French

  • James Blue – Les oliviers de la justice AKA The Olive Trees of Justice (1962) (HD)

    1961-1970DramaFranceJames Blue

    Quote:
    A man returns to his native Algeria to visit his dying father there, at a time when the French colonial hold on that country is coming to its end.Read More »

  • Benoît Jacquot – La Fille seule AKA A Single Girl (1995)

    1991-2000Benoît JacquotDramaFrance

    Early one morning Valerie has to tell her unemployed boyfriend Remi that she is pregnant. She has decided to keep the child, but they argue whether they should break up or not. That same morning Valerie starts working in room service at a smart hotel. The film follows the routine of Valerie bringing breakfast to the guests, Valerie constantly trying to phone her mother, and Valerie’s relations with the other staff.Read More »

  • Aino Suni – Heartbeast (2022)

    2021-2030Aino SuniDramaFranceRomance

    “It feels that friendship between girls is the most intimate, dependent relationship there is – even stronger than a marriage…” ~Aino SuniRead More »

  • Costa-Gavras – La Petite Apocalypse AKA The Little Apocalypse (1993)

    1991-2000ArthouseComedyCosta-GavrasFrance

    The Little Apocalypse is a 1993 French comedy film, an adaptation of Tadeusz Konwicki’s novel, directed by Costa-Gavras. It was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. It follows the trials of a Pole who lives in France who wants his written work published. Unable to get anywhere, he starts to enlist help from others, resorting to some unusual extremes.

    Synopsis:
    An unknown Polish writer can’t publish his novels, so his ex-wife decides to help him and get some of the profit for herself. She finally finds a publisher, but there’s a strange single condition that could cost the writer his life.Read More »

  • Frédéric Rossif – Mourir à Madrid AKA To Die in Madrid (1963)

    1961-1970DocumentaryFranceFrédéric Rossif

    To Die in Madrid (French: Mourir à Madrid) is a 1963 French documentary film about the Spanish Civil War, directed by Frédéric Rossif. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.Read More »

  • Katherine Jerkovic – Le Coyote AKA Coyote (2022)

    2021-2030CanadaDramaKatherine Jerkovic

    Camilo is a quiet man who works for a cleaning company in Montreal. He used to run a successful restaurant called Le Coyote, but he has been struggling to find work in the culinary field since his establishment went out of business. An old friend offers him a position as a chef in the suburbs. Just when it looks like life will cut him a break, his estranged daughter lands on his doorstep, announcing that she has a grandson, Zachary.Read More »

  • Jean Grémillon – L’Étrange Madame X AKA Strange Madame X (1951)

    Jean Grémillon1951-1960DramaFranceRomance

    Synopsis:
    Étienne, a modest carpenter, believes he has found the perfect partner in Irène, a beautiful young woman who appears to be devoted to him. But Irène is not the simple housemaid she pretends to be. In truth, she is the wife of a wealthy man, living in a grand house where she plays hostess at her frequent soirées to the cream of Parisian society. Irène is content with her double life until the day she discovers she is pregnant with Étienne’s child. After the baby is born, Irène promises to marry Étienne, without telling him that she must first persuade her present husband to agree to a divorce. Étienne’s hopes for future happiness are dashed when the business he attempts to set up fails and his child falls dangerously ill. The final blow comes when he visits Irène at the house where she claims to work and discovers the truth that she has long concealed from him…
    — James Travers .Read More »

  • Alain Tanner – No Man’s Land (1985)

    Alain TannerArthouseDramaSwitzerland

    “Alain Tanner’s sparse, beautiful film is a philosophical reflection on and a poetic, atmospheric representation of human homelessness.”

    Synopsis:
    “No man’s land” tells the story of four people trying to fulfil their most basic desires in life. A group of young people meet up regularly in a nightclub situated in a former customs house on the Swiss-French border, as a means of escape from their drab lives. No Man’s Land is an “in- between” film. Between staying and leaving, between Paul and Jean, about friendship, between Paul and Madeleine, Jean and Mali, Jean and Lucie, about love. Between Paul and his route of escape, Jean and his territory, Madeleine and her music, Mali and her exile.Read More »

  • Werner Schroeter – Deux AKA Two (2002)

    Werner Schroeter2001-2010ArthouseDramaFrance

    Quote:
    A young woman named Magdalena (Isabelle Huppert) retrieves a postcard that had been cast into the wind by her biological mother (Bulle Ogier) from a seaside town in Portugal and discovers that she has a twin sister named Maria. From this seemingly introspective opening premise on identity, connection, and history, Deux diverges into unexpectedly abstract, non-intersecting trajectories that involve a schoolgirl attraction with a fellow classmate, a mother’s wartime romance, a serial killer who leaves a tell-tale rose on the bodies of his victims, a lonely woman who adopts a fox as a household pet. Composed of asequential and dissociated vignettes, the film evokes the baroque tableaux of Sergei Paradjanov, the formalism of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and fractured surrealism of Luis Buñuel infused with quasi-religious iconography and Actionism of Otto Mühl (most notably, in the image of disemboweled figures such as ornamental cherubs).Read More »

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