I suppose there’s a more interesting film to be made about the great composer Ennio Morricone, but watching Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving and comprehensive “Ennio” makes it almost impossible to care. An uncomplicated and reverent tribute that was shot before the late maestro’s death in 2020 (and would feel like a two-and-a-half-hour tribute reel if not for the fact that Morricone himself is the film’s most frequent talking head), this straightforward biodoc is almost perversely generic for a movie that’s meant to honor one of cinema’s greatest radicals.
And yet, do you really not want to see Clint Eastwood deadpanning that Morricone’s music “helped dramatize me, which is really hard to do”? Would a less conventional documentary have been able to squeeze Bruce Springsteen, Wong Kar-wai, and James Hetfield into the same film, or include so much of what Bernardo Bertolucci had to say about...
And yet, do you really not want to see Clint Eastwood deadpanning that Morricone’s music “helped dramatize me, which is really hard to do”? Would a less conventional documentary have been able to squeeze Bruce Springsteen, Wong Kar-wai, and James Hetfield into the same film, or include so much of what Bernardo Bertolucci had to say about...
- 2/7/2024
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
‘Save Our School’, ‘Christophe… définitivement’ will debut on the beach.
Two world premieres will take place on the beach in Cannes as part of the 2022 Cinema de la Plage lineup – Carine May and Hakim Zouhani’s Save Our School and Ange Leccia and Dominique Gonzales-Foerster’s Christophe… définitivement.
Save Our School is a French comedy about two teachers’ attempts to establish Paris’ first suburban ‘green school’, to quell the competition from a new hall of residence nearby. It is produced by Barbara Letellier and Carole Scotta for France’s Haut et Court, in co-production with France 2 Cinema; with France TV Distribution handling sales.
Two world premieres will take place on the beach in Cannes as part of the 2022 Cinema de la Plage lineup – Carine May and Hakim Zouhani’s Save Our School and Ange Leccia and Dominique Gonzales-Foerster’s Christophe… définitivement.
Save Our School is a French comedy about two teachers’ attempts to establish Paris’ first suburban ‘green school’, to quell the competition from a new hall of residence nearby. It is produced by Barbara Letellier and Carole Scotta for France’s Haut et Court, in co-production with France 2 Cinema; with France TV Distribution handling sales.
- 5/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the program of its Cinema de la Plage section which launched last year with a mix of restored classics, cult films and premieres.
Open to all audiences, the Cinema de la Plage will take place on the beach every evening and will be free of charge. The program, which runs alongside the Official Selection, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” the 40th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.,” as well as Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” with Jim Carrey.
“Save Our School,” a socially-minded and timely comedy directed by Carine May and Hakim Zouhani, will have its world premiere as part of Cinema de La Plage. The screening will be attended by the filmmakers and cast members Anaïde Rozam, Sérigne M’Baye, Gilbert Melki, Sébastien Chassagne and Mourad Boudaoud.
Other movies on the Cinema de la Plage...
Open to all audiences, the Cinema de la Plage will take place on the beach every evening and will be free of charge. The program, which runs alongside the Official Selection, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” the 40th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.,” as well as Peter Weir’s “The Truman Show” with Jim Carrey.
“Save Our School,” a socially-minded and timely comedy directed by Carine May and Hakim Zouhani, will have its world premiere as part of Cinema de La Plage. The screening will be attended by the filmmakers and cast members Anaïde Rozam, Sérigne M’Baye, Gilbert Melki, Sébastien Chassagne and Mourad Boudaoud.
Other movies on the Cinema de la Plage...
- 5/10/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
May on the Criterion Channel will be good to the auteurs. In fact they’re giving Richard Linklater better treatment than the distributor of his last film, with a 13-title retrospective mixing usual suspects—the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Slacker—with some truly off the beaten track. There’s a few shorts I haven’t seen but most intriguing is Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, the only available description of which calls it a four-hour (!) piece “edited together by Richard Linklater in 1991 from film countdowns and tail leaders from films submitted to the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas from 1987 to 1990. It is Linklater’s tribute to the film countdown, used by many projectionists over the years to cue one reel of film after another when switching to another reel on another projector during projection.” Pair that with 2008’s Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach and your completionism will be on-track.
- 4/21/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Hot French helmer Cedric Jimenez, whose latest hit movie “The Stronghold” is nominated for seven Cesar awards, is developing “Verde,” an epic adventure drama revolving around the kidnapping of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and her campaign manager Clara Rojas, who were held captive in the jungle for seven years.
