In the suburbs of Paris, an old maid has just been murdered. Every body talks about that, except the misanthrope Mr Hire. The same evening, Alice, just getting out of jail, arrives and meets up with her lover Alfred again. They act as they do not know each other, for Alice went to jail to spare Alfred. But Mr Hire falls in love with Alice, and he knows Alfred is the murderer…
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Tag Archives: France
Les États-Unis d’Albert / The United States Of Albert (2005) André Forcier, Éric Bruneau, Émilie Dequenne, Andréa Ferréol, Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Albert Renaud, a young Quebec actor with aspirations to become the next Rudolph Valentino, sets off by train for Hollywood with a letter of recommendation from his drama teacher who is Mary Pickford’s aunt.
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Les bien-aimés / Beloved (2011) Christophe Honoré, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Drama, Musical, Romance
The movie opens with a shoe-shopping montage, circa 1964, set in the store of iconic French shoe designer Roger Vivier. (Catnip!) Sagnier’s Madeleine is a salesgirl there; one night, she steals a pair of Vivier spike heels and slips them on as she’s making her way home.
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The Crimson Rivers / Les rivières pourpres (2000) Mathieu Kassovitz, Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Farès, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Parisian murder detective commissioner Pierre Niemans is called to Gueron, a self-sufficient, prestigious university in a mountain valley, to investigate the murder on 32-year old professor and librarian Rémy Caillois, whose corpse was found 50 meters high on a steep mountain side, naked, horribly covered in bruises and bleeding wounds, the result of some five hours of bestial torture including quasi-surgical amputation of hands cauterized to prevent bleeding to death- and eyes.
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The Other Side (2015) Roberto Minervini, Mark Kelley, Lisa Allen, James Lee Miller, Documentary, Drama
In an invisible territory at the margins of society lives a wounded community who face the threat of being forgotten by political institutions and having their rights as citizens trampled. Disarmed veterans, taciturn adolescents, drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love;
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Montanha (2015) João Salaviza, David Mourato, Maria João Pinho, Rodrigo Perdigão, Drama
Day breaks on the eighth floor in a suburban neighbourhood of Lisbon and 14-year-old Bruno’s grandfather is still in hospital. Doctors give him only a few days to live. The imminence of death and the void that it will leave force Bruno to become the man of the house, where he lives with his mother Mónica, who is in her 30s, and his three-year-old sister Érica.
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Marianne De Ma Jeunesse (1955) Julien Duvivier, Marianne Hold, Horst Buchholz, Pierre Vaneck, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Au pensionnat aristocratique bavarois sis dans le château de Heiligenstadt, Vincent Loringer est considéré comme un garçon singulier par les autres élèves. Il chante des airs exotiques d’une voix mélancolique en s’accompagnant à la guitare. Un jour, lui et quelques camarades embarquent pour aller explorer les rives de l’autre côté du lac.
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Manina, La fille san voiles (1952) Willy Rozier, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-François Calvé, Howard Vernon, Adventure, Romance
When a 25-year old Parisian student, Gérard Morere, hears a lecture about a treasure Troilus lost at sea after the Peloponnesian War, he thinks he knows where it is, thanks to a discovery he made five years before when diving near the island of Levezzi. He gets friends and an innkeeper to invest in his dream, enough to get him to Tangiers where he convinces a cigarette smuggler, Erick, to take him to the island.
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Plenilune / Plenilunio (1999) Imanol Uribe, Miguel Ángel Solá, Adriana Ozores, Juan Diego Botto, Drama, Thriller
Romance and murder walk side by side in this psychological drama from Spain. A serial killer has been plying his grisly trade in a small town in Spain, murdering young girls and leaving their bodies in a nearby forest. A police inspector is sent in to investigate – his first case outside tumultuous Basque County in 14 years.
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Nord / North (1991) Xavier Beauvois, Bulle Ogier, Bernard Verley, Drama
The story of a dysfunctional family in Northern France. Dad is a mean abusive drunk pharmacist, mom is addicted to pills and has incestuous desire for her son, the son is skipping school to fish and daughter is mentally handicapped.
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L’Année sainte / Holy Year (1976) Jean Girault, Jean Gabin, Jean-Claude Brialy, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Comedy
Max, a master thief, is spending some time behind bars, having been captured by a determined and crafty police officer. He has hidden a sizable amount of gold in Italy and is patiently waiting to get out so he can retrieve it. His prison companion wants to get out now and get the gold. So they escape, dress as priests and fly off for Italy.
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Le temps qui reste / Time to Leave (2005) François Ozon, Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne Moreau, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Drama
In Paris, thirty-one-year-old gay fashion photographer Romain learns he has a terminal cancer. As chances with chemotherapy are only slim, he chooses to live the rest of his life without treatment or mollycoddling, hiding the truth from his lover Sasha and his family, being cruel to kindly push them away.
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Mangrove (2011) Frédéric Choffat, Julie Gilbert, Lucia, Patrick Pasquier, Vimala Pons, Drama
A young woman travels with her child to a remote coast on the Pacific in southern Mexico where she grew up. She had lived with her father in a house on the beach until her beloved, a young fisherman from the neighbouring village died a brutal death, causing her to flee. Years later she returns to make peace with the ghosts of the past.
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Bezness (1992) Nouri Bouzid, Abdellatif Kechiche, Jacques Penot, Ghalia Lacroix, Drama
Roufa (Abdel Kechiche) is an attractive young man, and that works out well for him because he is a practitioner of “bezness:” he’s a sex-for-hire boy for the tourists who come to Tunisia. His girlfriend deeply resents his having sex with other women but doesn’t seem much bothered that a rich German man he’s been having sex with is hoping to sponsor him in Europe.
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Woman Times Seven (1967) Vittorio De Sica, Shirley MacLaine, Elspeth March, Peter Sellers, Comedy, Drama
Seven mini-stories of adultery: “Funeral Possession,” a wayward widow at her husband’s funeral; “Amateur Night,” angry wife becomes streetwalker out of revenge; “Two Against One,” seemingly prudish girl turns out otherwise; “Super Simone,” wife vainly attempts to divert her over-engrossed writer husband; “At the Opera,” a battle over a supposedly exclusive dress; “Suicides,” a death pact; “Snow,” would-be suitor is actually a private detective hired by jealous husband.
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