Tag Archives: France

Syngué sabour, pierre de patience / The Patience Stone (2012) Atiq Rahimi, Golshifteh Farahani, Hamid Djavadan, Hassina Burgan, Drama, War

La Pierre de Patience
Author Atiq Rahimi’s adapts his own bestselling novel about a Muslim woman whose paralyzed husband unconsciously assumes the role of syngué sabour, which shields her from the sorrows of life in her war-torn village. Her unnamed Middle Eastern country caught up in the insurrection, the loyal, thirty-something wife faithfully sits watch over her vegetative husband, who has been all-but forgotten by his brothers and fellow Jihadists. Over time, she gathers the courage to tell her husband all of the things she had remained silent about during their 10 years of marriage. Throughout the course of their conversations, she speaks frankly of the disappointments, sorrows, and sacrifices that have made her life so difficult throughout the previous decade.
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La Facture (1975) Pierre Sabbagh, Viviane Gosset, Jean Barney, Jacqueline Maillan, Comedy

La Facture (1975)
Noëlle Alban est une femme à qui tout, depuis sa naissance, sourit. C’est une “chanceuse”, c’est une veinarde ; mais c’est une veinarde qui s’inquiète. Elle s’inquiète parce que, selon la “Théorie des Compensations” d’Azaïs, elle devra ensuite payer et supporter une égale période de malchance. Impressionnée par cette idée, Noëlle, pour se débarrasser de cette dette morale envers le destin, décide de se provoquer, à elle même, des ennuis. Mais elle échouera dans toutes ses tentatives et elle finira par se résigner au bonheur en pensant qu’elle le paiera, désormais, à chaque minute par peur de le perdre.
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Double Messieurs (1986) Yves Afonso, Carole Bouquet, Jean-François Stévenin, Drama, Comedy

Double Messieurs (1986)
After 25 years, François, a modest businessman, is reunited with his childhood friend Léo, a film double. It’s a reunion which affects both men profoundly, and immediately they discover their adolescent sense of fun. François proposes that they meet up with the third member of their childhood band, Kuntchinski. But when they break into the latter’s house, they are surprised by his wife, Hélène. Unsure what to do, François and Léo make a snap decision to fake an abduction. Hélène hasn’t any other plans, so she plays along with the kidnap…
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The Tenant / Le locataire (1976) Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Thriller, Drama

The Tenant (1976)
In Paris, the shy bureaucrat Trelkovsky rents an old apartment without bathroom where the previous tenant, the Egyptologist Simone Choule, committed suicide. The unfriendly concierge (Shelley Winters) and the tough landlord Mr. Zy establish stringent rules of behavior and Trelkovsky feels ridden by his neighbors. Meanwhile he visits Simone in the hospital and befriends her girlfriend Stella. After the death of Simone, Trelkovsky feels obsessed for her and believes his landlord and neighbors are plotting a scheme to force him to also commit suicide.
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The Stranger / Lo straniero (1967) Luchino Visconti, Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Karina, Bernard Blier, Drama

The Stranger (1967)
In an atmosphere of political tension when the French still control Algiers, an Algerian is killed on the beach and a French man who has lived in Algiers all his life is arrested for the murder. A trial takes place. One of the witnesses was at the funeral of Arthur Meursault’s mother. It bothers other mourners and Mersault himself that he showed no emotion when his mother died. His eventful day at the beach takes place a short time after the funeral when he is examining what his life has been and what path should he take in the future.
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The Witches / Le streghe (1967) Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Silvana Mangano, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Comedy, Drama, Romance

The Witches (1967)
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman’s honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he’s not as romantic as he used to be.
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Subway (1985) Luc Besson, Christopher Lambert, Isabelle Adjani, Richard Bohringer, Comedy, Drama, Thriller

Subway (Luc Besson, 1985)
Helena, the beautiful young wife of a wealthy businessman, invites a stranger Fred to her party. Fred repays her by stealing compromising documents from her husband’s safe, with the aim of blackmailing the couple. Pursued by police and the henchmen of Helena’s ruthless husband, Fred goes on the run, taking refuge in the Paris metro. Here, he meets other social misfits, including a roller-blader the police have been hunting for several months. Whilst Helena realises that she has fallen in love with Fred and makes every attempt to contact him, Fred occupies himself with forming a band by recruiting buskers. Meanwhile, the police and Helena’s husband are getting closer to their target…
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La rupture / The Breach (1970) Claude Chabrol, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Bouquet, Thriller, Drama

La Rupture
Hélène Régnier walks out on her drug-addicted husband Charles after he brutally attacks their infant son. She stays in a run-down hotel whilst her son convalesces in hospital and she files for divorce. Charles’s wealthy bourgeois father is adamant that Hélène will lose custody of her child and, to that end, he engages a former business associate of Charles, Paul Thomas, to discredit her. When Paul fails to uncover any incriminating evidence against Hélène he concocts a scheme that will destroy her reputation. Things do not go quite as planned…
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