A car crash provokes a torrent of toxic masculinity, but this strange film is neither surreal nor psychologically insightful enough
Adapted from a play by Terry Hughes, this pent-up and then purgatively violent drama revolves around an offscreen car accident that sends a handful of characters colliding into each other. Clearly already dancing a miserable tango of abuse, Nicole (Olivia Bonamy) and Steve (Ben Cura) come home to their isolated house in the country, decorated in shades of taupe, grey and plum to match Nicole’s bruises, after Steve runs over a stranger on the road on the way home from a party. Though he was driving and chose to leave the scene of the crime, he still blames Nicole for distracting him with an argument. As this display of toxic masculinity approaches its full operatic pitch, suddenly there’s someone at the door: policeman (Samuel West), all creepy chirpy banter,...
Adapted from a play by Terry Hughes, this pent-up and then purgatively violent drama revolves around an offscreen car accident that sends a handful of characters colliding into each other. Clearly already dancing a miserable tango of abuse, Nicole (Olivia Bonamy) and Steve (Ben Cura) come home to their isolated house in the country, decorated in shades of taupe, grey and plum to match Nicole’s bruises, after Steve runs over a stranger on the road on the way home from a party. Though he was driving and chose to leave the scene of the crime, he still blames Nicole for distracting him with an argument. As this display of toxic masculinity approaches its full operatic pitch, suddenly there’s someone at the door: policeman (Samuel West), all creepy chirpy banter,...
- 2/24/2021
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
For the next three months, join me for a summer abroad, as I check out foreign films from countries that have made a big splash in the horror community. Of course, in the spirit of this column, I’ll be taking a peek at movies that may not be as well-known as some of the classics from their particular country. Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to find a few surprises together.
June is here and we have just passed the summer solstice, so the days are long and the sun is warm. I would imagine that means you are craving a movie that will leave you curled up in a ball weeping into clenched fists right about now. Well, you’re in luck, because our first stop on this summer tour is France. Now, you may be thinking, Since when is France depressing? It’s the land of smoking in outdoor cafés,...
June is here and we have just passed the summer solstice, so the days are long and the sun is warm. I would imagine that means you are craving a movie that will leave you curled up in a ball weeping into clenched fists right about now. Well, you’re in luck, because our first stop on this summer tour is France. Now, you may be thinking, Since when is France depressing? It’s the land of smoking in outdoor cafés,...
- 6/27/2018
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
English language film has long been a place for some of the greatest horror film directors of all time. All the way back to Alfred Hitchcock, we have seen the genre grow and develop sub-genres, thanks to the public’s ongoing thirst for fear and the possibility of danger around every turn. But, for every Saw or Hostel or terrible remake of classic English-language horror films, there are inventive, terrifying films made somewhere else that inspire and even outdo many of our best Western world horror films. This list will count down the fifty definitive horror films with a main language that isn’t English; some may have some English-language parts in them, but they are, for the most part, foreign. Enlighten yourself. Broaden your horizons. People can get murdered and tortured in every language.
50. Kuroneko (1968)
English Title: Black Cat
Directed by: Kaneto Shindo
Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...
50. Kuroneko (1968)
English Title: Black Cat
Directed by: Kaneto Shindo
Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...
- 10/23/2015
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
English language film has long been a place for some of the greatest horror film directors of all time. All the way back to Alfred Hitchcock, we have seen the genre grow and develop sub-genres, thanks to the public’s ongoing thirst for fear and the possibility of danger around every turn. But, for every Saw or Hostel or terrible remake of classic English-language horror films, there are inventive, terrifying films made somewhere else that inspire and even outdo many of our best Western world horror films. This list will count down the fifty definitive horror films with a main language that isn’t English; some may have some English-language parts in them, but they are, for the most part, foreign. Enlighten yourself. Broaden your horizons. People can get murdered and tortured in every language.
50. Kuroneko (1968)
English Title: Black Cat
Directed by: Kaneto Shindo
Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...
50. Kuroneko (1968)
English Title: Black Cat
Directed by: Kaneto Shindo
Japanese for “Black Cat,” Kuroneko is...
- 7/7/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
It’s that wonderful, frightful, cool and creepy time of year again, when everything including the leaves on the trees are dying and our taste buds are craving sugary sweets and pies made from the guts of our jack-o-lanterns. It’s October, which means Halloween is nearly upon us! Get you costumes completed, your home haunts constructed and your candy collected for trick’r treaters, because you have to make time to watch some of the scariest movies this time of year.
In an effort to assist you in your cinematic scare-fest, we’ve come up with a list of the scariest movies to watch on Halloween… with one caveat. We have excluded virtually all “slasher” flicks. Why? Well, let’s just say we all know them, we all love them on some level, but really… don’t we all want something more in our scary movies? In honor of...
In an effort to assist you in your cinematic scare-fest, we’ve come up with a list of the scariest movies to watch on Halloween… with one caveat. We have excluded virtually all “slasher” flicks. Why? Well, let’s just say we all know them, we all love them on some level, but really… don’t we all want something more in our scary movies? In honor of...
