Filmmaker and teacher, Stéphane Marti has been researching experimental cinema as an art form liberated of aesthetic codes and the economics of big budget cinema. His work is primarily focused on the themes of the sacred and the human body. An avid supporter of the Super-8 format, he has been fighting for its merits as a tool. He has used this format film after film and has been sharing his experiences with new filmmakers during his workshops at the Sorbonne’s College of the Arts (Paris I).Read More »
France
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Stéphane Marti – La cité des neuf portes (1977)
1971-1980ExperimentalFranceQueer Cinema(s)Stéphane Marti -
Yannick Bellon – L’amour violé AKA Rape of Love (1978)
Drama1971-1980FranceYannick BellonQuote:
Nicole, nurse in Grenoble, is raped one night by four men. Deeply scarred, emotionally and physically, she thinks she will never recover from the trauma. Following a friend’s advice, she decides to file a lawsuit.Read More » -
Christine Pascal – Zanzibar (1989)
1981-1990Christine PascalDramaFranceThe Films of May '68A French drama around cinema centered around the cinema, love and sexual passion and how it may be translated to film.Read More »
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Virgil Vernier – Sophia Antipolis (2018)
2011-2020DramaFranceVirgil VernierSophia Antipolis: a technopole on the French Riviera, a place where dreams should come true. But fear and despair lurk beneath the surface. Under a deceitful sun, five lives map out the haunting story of a young woman: Sophia.Read More »
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Marcel Carné – Le Jour se lève aka Daybreak (1939)
1931-1940CrimeDramaFranceMarcel CarnéMarcel Carné and Jacques Prevert’s classic of French poetic realism stars Jean Gabin in one of his most famous roles as François, a rough, barrel-chested loner who hides out in his apartment awaiting for the police to arrive.Read More »
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Jean Renoir – French Cancan (1955)
1951-1960ComedyFranceJean RenoirMusicalSynopsis:
Henri Danglard, proprietor of the fashionable (but bankrupt) cafe ‘Le Paravent Chinois’ featuring his mistress, belly dancer Lola, goes slumming in Montmarte (circa 1890) where the then-old-fashioned cancan is still danced. There, he conceives the idea of reviving the cancan as the feature of a new, more popular establishment…and meets Nini, a laundress and natural dancer, whom he hopes to star in his new show. But a tangled maze of jealousies intervenes…Read More » -
Maurice Pialat – À nos amours AKA To Our Loves [+Extras] (1983)
1981-1990ArthouseDramaFranceMaurice PialatSynopsis:
With his raw style of filmmaking, Maurice Pialat has been called the John Cassavetes of French cinema, and the scorching À nos amours is one of his greatest achievements. In a revelatory film debut, the dynamic, fresh-faced Sandrine Bonnaire plays Suzanne, a fifteen-year-old Parisian who embarks on a sexual rampage in an effort to separate herself from her overbearing, beloved father (played with astonishing magnetism by Pialat himself), ineffectual mother, and brutish brother. A tender character study that can erupt in startling violence, À nos amours is one of the high-water marks of eighties French cinema.Read More » -
Aminatou Echard – Djamilia (2018) (HD)
2011-2020Aminatou EchardArthouseDocumentaryFranceSynopsis
The film, set in Kirghizstan, is a search for Jamila, the title character in the novella by Chingiz Aitmatov about a young woman who rebels against the rules of Kirghiz society. We will meet women who, in talking about Jamila, reveal their own private lives and desires, the rules they chafe under and their ideas of freedom.Read More » -
Julien Duvivier – Maria Chapdelaine (1934)
1931-1940DramaFranceJulien DuvivierMG REVIEW
“Maria Chapdelaine” beautifully supports and sustains French filmmaker Julien Duvivier’s gift for “poetic realism.” At base, this is a simple 19th century romantic triangle. Canadian lass Madeleine Renaud is adored with equal fervor by aristocratic Jean-Pierre Aumont and by crude lumberjack Jean Gabin. Her indecision paves the way for tragedy. Yes, Maria Chapdelaine is a bit old-fashioned in technique and story material, but that fact never stopped Duvivier from turning out a film of genuine merit. Though the 1984 remake, directed by Gilles Carle, is superior to Duvivier’s, the earlier film shouldn’t be ignored”Read More »