Tag Archives: France

Witness the birth of a new kind of documentary, as legendary diver, conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau takes you deep beneath the waves to explore a wealth of life that was previously hidden from view. As much of the technology for shooting film underwater was developed by Cousteau’s team, this was the first time such amazing sights could be captured on film. The result, a Technicolor 1950s masterpiece, succeeds both in revealing an untouched world of beauty, life and drama, as well as evoking a sense of adventure, freedom and boundless possibility. Set on board and below the good ship Calypso during an exploratory expedition, this feature-length documentary was co-directed by Cousteau and Louis Malle, whose first film this was (Cousteau selected Malle for this assignment immediately upon the latter’s graduation from film school). Highlights include a shark attack on the carcass of a whale, and the discovery of a wrecked, sunken vessel. A window into the world beneath the sea as well as the colourful and nostalgic world of the 1950s, The Silent World was the start of an entire movement, and is now available on DVD as a vital part of any collection. This classic film is one of few to have won both the Academy Award (Best Documentary Feature) as well as the Palme D’Or in 1956.
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A father and the former nanny to his children prepare a merger between his company and a European conglomerate.
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Moved by the plight of the mother of her daughter’s school friend, a young judge facing an incurable disease teams up with an older colleague in order to fight against financial companies that exploit the poor.
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Giuliano Gemma plays a confederate soldier who returns from the war to fight one at home. Unbeknownst to him, his brother has become the infamous gunfighter “Black Jack” to defeat the local bullies. Gemma agrees to ambush and kill Black Jack, only to discover too late who the outlaw really is. With vengeance in his heart he turns on his employers, who then shoot him.
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A stage director (Raymond Rouleau) becomes the prime suspect in the death of his assistant, who may or may not have been fooling around with the director’s wife (Jeanne Moreau). The wife helps her husband hide out from the police, taking over his responsibilities in the theater. Soon she is flourishing in the world of make-believe, and she has fallen under the spell of the duplicitous rat who started all of the trouble in the first place. Saving the day is the director’s good-hearted secretary (Etchika Choureau), who has long harbored a crush on her boss.
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Romain Faubert is a 39 year old, single, medical photographer.. and a raging hypochondriac. His doctor and only friend Dr. Dimitri Zvenka, thinks he knows a cure for Romain: dating. But with the arrival of freedom fighter Anton Miroslav, everyone might get more then they bargained for..
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The seven stages in the life of the modern Frenchwomen are disclosed by seven directors in a witty way: 1 – Childhood, 2 – Adolescence, 3 – Virginity, 4 – Marriage, 5 – Adultery, 6 – Divorce, 7 – The Single Woman.
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An old German mine was split in two after the end of WWI because of where the new border was located. In the French part a fire breaks out; the German miners send a rescue group in, helping their French comrades. Three old German miners, who were not treated friendly at a French inn the night before, start their own private rescue through an old tunnel that separated the two mines. Will the official rescue party realize there are others left behind in time to save them?
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French filmmaker Rene Clement presents Alan Delon as a petty criminal on the run from the underground. On the Rivera, he seeks refuge in a flophouse whose soup line is served by Jane Fonda and Lola Albright. The two women move him to a Gothic mansion owned by Albright, a millionaires with a Salvation Army complex. Fonda, her cousin, is hot for him and repeatedly attempts to seduce him while someone is attempting to poison him; and his murderous former associates have got wind of his whereabouts.
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Anton Ludvik, aka Gerard, is vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia. He realizes he is watched and followed. One day, he is arrested and put into jail, in solitary confinement. Will be shown the mental tortures during the investigations and how a faithful top-ranking civil servant is made to confess to treason. Based on the true story of Czechoslovakian communist Artur London.
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After making such American noir classics as Brute Force and The Naked City, the blacklisted director Jules Dassin went to Paris and embarked on his masterpiece: a twisting, turning tale of four ex-cons who hatch one last glorious robbery in the City of Light. Rififi is the ultimate heist movie, a mélange of suspense, brutality, and dark humor that was an international hit, earned Dassin the best director prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and has proven wildly influential on the decades of heist thrillers that have come in its wake.
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Jaime, his wife Marta and their teenage daughter Isa move to a dream house in Madrid and they plan a family dinner to celebrate. Out of the blue, three violent hooded thieves break in their house and hold the Marta and Isa hostage while their leader goes to the bank with Jaime to withdraw money from the family bank accounts in a tragic night of terror.
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A documentary filmed in the psychiatric ward of the Motel Dieu at a large hospital in Paris. The patients arrive on their own, or with considerable help from the police, but all of them are in need of medical attention.
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A man invites a woman to share his room in a hostel in Djibouti because she seems to have some problems. Gradually he falls in love with her. They embark on a trip to the towns in the desert and, on the way, they learn more about each other. The man never appears on screen, so the camera becomes his point of view.
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A film musical in which every line is sung. The frame is about workers during a strike. They also prepare and perform a demonstration. Two personal relations develop against this background. François abandons his pregnant girlfriend Violette. She feels treated even more unjust when he tries to defend and excuse his behaviour. He had met a very beautiful over-class girl, Edith, and both were immediately overwhelmed by genuine and reciprocal passion. Edith lived in a very unsatisfactory marriage. She was the daughter of the widow from which François rented his room. Nevertheless, he met her in the street, where she just opened her fur coat and was starch naked under it. They will be together in great passion for just one night and day. At the demonstration François is shot by the police and dies in Edith’s arms. – The music is closer to opera than in any other film musical by Jacques Demy. But the greatest difference is that he has devoted much more effort to the task of instructing the…
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