France

  • Jean Rollin – La nuit des traquées aka The Night of the Hunted (1980)

    1971-1980EroticaFranceHorrorJean Rollin

    Synopsis:
    A woman is taken to a mysterious clinic whose patients have a mental disorder in which their memories and identities are disintegrating as a result of a strange environmental accident.Read More »

  • Otar Iosseliani – Chant d’hiver (2015)

    Drama2011-2020ComedyFranceOtar Iosseliani

    A deadpan, picaresque buddy comedy about two old friends through a series of urban adventures, loosely connected by the skull of an executed French aristocrat. Winter Song is a typically irreverent Iosselianian jaunt through a classy Paris apartment block contemplating the past, present and future.
    by Busan International Film FestivalRead More »

  • Marie-Claude Treilhou – Le jour des rois (1991)

    1991-2000ComedyFranceMarie-Claude Treilhou

    Synopsis
    A lot of quarrels ,the day French people eat the Galette Des Rois.Read More »

  • Robert Bresson – Journal d’un curé de campagne aka Diary of a Country Priest [+commentary] (1951)

    1951-1960DramaFranceRobert Bresson

    Quote:
    A new priest (Claude Laydu) arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first parish. The apathetic and hostile rural congregation rejects him immediately. Through his diary entries, the suffering young man relays a crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and from God. With his fourth film, Robert Bresson began to implement his stylistic philosophy as a filmmaker, stripping away all inessential elements from his compositions, the dialogue and the music, exacting a purity of image and sound.Read More »

  • Jean-Claude Brisseau – Céline (1992)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaFranceJean-Claude Brisseau

    Quote:
    Genevieve, the village nurse, finds Celine, a confused girl with suicidal tendencies, wandering the ward of the hospital one morning. Genevieve takes the young girl home but is afraid to leave her alone. When Celine’s stepmother offers the nurse money to take care of her stepdaughter, Genevieve agrees. A bond forms between the young girl and older woman until one day Genevieve realizes Celine has uncanny healing powers. With its dream-like cinematography and haunting music, Jean-Claude Brisseau’s psychological drama is a lyrical tale of miracles, apparitions, and sainthood. Brisseau, a maverick director unafraid to tackle social and cultural issues, combines naturalism and surrealism in his own distinctive style.Read More »

  • Maurice Pialat – Loulou (1980)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaFranceMaurice Pialat

    Synopsis:
    Maurice Pialat’s portrait of contemporary France mocks prosperity as a substitute for social and sexual revolution. Nelly abandons her bourgeois friends and a steady relationship for the unemployed layabout Loulou, whose charms include focusing his energy into sex.Read More »

  • Jean-Claude Brisseau – La vie comme ça AKA Life the Way It Is (1978)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaFranceJean-Claude Brisseau

    Quote:
    The second film by Jean-Claude Brisseau is this gritty story of working women in the modern world. Originally shot on 16mm for French television, Life the Way It Is (La Vie Comme Ca) may be the director’s most radical film, with its images of suicide, group violence, and sexual pressure. Agnes Tessier leaves the comfortable confines of school to work at a chemical factory in a slum district with her friend Florence. When greeted with sexual harassment, harsh conditions, and volatile coworkers, Agnes responds by applying for the union rep position in order to challenge the status quo at the factory. Stripped down to the essentials, the film reflects the fury of working-class women everywhere.Read More »

  • Raja Amari – Corps étranger AKA Foreign Body (2016)

    2011-2020DramaFranceRaja Amari

    In the turbulent aftermath of the Tunisian revolution, young Samia (Sarra Hannachi) flees her homeland. She braves hostile seas in the crossing to France, but once there she finds that her struggles have only just begun. With no friends, no family, and – most crucially – no immigration papers, Samia has to figure out how to make a life and a living in a foreign land.

    She meets a young man, Imed (Salim Kechiouche, Blue is the Warmest Color), and soon finds work in the employ of the elegant Leila (the inimitable Hiam Abbass, subject of an In Conversation With event at the Festival this year). But her presence in Leila’s middle-class household triggers a shift in its dynamics, and soon Samia is enmeshed in a web of sexual tension.Read More »

  • Henri Decoin – Razzia sur la chnouf AKA Razzia (1955)

    1951-1960CrimeFranceHenri DecoinThriller

    Synopsis:
    Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable – and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection – or destroy it. Only… the Police is following his every step! Is Henri what he says he is, or an undercover detective from the French police?Read More »

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