
Hello, my name is Anna and I am nine years old. I wish you had known me before – I mean before my aunt Marga and my cousin Pilar came to my parents’house -, I was such a happy little girl. Before their coming life was a bed of roses. Of course my little brother could be a pain in the neck – little brothers always are, aren’t they? – but there was that wonderful big house, there was my Cuban-born nanny who cooked so well, there was the bath before dinner, not to mention this wonderful catechism class at the catholic school. But they did come, those Spanish intruders. And now never heard before names like “Franco”, “Allende”, “Women’s Lib”, “abortion”, the lot, have got into my life. Daddy and Mummy have suddenly become “communists”, although this a term that Bon Papa and Bonne Maman (my grandparents from Bordeaux, in fact) just hate. Because of the intruders not only did we move to a tiny apartment but the place is invaded day and night by “barbudos” (bearded men). No more bath before …
Read More »
Tag Archives: France
La vallée close / The Enclosed Valley (1995) Jean-Claude Rousseau, Documentary

My films are like that: in a room, but looking out onto an open sky. I can’t really say it except to repeat that Bresson note, ‘that without a thing changing, everything is different.’ The film exists. The fiction is set up, and we believe in it. The justness of the agreement leads us to believe it, because everything plays equally at being a sign.
Read More »
D’homme à hommes / Man to Men (1948) Christian-Jaque, Jean-Louis Barrault, Bernard Blier, Hélène Perdrière, Biography, Drama, War

The story of the Swiss soldier, Henri Dunant (Jean-Louis Barrault), who was responsible for the founding of the Red Cross, and who was offered the first Nobel Peace Prize.
Read More »
Bizarre (2015) Étienne Faure, Pierre Prieur, Adrian James, Raquel Nave, Drama, Musical, Romance

Maurice is a French teenager who escaped France and begins working at a hype club in Brooklyn called BIZARRE. He quickly becomes a sort of ‘mascot’ of this incredible club.The owner and the artists that perform there love him, but Maurice can’t love…because of the past…and his secrets.
Read More »
The Golden Bowl (2000) James Ivory, Uma Thurman, Jeremy Northam, Kate Beckinsale, Drama, Romance

Adam Verver, a US billionaire in London, dotes on daughter Maggie, an innocent abroad. An impecunious Italian, Prince Amerigo, marries her even though her best friend, Charlotte Stant, an alabaster beauty with brains, no money, and a practical and romantic nature, is his lover. She and Amerigo keep it secret from Maggie that they know each other, so Maggie interests her widowed father in Charlotte, who is happy with the match because she wants to be close to Amerigo. Charlotte desires him, the lovers risk discovery, Amerigo longs for Italy, Maggie wants to spare her father pain, and Adam wants to return to America to build a museum. Amidst lies and artifice, what fate awaits adulterers?
Read More »
Le Plaisir (et ses petits tracas) (1998) Nicolas Boukhrief, Mathieu Kassovitz, Vincent Cassel, Julie Gayet, Drama

“Pleasure (and its little inconveniences)” In Europe today, as chance, deceits and desires run their course, the army conscript meets the nurse, the nurse gets back together with the comedian, the comedian meets the married woman, the married woman gets back together with the VIP, the VIP meets the mad dog, the mad dog gets back together with his old friend Loulou and Loulou, naturally, meets Jack the Ripper…
Read More »
1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) Ridley Scott, Gérard Depardieu, Armand Assante, Sigourney Weaver, Adventure, Biography, Drama

Big budget account of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the Americas. Released in 1992 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery. Shows the disastrous effects the Europeans had on the original inhabitants, and Columbus’ struggle to civilize the New World.
Read More »
De Mayerling à Sarajevo / From Mayerling to Sarajevo (1940) Max Ophüls, Edwige Feuillère, John Lodge, Aimé Clariond, Drama

In the late 1800’s, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls for Sophie Chotek, a Czech countess. He’s already a problem to the Crown because of his political ideas; this love affair with someone not of royal blood breeches protocol. The Crown allows the union only after the couple agrees to a morganatic marriage. The emperor further neutralizes Franz by making him inspector general of the army, sending him afield for months at a time. In June of 1914, fearing for his safety, Sophie seeks permission to accompany Franz to Sarajevo; protocol dictates that no army troops attend Franz while she is present. An assassin strikes. Their deaths spark World War I.
Read More »
John From (2015) João Nicolau, Julia Palha, Clara Riedenstein, Filipe Vargas, Drama

Bored by spending the summer in the city, 15-year-old Rita decides to take a fancy to her new neighbor, a photographer who is setting up an exhibit of his shots in Melanesia. What starts as a game turns into a blazing crush and Rita can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy anymore.
Read More »
Gibraltar / It Happened in Gibraltar (1938) Fyodor Otsep, Roger Duchesne, Erich von Stroheim, Viviane Romance, Drama, War

In 1938, in Gibraltar to infiltrate terrorists who sabotage the boats with troups which should sail to Palestine, a British officer poses as a traitor… The pulpy Mercedes (Viviane Romance), a dancer in a seedy cabaret of Tangier “who draws men like light attracts butterflies…” is spying on behalf of the mysterious Marson interpreted masterfully by Erich Von Stroheim.
Read More »