France

  • Jean-Luc Godard – Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’ (2023)

    Jean-Luc Godard2021-2030FranceShort Film
    Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist ‘Phony Wars’ (2023)
    Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist ‘Phony Wars’ (2023)

    Godard’s last film, a trailer for a movie that will never exist, shows a series of collages on what appears to be photographic paper, and is about Belgian surrealist/poet Charles Plisnier, who was expelled from the Communist party in 1937.

    Quote: A few months before he left the screen for all eternity, Jean-Luc Godard put the finishing touches to a one-of-a-kind, nineteen-minute short that the Festival de Cannes is honoured to present in a world première. Fabrice Aragno, one of his closest colleagues, reflects on how Drôles de guerres came to be — a film that sets out to ‘shape thought‘.Read More »

  • Catherine Breillat – L’été dernier AKA Last Summer (2023)

    Catherine Breillat2021-2030DramaFrance
    L’été dernier (2023)
    L’été dernier (2023)

    Follows Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives with her husband Pierre and their daughters. Anne gradually engages in a passionate relationship with Theo, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, putting her career and family life in danger.Read More »

  • Raymond Depardon – Faits divers AKA News Items (1983)

    France1981-1990DocumentaryRaymond Depardon
    Faits divers (1983)
    Faits divers (1983)

    Paris, summer 1982. The day to day life of a police station in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. Day and night a reporter follows small groups of uniformed police officers who patrol the neighbourhood in their vans, intervene at the slightest radio call, prepare reports or question defendants at the central station.

    Shot alone by Depardon, Faits divers (News Items) is a live report, without a commentary, on the day to day activities of police officers in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. By observing the police officers, Depardon’s camera reveals the hidden side of Paris. The Paris of everyday assaults, poverty and distress. In a way, he opened a cycle of films on those who had been forgotten by everyone and began to give them a voice as he explained: “The shooting was laborious, but in this film, I was able to record the words of individuals who never have access to the media […] Is Paris a difficult city to live in? Or a city where you get help? There is probably a French-style violence, and the police officers are poorly prepared social workers.”Read More »

  • Jacques Rivette – Le divertissement AKA The Diversion (1952)

    Jacques Rivette1951-1960FranceShort FilmSilent
    Le divertissement (1952)
    Le divertissement (1952)

    Filmed in Parisian parks and on a terrace, LE DIVERTISSEMENT foreshadows the labyrinthine walks that would be a part of Rivette’s cinema, in which the characters look for, follow and find each other like in a romantic scavenger hunt.
    Quote:
    Rivette’s three shorts—Au quartre coins (“The Four Corners,” 1948), Le quadrille (1950), and Le divertissement (“The Diversion,” 1952)—were found in 2009 after the filmmaker and his wife, Véronique, discovered the 16 mm films when going through his materials. Describing them as amateur, made when the filmmaker was barely out of his teens, the trio have been dubbed “apprenticeship films.”(MUBI)Read More »

  • Alice Rohrwacher – Le pupille AKA The Pupils (2022)

    Alice Rohrwacher2021-2030FranceShort Film
    Le pupille (2022)
    Le pupille (2022)

    Inspired by a letter Italian novelist Elsa Morante sent to her friend, LE PUPILLE is a magical fable about a group of mischievous young Catholic schoolgirls during an imaginary wartime. Unfolding over the Christmas holiday, the orphaned girls find themselves blessed with a scrumptious red cake from a generous countess and must evade Mother Superior’s (Alba Rohrwacher) watchful eye for a taste of decadence. Alice Rohrwacher (HAPPY AS LAZZARO, AFI FEST 2018), with her signature whimsical touch, crafts a joyously playful tale about childhood desire, greed and freedom. –Anna LiRead More »

  • Shimon Dotan – The Settlers (2016)

    2011-2020DocumentaryFranceShimon Dotan
    The Settlers (2016)
    The Settlers (2016)

    The first film of its kind to offer a comprehensive view of the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories of the West Bank.

    An historical overview, a geopolitical study and an intimate look at those people at the core of the most daunting challenges facing Israel and the international community today as the Palestinians and Israelis resume talks again.Read More »

  • Édouard Molinaro – Beaumarchais l’insolent AKA Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (1996)

    Édouard Molinaro1991-2000AdventureFranceRomance
    Beaumarchais l'insolent (1996)
    Beaumarchais l’insolent (1996)

    Quote:
    Here is a lavish and charming film about a decade in the life of the multi-talented eighteenth century playwright and political activist. Under the guiding hand of director Edouard Molinaro, Fabrice Luchini gives a polished, witty, and mesmerizing performance as this French patron saint of freedom. Throughout his turbulent life, Pierre-Augustin Caron Beaumarchais swung back and forth between the pinnacles of success and the ignominy of imprisonment. His classic plays, The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, were politically critical of the ruling class and corruption in high places. They both landed him in jail. But the resilient Beaumarchais found a new avenue for his creativity as a secret agent in England. There he got involved with an American who persuaded him to run arms for the American colonies. Beaumarchais, The Scoundrel is a convincing parable about the intoxicating enchantments and the spiritual firepower of freedom.Read More »

  • Jean Vigo – L’Atalante (1934)

    Jean Vigo1931-1940DramaFranceRomance
    L'Atalante (1934)
    L’Atalante (1934)

    In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.Read More »

  • Igor Minaiev – Navodneniye AKA L’inondation AKA The Flood (1993)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFranceIgor Minaiev
    Navodneniye (1993)
    Navodneniye (1993)

    This is 1920: Sophia and Trofim Ivanytch have been living on Vassilievski Island, which is part of Petrograd, for thirteen years. In their house, which looks like a ship wreck, the atmosphere is gloomy. Sophia cannot have children and she is aware that, because of that, she is likely to lose her husband. That is why, when their neighbor dies, she asks Trofim to take in Ganka, his orphaned thirteen-year-old daughter. Trofim agrees and their new life begins…Read More »

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