France

  • Fyzal Boulifa – Les Damnés Ne Pleurent Pas AKA The Damned Don’t Cry (2022)

    2021-2030DramaFranceFyzal BoulifaQueer Cinema(s)

    Fatima-Zahra and her teenage son Selim move from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she’s caught up in. When Selim discovers the truth about their past, his mother vows to make a fresh start. In Tangier, new opportunities promise the legitimacy they each crave, but not without pushing the volatile mother-son relationship to the breaking point. The Damned Don’t Cry combines melodrama and neorealism to tell the story of a mother-son relationship on the fringes, observing the effects of oppression – both economic and affective – in a cut-throat world. Borrowing its title from a 1950s Joan Crawford melodrama, The Damned Don’t Cry employs non-professional actors for its two main actors and almost the entire cast. In his second feature which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, writer-director Fyzal Boulifa manages to avoid pastiche while ‘readily embracing some of the formal elements of melodrama’ as he takes his inspiration from Pasolini’s Mamma Roma and Le notti di Cabiria.Read More »

  • Robert Enrico & Richard T. Heffron – La révolution française “Les Années terribles” (1989)

    Robert Enrico1981-1990DramaFrancePoliticsRichard T. Heffron

    A history of the French Revolution from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France’s debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all his authority and was put in prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.Read More »

  • Serge Leroy – Le mataf (1973)

    1971-1980CrimeFranceSerge LeroyThriller

    When intruders interfere in the robbery of Le Mataf (Michel Constantin) and his gang and a girl is murdered, they are set up for blackmail by an underworld figure who wants them to do a job for him…Read More »

  • Claude d’Anna – L’Ordre et la sécurité du monde aka Last In, First Out aka Last Priority (1978)

    1971-1980Claude d'AnnaFranceThriller

    In the film, Helen (Laure Dechasnel), a married woman, leaves Paris for Zurich after breaking up with her lover. Near the border, a fellow passenger, mistakenly takes her passport. This sets up a situation which plunges her into the midst of international intrigue, a violent struggle between multinational corporations abetted by national secret agencies. This production features such international stars as Joseph Cotten, Donald Pleasence, Dennis Hopper and Bruno Cremer.Read More »

  • Cédric Kahn – Roberto Succo (2001)

    2001-2010Cédric KahnCrimeDramaFrance

    Synopsis:
    ‘Kurt’ claims to be a sales rep. He also claims to be English in spite of his heavy Italian accent. Kurt is an habitual liar and a dangerous driver, at the very least. In the south of France he meets Léa, age 16. Between his increasingly strange dates with Léa, Kurt engages in a number of armed robberies, some successful, some not… The police are perplexed by a series of crimes including disappearances and a murder. They conclude that they are dealing with a madman… After he proposes, Léa breaks up with Kurt. The attempt to find a new girlfriend leads to a shooting by Kurt, now calling himself André. Léa’s information identifies Kurt/André as Roberto Succo, psychiatric patient and parental murderer. The police hunt for Roberto covers three countriesRead More »

  • Sylvain George – Nuit obscure – feuillets sauvages AKA Obscure Night – Wild Leaves (The Burning Ones, the Obstinate) (2022) (HD)

    2021-2030ArthouseDocumentaryFranceSylvain George

    Quote:
    Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, is a land border between the African continent and Europe. A buffer zone where European migration policies, their challenges and their consequences are read and shown. A place towards which converge the migrants of the Maghreb. They are “those who burn”. They have nothing else to lose except wanting to live to the end.Read More »

  • Patrick Schulmann – Et la tendresse?… Bordel! (1979)

    1971-1980ComedyCultFrancePatrick Schulmann

    Synopsis
    Three couples from three different backgrounds have three very different ideas about romance.
    Businessman François, the master seducer and man of power, regards women as mere objects to satisfy his over-inflated libido, a situation which his partner Carole accepts with resignation.
    Luc and Eva appear to be in a stable relationship – he spends his days interviewing people for surveys, she works in a psychiatric clinic – and their time together at home is warm and affectionate.
    Léo, an aspiring lawyer, and Julie, a shop assistant, are attracted towards one another but each finds it hard to make the first move – until their shyness yields to the needs of desire.
    Will any of the couples live happily ever after ?Read More »

  • Henri-Georges Clouzot – Manon (1949)

    1941-1950CrimeDramaFranceHenri-Georges Clouzot

    PLOT: A classical tragic romance transposed to a World War II setting, Clouzot’s film follows the travails of Manon (Cécile Aubry), a village girl accused of collaborating with the Nazis who is rescued from imminent execution by a former French Resistance fighter (Michel Auclair). The couple move to Paris, but their relationship turns stormy as they struggle to survive, resorting to profiteering, prostitution and even murder. Eventually escaping to Palestine, the pair attempt a treacherous desert crossing in search of the happiness which seems to forever elude them…Read More »

  • Jean Becker – Les enfants du marais (1999)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaFranceJean Becker

    Summary
    A chronicle of a group of friends in rural France in 1918. Garris and Riton live in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics. Meanwhile, Garris is overwhelmed by an unspoken love for a housemaid in the town, Marie…Read More »

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