Inspired by a true story like all of Jimenez’s films, “Verde” opens in 2002, when Betancourt — a high-profile French-Colombian senator who was running for president and had vowed to end political corruption — was brutally kidnapped with her campaign manager, Rojas, by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The pair were held hostage by the rebel group in the hostile jungle for nearly a decade, along with many other victims of Colombia’s civil war.
Jimenez is writing the script for “Verde” with Olivier Demangel, the co-screenwriter of Mati Diop’s Cannes’ grand prize winner “Atlantics” and Jimenez’s upcoming movie “November,...
Inspired by a true story like all of Jimenez’s films, “Verde” opens in 2002, when Betancourt — a high-profile French-Colombian senator who was running for president and had vowed to end political corruption — was brutally kidnapped with her campaign manager, Rojas, by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The pair were held hostage by the rebel group in the hostile jungle for nearly a decade, along with many other victims of Colombia’s civil war.
Jimenez is writing the script for “Verde” with Olivier Demangel, the co-screenwriter of Mati Diop’s Cannes’ grand prize winner “Atlantics” and Jimenez’s upcoming movie “November,...
- 1/27/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Eric Zemmour, the French far-right pundit and TV journalist who has been called “France’s Trump,” sparked a scandal in French media earlier this week when he announced his presidential bid with a video that incited nationalist fervor and included unauthorized footage from classic movies, TV shows, newscasts and soccer games.
The controversy echoes musicians such as Neil Young and the Rolling Stones threatening lawsuits over Donald Trump’s campaign using their songs..
French production powerhouse Gaumont and the producers of the popular primetime show “Quotidien” are among those who have threatened to sue Zemmour over the use of their materials in the video.
The 10-minute clip — the first of its kind posted by a French presidential candidate to social media — is set to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and shows Zemmour sitting at a desk with imagery reminiscent of French General Charles de Gaulle’s 1940 filmed appeal to resist the Nazi occupation.
The controversy echoes musicians such as Neil Young and the Rolling Stones threatening lawsuits over Donald Trump’s campaign using their songs..
French production powerhouse Gaumont and the producers of the popular primetime show “Quotidien” are among those who have threatened to sue Zemmour over the use of their materials in the video.
The 10-minute clip — the first of its kind posted by a French presidential candidate to social media — is set to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and shows Zemmour sitting at a desk with imagery reminiscent of French General Charles de Gaulle’s 1940 filmed appeal to resist the Nazi occupation.
- 12/3/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Populist candidate Eric Zemmour’s campaign is under fire over the use of extracts from French film classics.
French film and TV company Gaumont is threatening legal action after extracts of films in its library were used in a video launching far-right politician Eric Zemmour as a candidate in France’s 2022 presidential elections without authorisation.
The 10-minute video, posted on YouTube on Tuesday (November 30), intercuts Zemmour’s candidacy speech with a montage of news footage and extracts from French film and TV shows. These included Gaumont titles Luc Besson’s Joan Of Arc and Henri Verneuil’s A Monkey In Winter...
French film and TV company Gaumont is threatening legal action after extracts of films in its library were used in a video launching far-right politician Eric Zemmour as a candidate in France’s 2022 presidential elections without authorisation.
The 10-minute video, posted on YouTube on Tuesday (November 30), intercuts Zemmour’s candidacy speech with a montage of news footage and extracts from French film and TV shows. These included Gaumont titles Luc Besson’s Joan Of Arc and Henri Verneuil’s A Monkey In Winter...
- 12/1/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Above: detail from the Argentinian poster for Magnet of Doom. Artist unknown.Jean-Paul Belmondo, the great French movie star who died last week at the age of 88, had a marvelous face. He wasn’t a classic matinee idol like his friend and compatriot Alain Delon but with the combination of his soulful puppy-dog eyes, lopsided boxer’s nose, and luscious feminine lips he could play both hoodlums or heartthrobs (and in Breathless he played both at the same time). A classic tough guy best known outside France for art movies, he was initially synonymous with the angry alienation of the French New Wave and starred in films by Godard, Truffaut, Melville, Malle and Lelouch. But he could play comedy as well as action (he was renowned for doing his own stunts) and was for a while promoted as a French James Bond. By the ’70s and ’80s—when he was...
- 9/16/2021
- MUBI
It’s a big international action epic, filmed in Mexico with a French director. Anthony Quinn is an 18th-century bandit who liberates a Mexican hamlet from marauding Yaqui Indians and a villainous Charles Bronson. Quinn is good, and all the necessary elements are present: fights, handsome scenery and a big battle… but it’s fairly tepid stuff, simplified and prettified. Leave it to Ennio Morricone’s epic music score to bind it all together. With Anjanette Comer, Sam Jaffe, Silvia Pinal and the same fifteen or so well-connected actors that cornered roles in all big Mexican films made with foreign money.
