulated trap is sprung. Like Peeping Tom, Woman in Chains uses the camera’s gaze as a substitute for our own voyeuristic impulse.Read More »

From Cinematua :

Quelques années après la sortie de « Moemoea », Dominique Arnaud produit et réalise une nouvelle fiction polynésienne en partenariat avec l’OTAC. Dans « Moemoea » Arnaud abordait le réalisme social contemporain, avec « Hono », il aborde le Tahiti des temps anciens et le thème universel des amours impossibles. Le scénario est écrit par le réalisateur, les dialogues sont signés Henri Hiro. Le film raconte l’histoire d’un jeune homme (fils aîné d’un chef) et d’une jeune femme (fille d’un autre chef) qui s’éprennent l’un de l’autre.Read More »

Like the unknown woman imagined by the poet – which is never quite the same nor entirely different- this new Glimpse 13 resembles it’s twelve prestigious precedents while having its own distinct identity. Roy Stuart has put extra effort into the design and implementation of the twenty odd sequences that make up this diverse album. All the imagination, energy, expertise, as if making a feature film. Probably because he had been working on a feature film project earlier this year. This is especially true of the brilliant main sequence, which tells the story and contrast of two girlfriends-an inexperienced childlike beauty that recites romantic poetry in the street and a more mature girl who likes to show off in front of her webcam.-The younger girl opposes her friends twisted plan to use her as bait to pick up and rip off a guy -but who will come out on top? …Read More »

Quote:
In West Africa during the late 17th century, King Adanggaman leads a war against his neighboring tribes, ordering his soldiers to torch enemy villages, kill the elderly and capture the healthy tribesmen to sell to the European slave traders. When his village falls prey to one of Adanggaman’s attacks, Ossei manages to escape, but his family is murdered except for his captured mother. Chasing after the soldiers in an effort to free her, Ossei is befriended by a fierce warrior named Naka.Read More »

Synopsis:
In Zagreb, the stripper Anna de Istria works in a sleazy cabaret. She is seduced by the blonde Cynthia Robins that invites her to move to her house. Ana is disturbed by nightmares, where she kills a man with a spear, and Cynthia calls Dr. Paul Lucas to treat Ana. Meanwhile, a couple that lives in the house next door spies the movement in Cynthia’s house.Read More »

One of Hondo’s enduring masterpieces, West Indies is a stunning widescreen musical that takes place entirely on a single set – a giant slave ship that symbolizes the triangular relationship between Africa, Europe and the Caribbean – as it explores the parallels between the forced migration of the Atlantic slave trade and the contemporary migration of Afro-Caribbean subjects to former colonial metropoles. In a breathtaking display of virtuosity, Hondo deftly uses an array of filmic techniques (a vertically oriented mise en scène, dexterous tracking shots, beautifully orchestrated long takes) to explore four centuries of history within his single location, signalling temporal shifts through fluid camera movements and sumptuous staging; meanwhile, the remarkable range of musical styles, witty, poignant, and rousing lyrics, and brilliant choreography dazzle the senses and invite the spectator to join in the struggle to transform the world. –Aboubakar SanogoRead More »

A comically accented historical drama with culinary appeal, this film introduces us to Pascal Ichac (Pierre Richard), a French chef with a nose so sensitive that he can decipher the ingredients in a sauce with a single sniff. A true renaissance man, Pascal is a genius in the kitchen and a trained operatic vocalist and former gigolo. When he decides that he’s beginning to tire of his surroundings in France, he heads for Russia to find new challenges and tastes in Georgia. En route to the Georgian capitol of Tbilisi, Pascal meets Cecilia Abachidze (Micheline Presle), a princess who is charmed by the suave chef; although he is in his 50s and she in her 20s, love is soon in the air. Read More »

Quote:
Sexual revelations emerge when a group of academics and their partners spend a weekend at a country retreat.

Roger Ebert wrote:
Here is a movie where everybody talks about nothing but sex, and the real subject is wit. The movie takes place during a little more than 24 hours in the lives of some friends, who either work in the history department of a Canadian university, or sleep with people who do. They meet for dinner, and as they prepare and eat the food and drink the wine, they talk and talk about sex. But if you listen carefully, you will find that their real subject is not sex, but verbal cleverness, and that their real passion comes in the area of intellectual competition.Read More »

Destinées (US: Daughters of destiny) is a triptych about women in war: One part, “Elizabeth”, is about American war-widow (Claudette Colbert) who goes to Italy where her husband was in WW II; “Jeanne” tells the life of Jeanne d’Arc (Michèle Morgan); “Lysistrata” (Martine Carol) is about Athenian wives, adaptation of the Greek play.Read More »