One of the world's most influential filmmakers and a leadign figure of the Nouvelle Vague movement of the 60's, Jean-Luc Godard's works have trnasformed the face of cinema. 'Weekend' remains one of the most legendary, audacious and acclaimed films of his distinguished career. It follows a bickering, scheming, bourgeois couple who leave Paris for the French countryside to claim an inheritance by nefarious means. Almost immediately, they become entangled in a cataclysmic traffic jam, which is just the beginning of a journey fraught with violent and dangerous encounters: rape, murder, pillage and even cannibalism. Famed for its virtuoso cinematography - including a stunning ten-minute tracking shot - Godard's dystopian road movie is a ferocious attack on consumerism
See How They Fall
In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.
A stunning TV weathergirl (played by Ludivine Sagnier) finds herself torn between two suitors whose intentions remain very unclear
A lonely schoolteacher (Audran) develops an inexplicable attraction toward an ex-army butcher (Yanne) who may or may not be a serial killer plaguing a small town... Drawing on Hitchockian themes of exchanged guilt and shared secrets writer/director Claude Chabrol constructs an extraordinary relationship between the two characters that marries unspoken self-awareness with constant suspense over the unresolved nature of their bond.
Rare is the film in movie-history that can announce the entire movement of it's 'plot' with its title alone. But Pialat's second feature Nous Ne Viellirons Pas Ensemble does exactly that encapsulating all the turmoil and the final end-point of a couple who among themselves once made a commitment - and living together will come to make another one yet. Jean (Jeane Yanne of Godard's Weekend) and Catherine (Marlene Jobert of Godard's Masculin Feminin) are the couple whose every move charts an advancement deeper into an emotional warzone. Theirs is the classic and the tragic case of an emotional abuse centered around a perplexing but powerful interdependency. At last the point arrives that determines the relationship with all its weekend holidays its apologies and submissions can go no further - and in a final shot of genius Pialat discloses all the ways in which the future might be at once liberated and enslaved by the past. Based on a novel by Pialat himself and on the trauma of his own personal life in the years leading up to the film Nous Ne Viellirons Pas Ensemble was a smash-hit at the time of its release - and yet is arguably one of the most upsetting films ever made.
An elegiac road movie from Pascal Bonitzer 'Petites Coupures' tells the story of Bruno a communist newspaper journalist suffering a mid-life crisis. Torn between his wife Galle and his young girlfriend Nathalie his political beliefs battered by the wind of history Bruno seems to have lost his bearings. After responding to a call for help from his uncle who is fighting a losing battle for re-election as the communist mayor of a small town near Grenoble Bruno gets lost in a dark
Indochine
Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardour undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this wilfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. The film is in French with English subtitles. --Andrew Wright
Winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film in 1992, Indochine is a vast, panoramic love story set in the twilight years of French Indo-China. Comparisons with David Lean are inevitable, considering director Régis Wargnier's use of the setting as a backdrop to the love-triangle between the three main characters. Catherine Deneuve gives a strong, emotionally restrained performance as Eliane, the plantation owner whose colonial paradise is slowly falling apart. Vincent Perez is magnetic yet thoughtful as the young officer Jean-Baptiste, complemented by Jean Yanne's dry cynicism as the Chief of Police knowingly fighting a losing battle for French culture. Linh Dan Pham is affecting as Camille, Eliane's adopted daughter whose journey from aristocratic ancestry to Marxist induction personifies the changing face of South-East Asia in the period around World War Two. Patrick Doyle's score reinforces the expressive sweep of the direction and "orientalisms!" are kept to a minimum. On the DVD The 16:9 wide-screen format reproduces best in the domestic scenes, and there are 30 individual chapter points, detailed in the interactive moving menu. The disc also has detailed filmographies for the main cast and director, including an entertaining "gossip" file for Deneuve. English subtitles are optional. A half-hour location report would have been worthwhile, but overall this is a persuasive presentation of one of the few genuine historical-romantic epics of the 1990s. --Richard Whitehouse
Director Claude Chabrol crafts a claustrophobic and psychologically complex tale of destiny and revenge in This Man Must Die. The film begins with a birds-eye view of a young boy leaving a seaside beach and a speeding black Mustang approaching from the opposite direction. When the two collide in a hit-and-run accident the movie's action is set in motion. The boy's father Charles (Michel Duchaussoy) makes a solemn vow to find and kill the man who ended his son's life. Through a bizarre series of hunches coincidences and lucky guesses Charles tracks down Helene (Carol Cellier) the sister-in-law of the man he suspects is the killer and begins to seduce her in order to insinuate himself into her family life. When he finally comes face to face with Helene's brother-in-law Paul (Jean Yanne) he finds himself unable to act despite the man's monstrous behaviour and callous attitude. When Charles realizes that Paul's son Phillippe (Marc Di Napoli) wishes his father dead as well the forces of destiny and revenge collide. Chabrol's dense and carefully crafted narrative structure explodes in an unexpected and exhilarating chain of events leading to a cathartic and disastrous climax all portrayed through subtly evocative cinematography and terse performances. Decades later the film inspired Sean Penn's similarly themed The Crossing Guard.
Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardour undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this wilfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. The film is in French with English subtitles. --Andrew Wright
Floating Weeds (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1959): Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devastating revenge. Beautifully composed and surperbly played 'Floating Weeds' is one of Ozu's most affecting poignant and powerful films. The End Of Summer (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1961): This penultimate film by Japanese master director Yasujiro Ozu examines the difficulties faced by the Kohayagawa family as they struggle to adapt their traditional values to a rapidly changing post-war Japan. As the family's generations-old sake making business begins to fail in the face of increasingly fierce competition Manbei the incorrigible elderly patriarch rekindles an affair with an old flame much to the disapproval of his daughter Fumiko. He is further distracted by his attempts to marry off his other two daughters: Akiko the eldest and a widow with a small son and Noriko the youngest who is still single. A sublime bittersweet elegy for a vanishing world The End of Summer is beautifully shot in muted colour elegantly acted and masterfully directed by one of the 20th Century's greatest filmmakers. The Lady of Musashino (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1951): Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period... The Life of Oharu (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1952): In feudal Japan the daughter of a samurai Oharu falls in love with a man below her station. Expelled from the castle in Kyoto her family tries to regain respectability but Oharu is forced into a new life as a concubine and then a fallen woman ever hoping to preserve some semblance of purity in a corrupt world...
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A bickering scheming bourgeois couple leave Paris for the French countryside to fraudulently claim an inheritance. Almost immediately they become entangled in a cataclysmic traffic jam which is just the beginning of a journey fraught with violent and dangerous encounters: rape murder pillage and even cannibalism! Famed for its virtuoso cinemtography including an unbroken ten minute tracking shot Godard's dystopian road movie is a ferocious attack on consumerism.
One of the world's most influential filmmakers and a leadign figure of the Nouvelle Vague movement of the 60's, Jean-Luc Godard's works have trnasformed the face of cinema. 'Weekend' remains one of the most legendary, audacious and acclaimed films of his distinguished career. It follows a bickering, scheming, bourgeois couple who leave Paris for the French countryside to claim an inheritance by nefarious means. Almost immediately, they become entangled in a cataclysmic traffic jam, which is just the beginning of a journey fraught with violent and dangerous encounters: rape, murder, pillage and even cannibalism. Famed for its virtuoso cinematography - including a stunning ten-minute tracking shot - Godard's dystopian road movie is a ferocious attack on consumerism.
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