Guns for San Sebastian
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / La bataille de San Sebastian / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer, Charles Bronson, Sam Jaffe, Silvia Pinal, Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Jaime Fernández, Rosa Furman, Leon Askin, Ivan Desny, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.,...
Guns for San Sebastian
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / La bataille de San Sebastian / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer, Charles Bronson, Sam Jaffe, Silvia Pinal, Jorge Martínez de Hoyos, Jaime Fernández, Rosa Furman, Leon Askin, Ivan Desny, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.,...
- 6/22/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Covid-19 crisis has devastated cinema attendance. Several major cinema chains have closed around the world. In the face of adversity, this year’s 12th edition of the Lumière Festival in France’s Lyon, which runs Oct. 10-18, aims to fly the flag of cinema even more forcefully than ever, through its on site mix of career tributes, restored classics, world premieres of new films and a classic film market.
Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (“My Journey through French Cinema”) has played a key role in organizing this year’s line-up, including the tribute to the classic French screenwriter Michel Audiard, who would have turned 100 this year, the award of the Lumière Award to Belgian directing duo, the Dardenne brothers, tributes to Oliver Stone and Viggo Mortensen, and a career tribute to French actress Sabine Azéma, who starred in two films by Tavernier. The Festival also pays homage to American...
Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (“My Journey through French Cinema”) has played a key role in organizing this year’s line-up, including the tribute to the classic French screenwriter Michel Audiard, who would have turned 100 this year, the award of the Lumière Award to Belgian directing duo, the Dardenne brothers, tributes to Oliver Stone and Viggo Mortensen, and a career tribute to French actress Sabine Azéma, who starred in two films by Tavernier. The Festival also pays homage to American...
- 10/13/2020
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
- 7/24/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In a reaffirmation of its ambitions to hold an on-site event this year, France’s Lumière Festival, run by filmmaker and film historian Bertrand Tavernier and Cannes Festival head Thierry Frémaux, has formally announced dates for its 2020 edition
The Lumière Festival 2020 has also unveiled its first program highlights: Tributes to French screenwriter Michel Audiard and to Clarence Brown, maybe the least known of Hollywood Silent Era “name” directors.
Running Oct. 10-18, the 12th Lumière Festival will take place “in movie theaters and the environs of Lyon, the festival announced Thursday in a written statement.
It could hardly be otherwise. Steered by Tavernier and Frémaux, the president and director of Lyon’s Lumière Institute, the Lumière Festival punched 200,000 admissions in 2019, despite a robust focus on classic film restorations, re-issues and retrospectives.
Key to that has been the presence in cinema theaters and on the streets of Lyon of some of the...
The Lumière Festival 2020 has also unveiled its first program highlights: Tributes to French screenwriter Michel Audiard and to Clarence Brown, maybe the least known of Hollywood Silent Era “name” directors.
Running Oct. 10-18, the 12th Lumière Festival will take place “in movie theaters and the environs of Lyon, the festival announced Thursday in a written statement.
It could hardly be otherwise. Steered by Tavernier and Frémaux, the president and director of Lyon’s Lumière Institute, the Lumière Festival punched 200,000 admissions in 2019, despite a robust focus on classic film restorations, re-issues and retrospectives.
Key to that has been the presence in cinema theaters and on the streets of Lyon of some of the...
- 5/30/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
Films by Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Naruse kick off a retrospective of Japanese actress Machiko Kyō.
The Pasolini retrospective continues.
Streetwise and its follow-up, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, begin a run.
The restoration of A Bigger Splash continues screening, while the ’90s indie film Chalk has been restored.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Metrograph
Films by Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, and Naruse kick off a retrospective of Japanese actress Machiko Kyō.
The Pasolini retrospective continues.
Streetwise and its follow-up, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, begin a run.
The restoration of A Bigger Splash continues screening, while the ’90s indie film Chalk has been restored.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
- 7/26/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
To see the feline countenance of Alain Delon is to immediately understand his movie stardom. How could he have been anything else? It would almost be a cosmic insult to his beauty not to commit it to celluloid. But beyond the erotically-charged pin-up and genre tough guy, Delon would also become a respected actor with a long list of auteur collaborators: Visconti, Melville, Antonioni, Joseph Losey, and the like. The mega-star of European cinema, with his cold grey eyes and louche attitude, could be forbidding or aloof; dashing or innocent. There’s a chance to see all of those iterations of the actor at a new retrospective dedicated to him at New York’s Quad Cinema, aptly-titled "L’Homme Fatal."Early in his career, Delon’s youthful beauty would be utilized in Luchino Visconti’s classics Rocco and his Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963), but filmmakers also quickly recognized his ability to play the cad,...
