France, 1562. Against a background of the savage Catholic/Protestant wars, Marie de Mézières (Mélanie Thierry), a beautiful young aristocrat, and the rakish Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel), fall in love, but Marie’s father has promised her hand in… France, 1562. Against a background of the savage Catholic/Protestant wars, Marie de Mézières (Mélanie Thierry), a beautiful young aristocrat, and the rakish Henri de Guise (Gaspard Ulliel), fall in love, but Marie’s father has promised her hand in marriage to the Prince of Montpensier (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet). When he is called away to battle, her husband leaves her in the care of Count Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), an aging nobleman with a disdain for warfare. As he experiences his own forbidden desire for Marie, Chabannes must also protect her from the dangerously corrupt court dominated by Catherine de Medici. Director Bertrand Tavernier translates Madame de Lafayette’s 1622 novella into a bracingly intelligent and moving evocation of the terrible conflict between duty and passion. Though the themes are classic, Tavernier, with the cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer’s vivid landscapes and Philippe Sarde’s pulsing score, makes them feel passionately, urgently contemporary.

La Princesse de Montpensier.2010.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	2 h 19 min
Size: 	3.33 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x434 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.282
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s
#2:  	French 2.0ch AAC LC @ 172 kb/s (Commentary by Bertrand Tavernier)

https://nitro.download/view/7A96FE4952821F9/La_Princesse_de_Montpensier.2010.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English, French

The post Bertrand Tavernier – La princesse de Montpensier AKA The Princess of Montpensier (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
With its bigger-name cast and audio-visual sparkle, “Saint Laurent” also seems the safer commercial bet for international distribs, effectively the “Coco Before Chanel” to its rival’s “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky.” Sony Pictures Classics has already snatched it the film off the rack for the U.S., and should be feeling a little more confident than “Yves Saint Laurent” guardians the Weinstein Co. Still, Bonello’s sexier number must gamble on sustained audience interest in a chilly figure whose life — notwithstanding the drugs, desires and debauchery that go with the high-fashion terrain — wasn’t extraordinarily dramatic.

Bonello’s film covers less chronological ground than “Yves Saint Laurent” but goes a little harder on the hedonism, as you’d expect from the heedless director of “House of Pleasures” and “The Pornographer.” Bonello’s script, written with regular Jacques Audiard collaborator Thomas Bidegain, focuses less on Saint Laurent’s troubled romance with life partner Pierre Berge (which formed the spine of Lespert’s film) than on his individual neuroses, insecurities and delusions. As such, it’s a less flattering portrait, with machete-cheekboned Gaspard Ulliel an aloof, glassy presence throughout; he’s a more dreamily charismatic presence than Pierre Niney, the twitchy lead of the last film, though he bears less of a physical or behavioral resemblance to the subject. The upside for Saint Laurent’s admirers is that Bonello’s film reflects more of the designer’s tortured creative drive in its dark onyx surfaces; it’s the slightly deranged auteur portrait that a fellow artist and iconoclast deserves.

Entirely skipping past Saint Laurent’s youth, his early apprenticeship with Christian Dior and the foundation of his relationship with Berge (a fine, under-exploited Jeremie Renier), the film instead begins with the designer at the zenith of his celebrity — coinciding, unsurprisingly enough, with his emotional and spiritual nadir. Somewhat randomly, we open on an addled, depleted Saint Laurent conducting a telephone interview in 1974 — fleetingly recounting his traumatizing Algerian War experience and subsequent electroshock therapy — before rewinding to 1967, where his thriving company hums with high-pressure activity. (Production designer Katia Wyszkop’s pristine white re-creation of the YSL atelier evokes an emergency room more than it does a fashion house, perhaps foreshadowing Saint Laurent’s self-imposed physical decline.)

