French

  • Maurice Pialat – Sous le soleil de Satan AKA Under the Sun of Satan (1987)

    1981-1990DramaFranceMaurice Pialat

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    Quote:
    Under the Sun of Satan opens to an inherently solemn ritual as a senior priest, Canon Menou-Segrais (Mauric Pialat) shaves a spot on the top of the head of a pensive young priest named Father Donissan (Gérard Depardieu) who, in turn, uses the occasion to express his feelings of profound estrangement and inutility from the practical concerns of their congregation. Acknowledging both his mediocre scholastic aptitude at the seminary that nearly prevented him from becoming ordained, and his indebtedness to Menou-Segrais for his admission into the parish ministry (despite the young priest’s perceivable disapproval of his superior’s spiritual resignation and complacency), Donissan nevertheless declares his intention to request the archbishop for a re-assignment, preferably to a Trappist monastery where he believes that his temperament and secular detachment would be more conducive to their contemplative, monastic life of humble (and seemingly unobtrusive) service.Read More »

  • André Téchiné – J’embrasse pas AKA I Don’t Kiss (1991)

    1991-2000André TéchinéDramaFrance

    Young, naive and innocent, Pierre (Manuel Blanc) has dreams of becoming an actor. He is a good-looking and personable boy, and he has just moved to the city to see if he can’t accomplish his dreams. He gets a job as an orderly at a hospital and is further supported by an older woman (Helene Vincent), a nurse he has met there, in return for his sexual favors. However, in his acting class, he quickly discovers that he is not overflowing with talent, and his dream of becoming an actor grows dim. Instead, despite the advice of a knowledgeable and worldly older gay man (Philippe Noiret), he becomes a sex worker. It has long been a staple of the movies that certain hustlers and prostitutes maintain a distinction between their work and their lives by not kissing their clients, hence the title of this film, J’embrasse Pas. He grows to love the seedy, degraded lifestyle, and seems to be adapting well to his new profession until he has the poor judgement to fall in love with a high-class prostitute (Emmanuelle Béart) and earns the antagonism of her pimp. allmovieRead More »

  • Bruno Dumont – Hors Satan (2011)

    2011-2020ArthouseBruno DumontDramaFrance

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    Quote:
    With every film he makes, Dumont seems to delve deeper into a humanity that, in its connection to nature in all its mystery and force, is a deeply conflicted one. In “Hors Satan”, the division of what is good and evil and how it relates to the man we encounter at the start of the film, is somewhat less clear-cut.
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  • Michel Lemoine – Les Week-ends malefiques du Comte Zaroff AKA Seven Women for Satan (1976)

    1971-1980CultEroticaFranceMichel Lemoine

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    Pete Tombs’ Mondo Macabro label has been unearthing cinematic obscurities for almost two years now, digging up such oddball entries as Pakistan’s THE LIVING CORPSE, Italy’s THE NUDE PRINCESS (with transsexual superstar Ajita Wilson), and Indonesia’s MYSTICS IN BALI. Now, they have uncovered a long-lost French sexploitation film, SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN, directed by Franco regular Michele Lemoine and starring familiar Franco face Howard Vernon, and reportedly banned in its home country.
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  • Clément Cogitore – Braguino (2017)

    2011-2020ArthouseClément CogitoreDocumentaryFrance

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    Plot : In the Siberian forest, away from any civilization, a feud is opposing two families whose houses are separated by a river. In the middle of the river stands an island where the kids of the two families are meeting on their own.Read More »

  • Éric Caravaca – Carré 35 AKA Plot 35 (2017)

    2001-2010DocumentaryÉric CaravacaFrance

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    Plot : “Plot 35 is a place that was never mentioned in my family; it is where my elder sister, who died aged three, is buried. The sister about whom I was told nothing, or nearly nothing, and of whom my parents had oddly never kept a single photograph. It was to make up for the missing images that I decided to make this film. Thinking that I would simply chronicle a forgotten life, in fact I opened up the hidden door to a past that I was unaware of, to the subconscious memory that lies inside each of us and who makes us what we are.”Read More »

  • Pierre Prévert – Le petit Claus et le grand Claus AKA Little Claus and Big Claus (1964)

    Arthouse1961-1970FantasyFrancePierre Prévert

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    Synopsis
    Once upon a time there lived in the same village two men bearing the very same name. One of them chanced to possess four horses, the other had only one horse, so, by way of distinguishing them from each other, the proprietor of four horses was called “Great Claus,” and he who owned but one horse was known as “Little Claus”…Read More »

  • Dominique Abel & Fiona Gordon & Bruno Romy – L’iceberg AKA The Iceberg (2005)

    2001-2010Bruno RomyComedyDominique AbelFiona GordonFrance

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    Quote:
    A woman runs away from her robotic suburban life somewhere in the flatlands of French-speaking Europe in search of icebergs, and finds new friends along the way.Read More »

  • Gilles Grangier – Archimède, le clochard (1959)

    1951-1960ComedyFranceGilles Grangier

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    Quote:
    Archiméde is an old tramp who likes to think he is a cut above the rest. Not for him the penury of sleeping under bridges and scrounging for scraps in dustbins. He has a taste for the finer things in life – good food, fine wine and a comfortable place to make his bed. His present abode – a room in a block of flats that is being developed – has served him well all through the summer, but as winter beckons it will be too cold for him. He can either get himself arrested, in the hope of eaming himself a nice warm prison cell, or else he can sleep rough in the south of France. After much deliberation, he decides prison is the better option, if only because the food is more to his liking. To that end, Archimede smashes up a bar and gets duly taken into custody. He is appalled when he only manages to get himself put away for one week. It seems he will have to resort to more drastic measures if he is to find a comfortable haven for the entire winter…Read More »

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