- 8/31/2018
- MUBI
Francoise Bonnot, a film editor who won an Oscar for Z and a BAFTA Award for Missing among dozens of credits, died Saturday in Paris. She was 78.
The France native worked with a number of top directors during her nearly 50-year career, notably editing seven consecutive films by Costa-Gavras — from 1969’s Z to 1983’s Hanna K. She won a BAFTA Award for his 1982 film Missing. She also worked with such noted helmers as Jean-Jacques Annaud — on his 1976 debut feature Black and White in Color — Roman Polanski, Michael Cimino (1985’s Year of the Dragon and 1987’s The Sicilian) and four film for Julie Taymor: Titus (1999), Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007) and The Tempest (2010).
Among her earliest editing credits during a career that would span nearly a half-century was 1962’s A Monkey in Winter for director Henri Verneuil. They also would work together on three other films that decade and eventually were married.
The France native worked with a number of top directors during her nearly 50-year career, notably editing seven consecutive films by Costa-Gavras — from 1969’s Z to 1983’s Hanna K. She won a BAFTA Award for his 1982 film Missing. She also worked with such noted helmers as Jean-Jacques Annaud — on his 1976 debut feature Black and White in Color — Roman Polanski, Michael Cimino (1985’s Year of the Dragon and 1987’s The Sicilian) and four film for Julie Taymor: Titus (1999), Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007) and The Tempest (2010).
Among her earliest editing credits during a career that would span nearly a half-century was 1962’s A Monkey in Winter for director Henri Verneuil. They also would work together on three other films that decade and eventually were married.
- 6/13/2018
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Ewan McGregor will play a World War II prisoner of war who hatches a plan to use a cow to help him escape captivity and find his way across Germany to freedom. Marc Forster will direct “The Cow,” which is a remake of classic French comedy “The Cow and I,” with shooting set to begin in the fall.
WestEnd Films has boarded the picture and will introduce it to international buyers in Cannes. North American sales are being handled by Linda Lichter.
The original version, known in French as “La Vache et le Prisonnier,” was based on a novel by Jacques Antoine and directed by Henri Verneuil. Starring Fernandel, the film was a big hit locally in the late 1950s.
The English-language remake reunites McGregor with Forster after their recent collaboration on the upcoming Disney picture “Christopher Robin,” which will be released in the summer. The pair also worked together on 2005 movie “Stay.
WestEnd Films has boarded the picture and will introduce it to international buyers in Cannes. North American sales are being handled by Linda Lichter.
The original version, known in French as “La Vache et le Prisonnier,” was based on a novel by Jacques Antoine and directed by Henri Verneuil. Starring Fernandel, the film was a big hit locally in the late 1950s.
The English-language remake reunites McGregor with Forster after their recent collaboration on the upcoming Disney picture “Christopher Robin,” which will be released in the summer. The pair also worked together on 2005 movie “Stay.
- 5/7/2018
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
So, it's pretty obvious why this film suddenly has currency. It's a fascinatingly different take on the historical events dealt with in Christopher Nolan's current war epic (and also in Leslie Norman's more low-key 50s production). While it's possible to imagine people liking all three films, it seems likely everyone will greatly prefer one or other of them.Henri Verneuil enjoyed a long collaboration with Jean-Paul Belmondo, his star here, some of which exploited the star's fearless enthusiasm for daredevil stunts. Though the actor runs about among huge explosions here, so does everybody else, so that doesn't seem so special, though he does perform a spectacular crash down a flight of stairs. But on the whole, the film's talk seems to be to strip away Belmondo's superhero charisma and make him just one of the guys, hundreds of thousands of them, stranded on a beach and prey to bombs,...
- 8/1/2017
- MUBI
Bertrand Tavernier on Jacques Prévert and Joseph Kosma's Les Feuilles Mortes with Yves Montand in Marcel Carné's Les Portes De La Nuit: "The birth of the song. I mean, that's a good scene." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second installment of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier on his Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français we go towards Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, Lino Ventura and Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Gabin in Jean Delannoy's adaptation of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret, Bernard Blier in Henri Verneuil's Le Président, Nadja Tiller in Gilles Grangier's Le Désordre Et La Nuit, Eddie Constantine, and composers Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, George Van Parys, and Paul Misraki.
