France

  • Luc Béraud – Plein sud AKA Heat of Desire (1981)

    1981-1990DramaFranceLuc Béraud

    Quote:
    In France in the near future, revolt and chaos erupt. A right-wing politician, Philippe Muphand, is set to take control when his lady friend Caroline walks out, announcing she will take up with the first fool she sees. The fool is Serge Laine, a professor and author of the prize-winning “Le voyage qui ne finit pas,” headed to the train station for tickets to Barcelona where he and his wife will enjoy a second honeymoon and he will lecture at the university. Caroline seduces Serge, and he soon abandons wife, family, job, and honesty to embrace Caroline, the romanticism of Jack London, and murder.Read More »

  • Juliet Berto – Havre (1986)

    1981-1990CampFranceJuliet Berto

    Lili, a woman-child alone in this tough port city, tries to restore order to her life after the death of her lover, a computer “composer.” She has to deal with four local dockworkers — symbolizing fire, water, earth, and wind — struggling between destruction and the path to self-discovery.Read More »

  • Borhane Alaouié & Lotfi Thabet – Il ne suffit pas que Dieu soit avec les pauvres AKA It is Not Enough for God to be with the Poor (1978)

    1971-1980ArchitectureArthouseBorhane AlaouiéDocumentaryFranceLotfi Thabet

    A tour of Egypt’s architecture with the renowned Arab architect, Hassan Fathy.Read More »

  • Pascal Bonitzer – Le grand alibi (2008)

    2001-2010ArthouseCrimeFrancePascal Bonitzer

    Pierre Collier is dead…
    He was murdered at the home of senator Henri Pagès and his wife Eliane, where he was spending the weekend with friends. His wife Claire is the number one suspect. She was arrested when found standing next to the victim’s corpse, a gun in her hand. She no doubt had reasons for seeking revenge on her fickle husband. But appearances may be misleading. The weapon is not the one used to commit the crime, and each guest becomes a potential suspect. Pierre’s mistress Esther, Léa his humiliated former girlfriend, Philippe his rival… they all have a motive. And then there’s the senator himself, who is crazy about guns. Captain Grange finds himself confronted by this complex affair – which then becomes even murkier when another murder takes place.Read More »

  • Jean-Pierre Melville – Un flic AKA A Cop (1972)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaFranceJean-Pierre Melville

    Quote:
    Edouard Coleman (Alain Delon) spends his days and nights chasing criminals, but doesn’t see the crook right under his nose. Simon (Richard Crenna), a smooth nightclub owner, works with a small crew to execute daring heists with big payoffs, while the beautiful Cathy (Catherine Deneuve) is torn between them. As cop and criminal do what they do best, paths converge and old scores must be settled. The 13th and final film from Gallic great Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, Army of Shadows) doubles-down the ice-blue look that had been the director’s signature in Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge, both starring the equally cool Delon.Read More »

  • Jean-Jacques Beineix – Diva (1981)

    1981-1990ArthouseFranceJean-Jacques BeineixThriller

    Quote:
    A young opera-loving mailman, Jules, becomes inadvertently entangled in murder, when a young woman fleeing two mob hit men drops an incriminating cassette into his mailbag. Jules has just recently recorded opera star Cynthia Hawkins’ latest concert, something of a coup as Hawkins refuses to make recordings of any kind. Soon Jules finds himself the target of the hit men, who want the voice recording, and also of another couple of ominous and mysterious agents.Read More »

  • Jean-Claude Brisseau – À l’aventure (2009)

    2001-2010DramaFantasyFranceJean-Claude BrisseauQueer Cinema(s)

    Quote:
    In cinematic enfant terrible Jean-Claude Brisseau’s latest outing, “A l’aventure,” the explicit eroticism of his recent oeuvre topples over into outright porn — not because of graphic sex scenes, but rather due to a plot of unalloyed ludicrousness. Granted, levitating 14th-century Flemish nuns rep an inventive step up from randy milkmen, but Brisseau’s humorless intellectual pretentions founder in very shallow waters. Skedded for an April 1 release in France, pic was pre-bought by IFC Stateside, where its Playboy-ish presentation of elegantly writhing naked women brought to ultimate orgasm, combined with disquisitions on the more cosmological Big Bang Theory, might attract horny eggheads.Read More »

  • Claude Autant-Lara – Marguerite de la nuit AKA Marguerite of the Night (1955)

    1951-1960Claude Autant-LaraDramaFantasyFrance

    Quote:
    Truffaut and Godard gave a bad name to the “quality” French cinema that preceded them. This film was one of their pet examples of what they saw as staid, boring, unadventurous cinéma de papa. Without an axe to grind, it is actually a breathtakingly bold modernization of the Faust legend, ravishing to look at with its highly stylized sets (Trauner on LSD) and containing multi-layered undercurrents, including a message on the unthinking destructiveness of youth which seems almost like a prescient reply to its New Wave critics.Read More »

  • Chantal Akerman – Demain On Demenage aka Tomorrow We Move (2004)

    2001-2010ArthouseChantal AkermanComedyFrance

    FilmLinc wrote:
    The late Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman brings us an intellectual comedy about a mother and daughter who find themselves living together for the first time in decades. Charlotte, a freelance writer, invites her recently widowed mother, Catherine, to live in her apartment, and the ensuing clutter becomes a source of irritation and strife. When Catherine decides to revitalize her career as a piano teacher, the claustrophobia reaches new and absurd levels. Charlotte continues to pursue her desperate quest for peace as Tomorrow We Move develops into a slyly Jewish tale of rootlessness and familial burdens.Read More »

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