Marseilles, 1919. Georges Sarret is a distinguished and respected lawyer, recently honoured for his services in the First World War. He takes as his lover Philomène Schmidt, a young German woman, who has just lost her job and home. To enable Philomène to remain in France, Georges finds her a husband – who dies conveniently of natural causes a month after the wedding. Georges repeats the trick with Philomène’s sister, Catherine – marrying her off to an old man who dies suddenly so that the scheming trio can profit from his life insurance. When an accomplice in the scheme, Marcel Chambon, threatens to blackmail them, Georges and his two lovers have no option but to kill him and his mistress. Having dissolved the bodies in sulphuric acid, Georges hires another man to pose as Chambon so that he can secure his assets. Flush with the success of this venture, Georges proposes his most ambitious scam: he will insure Catherine’s life with five separate insurance companies; a young orphan woman who is dying from tuberculosis will provide Catherine’s death certificate when the moment comes. Unfortunately, the scheme does not go quite as planned…
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Author Archives: rarefilm
Bad Ronald (1974) Buzz Kulik, Scott Jacoby, Pippa Scott, John Larch
A shy teenager accidentally kills a mocking peer, and his mother helps him hide in a spare room in their house. Problems arise when the mother goes for an operation and dies, and the house is sold to a new family, with the teen still living inside.
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Sous les toits de Paris / Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) René Clair, Albert Préjean, Pola Illéry, Edmond T. Gréville
While singing in a lower class quarter in Paris, the street singer Albert falls in love with the Romanian party girl Pola, who is the companion of the gangster Fred. One night, Albert meets with Pola, who has just found that Fred had stolen her key, and his friend Louis proposes to toss to date her. However, Albert brings her to his room and they spend the night together, with Albert sleeping on the floor and Pola on his bed. Early in the morning, the pickpocket Émile brings a bag with stolen pieces and asks Albert to keep the bag for him. When the police busts Albert’s room and finds the stolen goods, he is arrested and sent to jail. Meanwhile Fred travels and Pola seeks comfort with Louis, and they stay together. When Émile is arrested by the police, he confesses that Albert is innocent and he is released and seeks out Pola. Meanwhile Fred returns to Paris and also seeks out Pola that is with Louis.
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Trois chambres à Manhattan / Three Rooms in Manhattan (1965) Marcel Carné, Annie Girardot, Maurice Ronet, O.E. Hasse
A plate comes to life with the ability of telekinesis and TYLER curtis Duncan was an extra in it.
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As Young as You Feel (1951) Harmon Jones, Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter, David Wayne
When a gentleman (Monty Woolley) is forced to retire at age 65, he’ll do just about anything to beat the system. Dying his hair black, he poses as the president of his former employer’s holding company. Suddenly free to air his views on everything from company policy to national economics, comic craziness ensues when he meets not only the firm’s top executives, but someone equally impressive – a beautiful secretary, played by Marilyn Monroe, in one of her first and funniest roles.
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Homo Eroticus / Man of the Year (1971) Marco Vicario, Rossana Podestà, Lando Buzzanca, Luciano Salce
Michele is a three-testicle, sexually insatiable man who goes around bedding all women in town (regardless of age), until one day things goes terribly wrong.
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Anna (1967) Pierre Koralnik, Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Brialy, Marianne Faithfull
Anna is a bizarre pop art/comedy/musical filled with bright vibrant colors, strange, hallucinatory scenes and some of the best songs Serge ever wrote. The story is about a man obsessively looking for a woman he saw in a photograph. A truly charming and entertaining movie that every Gainsbourg fan should see.
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Conspiracy of Hearts (1960) Ralph Thomas, Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell
In wartime Italy nuns in a convent regularly smuggle Jewish children out of a nearby internment camp. The Italian army officer in charge suspects what may be going on but deliberately turns a blind eye. When the Germans take over the camp security the nuns’ activities become far more dangerous.
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Sennosc / Drowsiness (2008) Magdalena Piekorz, Malgorzata Kozuchowska, Michal Zebrowski, Rafal Mackowiak
The film focuses on the fate of three characters whose emotions are numb because of the blows of life and beings around them. None of them has the courage to change their lives, but their mutual encounter give them the chance to get out of this emotional drowsiness.
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The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) Fred Schepisi, Freddy Reynolds, Angela Punch McGregor, Tommy Lewis
The true story of a part aboriginal man who finds the pressure of adapting to white culture intolerable, and as a result snaps in a violent and horrific manner.
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Trixie (2000) Alan Rudolph, Emily Watson, Dermot Mulroney, Nick Nolte
Emily Watson stars as Trixie, an eccentric woman who aspires to quit her job as a security guard and become a private detective. However, comedy intervenes and the mess begins…
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Transe / Trance (2006) Teresa Villaverde, Ana Moreira, Viktor Rakov, Robinson Stévenin
Sonia, a girl from St Petersburg, decides to seek a better life in western Europe. She first gets a job at a car dealer in Germany. But she is suddenly kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. She will be dragged from country to country and resistance will only bring her misery and humiliation.
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In Name Only (1939) John Cromwell, Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, Kay Francis
While out riding in the country, wealthy New Yorker Alec Walker meets young widow Julie Eden, and a relationship quickly develops. However, Alec has not told her that he is already locked into a loveless marriage to the avaricious Maida, who has contrived to convince his parents she is the ideal wife. A completely coincidental car crash alerts the two women to each other’s existence, a situation to which they react very differently.
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Who Was That Lady? (1960) George Sidney, Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, Janet Leigh
In order to get back into the good graces with his wife with whom he has had a misunderstanding, a young chemistry professor concocts a wild story that he is an undercover FBI agent. To help him with his story he enlists the aid of a friend who is a TV writer. The wife swallows the story and later real FBI agents and enemy spies become involved in the scheme.
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To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) William Friedkin, William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow
Two cops in Los Angeles try to track down the vicious criminal Eric Masters. Then, one of them is killed by Masters and the other one swears revenge no matter what the cost. After that, the hunt becomes an ob- session and the law he once swore to uphold becomes meaningless to him.
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