Martin Scorsese critiquing a Robert De Niro performance in a film by another director is unimaginable to Bertrand. "Distance is important to give you a wider vision of things."
Lino Ventura to Bertrand Tavernier on...
In the second installment of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier on his Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français we go towards Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait, Lino Ventura and Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean Gabin in Jean Delannoy's adaptation of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret, Bernard Blier in Henri Verneuil's Le Président, Nadja Tiller in Gilles Grangier's Le Désordre Et La Nuit, Eddie Constantine, and composers Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, George Van Parys, and Paul Misraki.
Martin Scorsese critiquing a Robert De Niro performance in a film by another director is unimaginable to Bertrand. "Distance is important to give you a wider vision of things."
Lino Ventura to Bertrand Tavernier on...
- 4/3/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Above: Czech poster for Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, Italy, 1968).As I’m sure I’ve said before, the world of Czech movie posters is never less than an embarrassment of riches. I keep discovering new artists that I was never aware of previously, all with an impressive body of work behind them. The other day, as I was looking through the new acquisitions of my favorite poster shop, Posteritati, I came across this striking poster for Once Upon a Time in the West: a fascinating combination of bold color, eccentric collage, pop art elements and unusual typography. I wasn’t aware of the name of Stanislav Vajce before that but a quick search on the store's website and elsewhere revealed a wild array of some of the most exciting and inventive Czech posters I have seen in a while. As with so many of...
- 2/17/2017
- MUBI
The Sicilian Clan
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. (French, without exit music); 118 min (American) / Le clan des Siciliens / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, Irina Demick, Amedeo Nazzari, Danielle Volle, Philippe Baronnet, Karen Blanguernon, Elisa Cegani, Yves Lefebvre, Leopoldo Trieste, Sydney Chaplin.
Cinematography: Henri Decaë
Production design: Jacques Saulnier
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by: Henri Verneuil, José Giovanni, Pierre Pelegri from a novel by Auguste Le Breton
Produced by: Jacques-e. Strauss
Directed by Henri Verneuil
American crime fanatics wary of European imports now have access to a fully Region-a disc of a big-star, big budget French-Italian-American gangster film from 1969, Henri Verneuil’s exciting The Sicilian Clan. It was filmed in two separate versions, a multi-lingual European original and a less exciting, English language cut for America. A huge hit overseas, The Sicilian Clan didn’t...
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. (French, without exit music); 118 min (American) / Le clan des Siciliens / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, Irina Demick, Amedeo Nazzari, Danielle Volle, Philippe Baronnet, Karen Blanguernon, Elisa Cegani, Yves Lefebvre, Leopoldo Trieste, Sydney Chaplin.
Cinematography: Henri Decaë
Production design: Jacques Saulnier
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by: Henri Verneuil, José Giovanni, Pierre Pelegri from a novel by Auguste Le Breton
Produced by: Jacques-e. Strauss
Directed by Henri Verneuil
American crime fanatics wary of European imports now have access to a fully Region-a disc of a big-star, big budget French-Italian-American gangster film from 1969, Henri Verneuil’s exciting The Sicilian Clan. It was filmed in two separate versions, a multi-lingual European original and a less exciting, English language cut for America. A huge hit overseas, The Sicilian Clan didn’t...
- 1/24/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Austin Film Society's "French Noir" series continues tonight with a Free Member Friday screening at The Marchesa of Henri Verneuil's The Burglars, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Omar Sharif, and Dyan Cannon. Based on the pulp novel by David Goodis, tonight's digital screening is free for all Afs members, and the movie will also screen on Sunday afternoon at The Marchesa.
Monday night, SXSW alumni Above All Else (Don's review) is presented by The Texas Observer. Austin filmmaker John Fiege and two subjects from the documentary about the Keystone Xl pipeline protests in East Texas will be on hand for a post-film panel discussion with Forrest Wilder, associate editor of The Texas Observer. The current Essential Cinema series, "Songs Of The South," continues this week on Tuesday night with a screening of To Kill A Mockingbird. Richard Linklater is taking the week off from the new installment of "Jewels In The Wasteland,...
Monday night, SXSW alumni Above All Else (Don's review) is presented by The Texas Observer. Austin filmmaker John Fiege and two subjects from the documentary about the Keystone Xl pipeline protests in East Texas will be on hand for a post-film panel discussion with Forrest Wilder, associate editor of The Texas Observer. The current Essential Cinema series, "Songs Of The South," continues this week on Tuesday night with a screening of To Kill A Mockingbird. Richard Linklater is taking the week off from the new installment of "Jewels In The Wasteland,...