- 10/30/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
As he takes another step towards international stardom in a new thriller, Romain Duris talks about his painting, changes in French morality and why he won't have a television in the house
Romain Duris thinks a lot is explained by the fact that he is the youngest of three children. Growing up in Paris, he was, he says, always competing for the attention of his architect father and dancer mother. "That's why I make so much noise," he explains, smiling broadly and jiggling his legs like an energetic toddler. "I wanted them to know I existed." He laughs, then his voice rises and he makes a great show of thumping the cafe table in a parody of anger. "I needed them to know I was there!" And now? "I am still a child," he admits. "I have to keep playing."
It is no coincidence, he says, that in his native...
Romain Duris thinks a lot is explained by the fact that he is the youngest of three children. Growing up in Paris, he was, he says, always competing for the attention of his architect father and dancer mother. "That's why I make so much noise," he explains, smiling broadly and jiggling his legs like an energetic toddler. "I wanted them to know I existed." He laughs, then his voice rises and he makes a great show of thumping the cafe table in a parody of anger. "I needed them to know I was there!" And now? "I am still a child," he admits. "I have to keep playing."
It is no coincidence, he says, that in his native...
- 7/17/2011
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
The 2000's—the decade of iPods, social networking websites and economic hardship—were an interesting decade for horror movies, to say the least. You either loved them, or you downright hated them. From remakes, re-imaginings, reboots, restarts and resets to foreign imports to a resurgence of low-grade schlock, the 2000's were not without gore for fans across the globe....
At the end of the 90s, horror movies were almost non-existent. They were doing nothing new—trying only to steal the fame that Scream harnessed in 1995. Theatres were flooded with neo-Slasher knockoffs, and mediocrity ran amok. If it weren’t for The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, the 90s would have drowned in a sea of its own plainness. Once the 90s ended and the new millennium began, horror slowly glided on the watered-down plotlines of the should-not-be-classics of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend,...
At the end of the 90s, horror movies were almost non-existent. They were doing nothing new—trying only to steal the fame that Scream harnessed in 1995. Theatres were flooded with neo-Slasher knockoffs, and mediocrity ran amok. If it weren’t for The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense, the 90s would have drowned in a sea of its own plainness. Once the 90s ended and the new millennium began, horror slowly glided on the watered-down plotlines of the should-not-be-classics of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend,...
- 12/13/2009
- by admin
- Horrorbid
PARIS -- MR 73 is the third in a trilogy of police thrillers that Olivier Marchal began in 2002 with Gangsters and followed up two years later with Department 36. It also is far and away the darkest of the three movies. While its resolutely dour tone and downbeat ending might deter younger spectators, the convincing portrayal of a cop at the end of his tether should pay off handsomely with mature audiences in many territories.
The announcement that serial killer Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon) is to be released early for good behavior unleashes old demons for his arresting officer Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) at a time when he is struggling to cope with more recent demons -- among them deep pangs of guilt incurred when his wife suffered debilitating Brain Damage in a car crash while he was enjoying a fling with his police colleague Marie (Catherine Marchal).
Complicating matters, a new spate of killings -- clearly the work of another serial killer -- has broken out. Meanwhile, Justine (Olivia Bonamy), the daughter of one of Subra's victims 25 years earlier, writes to Subra in prison and then makes contact with Louis.
As a police detective, Louis is not so much hard-bitten as chewed up and spat out. He is first seen slumped drunk in a bus that he then proceeds to hijack for the hell of it. Asked by a psychiatrist whether he believes in God, he replies that the deity "is a son of a bitch, and one day I'm going to kill him." He's rarely without a bottle close at hand, and it always appears to be three days since his last shave. He inflames relations with his superior Kovalski (Francis Renaud) by joining the investigation into the latest killings, then he assaults him.
In an opening title, Marchal informs spectators that the film is based on a true story. The director, an ex-cop, has hinted that the movie is a transposition of events that caused him to leave the police 15 years ago. But the story of MR 73 is best seen simply as a peg on which Marchal hangs his depiction of a burned-out cop, superbly assisted by Auteuil.
The weakness of the plotting is more than compensated by the strength of the performances and the splendor of the visuals. Rarely has the Mediterranean port of Marseille, where the action is set, appeared so bleak onscreen. The sun is banished to the margins in a succession of night scenes, murky interiors and washed-out colors that provide a fitting setting for a world without redemption.
Marchal arguably overplays the religious connotations (his CV includes a spell spent at a Jesuit school), and the movie's resolution -- in which a Manurhin MR 73 handgun plays a key role -- is too pat. But for all its faults, MR 73 is a powerful piece of filmmaking that marks out its director as a distinctive voice making a personal statement about the more troubling aspects of crime and punishment.