This moderate rewind is one of several odd structural decisions in the film, which Bonello evidently intends as more of a sensory history than a personal one — though that interpretation doesn’t excuse a rather banal montage that races through his 1968-1971 collections, crassly split-screened with archive footage from the May 1968 unrest and the Vietnam War. Key friends and collaborators are introduced without ceremony, and developed little beyond that. Models Betty Catroux (Aymeline Valade) and Loulou (Lea Seydoux, in what amounts to little more than a cameo) provide muse-like inspiration and vague emotional support, while more time is expended on Saint Laurent’s frustrated sexual dalliance with preening Karl Lagerfeld model Jacques de Bauscher (a perfectly cast Louis Garrel) than on his more lasting, conflicted partnership with Berge.

More detail, surprisingly, is expended on Berge’s deft, thankless management of Saint Laurent’s business affairs, well captured in an extended, busily bilingual scene in which Berge defends the independence of the YSL name (which he touchingly claims as his own) from an American investor (Brady Corbet) wary of the designer’s apparent decline. The Yank has reason to be: The further Bonello’s film delves into the 1970s, the less disciplined the storytelling becomes, frenziedly evoking Saint Laurent’s substance-hazed mental breakdown with recurring religious imagery, CGI serpents slithering across the frame and a homoerotic troupe of singing army legionnaires. Some pointed domestic detail survives the chaos, however: One grimly witty scene finds the designer’s beloved pug pup Moujik fatally strung out on assorted pills found on the floor.

Like “Yves Saint Laurent,” Bonello’s film chooses to omit the 1980s and 1990s, similarly climaxing with the triumphant creative comeback of his Moroccan-inspired 1976 collection — presented by editor Fabrice Rouaud in a fragmented split-screen format that appears to visually cross-reference the designer’s Piet Mondrian period of the previous decade. That’s all well and good, but the decision to intercut this final act with scenes of Saint Laurent (now played with crepe-surfaced weariness by Helmut Berger) in his 21st-century dotage is a misguided one, needlessly cluttering an overlong film that has hitherto demonstrated no allegiance to conventional biopic timelines.

Tech credits, as ever with Bonello, are mouth-wateringly accomplished, ensuring that its subject suffers as beautifully as possible from first scene to last. Cinematographer Josee Deshaies lights the film as shimmeringly in its neon-night club scenes as in more intimate glimpses from Saint Laurent’s gilded apartment, suggesting that no small moment of his life was ever left entirely undesigned. Bonello’s musical choices, meanwhile, range from soaring if over-familiar opera cues to Creedence Clearwater Revival to occasional Moroder-esque synths on his self-composed score.

The clothes, however, are obviously the prize contribution here, with Anais Romand’s wardrobe all the more impressive considering the absence of the YSL house’s blessing. Every garment here is covetable, from Saint Laurent’s own loudly natty tailoring to the iridescent jewel tones of his Marrakech-chic gowns to a simple shift dress created in his studio that he deems “as short, neat and precise as a gesture.” Not one word of that description applies to Bonello’s film, but Yves Saint Laurent also knew as well as anyone where excess was required.

Bertrand Bonello - (2014) Saint Laurent.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	2h 30mn
Size:	2.91 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	1024x556
Aspect ratio:	1.85:1
Frame rate:	23.976 fps
Bit rate:	2 463 Kbps
Audio
French 5.1ch AC-3 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/6EF5B5725BCC565/Bertrand_Bonello_-_(2014)_Saint_Laurent.mkv

Language(s):French, English
Subtitles:English

The post Bertrand Bonello – Saint Laurent (2014) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Indochina-war, 1945: French Robert is the only survivor of a massacre in which his brother has perished. Blinded by revenge, Robert rejoins the forces in search of the assassins. But meeting the young Indochinese Maï disrupts his mission.

Les.confins.du.monde.2018.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-iKA.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 38 min
Size: 	6.69 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	9 059 kb/s
BPP: 	0.175
Audio
#1:  	5.1ch E-AC-3 @ 640 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/788A352E9CAD5DC/Les.confins.du.monde.2018.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-iKA.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English French German Italian Polish Portuguese Russian Spanish

The post Guillaume Nicloux – Les confins du monde AKA To the Ends of the World (2018) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A troubled mother’s spirit crumbles when her adult children strike out for independence. Feeling abandoned she contemplates taking drastic action.