- 4/17/2015
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) director Frédéric Tellier with David Cronenberg's Videodrome at the IFC Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Frédéric Tellier’s intense thriller SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) stars Raphaël Personnaz, Nathalie Baye, Olivier Gourmet, Michel Vuillermoz and Adama Niane. SK1, named for the first serial killer identified through DNA analysis in France, is based on journalist Patricia Tourancheau’s book about the case, Guy Georges: La Traque.
Frédéric spoke with me about his upcoming project with SK1 producer Julien Madon, how Bertrand Tavernier's L.627 and Henri Verneuil's Mélodie En Sous-Sol (Any Number Can Win), starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, play a detective role, finding his Guy Georges, the nature of evil and the response of the inspectors involved in the case when they saw the film.
Raphaël Personnaz as Charlie Olivier Gourmet as Bougon: "They need this kind of relief, these bubbles of oxygen sometimes."
Baye is Maître Frédérique Pons,...
Frédéric Tellier’s intense thriller SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) stars Raphaël Personnaz, Nathalie Baye, Olivier Gourmet, Michel Vuillermoz and Adama Niane. SK1, named for the first serial killer identified through DNA analysis in France, is based on journalist Patricia Tourancheau’s book about the case, Guy Georges: La Traque.
Frédéric spoke with me about his upcoming project with SK1 producer Julien Madon, how Bertrand Tavernier's L.627 and Henri Verneuil's Mélodie En Sous-Sol (Any Number Can Win), starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, play a detective role, finding his Guy Georges, the nature of evil and the response of the inspectors involved in the case when they saw the film.
Raphaël Personnaz as Charlie Olivier Gourmet as Bougon: "They need this kind of relief, these bubbles of oxygen sometimes."
Baye is Maître Frédérique Pons,...
- 3/27/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Austin Film Society really knows the way to my heart. A brand new series begins this evening at the Marchesa called "Perfect Criminals: The '70s French Noir Connection" and you can buy a full series pass or grab individual tickets for the five French crime classics that Afs will be unspooling in the weeks to come. The first selection in the series is 1969's The Sicilian Clan in 35mm. Jean Gabin and Alain Delon star in this jewel heist thriller from director Henri Verneuil and it plays tonight and again on Sunday afternoon.
Also on Sunday, you've got one more chance to catch Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island Of Dr Moreau. I caught this at Fantastic Fest last year and was utterly fascinated by it. It recently had a screening at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, but now Afs is giving you a great opportunity...
- 3/27/2015
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...
- 1/30/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...
- 1/28/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Marie Dubois, actress in French New Wave films, dead at 77 (image: Marie Dubois in the mammoth blockbuster 'La Grande Vadrouille') Actress Marie Dubois, a popular French New Wave personality of the '60s and the leading lady in one of France's biggest box-office hits in history, died Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at a nursing home in Lescar, a suburb of the southwestern French town of Pau, not far from the Spanish border. Dubois, who had been living in the Pau area since 2010, was 77. For decades she had been battling multiple sclerosis, which later in life had her confined to a wheelchair. Born Claudine Huzé (Claudine Lucie Pauline Huzé according to some online sources) on January 12, 1937, in Paris, the blue-eyed, blonde Marie Dubois began her show business career on stage, being featured in plays such as Molière's The Misanthrope and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. François Truffaut discovery: 'Shoot the...
- 10/17/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In the world of movie poster collecting, title trumps everything. A mediocre half-sheet for Casablanca or a lobby card for The Wizard of Oz will sell for thousands whereas an exquisite piece of graphic design for an obscure Czech drama can be picked up for peanuts. For good reason of course: people want movie posters to remind them of the movies they love. But I am always endlessly impressed by the bottomless well of superb design and illustration that is out there for films that have been all but forgotten. As a random example, this week the French poster dealer Dominique Besson released 171 posters for auction on eBay, and, though many of them are for well-known films I was struck by the fact that many of the most eye-catching designs were for quite obscure French films from the 40s and 50s. And all can be picked up for a song.
- 8/31/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Actress, director and screenwriter Nicole Garcia is to preside over the Jury for this year’s Caméra d’or award for the best debut film at Cannes.
Garcia, who has presented a total of seven films at Cannes as both actress and director, first came to attention in Bertrand Tavernier’s Let Joy Reign Supreme in 1975 and subsequently worked with directors Henri Verneuil (Body of My Enemy, 1976) and Laurent Heynemann (The Question, 1977).