MR 73
LGM Films, Gaumont, TF1 Films Production, Medusa Film
Sales agent: Gaumont
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Olivier Marchal
Producers: Cyril Colbeau-Justin, Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Franck Chorot
Executive producer: David Giordano
Director of photography: Denis Rouden
Production designer: Ambre Sansonetti
Costume designer: Marie-Laure Lasson
Music: Bruno Coulais
Editor: Raphaele Urtin
Cast:
Louis Schneider: Daniel Auteuil
Justine: Olivia Bonamy
Marie Angeli: Catherine Marchal
Kovalski: Francis Renaud
Mateo: Gerald Laroche
Jumbo: Guy Lecluyse
Subra: Philippe Nahon
Running time -- 124 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The announcement that serial killer Charles Subra (Philippe Nahon) is to be released early for good behavior unleashes old demons for his arresting officer Louis Schneider (Daniel Auteuil) at a time when he is struggling to cope with more recent demons -- among them deep pangs of guilt incurred when his wife suffered debilitating Brain Damage in a car crash while he was enjoying a fling with his police colleague Marie (Catherine Marchal).
Complicating matters, a new spate of killings -- clearly the work of another serial killer -- has broken out. Meanwhile, Justine (Olivia Bonamy), the daughter of one of Subra's victims 25 years earlier, writes to Subra in prison and then makes contact with Louis.
As a police detective, Louis is not so much hard-bitten as chewed up and spat out. He is first seen slumped drunk in a bus that he then proceeds to hijack for the hell of it. Asked by a psychiatrist whether he believes in God, he replies that the deity "is a son of a bitch, and one day I'm going to kill him." He's rarely without a bottle close at hand, and it always appears to be three days since his last shave. He inflames relations with his superior Kovalski (Francis Renaud) by joining the investigation into the latest killings, then he assaults him.
In an opening title, Marchal informs spectators that the film is based on a true story. The director, an ex-cop, has hinted that the movie is a transposition of events that caused him to leave the police 15 years ago. But the story of MR 73 is best seen simply as a peg on which Marchal hangs his depiction of a burned-out cop, superbly assisted by Auteuil.
The weakness of the plotting is more than compensated by the strength of the performances and the splendor of the visuals. Rarely has the Mediterranean port of Marseille, where the action is set, appeared so bleak onscreen. The sun is banished to the margins in a succession of night scenes, murky interiors and washed-out colors that provide a fitting setting for a world without redemption.
Marchal arguably overplays the religious connotations (his CV includes a spell spent at a Jesuit school), and the movie's resolution -- in which a Manurhin MR 73 handgun plays a key role -- is too pat. But for all its faults, MR 73 is a powerful piece of filmmaking that marks out its director as a distinctive voice making a personal statement about the more troubling aspects of crime and punishment.
MR 73
LGM Films, Gaumont, TF1 Films Production, Medusa Film
Sales agent: Gaumont
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Olivier Marchal
Producers: Cyril Colbeau-Justin, Jean-Baptiste Dupont, Franck Chorot
Executive producer: David Giordano
Director of photography: Denis Rouden
Production designer: Ambre Sansonetti
Costume designer: Marie-Laure Lasson
Music: Bruno Coulais
Editor: Raphaele Urtin
Cast:
Louis Schneider: Daniel Auteuil
Justine: Olivia Bonamy
Marie Angeli: Catherine Marchal
Kovalski: Francis Renaud
Mateo: Gerald Laroche
Jumbo: Guy Lecluyse
Subra: Philippe Nahon
Running time -- 124 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film will be a cultural and economic meeting point when French President Nikolas Sarkozy makes his first state visit to India on Thursday, with the leading lights of French cinema a key element of his official delegation.
The visit will mark the launch of the first Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in India, France's film promotion organization Unifrance said Monday. The Rendez-Vous, which will run Jan. 27-30, will be opened in Mumbai and will take place in four other major cities during the visit.
Producer Jerome Seydoux will be there to highlight the inaugural event with "Asterix at the Olympic Games", the latest in a series of onscreen adaptations of the famed children's cartoon starring Alain Delon, Gerard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac and Benoit Poelvoorde.
French cultural promotion body Unifrance vp Marie Masmonteil, Roissy Films CEO Raphael Berdugo and executives from Pathe Films will join the delegation, among others.
Also making up the film delegation will be director Claude Lelouch, actress Olivia Bonamy and Lebanese actress-director Nadine Labaki, who is best known for her debut directorial feature "Sukkar Banat" (Caramel), which premiered at the Festival de Cannes last year.
The visit will mark the launch of the first Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in India, France's film promotion organization Unifrance said Monday. The Rendez-Vous, which will run Jan. 27-30, will be opened in Mumbai and will take place in four other major cities during the visit.
Producer Jerome Seydoux will be there to highlight the inaugural event with "Asterix at the Olympic Games", the latest in a series of onscreen adaptations of the famed children's cartoon starring Alain Delon, Gerard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac and Benoit Poelvoorde.
French cultural promotion body Unifrance vp Marie Masmonteil, Roissy Films CEO Raphael Berdugo and executives from Pathe Films will join the delegation, among others.
Also making up the film delegation will be director Claude Lelouch, actress Olivia Bonamy and Lebanese actress-director Nadine Labaki, who is best known for her debut directorial feature "Sukkar Banat" (Caramel), which premiered at the Festival de Cannes last year.
- 1/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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