Synopsis:
“Monsieur Ladmiral is an ageing painter who lives alone in his country house, cared for by his housekeeper, Mercedes. Every so often, his son Gonzague comes to visit him with his young family. One late summer Sunday in 1912, the customary visit is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of Ladmiral’s unpredictable daughter, Irene…”
– Films de FranceRead More »
In Paris in the 1920s, a concert violinist meets and falls in love with a stylish young flapper who’s the wife of an old friend. Romaine instigates the affair with Marcel, and carries it forward even as her husband, Pierre, falls ill. She may even be purposely giving Pierre a treatment that adds to his misery. After Marcel returns from a concert tour and Romaine stoops to a new low in abandoning Pierre for an assignation, she reconsiders the affair and takes a drastic step. Three years later, Pierre pays Marcel a visit to demand the truth. Will the jealous and aggrieved Marcel manage a convincing performance?Read More »
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January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families’ descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of “the unknown soldier.” Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Ir├¬øne de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Ir├¬øne makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance?Read More »
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Simon secretly loves Camille. Camille, due to a misunderstanding, falls for Marc Duveyrier. Marc, a handsome realtor, who’s also Simon’s boss, is trying to sell an apartment to Odile Lalande, Camille’s sister. Odile really wants this apartment, despite the silent disapproval of her husband, Claude. Claude, somewhat wan in character, finds it hard to stomach the reappearance, after many years, of Nicolas. Nicolas, an old friend of Odile’s becomes the confidant of Simon… The dialogue is in part made up of extracts of French hit songs, sung in situation by the actors.Read More »
Marguerite is a successful dentist with a busy practice and an offbeat hobby, flying small airplanes. One day, Marguerite loses her wallet, and it’s found by Georges, a seemingly happy man with a wife, Suzanne, and two children. As Georges looks through the wallet and examines the photos of Marguerite, he finds he’s fascinated with her and her life, and soon his curiosity about her becomes an obsession.Read More »
The consequences of a housewife smoking or not smoking a single cigarette branch out into a dozen separate destinies and parallel universes, each with its own conclusion, in these two French features by Alain Resnais. Adapted and translated from six of the eight comic plays comprising British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges, they can be seen alone or together, and in either order. The project, a tour de force for two actors playing multiple roles (Pierre Arditi and Sabine Azema), succeeded at the box office when released in France in 1993, and as a unit the two films swept the Cesars (French Oscars) for best picture, director, actor, and set design.Read More »
A madcap comedy about a famous actress who gets more than she bargains for when she goes on a secret vacation in the mountains trying to cure her nymphomania.Read More »