In 1979, her performance in Philippe de Broca’s Practice Makes Perfect earned her popular acclaim and a César award for best supporting actress. She went on to work with the greats of French cinema including Alain Resnais (My American Uncle, 1980), Bertrand Blier (Stepfather, 1981), Claude Lelouch (Bolero: Dance of Life, 1981), Pierre Schoendoerffer (A Captain’s Honor, 1982), Claude Sautet (Waiter!, 1983) and Claude Miller (Little Lili, 2003).
She made her behind-the-camera debut with Every Other Weekend in 1990, followed by The Favorite Son in 1994. She has directed seven films, of...
Garcia, who has presented a total of seven films at Cannes as both actress and director, first came to attention in Bertrand Tavernier’s Let Joy Reign Supreme in 1975 and subsequently worked with directors Henri Verneuil (Body of My Enemy, 1976) and Laurent Heynemann (The Question, 1977).
In 1979, her performance in Philippe de Broca’s Practice Makes Perfect earned her popular acclaim and a César award for best supporting actress. She went on to work with the greats of French cinema including Alain Resnais (My American Uncle, 1980), Bertrand Blier (Stepfather, 1981), Claude Lelouch (Bolero: Dance of Life, 1981), Pierre Schoendoerffer (A Captain’s Honor, 1982), Claude Sautet (Waiter!, 1983) and Claude Miller (Little Lili, 2003).
She made her behind-the-camera debut with Every Other Weekend in 1990, followed by The Favorite Son in 1994. She has directed seven films, of...
- 4/18/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Dirk Bogarde: ‘Victim’ star took no prisoners in his letters to Dilys Powell Letters exchanged between film critic Dilys Powell and actor Dirk Bogarde — one of the most popular and respected British performers of the twentieth century, and the star of seminal movies such as Victim, The Servant, Darling, and Death in Venice — reveals that Bogarde was considerably more caustic and opinionated in his letters than in his (quite bland) autobiographies. (Photo: Dirk Bogarde ca. 1970.) As found in Dirk Bogarde’s letters acquired a few years ago by the British Library, among the victims of the Victim star (sorry) were Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave (Julia), a "ninny" who was “so utterly beastly to [Steaming director Joseph Losey] that he finally threw his script at her face”; and veteran stage and screen actor — and Academy Award winner — John Gielgud (Arthur), who couldn’t "understand half of Shakespeare" despite being renowned for his stage roles in Macbeth,...
- 9/23/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
French film director who attracted big stars and box-office success but was disdained by the Nouvelle Vague
Denys de La Patellière, who has died aged 92, was of the generation of French film directors described with ironic contempt by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other critics turned Nouvelle Vague directors as representing le cinéma de papa. But De La Patellière had several huge box-office hits in France in the 1950s and 60s, featuring some of the biggest internationally known French stars of the period such as Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Mercier, Pierre Fresnay, Bernard Blier and, above all, Jean Gabin, whom he directed in six films.
"I was a commercial director, which for me is not a pejorative word," De La Patellière recalled. "I never had the ambition to become an auteur, but to make entertaining films that pleased general audiences." In a way, his first film, Les Aristocrates (1955), could...
Denys de La Patellière, who has died aged 92, was of the generation of French film directors described with ironic contempt by François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and other critics turned Nouvelle Vague directors as representing le cinéma de papa. But De La Patellière had several huge box-office hits in France in the 1950s and 60s, featuring some of the biggest internationally known French stars of the period such as Lino Ventura, Danielle Darrieux, Michèle Mercier, Pierre Fresnay, Bernard Blier and, above all, Jean Gabin, whom he directed in six films.
"I was a commercial director, which for me is not a pejorative word," De La Patellière recalled. "I never had the ambition to become an auteur, but to make entertaining films that pleased general audiences." In a way, his first film, Les Aristocrates (1955), could...
- 7/30/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
"When I wrote 120 Malay Movies I tried to watch all of the 34 movies that P Ramlee directed. I almost succeeded." Amir Muhammad (The Last Communist, Malaysian Gods) would eventually see 33; Sitora Harimau Jadian (1964) seems to have been lost. He tells us the story of how he came upon what amounts to P Ramlee's own novelization of Sitora Harimau Jadian, "describing what happens in his movie, scene by scene. The book is slim, only 124 pages, and I'm glad it was also fleshed out with pictures from the movie (which might be the only chance we will ever get to 'see' it)." He gives us a sample and then announces that he's republishing the book, which will be out next month and already has a fan page.
Another book. Today's review of Geoff Dyer's Zona comes from Nathan Rogers-Hancock at Cinespect.
Reading. Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel) once managed a...
Another book. Today's review of Geoff Dyer's Zona comes from Nathan Rogers-Hancock at Cinespect.
