Catherine Deneuve

  • Marco Ferreri – Liza AKA La Cagna AKA The Bitch (1972)

    Marco Ferreri1971-1980DramaFrance

    Giorgio (Marcello Mastroianni) lives on a island somewhere off the Mediterranean coast of France. He lives there with his dog, and the remains of an old German World War II airbase. He earns his living drawing cartoons. Liza (Deneuve) swims to the island from a rich man’s yacht, and the yacht’s crew confirm the end of her relationship with the owner by bringing her luggage to the island. She and Giorgio meet and become involved. She is jealous of his relationship with the dog and kills her rival while assuming its duties: wearing a collar, fetching sticks, etc.Read More »

  • Alain Corneau – Le choix des armes AKA Choice of Arms (1981)

    1981-1990Alain CorneauCrimeDramaFrance

    Synopsis:
    Two men break out of prison; a rival gang ambushes them. One is mortally wounded and tells the other, Mickey, to take him to the estate of a retired robber, Noel, who lives in comfort with his lovely and beloved wife, Nicole. The man dies, and Mickey, a menacing hothead, demands money of Noel. A few days later, Mickey returns to the estate, shoots up a dinner party and threatens them again. Noel sends Nicole to an hotel and goes to his old gang to help him hunt down the dangerous Mickey. Mickey has other problems, too, including heartache for a daughter he hardly knows. Young, eager cops tail Nicole, and all are on a complicated collision course.Read More »

  • László Szabó – Zig zig (1975)

    1971-1980CampFranceLászló SzabóMusical

    The story of two singers/prostitutes that dream of a big house, 160kg former opera diva/wife of an ex-minister of Agriculture that was kidnapped, a police captain with a tapeworm, a rock band that want to become famous, an ex-police captain with a chiken egg under his armpit and many others intresting persons…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 »

  • André Téchiné – Le lieu du crime AKA Scene of the Crime (1986)

    1981-1990André TéchinéCrimeDramaFrance

    Quote:
    While collecting flowers for his mother, unmotivated student Thomas (Nicolas Giraudi) is accosted by escaped prisoner Martin (Wadeck Stanczak) who threatens Thomas with bodily harm if he does not return with enough money for the man to buy a train ticket. Thomas goes to several people in his immediate family for the money. His mother Lili (Catherine Deneuve) is a free-spirited single mother who has recently set up ownership and management of a dance bar, and whose separation from Thomas father Maurice (Victor Lanoux) causes confusion and rebellion in the boy. Read More »

  • François Ozon – 8 femmes AKA 8 Women (2002)

    2001-2010CrimeFranceFrançois OzonMusicalQueer Cinema(s)

    Synopsis:
    One morning at an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season. But there will be no celebration at all because their beloved patriarch has been murdered! The killer can only be one of the eight women closest to the man of the house. Was it his powerful wife? His spinster sister-in-law? His miserly mother-in-law? Maybe the insolent chambermaid or the loyal housekeeper? Could it possibly have been one of his two young daughters? A surprise visit from the victim’s chic sister sends the household into a tizzy, encouraging hysterics, exacerbating rivalries, and encompassing musical interludes. Comedic situations arise with the revelations of dark family secrets. Seduction dances with betrayal. The mystery of the female psyche is revealed. There are eight women and each is a suspect. Each has a motive. Each has a secret. Beautiful, tempestuous, intelligent, sensual, and dangerous…one of them is guilty. Which one is it?
    — Anthony Pereyra (IMDb)Read More »

  • Agnès Varda – Les créatures AKA The Creatures (1966)

    1961-1970Agnès VardaArthouseFantasyFrance

    Criterion wrote:
    One of Agnès Varda least-seen films is also one of her most fascinating: an eccentrically imaginative science-fiction fantasia that touches on human nature, free will, and the creative process. Working with major stars for the first time on a feature film, Varda casts Michel Piccoli as a writer and Catherine Deneuve as his silent wife, a couple who relocate to the island of Noirmoutier (a longtime second home for Varda and her husband, Jacques Demy) where strange goings-on hint at a sinister force controlling the minds and actions of the residents. Slipping between “reality” and fiction, genre spectacle and avant-garde experimentation, Les créatures is a beguiling, endlessly inventive exploration of the mysterious alchemy that transforms life into art.Read More »

  • François Truffaut – Le dernier métro AKA The Last Metro (1980)

    1971-1980DramaFranceFrançois TruffautRomance

    Quote:
    Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star as members of a French theater company living under the German occupation during World War II in François Truffaut’s gripping, humanist character study. Against all odds—a Jewish theater manager in hiding; a leading man who’s in the Resistance; increasingly restrictive Nazi oversight—the troupe believes the show must go on. Equal parts romance, historical tragedy, and even comedy, The Last Metro (Le dernier métro) is Truffaut’s ultimate tribute to art overcoming adversity.Read More »

  • Julie Lopes-Curval – Mères et filles AKA Hidden Diary (2009)

    2001-2010DramaFranceJulie Lopes-Curval

    Quote:
    In the 1950s, housewife Louise walked out on her family whilst her children were still young. She gave no indication of where she was going and hasn’t been heard of since. Her daughter, Martine, stayed in the small coastal town where she grew up and became a doctor. Today, Martine’s daughter Audrey is an independent 30-year-old. On the spur of the moment, Audrey decides to visit her parents. During her stay, she comes across an old note book that belonged to her grandmother and which could explain the reason for the latter’s mysterious disappearance…Read More »

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