When Jake LaMotta steps into a boxing ring and obliterates his opponent, he’s a prizefighter. But when he treats his family and friends the same way, he’s a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any moment.
Read More »
Tag Archives: french
Marius (1931) Alexander Korda, Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin, Comedy, Drama, Romance
César runs a bar along Marseilles’ port, assisted by his 23 year old son, Marius. Colorful characters abound: M. Panisse, an aging widower and prosperous sail maker; Honorine, a fishmonger with a sidewalk stall near the bar; her daughter, Fanny, who helps her sell cockles; and, various old salts.
Read More »
François Premier / Francis the First (1937) Christian-Jaque, Fernandel, Mona Goya, Alexandre Rignault, Comedy
Honorin (Fernandel) is the simple and naive stage manager of a traveling theatre troupe, whose one ambition is to once play the role of the cavalier in the opera “Francis I, or the Loves of the Beautiful Ferroniere”.
Read More »
Le rapport Darty (1989) Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville, Politics, Philosophy
A daring deconstruction of consumerist behaviour featuring a robot and Miss Clio Darty, with a voiceover by Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville, this philosophical “report,” like so many of Godard’s commissions, was rejected by its funders.
Read More »
La captive du désert / Captive of the Desert (1990) Raymond Depardon, Sandrine Bonnaire, Dobi Koré, Fadi Taha, Drama
Based on the ordeal of Francoise Claustre, who was taken hostage by the Toubous, a nomadic tribe in the African desert.
Read More »
Hair Under the Roses AKA Du poil sous les roses (2000) Jean-Julien Chervier, Agnès Obadia, Julie Durand, Alexis Roucout, Alice Houri
Roudoudou, 14, is deeply in love. She makes a secret wish : to have big tits like her mother. Read More »
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955) Charles Lamont, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marie Windsor, Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is the last of the team’s vehicles for Universal-International. Stranded in Egypt, Bud and Lou hire themselves out as travelling companions to archeologist Kurt Katch. Before long, Katch is murdered by a group of cultists, and a medallion, embossed with a map which leads to a sacred burial site, is accidentally swallowed by Costello. The boys become the unwilling pawns of the cultists, led by Richard Deacon, and a greedy adventuress, played by Marie Windsor. The last scene finds Costello being menaced by three mummies, two of them bogus.
Read More »
The Age of Ignorance / L’âge des ténèbres (2007) Denys Arcand, Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger, Sylvie Léonard, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Jean-Marc is a man without qualities living in times that are out of joint. His wife and children ignore him; he’s a mid-level civil servant in Montreal doing his job without care.
Read More »
Inch’Allah dimanche (2001) Yamina Benguigui, Fejria Deliba, Rabia Mokeddem, Amina Annabi, Biography, Drama
The story of an immigrant woman struggling against old world traditions. Zouina leaves her homeland with her three children to join her husband in France, where he’s been living for the past ten years.
Read More »
Les quatre cents coups / The 400 Blows (1959) François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Claire Maurier, Albert Rémy, Guy Decomble, Crime, Drama
Seemingly in constant trouble at school, 14 year-old Antoine Doinel returns at the end of every day to a drab and unhappy home life. His parents have little money and he sleeps on a couch that’s been pushed into the kitchen. He knows his mother is having an affair and his parents bicker constantly. Read More »