
Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time. However, (almost) nobody listens to him, so the catastrophe goes on…
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Tag Archives: France
Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie / The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel, Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Comedy

Several bourgeois friends planning to get together for dinner experience a succession of highly unusual occurrences that interfere with their expected dining enjoyment.
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Madame Sans Gêne / Madame (1961) Christian-Jaque, Sophia Loren, Robert Hossein, Renaud Mary, Comedy, Drama, Romance, War

Catherine, an out-spoken Parisian laundress follows Napoleon’s army to the battlefront to be near her Sergeant Lefevre. The couple perform a deed of heroism which abets Napoleon’s victory, so that after the war the grateful Emperor bestows on the now married couple the title of Duke and Duchess. Catherine squabbles with Napoleon’s haughty sisters, scandalizes the nobility with her lack of courtly manners, flirts with the men – and consistently creates havoc as she remains true to her earthy background.
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Les anges exterminateurs / The Exterminating Angels (2006) Jean-Claude Brisseau, Frédéric van den Driessche, Maroussia Dubreuil, Lise Bellynck, Drama, Fantasy, Erotic

François is a film-maker, usually impassive and without affect. He’s making a film about women’s pleasure as they transgress taboos. He doesn’t know that two fallen angels who’ve been sent to upend him are manipulating his interest. He interviews young women, video tapes screen tests, and selects several for the film. The erotic scenes with them generate off-screen dynamics that may overwhelm the project. His wife is at first ignorant of his venture, then she’s put off, and then becomes his assistant. The fallen angels are always close at hand: is François’s ruin inevitable?
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A l’aventure (2008) Jean-Claude Brisseau, Carole Brana, Arnaud Binard, Nadia Chibani, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Erotic

Fed up with her present lifestyle, and more particularly sexually unsatisfied by her boyfriend Fred, Sandrine decides to find a new way in life. Intrigued by her friend Sophie, who tells her about her sexual experimentations, she will find, through various encounters, new pleasures and new experiences, whether physical or spiritual.
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Phaedra (1962) Jules Dassin, Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Drama

The powerful Greek shipowner and constructor Thanos proposes to marry Phaedra during the baptism of a ship with her name. Phaedra, who is the daughter of Thanos’greatest competitor, is a bored woman and has a son from her first marriage. Thanos gives an expensive ring to Phaedra and soon he learns that his estranged son from his first marriage, Alexis, has left the University of Economics in London to dedicate to paint. Thanos asks Phaedra to travel to London to bring Alexis to meet him in Greece. When Phaedra meets Alexis, she falls in love with her stepson and seduces him. Their doomed love affair leads the family to a tragedy.
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La confusion des genres / Confusion of Genders (2000) Ilan Duran Cohen, Pascal Greggory, Nathalie Richard, Julie Gayet, Comedy, Romance, Drama

No wonder Bisexual Attorney Alain is confused. He’s bedding his female boss, his guilty of murder client, the client’s hairdresser girlfriend and a precocious boy who knows what he wants and tries to convince Alain that ‘he can have it all’.
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Quicksand (2003) John Mackenzie, Michael Keaton, Michael Caine, Judith Godrèche, Drama, Crime, Thriller

The workaholic head of the compliance section of a New York bank flies to Monaco to investigate unusual deposits from an offshore bank and meets a down-on-his-luck international film star who has become embroiled in criminal activities.
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Factotum (2005) Bent Hamer, Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Self-declared aspiring writer Hank Chinaski has neither qualifications, ambition nor ethics. Any dead-end job he lands is soon lost through laziness or mischief. His relationship with fellow deadbeat Jan gets strained to crisis through her insecurity, so he even gives up betting on horses which brought in easy money.
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Departure (2015) Andrew Steggall, Juliet Stevenson, Alex Lawther, Phénix Brossard, Drama, Family, Romance

An English mother and teenage son spend a week in the South of France breaking up a summer home that has become one of the casualties of the boy’s parents’ crumbling marriage. Matters only become more complicated when an enigmatic local boy enters their lives.
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