Marianne Basler

Claire, a French tourist, is arrested by a puritanical and brutal policeman, who sends her to a women’s prison.Read More »

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Camille has been away for three years and returns to Paris to perform a play by Pirandello directed by Ugo, her companion. She sets out to see Pierre, her former lover, again, while Ugo sets out on the trail of an unknown manuscript by Goldoni.Read More »

Harry Kümel’s last major film to-date, a masterpiece of vividly operatic style and fluid camerawork. Despite being based on a 19th century classic Dutch novel, the film is less a traditional costumer (as apparently the critics took it to be) than a flamboyant fantasy on Kümel’s running theme of a vicious cycle of repeated wrong decisions and bad choices that engulf the lead character and eventually destroy her. The film displays the usual influences of von Sternberg, Resnais, Bergman, the Belgian symbolists, but creates a uniquely Kümelian feel and texture of a different reality at one remove from ours.Read More »

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The first years of the new millenium have marked something of a revival for the French New Wave, with Nouvelle Vague directors Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette all releasing major works which achieved both popular success and critical acclaim. Rivette’s offering is a charming romantic comedy which reminds us of the director’s passion for the theatre seen in his earlier works, such as Paris nous appartient (1961).Read More »