Paul Vecchiali

Plot: Françoise Canavaggia (Danielle Darrieux) heads back to Toulon in 1963 with murderous plans for the people who now inhabit the villa that had once been hers. After arriving in Toulon, Françoise meets up with her sister and a niece, both adding to her tendency toward self-analysis. But with images of the present and past mixed with memories and fantasies of the past — and excerpts from speeches by Petain and De Gaulle combined with psychological and philosophical ramblings — director Paul Vecchiali has created complexities that many an audience will never figure out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

Plot : From the novel by Pierre Lesou. Paris after WWII. Marly (Nicolas Silberg), a pimp, wants to retire from business. He’d like to offer Nella (Hélène Surgère), his protege, a tavern on the banks of the Marne. But both are caught in the crossfire from the fight between rival gangs for the control of prostitution….

One of the best TV works by Vecchiali. Among his favourites.Read More »

Saturday evening, in the suburbs of Paris. Le Relais, a small café-restaurant has just opened. Martine is waiting for customers at the bar. The first to come are regulars: Jeannot, boastful, bitter, aggressive; Guy, joking, playful; Robert, strong, boor. These three have known each other for years, and meet at the Relais every Saturday to deceive their loneliness: Johnny’s wife left with their son; Robert’s one is talking about divorce; Guy is hosted by three old ladies. Everyone goes on about its problems, encouraged by the whisky flowing like water. Talks about horses, games, politics, sex. Happy racists, especially Jeannot. This little world is already well warmed when arrive David, a shy travelling salesman, and Christiane, another regular, familiar with the trio. Christiane and David sat at a table, and talk about their past, the routine of a wasted lives. David is soon drunk, an easy prey for Jeannot. It will be a long night…Read More »

Quote:
Un cinéphile rencontre sur une plage de Ramatuelle son cinéaste préféré. Il lui propose de mettre en film la douloureuse aventure qu’il vient de vivre. Les deux hommes vont tricoter les scènes, chacun à sa manière. Le cinéaste ne cesse de repousser le projet, arguant que la chute n’est pas bonne. Mais peut-être a-t-il une bonne raison de ne pas aller au bout de l’aventure … (from commeaucinema)Read More »

Quote:
Unhappy women are being murdered by Emile (Jacques Perrin), a psychotic young man suffering from the delusion that his acts are mercy killings. The detective (Julien Guiomar) assigned to track down the killer resorts to seriously unorthodox and even unethical methods to get his man. In one instance, he impersonates a psychologist on a TV show he and Emile appear on together and attempts to provoke Emile into revealing himself.Read More »

Plot: Sébastien Fischer (Rüdiger Vogler), a celebrated pianist, takes the advice of his agent and friend Gorgio and decides to take a break and spend some time in a little village in Provence, at the house of Avril Espart (Micheline Presle).Read More »

Synopsis:
Pierrot, a mechanic in Paris, falls madly for an older woman, a chemist, who at first refuses his love. Finally she accepts his love when she discovers she is affected by a deadly illness. In the background we see everyday stories of a community of Pierrot’s younger and older friends.Read More »

Plot: Maurice Maïeux lives in a small modest flat near Paris together with his father, Marcel. Marcel used to be a successful heavy-weight boxer 20 years ago, however, would not take part in sham fights. Consequently he was made to disappear from public by hitting him below the belt during one of the fights, him thus being impotent and having to walk on crutches for the rest of his life. His son Maurice is 18 years old, 1.90m tall and weighs 100 Kg. Be it for the sake of taking revenge or for the mere wish that his son should reach more in life that he himself did, Marcel’s heart-felt wish is that Maurice should become a successful boxing champion – and one day even world champion ! Yet, Maurice fights against being patronized by his father.Read More »

The world and a life in four walls, and another portrait of a mother – selfish and generous, mercurial and unchanging. C’est la vie! (1980) takes Pagnol and Renoir’s experiments with open-air theatre to inspired and ecstatic conclusions, especially the latter’s love of depth-framing across windows and partitions, and lays the groundwork for Vecchiali’s later experiments with long-take space and time in Once More (1988). Also a pseudo-sequel to Marie-Claude Treilhou’s exquisite Simone Barbès ou la vertu (1980), reaffirming the Diagonale as not just a production model, but a kind of surrogate family, and a creative universe unto this forged community and itself. With Chantal Delsaux, Ingrid Bourgoin, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, and my beloved Hélène Surgère and Michel Delahaye.Read More »