Tag Archives: french

Une femme française / A French Woman (1995) Régis Wargnier, Emmanuelle Béart, Daniel Auteuil, Gabriel Barylli, Drama

Une femme francaise AKA A French Woman (1995)
Wed just as war breaks out, Jeanne hardly gets to know her military husband, Louis, before the debacle of 1940. While waiting for his return from a POW camp, Jeanne journeys through countless affairs with Louis’ comrades- in-arms. Hopiing to forget these wartime betrayls, Louis takes his wife and the infant twins he didn’t father to Berlin, where she falls for Matthais, a sensitive German industrialist. When the Indochinese war sends Louis to Vietnam, Matthais follows Jeanne back to France. A subsequent move to Damascus where Louis is posted as military attache, fails to break their bond.
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Je suis le seigneur du château / I’m the King of the Castle (1989) Régis Wargnier, Jean Rochefort, Dominique Blanc, Régis Arpin, Drama, Thriller

Je suis le seigneur du chateau AKA I'm the King of the Castle (1989)
Thomas is the 12-year-old son of a millionaire who lives in a big mansion surrounded by woods in France. When his mother dies, his father hires a widowed maid to take care of everything while he is away. The woman brings her only son, Charles, to live with them and, hopefully, be company to lonesome Thomas. The rich boy and the poor one become enemies from the very first encounter. Moved essentially by jealousy and fear, Thomas decides to turn Charles’ life into a hell on Earth, especially after their parents eventually fall in love. As the title suggests, he wants to make it clear to the invader who is the lord of the castle.
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Le silence de la mer (1949) Jean-Pierre Melville, Howard Vernon, Nicole Stéphane, Jean-Marie Robain, Drama, Romance, War

Le silence de la mer (1949)
1941 in a small town in Nazi occupied France. Against the will of its elderly male and his adult niece residents, the Nazis commandeer a house for one of their officers, Lt. Werner von Ebrennac, to live in for as long as he is in the area on Nazi business. As a figurative and literal silent protest against the Nazis and the officer, the uncle and niece do whatever is required of them while the officer is in their house, however they do not acknowledge his presence, living largely in silence whenever he is around. The officer treats the housing situation with care, like he is a guest. Although not a nightly occurrence, the officer begins an evening routine with his reluctant hosts: in his civilian clothes, he knocks on the door of the room in which they have convened for the evening, walking in shortly thereafter knowing that no acknowledgment will be made for him to enter, he visits with them for no more than five minutes before he bids them a good evening as he exits.
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Cet obscur objet du désir / That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) Luis Buñuel, Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, Ángela Molina, Comedy, Drama

Cet obscur objet du desir (1977)
Just after boarding a train, much to the surprise of his fellow passengers, a man pours a bucket of water over a young girl on the platform. Over the next few hours he explains (and we see in flashback) how he became obsessed by her (so much so that he failed to notice that she was played by two different actresses, representing different sides of her personality), and how she tantalised him, but would never allow him to satisfy his desire for her…
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Vendredi soir / Friday Night (2002) Claire Denis, Valérie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Hélène de Saint-Père, Drama, Romance

Vendredi soir (2002)
Having packed up her possessions to move in with her lover, Laure is more unsettled than she appears. Needing to get out and have a change of scenery, she jumps in her car to go to have dinner with friends–only to become stuck in a terrible traffic jam. Laure completely forgot about the mass transit strike that has thrown the city into chaos. But Laure feels good in her car, the only place she has for herself right now. As she takes in the sights and sounds around her–the blare of horns and arguments, the shimmer of lights and camaraderie–Laure notices a calm and self-assured stranger, Jean, approach her car. Soon thereafter, she opens her car door door to the man who–that night–will change her life.
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Un homme et une femme, 20 ans déjà / A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (1986) Claude Lelouch, Anouk Aimée, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Richard Berry, Drama, Romance

Un homme et une femme, 20 ans deja (1986)
Jean-Louis and Anne have had their fling and separated. Now 20 years have passed. He is still dating various women. She is now a big time director whose most recent film was a very expensive bomb. She comes up with the idea of making a romance based upon her fling with Jean-Louis. She contacts him to gain his permission. Jean-Louis is still in racing and goes away for a desert rally while she begins filming. She finds the mood of their romance difficult to recapture in her film.
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Le Journal intime d’une nymphomane / Diary of a Nymphomaniac (1973) Jesús Franco, Howard Vernon, Doris Thomas, Anne Libert, Thriller, Exploitation, Drama, Erotic

Le Journal intime d'une nymphomane AKA Diary of a Nymphomaniac (1973)
Linda Vargas picks up Ortiz in a bar where she works in a lesbian show with Maria Toledano. She seduces him, phones the police and kills herself. Ortiz is held on suspicion of her murder. Ortiz’s wife, Rosa, visits a friend of Linda’s, the Countess Anna de Monterey who tells her how Linda went into a spiral of sex and drugs after being assaulted by Ortiz as a young girl at a fair-ground. Linda became the Countess’s lover, then had a disastrous love affair with Alberto, the Countess’ boyfriend. Rosa also meets Maria, who holds Linda’s diary, where she relates how a fake Doctor turned her away from drugs and into a nymphomaniac.
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La Controverse de Valladolid / The Controversy of Valladolid (1992) Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Carmet, Drama

La Controverse de Valladolid AKA The Controversy of Valladolid (1992)
Spain conquered the seas, found a new world and different realities than the one known in Europe. But a question needed to be answered with what they found in those new territories: do the Indians have souls? The Church, bound to protect and convert the natives and the conquerors who treated them like slaves and thought they were only merchandising, expose their arguments and reasonings at what would be known as the Vallidolid controversy. Between them, there’s a cardinal hearing both parts and trying to get reasonable answers from this critical question.
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Swann In Love / Un amour de Swann (1984) Volker Schlöndorff, Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti, Alain Delon, Drama, Romance

Swann In Love (1984)
Elegant and educated bachelor, Charles Swann, moves in the most powerful and fashionable circles of Paris in the 1890’s. When he falls in love with Odette de Crecy, a courtesan, his friends warn him against marriage. Proving himself a silly and socially-foul goose, Swann ducks his social responsibilities, Odette ensnares him, and he is gently but firmly cast out of society amidst everyone’s great politeness.
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Roman de gare / Crossed Tracks (2007) Claude Lelouch, Fanny Ardant, Dominique Pinon, Audrey Dana, Drama

Roman de gare (2007)
The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?
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Les misérables (1995) Claude Lelouch, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Martines, Drama, History

Les miserables (1995)
Henri Fortin is poor and iliterate former boxer. Ziman is rich Jewish lawyer from Paris. During WWII they meet when Fortin agrees to drive Ziman’s family to Switzerland. Intrigued by Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Miserables”, Fortin asks the Zimans to read that book to him during the travel. Before the end of movie every main character would see his character in situations similar to those in Hugo’s novel.
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Un soir, un train / One Night… a Train (1968) André Delvaux, Yves Montand, Anouk Aimée, Adriana Bogdan, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

Un soir, un train (1968)
Mathias is a Belgian linguist, living with French theatre producer Anne. After a quarrel about moral questions, they take a train to attend a congress. While Mathias sleeps, Anne disappears. The train stops in the middle of the country and Mathias gets off the train with an older man, Hernhutter, and a young one, Val. The train moves off without them being able to catch it up. They will find a village, but cannot get any help because they do not understand a word of what the inhabitants say…
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