French

Shortly after a delegation of Russian nuclear physicists arrives in London, one of their number, a man named Haliakov, is abducted by the British security services. Haliakov is in truth Clément Tibère, a French scientist who was coerced into working for the Russians some years ago. The British agents compel Tibère to work for them, revealing the identity of two notorious spies. Tibère realises that his life is now in peril, that it is only a matter of time before the KGB takes its revenge…Read More »

Synopsis:
Jacques Darnay (Delon) is released after having served ten years in prison for robbing a jewelry store. Much about that crime remained a mystery: the stolen diamonds were never recovered, and no one knows exactly how Charby the jeweler died. At his trial it was declared that Darnay acted alone, yet the size and complexity of the heist make that seem highly unlikely. Darnay’s release is anxiously awaited, by both the police, who hope he’ll reveal more information about the crime, and by some of Darnay’s former friends, who have a few ideas as to what might have happened to the diamonds. Having, perhaps, played in his years enough of both, Delon is the perfect point man in this duel between cops and crooks, capitalizing on each side’s strengths and weaknesses while decidedly pursuing his own agenda.Read More »

Moustapha Alassane is a living legend in African cinema. His adventures take us to the era of “pre-cinema”, to the times of magical lantern and Chinese shadows. He is the first director of Nigerien cinema and animation films in Africa. He tells very old stories with current technology, but he also narrates the most current events with the most archaic means. This documentary not only tells the adventure of a human being and an extraordinary professional, but the memories of a generation, the history of a country, Niger in its golden age of cinema.Read More »

Synopsis:
“A forty-something antiques dealer, Pierre Noix is a busy man, in just about every aspect of his life. Having bought a large house in Provence built on the remains of a Roman structure, he wastes no time digging around for some long lost treasure. Pierre’s plans are threatened, first by the town’s mayor, who is about to authorise the construction of a motel in the area, and then by Edwige, the daughter of the previous owner of the estate. When Edwige queries the legitimacy of the sale, Noix responds by seducing and marrying her, all in record time. Unfortunately, his troubles are far from over…”
– Films de FranceRead More »

Variety review :
“Is Gallic helmer Jean-Stephane Sauvaire hooked on violence? Almost everyone appearing in his documentary “Carlitos Medellin” was dead by the time it was edited, while his fictional “Johnny Mad Dog” headlined a murderous child soldier. Next to these earlier offerings, the violence in “Punk” seems relatively mild, though the rage and frustration fueling its teenage protagonist fairly explode off the screen. Released in France as a TV movie under another title, this vibrant evocation of the contemporary European punk scene impresses, but looks oddly, unavowedly time-warped, as if unfolding in punk’s ’70s/’80s heyday, considerably lessening distrib possibilities.Read More »

Situated in the vein of Rimbaud, Lautréamont, Dostoievski and Benjamin and of free jazz and punk, this film bears witness to the iniquitous policies that shape our era, the “infernal” nature of certain political lives or black bodies (those of immigrants, emigrants, workers, the unemployed, students…). It operates, as a minority film, in a critical stasis of mythical and mainstream realities, and deals with the issue of revolt and insurrection: excesses, disidentification, unclear reconfiguration… We are presented, through a dialectical reversal, “non-places” that cannot be assimilated, utopias, corps-impossibles.Read More »

Synopsis:
Rare is the film in movie-history that can announce the entire movement of it’s ‘plot’ with its title alone. But Pialat’s second feature, Nous Ne Viellirons Pas Ensemble does exactly that, encapsulating all the turmoil, and the final end-point, of a couple who among themselves once made a commitment – and living together will come to make another one yet. Jean (Jeane Yanne, of Godard’s Weekend) and Catherine (Marlene Jobert, of Godard’s Masculin Feminin) are the couple whose every move charts an advancement deeper into an emotional warzone. Theirs is the classic and the tragic case of an emotional abuse centered around a perplexing, but powerful, interdependency. Read More »

Synopsis:
At the end of 1972, con artist and thief Simon receives a remission to celebrate the New Year outside La Santé Prison. While heading to his apartment in Paris to meet his mistress Françoise, Simon notices that a car is chasing his cab. In the apartment, Simon leans that Françoise has a lover and he leaves the place without being noticed. Simon recalls the Christmas of 1966, when he travels out-season to Cannes with his partner and friend Charlot to heist the jewellers Van Cleef and Arpels. While plotting a scheme to rob the jewellers, Simon meets the intellectual antique dealer Françoise whose shop is the next-door neighbor of the target and he falls in love with her. But his scheme does not work as planned and Simon is arrested.Read More »

Jean-Paul Belmondo and Ursula Andress star in another adventure comedy from Philippe de Broca (That Man from Rio), that’s roughly based on a Jules Vernes story of the same title. Belmondo plays a rich man tired of his life who arranges for a hitman to take him out so that his fiancee will get the insurance money. Only, wouldn’t you know it, Belmondo changes his mind. Andress is a fan-dancer who gets mixed up, thinking it’s all a gag. There’s a lot of slapstick, chases, fights, balloon rides, mountain climbing and exotic locales. Oh, did I mention that Belmondo attempts a striptease while in drag?Read More »