Tag Archives: France

Lancelot du lac / Lancelot of the Lake (1974) Robert Bresson, Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan, Drama, History, Romance

Lancelot du lac (1974)
Having failed in their quest for the Holy Grail, the knights of the Round Table return to Camelot, their number reduced to a mere handful. Seeing a rift developing between Lancelot and Mordred, Arthur urges his knights to bury their differences and become friends. However, the king is unaware that Lancelot is having an affair with his queen, Guinevere. Lancelot is torn between his duty to his king and his love for the queen, whilst Mordred is determined to use his infidelity to destroy him.
Read More »

La lune dans le caniveau / The Moon in the Gutter (1983) Jean-Jacques Beineix, Gérard Depardieu, Nastassja Kinski, Victoria Abril, Drama

La lune dans le caniveau (1983)
In Marseilles, a woman commits suicide after she is raped in an alley. Nightly, her brother Gerard broods at the scene hoping to catch the rapist. He lives with his lover Bella whom he neglects, an alcoholic brother who lurks about, and his father who’s stayed drunk since the daughter’s death, ignoring work and his own companion. At a seedy bar, Gerard meets a wealthy, nihilistic hedonist and his beautiful sister. Gerard flips for her and thinks she’s his ticket out of the slum. Bella warns him otherwise and also, in jealousy, sets two thugs on him. Then Gerard thinks he’s found his sister’s rapist. These emotional crises force Gerard to choose what’s most important.
Read More »

Le château de verre / The Glass Castle (1950) René Clément, Michèle Morgan, Jean Marais, Jean Servais, Drama

Le chateau de verre (1950)
Laurent Bertal is a successful attorney who lives in Berne with his beautiful and adoring wife Evelyne. Theirs appears to be the perfect marriage, but while on holiday in Italy Evelyne falls in love with a young Frenchman, Rémy. While Evelyne is profoundly unsettled by this romantic entanglement, Rémy regards it as a mere distraction and soon heads back to Paris where he lives with his mistress, Marion. One day, Evelyne is overjoyed when she receives an invitation from Rémy to spend a weekend with him in Paris. The morning after their first night together in Rémy’s apartment, Evelyne accidentally breaks a glass ornament in the shape of a castle. The incident proves to be an omen of bad luck.
Read More »

I… comme Icare / I as in Icarus (1979) Henri Verneuil, Yves Montand, Michel Albertini, Roland Amstutz, Crime, Drama, Mystery

I... comme Icare (1979)
After the recently re-elected President of a fictitious state has been assassinated, one of the members of the investigation committee refuses to sign the final report and is given the task of investigating once more. In the course of his search he finds evidence that casts serious doubt on the committee’s “lone-gunman” theory… A very bold film that basically told the “JFK” story thinly disguised as having taken place not in the US.
Read More »

Roberto Succo (2001) Cédric Kahn, Stefano Cassetti, Isild Le Besco, Patrick Dell’Isola, Biography, Crime, Drama

Roberto Succo (2001)
‘Kurt’ claims to be a sales rep. He also claims to be English in spite of his heavy Italian accent. Kurt is an habitual liar and a dangerous driver, at the very least. In the south of France he meets Léa, age 16. Between his increasingly strange dates with Léa, Kurt engages in a number of armed robberies, some successful, some not… The police are perplexed by a series of crimes including disappearances and a murder. They conclude that they are dealing with a madman… After he proposes, Léa breaks up with Kurt. The attempt to find a new girlfriend leads to a shooting by Kurt, now calling himself André. Léa’s information identifies Kurt/André as Roberto Succo, psychiatric patient and parental murderer. The police hunt for Roberto covers three countries.
Read More »

Le convoyeur / Cash Truck (2004) Nicolas Boukhrief, Albert Dupontel, Jean Dujardin, François Berléand, Drama, Thriller, Action

Le convoyeur (2004)
In France, the disturbed and mysterious Alexandre Demarre is hired as security guard for the Vigilante armored truck company earning 1,200 euros per month and lodges in a hotel nearby the company for 1,450 euros for a month. He becomes close to his colleagues, actually a group of losers, without motivation or perspective, paranoids, depressed and substances addicted men, and prepares a personal file with the profile of each one. Along the days, the real intentions of Alex in working at Vigilante are disclosed.
Read More »

Bellamy / Inspector Bellamy (2009) Claude Chabrol, Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Bellamy (2009)
As every year, chief inspector Paul Bellamy spends a few days with his wife Françoise in the family house in Nîmes. Jacques, Paul’s stepbrother, turns up unawares, which is bad news since the fellow is an alcoholic good for nothing. Also annoying is this stranger at bay who asks Bellamy for protection. Farewell peaceful holiday!
Read More »

Attention bandits! / Bandits (1986) Claude Lelouch, Jean Yanne, Marie-Sophie L., Patrick Bruel, Drama

Attention bandits! (1986)
On the day Jean Gabin dies, a kidnaper who also takes a fortune in jewels heisted from Cartiers murders Simon Verini’s wife. (Simon was fencing the jewels for a youthful gang who robbed Cartiers; he suspects them of the murder.) He’s framed for the theft and spends ten years in prison, writing to his daughter, Marie-Sophie, who’s 11 when he’s sent away. Released, he reconnects to Marie-Sophie and to the young thieves, seeks revenge, and is quickly arrested again. She doesn’t know what to make of her father, retreats to her Swiss fiancé, and is flummoxed when one of the young thieves falls for her. Is resolution possible when crime cuts across families and romance?
Read More »

L’assassin habite… au 21 / The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942) Henri-Georges Clouzot, Pierre Fresnay, Suzy Delair, Jean Tissier, Comedy, Mystery, Thriller

L'assassin habite... au 21 (1942)
Dapper Inspector Vorobechik (‘Wens’ for short) is assigned the case of a serial killer who leaves a calling card on his victims; Monsieur Durand. Wens’ mistress, struggling actress Mila Malou, determines to get publicity for herself by helping him. Learning that Durand is one of the eccentric tenants of a boarding house at No. 21 Avenue Junot, Wens takes a room in the guise of a Protestant minister; only to be followed by Mila who hardly seems like a minister’s wife!
Read More »

Thomas est amoureux / Thomas in Love (2000) Pierre-Paul Renders, Benoît Verhaert, Aylin Yay, Magali Pinglaut, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Thomas est amoureux (2000)
Thomas is a young agoraphobic man; he’s afraid of coming to any kind of contact with other people, so he lives totally isolated in his apartment. The story takes place in the near future where everything can be done through computers, so Thomas hasn’t left his apartment for eight straight years. However, although his life seems complete, he misses human contact, so his psychoanalyst consults him to meet a woman through some on-line service. Is it possible for Thomas to fall in love with a woman? And if so, is he going to get out of his apartment for that woman?
Read More »

Giovani mariti / Young Husbands (1958) Mauro Bolognini, Isabelle Corey, Antonio Cifariello, Franco Interlenghi, Comedy

Giovani mariti (1958)
The husbands in question rather casually enter into marriage, never intending true fidelity to their spouses. When they realize that they’re committed for life, our immature heroes return to their home town for one last fling. In the course of their final hours of bachelorhood, they come to the sobering conclusion that their carefree youth is not only past, it’s already long past. Somewhat reminiscent of Fellini’s I Vitelloni, Giovani Mariti boasts excellent performances from all concerned.
Read More »