Un.barrage.contre.le.Pacifique.AKA.The.Sea.Wall.2008.DVDRip.x264-iK.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 51mn
Size:	2.06 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	718x386
Aspect ratio:	1.85:1
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	2 199 kb/s
Audio
French 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/CC2DB61CC1FA77D/Un.barrage.contre.le.Pacifique.AKA.The.Sea.Wall.2008.DVDRip.x264-iK.mkv

Language:French
Subtitles:English

The post Rithy Panh – Un barrage contre le Pacifique AKA The Sea Wall (2008) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Tells the story of a young woman’s relentless search for her fiancé, who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.

4.28GB | 2h 13m | 1024×436 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/FD3DAF73C29EC0E/A.Very.Long.Engagement.2004.576p.BluRay.x264.mkv

Language(s):French,German,Corsican
Subtitles:English,Spanish,French

The post Jean-Pierre Jeunet – Un long dimanche de fiançailles AKA A Very Long Engagement (2004) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

VADİM MİSTER COOL
With his most recent documentary, Vadim Mister Cool (2016), Parisian writer/director Olivier Nicklaus examines the life and career of another Parisian writer/director, the notorious Roger Vadim. His films were groundbreaking for their depiction of sensuality on the screen, eventually making him a pioneer of the French New Wave. However, Vadim’s work was often held back by his personal life. In his lifetime, Vadim was involved with some of the most beautiful and glamorous women in movie history. This reputation as a ladies’ man, combined with his films, made Vadim the male embodiment of the hedonism of 1960s Europe.

Though just under an hour long, Vadim Mister Cool, covers all aspects of Vadim’s life and career, using new and archival footage from interviews with Vadim himself, his children, and the many, many women he collaborated with. Vadim was born in Paris in 1928, the son of a military father and actress mother. His father died when he was only nine years old, and Vadim himself said that being raised mostly by his mother was key in developing his fascination with women.

Originally a journalism student, Vadim never finished college and instead became an apprentice and assistant to writer/director Marc Allégret. For eight years, Vadim served as cowriter and assistant director of Allégret’s increasingly popular films, learning all he could about the medium. It was also through Allégret that Vadim met perhaps his greatest muse.

Rising teenaged model Brigitte Bardot auditioned for a role in Allégret’s La demoiselle et son revenant (1952) and it was Vadim who had to tell Bardot she did not get the part. Apparently, she took the news well. Bardot and Vadim married later that same year. During their marriage, Vadim and Bardot collaborated on several films which developed both of their careers. With …And God Created Woman (1956), Vadim made his directorial debut and Bardot became the top European sex symbol of her generation. Though the film received mixed reviews upon release, it is now regarded as a groundbreaker for its portrayal of eroticism and desire. And while …And God Created Woman brought new heights to their professional lives, Vadim and Bardot’s marriage ended just one year later.

Vadim wasted no time in involving himself with other beautiful European actresses. Among them were Catherine Deneuve and second wife Annette Stroyberg, with whom he had his first child, daughter Nathalie. However, Vadim’s most famous professional and personal relationship after Bardot was with his third wife, Jane Fonda. Fonda abandoned a budding Hollywood career to pursue more daring and artsy work in Europe. Her partnership with Vadim would result in four films, a seven-year marriage and their daughter Vanessa.

Of all their films together, Barbarella (1968) is the most notorious. Though now a cult classic, the futuristic story of a woman who goes on a sexual adventure through space was radical and bazaar for its time. It was actually Fonda who only agreed to do the film if Vadim was her director. This was the beginning of Fonda’s continued effort to make Vadim a successful Hollywood director. Despite Fonda’s efforts, Vadim only made a few Hollywood films before returning to France.

Vadim never quite achieved the same notoriety he’d achieved with Bardot and Fonda, though he continued to work steadily in film and television until his death of cancer in 2000. His funeral was held, ironically, on Valentine’s Day with all of his ex-wives present.

Vadim Mister Cool is one in a series of documentaries which Olivier Nicklaus has made for Arte, the French public broadcasting station specializing in cultural programming. Nicklaus’ previous films for that network include Pop Models (2014) and Warren Beatty – Mister Hollywood (2015). For narrating Vadim Mister Cool, Nicklaus chose actor Gaspard Ulliel. A logical choice, today Ulliel is one of France’s top leading men.

