
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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Tag Archives: Italy
The Witches / Le streghe (1967) Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Silvana Mangano, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Comedy, Drama, Romance

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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Day of Anger / I giorni dell’ira (1967) Tonino Valerii, Giuliano Gemma, Lee Van Cleef, Walter Rilla, Western

Amiable, unassertive Scott Mary picks up the trash, cleans the toilets, sweeps the floors in the town of Clifton. Then a gunfighter comes to town. He offers advice and guidance to Scott who quickly begins to toughen and mature, thus upsetting the balance of power in the town.
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La rupture / The Breach (1970) Claude Chabrol, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Bouquet, Thriller, Drama

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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MADO (1976) Claude Sautet, Michel Piccoli, Ottavia Piccolo, Jacques Dutronc, Drama

Middle-aged businessman Simon Léotard finds his future in jeopardy when his partner Julien commits suicide after having accumulated a mass of debts. Simon’s unscrupulous business rival Lépidon offers to save him from bankruptcy by buying his company, at a discount rate. Reluctant to fall into Lépidon’s trap, Simon decides to resolve the crisis himself. A prostitute, Mado, provides him with the solution to his problems…
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Docteur Popaul / Scoundrel in White (1972) Claude Chabrol, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Mia Farrow, Laura Antonelli, Comedy

Dr Paul Simay is a lady’s man who claims to prefer ugly women. He makes his point by winning a bet that he can sleep with the most ugly women in a year. He therefore has no qualms about marrying Christine, a paraplegic with buck-teeth, especially when her father is a wealthy doctor who can advance his career. His views change when he meets Christine’s beautiful sister, Martine. When she realises that Paul has been cheating on her and has given her sister a child, Christine decides to extract a cruel revenge…
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Fait d’hiver (1999) Robert Enrico, Charles Berling, Claude Brasseur, Jean-François Stévenin, Drama

A la fin d’un week-end, Louis Riquier, père divorcé refuse de rendre ses enfants à leur mère. Armé, barricadé dans sa maison, il tient tête à un escadron de gendarmerie. Les médias s’emparent de l’affaire, la tension monte et la situation s’envenime. Riquier menace de tuer ses enfants…
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Beat the Devil (1953) John Huston, Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Action, Adventure, Comedy

A quartet of international crooks – Peterson, O’Hara, Ross and Ravello – is stranded in Italy while their steamer is being repaired. With them are the Dannreuthers. The six are headed for Africa, presumably to sell vacuum cleaners but actually to buy land supposedly loaded with uranium. They are joined by others who apparently have similar designs.
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Les Biches / Bad Girls (1968) Claude Chabrol, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacqueline Sassard, Stéphane Audran, Drama

Frédérique is a rich and beautiful woman who picks up a female street artist called “Why”. It is December and they go to her villa in Saint Tropez, which is inhabited by a couple of odd gay men. Both women fall for the local architect Paul Thomas. However Why says that she is not interested in him, so Frédérique invites him to move into the villa.
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Requiescant (1967) Carlo Lizzani, Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Western

In the post-Civil War West, a young boy is rescued from a massacre by Protestants who instill the value of pacifism in the young boy. But it’s only when he chases after his missing step-sister that he discovers a skill for gunslinging, takes on the name Requiscant, and re-enters the world of violence denied to him as a child. This spaghetti Western also includes a cameo from director Pier Paolo Pasolini as a renegade priest.
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