Denis, a poor student in philosophy, works as a night porter in the Paris market of Les Halles in order to pay for his studies. Constantly weary, he falls asleep and dreams of a beautiful girl in white, Irène, with whom he falls in love.

Letterboxd & IMDB reviews
Quote:
★★★ Watched by Alan J. 06 Feb 2018

Jean Cocteau once said that films should be an hour and a half long because that is how long we dream each night. Describing a film as ‘dream like’ is one of the biggest cliches of film criticism, and yet we persist in doing it because in many cases it just seems so true. This is a film in which someone thinks they are dreaming, when in reality they are wide awake. It is silly pretext for some rather unlikely but entertaining business, including some Cocteau like special effects.

Quote:
Belle de Nuit dbdumonteil 11 July 2006

The main problem is the choice of the lead:he is supposed to be a philosophy student and Fernand Gravey was 38 when he made this movie.It is impossible to believe he is a young romantic lead (Jean-Pierre Aumont or Louis Jourdan would have been better in such a part).

All that remains is original,inventive,and it is probably Marcel Lherbier’s best talkie.After his brilliant silent works,his career had its highs (this movie,”le Mystere de la Chambre Jaune”,”le Bonheur”,”l’Affaire du Collier de la Reine”) and its lows (dreadful melodramas such as “l’Enfant de l’Amour”,les Hommes Nouveaux”,”la Porte du Large” or stodgy propaganda films such as “Entente Cordiale”). Ten years before René Clair’s “les Belles de Nuit” ,Lherbier tells a tale of a dreamer :a student who is forced to work in “les Halles” and dreams his life away.It was the Occupation time in France and escapist works were par excellence the prevailing genre(along with “moral'” melodramas such as “le Voile Bleu” ): 1942 also brought Marcel Carné’s “les Visiteurs du Soir” and the following year Delannoy-Cocteau’s “l’Eternel Retour” .You could even call Gremillon’s work “le Ciel est à Vous” an escapist film:a woman who had a dream to fly.

“La Nuit Fantastique” is a movie of its time.Certain of its aspects are dated ,but its best moments are still impressive today.The student meets a woman in his dreams :she will be nothing like he pictured her to be and he can never see her face;in real life,his lover cheats on him with one of his so-called pals.

One night,he “enters ” his dream .The gap between dream and reality is brilliantly rendered:using time warp,masterfully working on the pictures (fuzziness) and on the soundtrack (sometimes the words become incomprehensible),Lherbier builds a sensational dreamlike atmosphere.And by introducing magic and conjurers,he gives his movie a fourth dimension.Melodrama is also present (Who is really Irene?)but it is kept to the minimum.Perhaps the final is a bit disappointing but it might have inspired Jean Cocteau for the last picture of his celebrated “la Belle et la Bête”.Anyway “la Nuit Fantastique” is sometimes close to a fairy tale too ,with a smart use of Tom Thumb;and the scene on the roof recalls Andersen’s “the shepherdess and the sweep” which Grimault/Prevert transferred to the screen as “le Roi et l’Oiseau”

One should also note that Lherbier’s movie was made five years before “the secret life of Walter Mitty” a movie which borrows some ideas from it (making the hero out to be a lunatic ;here,the heroine)

“You can be brave when you know you are dreaming” the hero says.

	
La.nuit.fantastique.1942.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 31 min
Size: 	2.23 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	766x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 226 kb/s
BPP: 	0.305
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/3ED020E986EC27A/La.nuit.fantastique.1942.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English, French

The post Marcel L’Herbier – La Nuit fantastique AKA The Fantastic Night (1942) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
“A bio-doc about Micheline Presle changes into a thrilling investigation of the long hidden truth about European cinema. This mockumentary thriller uncovers Hollywood’s unsuspected plot against the European motion picture industry. Numerous directors and stars appear in the film, making it a choice morsel for all film lovers.”
– Written by Karlovy Vary Int’l Film Festival
Imdb

Hitler in Hollywood.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 20mn
Size: 	1.17 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	720x428 ~> 1027x428
Aspect ratio:  	2.40:1
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 800 Kbps
BPP: 	0.234
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/644650B6CB26B2C/Hitler_in_Hollywood.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/796AF536DDCB4D6/Hitler_in_Hollywood_Extras.rar

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English, Dutch

The post Frédéric Sojcher – Hitler à Hollywood (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Summary:
Anne lives with her husband in Belgium where she works as a restorer of paintings. When she becomes pregnant, she finds herself remembering a picture she did some time ago and of which she has no memory, no recollection of what happened to it. It becomes her goal to discover and clarify the mystery behind this painting, at the same time she notices that a strange man is following all of her moves.

Trompe.l.oeil.AKA.The.Broken.Mirror.1975.576p.BluRay.FLAC.2.0.x264.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	2.77 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	952x576 
Aspect ratio:  	5:3
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 411 kb/s
BPP: 	0.259
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch FLAC @ 401 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/9E6CF486E232929/Trompe.l.oeil.AKA.The.Broken.Mirror.1975.576p.BluRay.FLAC.2.0.x264.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English

The post Claude d’Anna – Trompe l’oeil AKA The Broken Mirror (1975) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

The beautiful Beatrice Cenci, daughter of the noble Francesco, falls in love with the intendant Olimpio. But she has to face the jealousy of her violent and morbid father, and the hostility of her stepmother Lucrezia.