Indeed, all of Olivier Nicklaus’ work seems to focus on popular culture. Starting as an entertainment reporter for Les Inrockuptibles, the French equivalent of Rolling Stone, Nicklaus specializes in reporting and analysis of filmmakers and musicians. No doubt his next project will be on another extraordinary entertainment figure.

By Jack Fields

https://nitro.download/view/47D00C3D8881C7E/Vdm-16MC.part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/5CACB30CA5EC971/Vdm-16MC.part2.rar
https://nitro.download/view/9CDA6F53359A351/Vdm-16MC.part3.rar
https://nitro.download/view/3AECFFF33EEE387/Vdm-16MC.part4.rar

Language:French
Subtitles:English

The post Olivier Nicklaus – Vadim Mister Cool (2016) (DVD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
The title character in Sibyl (Viginie Efira) weaves herself a web of bedlam, not admitting that she has ensnared herself for the majority of the film. Her toxicity spills over into people’s lives. By willfully absorbing other people’s lives and allowing their troubles to fester her long existing issues, she’s in for a mess. Not to mention, said people ensnared in her web had already weaved their own toxic webs, now tangling in hers.

French psychotherapist Sibyl is setting off to write her book. One day, she receives a call from the tear-stricken Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos), an up-and-coming movie star in the midst of a difficult decision: She’s deciding whether to abort her pregnancy, a result of an affair with her famous costar, Igor (Gaspard Ulliel) before a film shoot. Not to mention, Igor has been in a long-term relationship with said film’s director (Sandra Hüller).

Sibyl does the unthinkable and commits an ethics breach: She provides therapy to Margot but records their conversation and transforms Margot’s story into soap operatic beats for her fiction. Margot’s story is too enticing to Sibyl, not to mention it seems to resemble Sibyl’s own relationship woes. Soon, Margot’s emotional needs surges. The patient is unsure what decision she needs validated and Sibyl uneasily tries to guide Margot’s heart. But Sibyl becomes swept into a chaos so maddening that it exacerbates Sibyl’s angst over a past relationship and her alcoholism.

Hilariously, matters escalate to the point where Sibyl is summoned to Margot’s film shoot and assumes the role of an unofficial on-set therapist, directing Margot, even having to sing and direct a romantic scene between two estranged co-stars. How Sibyl is whisked into those scenarios sound inexplicable on paper yet are believable due to director Justine Triet’s staging—and anyone who has been on a film shoot can recognize these on-set desperation rings true.

Triet’s direction humanizes its female players in their overwrought outbreaks. Exarchopoulos is the rawest and reddest in Margot’s anguish. But special mention goes to Huller, with a smug Cate Blanchett mien, who steals every scene as a prima donna director whose soul has been sucked due to the personal mess, her sanity waning by the hour. She seethes with contempt as she furnishes her wavering commitment, ordering her players around, bewildered by the revelation of her relationship betrayal. He inexplicable rationale of enabling her boyfriend’s affair with his co-star is a riotous piece of dialogue, not just because of the denial but because it’s alarmingly believable in how someone might try to consolidate that which cannot be consolidated.

Sibyl renders itself a funny-to-riotous-to-heartwrenching viewing experience. Across rib-cracking production nightmares, eroticism, and drab sessions of Sibyl counseling a child, and breakdowns, sometimes the movie tries to assemble fragments that don’t tonally gel. Overall, Sibyl is a tense portrait of a woman who can no longer fake dignity or functionality. By the end, Sibyl completes her project but still has to live with the shatterings that can’t be reassemble.

1.78GB | 1 h 40 min | 1024×432 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/535878DA4BCB4CA/Justine_Triet_-_(2019)_Sibyl.mkv
or
https://fikper.com/cXJMkQtvht/Justine_Triet_-_(2019)_Sibyl.mkv

Language(s):Italian, French, English
Subtitles:English

The post Justine Triet – Sibyl (2019) first appeared on Cinema of the World.