Tag Archives: France

Two Weeks in September / À coeur joie (1967) Serge Bourguignon, Brigitte Bardot, Laurent Terzieff, Jean Rochefort, Drama, Romance

two-weeks-in-september-1967
Cecile is a young and beautiful Frenchwoman married to a much older Englishman. She loves her husband and seems to be content with her life, until she meets a younger man and feels forgotten passions stirring within her. She now finds herself confronted with a choice: to stay with the steady and peaceful love of her husband, or to run off for excitement and adventure with a new love?
Read More »

Betty Fisher and Other Stories / Betty Fisher et autres histoires (2001) Claude Miller, Sandrine Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner, Comedy, Crime, Drama

betty-fisher-and-other-stories-2001
Grieving after the death of her young son Joseph, novelist Betty Fisher enters a dark depression. Hoping to bring her out of it, her mother Margot arranges to kidnap another child, Jose, to replace the son Betty lost. Although she knows it’s wrong, Betty accepts Jose as her new son. Meanwhile, Jose’s mother Carole is looking for her son with the help of her boyfriend Francois and some of his criminal cohorts.
Read More »

Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the ’70s (2012) Mike Malloy, Franco Nero, John Saxon, Henry Silva, Documentary, Action, Crime

eurocrime-the-italian-cop-and-gangster-films-that-ruled-the-70s-2012
A documentary concerning the violent Italian ‘poliziotteschi’ cinematic movement of the 1970s which, at first glance, seem to be rip-offs of American crime films like DIRTY HARRY or THE GODFATHER, but which really address Italian issues like the Sicilian Mafia and red terrorism. Perhaps even more interesting than the films themselves were the rushed methods of production (stars performing their own stunts, stealing shots, no live sound) and the bleed-over between real-life crime and movie crime.
Read More »

L’invitation / The Invitation (1973) Claude Goretta, Jean-Luc Bideau, François Simon, Jean Champion, Comedy

linvitation-1973
After the death of his mother, middle-aged insurance employee inherits her small cottage surrounded by a garden. Selling the cottage which is situated on unexploited ground near the center of a big city makes him a rich man and he buys a big house in the countryside. He takes some time off and decides to throw a big garden party at the house and invite all his colleagues from the office. Aided by alcohol, the guests gradually lose all their inhibitions and reveal personality traits and frustrations that they normally keep hidden.
Read More »

Presque rien avec Luc Ferrari (2005) Jacqueline Caux, Olivier Pascal, Documentary

presque-rien-avec-luc-ferrari-2005
Documenting the work of one of the most groundbreaking and seductive composers of the Twentieth Century, this film also shows Luc Ferrari’s “extremely libertarian personality: his spontaneity, his inclination towards hedonism and sensuality, his curious and open character, his rejection of all kind of power and of all stable position within institutions, his pronounced taste for jeux, his sense of self-derision and his ferocious refusal of all dogmatism”.
Read More »

Chimes at Midnight / Campanadas a medianoche (1965) Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, Comedy, Drama, History

chimes-at-midnight-1965
Sir John Falstaff is the hero in this compilation of extracts from Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ and other plays, made into a connected story of Falstaff’s career as young Prince Hal’s drinking companion. The massive knight roisters with and without the prince, philosophizes comically, goes to war (in his own fashion), and meets his final disappointment, set in a real-looking late-medieval England.
Read More »

Pierrot le fou / Pierrot Goes Wild (1965) Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani, Crime, Drama, Romance

pierrot-le-fou-aka-pierrot-goes-wild-1965
Ferdinand Griffon is married with his wealthy Italian wife and has been recently fired from the television station where he worked. His wife forces him to go to a party in the house of her influential father that wants to introduce Ferdinand to a potential employer. Her brother brings the babysitter Marianne Renoir to take care of their children.
Read More »

Beyond the Walls / Hors les murs (2012) David Lambert, Matila Malliarakis, Guillaume Gouix, David Salles, Drama, Romance

beyond-the-walls-aka-hors-les-murs-2012
Paulo, a young pianist, meets Ilir, a bartender and bass guitar player originally from Albania. They become lovers. Confronted by his girlfriend Anka, Paulo finds himself out on the street. Despite Ilir’s misgivings, Paulo moves in with him. One day, when Paulo promises that he will love Ilir for the rest of his life, Ilir leaves the city and doesn’t return. A few days later, Paulo finds out that Ilir is in jail, and their relationship faces unexpected challenges.
Read More »

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story) / Bang Gang (une histoire d’amour moderne) (2015) Eva Husson, Finnegan Oldfield, Marilyn Lima, Lorenzo Lefèbvre

Bang Gang (2015)
In a small town of France, life seems to be still and somewhat boring for a group of teenage friends, who day in, day out, are asked to cope not only with the usual issues in the life of a high school student but also with the search for love and sex. How do you blow the steam off, when you are a puzzled, sexually-frustrated youngster? Eventually, a party is thrown on a Saturday night and the solution is about to be found in a very simple idea…
Read More »