Castle.of.the.Banned.Lovers.1956.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 33 min
Size: 	2.12 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x436 
Aspect ratio:  	2.35:1
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.280
Audio
#1:  	Italian 1.0ch FLAC @ 249 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/DF34FE70E823F93/Castle.of.the.Banned.Lovers.1956.BDRIP.576p.x264.FLAC.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):Italian
Subtitles:English

The post Riccardo Freda – Beatrice Cenci AKA Castle of the Banned Lovers (1956) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

During World War I, underage student Francois Jaubert meets and falls in love with Marthe Grangier, who is engaged to Jacques, a soldier at the Front. Though Francois pursues her ardently, they become separated and she marries Jacques. But when Marthe and Francois meet again, their mutual feelings prove stronger than ever, and they begin an extramarital affair…regardless of potentially tragic consequences. Written by Rod Crawford

Le.Diable.au.Corps.AKA.The.Devil.in.the.Flesh.1947.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:	Matroska
Runtime:	1h 57mn
Size:	1.93 GiB
DXVA:	Compatible
Minimum settings:	Met
Video
Codec:	x264
Resolution:	712x572 ~> 762x572
Aspect ratio:	4:3
Frame rate:	25.000 fps
Bit rate:	1 909 kb/s
Audio
French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 448 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/69AFEFE9321BBC2/Le.Diable.au.Corps.AKA.The.Devil.in.the.Flesh.1947.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English, French

The post Claude Autant-Lara – Le diable au corps AKA Devil in the Flesh (1947) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Successful fashion executive Michelle (Micheline Presle, The Assassin) attempts to commit suicide when she realizes that the man she loves, Philippe (Maurice Ronet, Purple Noon), has started drifting away from her. But she fails and an American beauty, Anne (Jean Seberg, Breathless), helps her get back on her feet.

Soon after, Michelle hires Anne to help her with her daily projects. She also changes her hairstyle and shows her what dresses to wear so that she looks as attractive and elegant as the Parisian women. When Philippe reappears, she encourages her to start exploring the city with him.

Convinced that she has found a true friend that cares for her, Anne becomes emotionally attached to Michelle. She tells her that she loves her and that she has helped her discover how beautiful life could be. Anne also begins spending time with Philippe and eventually falls madly in love with him. For a while she assumes that they were meant to be together and that Paris is the most romantic city in the world.

But when a dramatic event allows Anne to see a different side of Philippe’s personality, she concludes that it would be best if they ended their relationship and she went back to America with her fiancee. Before she leaves Paris, she meets Michelle one final time to tell her that she would never stop loving her.

Jean Valere’s Time Out for Love was one of three films Seberg made in France during the 1960s after appearing in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. The other two were her husband François Moreuil’s debut film, La recreation a.k.a. Role Play, and Philippe de Broca’s L’amant de cinq jours a.k.a. Five Day Lover. The latter was recently restored in 2K and will arrive on Blu-ray later this year.

The story of Time Out for Love is as simple as it sounds. Seberg plays a naive American girl who wants to experience the essence of life by having a passionate affair. When Michelle pushes her in Philippe’s arms, she assumes that her friend is helping her and allows herself to fall in love with him. After the initial euphoria, however, she gets her heart broken.

The purity and elegance are what make the film worth seeing. Initially, Paris looks like the idyllic city where everyone eventually falls in love. Seberg’s character assumes that her time has also come and begins living her dream. There are a series of glorious visuals with her and Ronet running through the streets of Paris that remind of the romantic sequences from Breathless. But then the dream ends and suddenly Paris becomes just another busy city full of people wearing masks.

Seberg looks effortlessly elegant and brittle and it is not at all difficult to believe that a young girl like her could fall madly in love with an older man without realizing that she is being used. Presle is also very elegant, but her eyes are tired. Towards the end, it becomes obvious that she is a slightly different and older version of Seberg’s character — a disillusioned loner who wants to be loved again. Ronet is very good as the charming driver who wants something entirely different in his life.

The editing is slightly uneven at times, but the film is gorgeous. It was lensed by the legendary Nouvelle Vague cinematographer Raoul Coutard (Francois Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt).

Les grandes personnes.1961.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 36 min
Size: 	2.17 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	958x576 
Aspect ratio:  	5:3
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.227
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/E24CE5FB309C1FF/Les_grandes_personnes.1961.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):French
Subtitles:English, French

The post Jean Valère – Les grandes personnes AKA Time Out for Love (1961) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

AMG: This lightweight, nearly zero-gravity comedy by director Henry Levin relies on a novel by a male writer and a script by another man to come up with a nearly offensive story (in these more enlightened times) about how a woman can lie, manipulate, and generally deceive her husband, all in the “art” of hanging on to him. Sandra Dee is Chantal, married to Eugene (Bobby Darin, Dee’s real-life husband), but first comes the story of how she hooked him. Next, comes the story of how he is trained to be a perfect husband, and then the final installment is unveiled. She uses a variety of tricks to keep him wondering whether or not he can trust her. For example, Chantal’s mother calls her and “if a man answers” she hangs up, leaving the unhappy husband to think his wife has a clandestine lover. The premise that a woman’s only role in life is to get and hold a husband has thankfully undergone a few revisions since 1962.

1.43GB | 1h 41m | 852×426 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/7B94A4CE4D3D288/If.a.Man.Answers.1962.DVDRip.x264.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English

The post Henry Levin – If a Man Answers (1962) first appeared on Cinema of the World.