French

  • Roberto Rossellini – Beaubourg, centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (1977)

    1971-1980DocumentaryFranceRoberto Rossellini

    Rossellini 77
    Last images from Roberto Rossellini filming the Centre Georges Pompidou,
    February-March-April-May 1977.

    Following the steps of Roberto Rossellini on day to day basis, making the film “LE CENTRE GEORGE POMPIDOU” we could not know the issue of his last encounter with the cinéma.

    10 Hours of 16 mm coulour film, 30 hours of sound recordings… More than 2500 slides were produced as he wished :
    “to represent things as they are and stay on the field of the honesty”.
    Unique experience… 30 years after…
    From this story, as promised… a film is being born.Read More »

  • Gilles Carle – Les mâles AKA The Males (1971)

    1971-1980CampCanadaComedyGilles Carle

    Quote:
    After 553 days of self-imposed solitude in the wilderness, Emile the poet and St-Pierre the lumberjack head for the nearest town to fulfill the demands of nature, they must find a woman. A nearly fatal experiment in kidnapping brings “the males” running back to their camp, where they find that a woman has come to them voluntarily. With civilization now safely out of reach, they try to set up a perfect, harmonious threesome.Read More »

  • Noémie Lvovsky – Oublie-moi AKA Forget Me (1994)

    1991-2000DramaFranceNoémie LvovskyRomance

    Quote:
    Cahiers du Cinéma chose Oublie-moi as its no. 5 pick of 1995 on its annual Top 10 list. Oublie-moi is directed by award-winning director Noémie Lvovsky (whose Les Sentiments was recently recognized as one of the greatest films of 2003 by long-standing Cahiers rival, Positif). Along with being one of the most accomplished and critically well-regarded new directors from France Lvovsky has also had her scripts filmed by the likes of Arnaud Desplechin and Philippe Garrell. Oublie-moi is also one of her original scripts.Read More »

  • Pierre Étaix – Le soupirant AKA The Suitor (1962)

    1961-1970ComedyFrancePierre Étaix
    Le soupirant (1962)

    Quote:
    Pierre Etaix’s first feature introduces the droll humor and oddball charm of its unique writer-director-star. As a tribute to Buster Keaton, Etaix fashioned this lovable story of a privileged yet sheltered young man (played by Etaix himself, in a nearly silent performance) who, under pressure from his parents, sets out to find a young woman to marry—though he has a hard time tearing his mind away from the famous singer whose face decorates the walls of his bedroom.Read More »

  • Pierre Étaix – Yoyo (1965)

    Drama1961-1970ArthouseFrancePierre Étaix
    Yoyo (1965)

    Quote:
    A man has everything: dozens of servants, a palace, vast woods, gardens, a lake, mechanical toys, private entertainment troupes of musicians and dancers. He has it all – but love. When alone, he sits at a desk, sighing, and looking at a photograph of a pretty girl. One day, the circus descended onto his palace, and amidst all the fun it brought, he recognized the Amazon on the white horse – the girl in the photograph. The girl is now the mother of a small boy, Yo-Yo, whom she considers that looks like the millionaire, even under a clown’s make-up. Read More »

  • Rafaël Ouellet – Derrière moi AKA Behind Me (2008)

    Drama2001-2010CanadaMysteryRafaël Ouellet

    Synopsis:
    The twenty-something Betty comes to a remote small town and strikes a friendship with the fourteen-year old local girl Lea, who is fascinated by her new friend’s tales of partying and living in the fast lane in the big city. Betty has ulterior motives for befriending the young girl, however.Read More »

  • Luis Buñuel – Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie AKA The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

    1971-1980ComedyFranceLuis Buñuel

    Quote:
    The guests arrive at the Senechal home for a dinner party, only to discover that the invitation had been given for the following evening. This miscommunication proves to be the first in a series of unusual events that invariably prevent the Thevenots (Paul Frankeur and Delphine Seyrig), the Senechals (Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran), Don Rafael (Fernando Rey), and Florence (Bulle Ogier) from enjoying a meal together. An alternate plan to dine at a local bistro is foiled when a funeral wake for the restaurant owner is held in an adjacent back room. Read More »

  • Groupe Dziga Vertov & Jean-Luc Godard & Jean-Pierre Gorin – Vladimir et Rosa (1971)

    1971-1980ArthouseFranceGroupe Dziga VertovJean-Luc GodardJean-Pierre GorinPolitics

    Quote:

    Vladimir and Rosa was in many ways the last true product of the experimental revolutionary filmmaking cooperative the Dziga Vertov Group: the final film produced under the group’s banner before Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin went on to make the feature Tout va bien and the short Letter To Jane under their own names, before parting ways for good. Taking its title from Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, this film is typical of Godard and Gorin’s late 60s/early 70s collaborations. That is to say, it’s shrill, antagonistic, messy and often intentionally grating, as dense and complex as it is difficult and polemical. Read More »

  • Walerian Borowczyk – Escargot de Vénus AKA Venus on the Half-Shell (1975)

    1971-1980DocumentaryFranceShort FilmWalerian Borowczyk

    Borowczyk’s portrait of the painter Bona Tibertelli de Pisis and her erotic fusions of men, women and molluscs.Read More »

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