French

A gang of pirates rape the two sole survivors of a ship wreck. The violated girls are rescued by the strange inhabitants of a supposedly haunted island, where they are granted supernatural powers to strike revenge against the pirates.Read More »

“L’Homme qui a perdu son ombre” is a cogent metaphor for a society that is in danger of losing its soul… ~James TraversRead More »

Alexe Poukine tells the story of Ada, 19, brutally abused three times a few days apart by the same boy.Read More »

On Christmas Eve, snowplow driver Leo (Once Upon a Hunt’s Guy L’Ecuyer) races to clear the streets of Montreal and complete his holiday shopping in time for midnight mass. The feature directorial debut of celebrated filmmaker Gilles Carle, The Merry World of Leopold Z is an offbeat holiday treat that builds to a disarmingly resonant conclusion.Read More »

Quote:
Small (though long), quiet (literally – there is no music score, for example), observant (like its lead), nostalgic coming-of-age tale. Not much plot, just a series of daily-life blackout vignettes. It definitely has its boring moments, but also some wonderful ones, like the boy getting his first kiss in a movie theater playing “Pandora And The Flying Dutchman”. Successfully captures both small-town and country atmosphere, thanks in large part to Nestor Almendros’ beautiful cinematography. *** out of 4.Read More »

Quote:
Jacques Cournot, a freelance skipper, is hired by Mr Hendrix in Santo Domingo, first of all to advise him regarding the acquisition of a sailing boat. After a thorough inspection of a prospective vessel, the “Dragoon”, Cournot reports his positive appraisal to Mr Hendrix and initiates the negotiations with Mrs Osborne, the owner of the craft. Barely a couple of days later, Cournot finds himself in a bind as the police questions him about the exact kind of cruise he was supposed to organize for his principal. For the “Dragoon” is gone; Mr Hendrix has disappeared; Mrs Osborne is not aware of any deal; and the corpses of mysterious individuals, victims of a violent death, are found on the beaches of Santo Domingo.Read More »

PLOT:
Once a common medium to record home movies and holiday souvenirs, the memory of Super-8 film is now disappearing fast. Yaël André has recycled a wealth of random Super-8 footage into a fake biography, with cheeky off-screen voiceover.Read More »

Richard T. Jameson wrote:
Little known stateside but long esteemed in Europe, The Crime of Monsieur Lange is simply one of the very greatest films directed by Jean Renoir (it was made a few years before Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game). René Lefèvre (Le Million) takes the title role of a nebbish who clerks for a penny-press publisher by day, and by night writes feverish potboilers about a Western hero named “Arizona Jim”. Lange’s encyclopedically venal boss (Jules Berry) discovers his secret and immediately starts exploiting it, as he exploits everybody and everything within range. Life sublimely imitates pulp fiction and vice versa in the brilliant screenplay by Jacques Prévert (who would later write Children of Paradise). The movie blends sociopolitical protest, tender satire, and astonishing poetry without breaking a sweat, and its climax – an amazing synthesis of theme, dramatic, emotion, and inspired camerawork – is one of the transcendent moments in screen history.Read More »

Rencontre avec le peintre belge Paul Delvaux, valeur sûre à la bourse des tableaux et artiste international. Dans cet entretien, Paul Delvaux revient sur ses origines et son parcours. Parle de sa peinture où rien n’est jamais acquis et de l’érotisme qui se dégage de ses toiles. De sa peur de la toile blanche et de son goût pour l’antiquité que lui a transmis un de ses professeurs de latin et grec. Il évoque avec beaucoup de pudeur ses désignations à l’académie Picard et à la Grande Académie, sa célébrité. La caméra le suit également lors du vernissage de son exposition au Grand Palais à Paris auquel assiste la princesse Paola. Paul-Henri Spaak, ancien Premier ministre belge, et condisciple de Paul Delvaux à l’athénée de St Gilles évoque quelques souvenirs et l’impression que lui a laissée Paul Delvaux : “il était déjà un peu dans son rêve, pas sur le même plan que nous”.Read More »