Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
Read More »
Tag Archives: France
Omaret yakobean / The Yacoubian Building (2006) Marwan Hamed, Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif, Youssra, Drama
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor’s son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika’s factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone’s lips, and corruption is in their hearts. European values, both refined and worldly, provide a subtext.
Read More »
Women Behind Bars / Des diamants pour l’enfer (1975) Jesús Franco, Lina Romay, Martine Stedil, Nathalie Chape, Crime, Romance, Thriller, Erotic
A small-time hood brings the attention of the law with an insurance scam and diamond theft, but things become even more interesting when his moll murders him and is slammed behind bars where she faces all manner of electric shock treatments to various parts of her anatomy.
Read More »
Prison tres speciale pour femmes (1982) Gérard Kikoïne, Olinka Hardiman, Connie Hörnum, Christine Schwarz, Adult, Thriller
Three girls are arrested under false pretenses and transferred to a small private prison that caters white slaves to rich sheiks.
Read More »
Much Loved (2015) Nabil Ayouch, Loubna Abidar, Asmaa Lazrak, Halima Karaouane, Drama
A social drama about four marginalized prostitutes in Marrakech and their complex relations with their families and society at large.
Read More »
Le Chien / Wild (2007) Christian Monnier, Florian Frin, Marie Le Cam, Jean-Marc Lebars, Drama
Kevin is an odd young man whose behaviour is sometimes dangerous. He lives with Jean-Claude on a remote farm in the midst of beautiful natural surroundings. The two men live together in disturbing silence. When Michèle meets Jean-Claude, she sees him as a casual lover. But when Kévin appears, Michèle sees this as an opportunity to give meaning to her own life…
Read More »
Johnny Suede (1991) Tom DiCillo, Brad Pitt, Richard Boes, Cheryl Costa, Comedy, Music, Romance
A struggling young musician and devoted fan of Ricky Nelson wants to be just like his idol and become a rock star.
Read More »
Ni Vu, Ni Connu / Neither Seen Nor Recognized (1958) Yves Robert, Louis de Funès, Noëlle Adam, Frédéric Duvallès, Comedy
In a small French village, everything would be quiet if the local wildlife cop was not being ridiculed by a smart poacher.
Read More »
Dr. Akagi / Kanzô sensei (1998) Shôhei Imamura, Akira Emoto, Kumiko Asô, Jacques Gamblin, Comedy, Drama, History
Dr. Akagi, a rural physician in Japan during WWII, wages a one-man crusade against hepetitis, earning him a reputation as “Dr. Liver.” But his fanatic campaign brings him into disfavor with the Japanese army, and as the war seems more and more hopeless for the Japanese, Dr. Akagi finds himself increasingly a scapegoat.
Read More »
L’amour d’une femme / The Love of a Woman (1953) Jean Grémillon, Micheline Presle, Massimo Girotti, Gaby Morlay, Drama
Marie Prieur, a young doctor, decides to settle down on Ushant, a remote island belonging to Brittany. Little by little she manages to be accepted by the population. One day she meets André Lorenzi, a handsome engineer, and it is love at first sight. Life is wonderful for a while but André wants to marry her only if she remains at home. Despite her strong feelings for André, Marie refuses to give up her vocation and the two lovers part. Marie finds herself alone, with a broken heart.
Read More »
Ein Unbekannter rechnet ab / Ten Little Indians (1974) Peter Collinson, Charles Aznavour, Maria Rohm, Adolfo Celi, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A group is invited, under false pretenses, to an isolated hotel in the Iranian desert. After dinner, a cassette tape accuses them all of crimes that they have gotten away with. One by one they begin to die, in accordance to the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme. After a search is made of the hotel, they realize that the murderer is one of them. A few members of the group attempt to trust each other, but the question still remains, who can one trust? And who will leave the hotel alive?
Read More »
Études sur Paris (1928) André Sauvage, Documentary
This visually magnificent and poetic city symphony of Paris in the late 1920s earned Sauvage the admiration of Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo. Sauvage maps the metropolis through its street life, monuments, ports, and automobile traffic.
Read More »
Germinal (1963) Yves Allégret, Jean Sorel, Berthe Granval, Claude Brasseur, Drama
Étienne Lantier cherche du travail dans les mines du Nord après s’être fait licencier des chemins de fer pour ses idées révolutionnaires. Mais indigné par les conditions de travail des mineurs, il ne renonce pas à ses idées et fait une grève avec les mineurs. Cette grève oblige les soldats à intervenir.
Read More »
Le pays des sourds / In the Land of the Deaf (1992) Nicolas Philibert, Jean-Claude Poulain, Abou Bakar, Anh Tuan, Documentary
With unerring curiousity and sensitivity, director Philbert portrays the difficulties and joys of being deaf, offering vivid portraits of people of all ages coping with and surmounting their challenges.
Read More »
L’adversaire / The Adversary (2002) Nicole Garcia, Daniel Auteuil, Géraldine Pailhas, François Cluzet, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, it is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. L’Adversaire’s protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based on Romand’s life and Carrère’s book than was Laurent Cantet’s 2001 film L’Emploi du Temps. The film was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Read More »