Reading. Alex Ross Perry (The Color Wheel) once managed a...
- 3/30/2012
- MUBI
Though you have to look twice to find the original title, this stunning Danish poster is unmistakeably for Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville. With its combination of sci-fi settings and two poster-genic stars, Alphaville may have inspired more great and varied posters than most other films. The most famous of course is Jean Mascii’s greyscale masterpiece. Illustrator of some 1500 posters from the early 50s through to the late 80s, Mascii (1926-2003) was an old school artist who fit right into the new world of the Nouvelle Vague with his photorealist illustration of Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina (you can see the poster in detail at the bottom of this article).
Other fabulous Alphaville posters include the Japanese...
...the Italian, titled Agent Lemmy Caution: Missione Alphaville...
...the German, titled Lemmy Caution against Alpha 60...
...the Bass-influenced American one-sheet...
...and the Belgian poster...
The Danish poster, which we started with, trumpets the film...
Other fabulous Alphaville posters include the Japanese...
...the Italian, titled Agent Lemmy Caution: Missione Alphaville...
...the German, titled Lemmy Caution against Alpha 60...
...the Bass-influenced American one-sheet...
...and the Belgian poster...
The Danish poster, which we started with, trumpets the film...
- 3/3/2012
- MUBI
Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, La Bête Humaine Jean Gabin on TCM: Grand Illusion, Pepe Le Moko, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Gueule D'Amour (1937) A retired cavalry officer discovers the woman who won his heart was in love with the uniform. Dir: Jean Grémillon. Cast: Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin. Bw-88 mins. 8:00 Am Remorques (1941) A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship. Dir: Jean Grémillon. Cast: Jean Gabin, Alain Cuny, Bw-83 mins. 9:30 Am Le Jour Se Leve (1939) A young factory worker loses the woman he loves to a vicious schemer. Dir: Marcel Carne. Cast: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty. Bw-90 mins. 11:00 Am L'air De Paris (1954) An over-the-hill boxer stakes his fortune on training a young railroad-worker. Dir: Marcel Carne. Cast: Arletty, Jean Gabin, Roland Lesaffre. Bw-100 mins. 1:00 Pm Leur Derniere Nuit (1953) A schoolteacher...
- 8/19/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Jean Gabin was France's answer to Humphrey Bogart, many (English-language) historians have claimed. Either that, or Gabin was France's answer to Spencer Tracy. Never mind the fact that Gabin was a major international star before either Bogart or Tracy achieved Hollywood stardom. In other words, if there was someone emulating someone else, it was Bogart and Tracy who followed the Frenchman's lead so as to become the American Jean Gabins. Turner Classic Movies is devoting a whole day to Jean Gabin's movies today, August 18, as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" series. [Jean Gabin Movie Schedule.] Right now, TCM is showing Julien Duvivier's Pépé le Moko (1937), the tale of a Parisian gangster (Gabin) hiding in Algiers' Casbah neighborhood, but who becomes careless after he falls for a beautiful woman (Mireille Balin, Gabin's co-star that same year in Jean Grémillon's Gueule d'amour / Lady Killer). Those whose idea of cinema begins...
- 8/19/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Cannes Film Festival's unveiled its Classics program today: "Fourteen films, five documentaries, surprises, a Masterclass (Malcolm McDowell), new or restored prints: The program is based on proposals from national archives, cinematheques, studios, producers and distributors. Rare classics to discover or re-discover, they will be presented in 35mm or high definition digital prints."
The Films
The first round of descriptions comes straight from the Festival.
A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) by Georges Méliès (France, 1902, 16'). "The color version of Georges Méliès most famous film, A Trip to the Moon (1902) is visible again 109 years after its release: having been long considered lost, this version was found in 1993 in Barcelona. In 2010, a full restoration is initiated by Lobster Films, Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Heritage Cinema. The digital tools of today allows them to re-assemble the fragments of 13 375 images from the film and restore them one by one.
The Films
The first round of descriptions comes straight from the Festival.
A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) by Georges Méliès (France, 1902, 16'). "The color version of Georges Méliès most famous film, A Trip to the Moon (1902) is visible again 109 years after its release: having been long considered lost, this version was found in 1993 in Barcelona. In 2010, a full restoration is initiated by Lobster Films, Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Heritage Cinema. The digital tools of today allows them to re-assemble the fragments of 13 375 images from the film and restore them one by one.
- 4/26/2011
- MUBI
Cannes Classics is a recent addition to the festival, and will enjoy its 8th instalment this year. Part of the line-up of this section of the fest is screened at Ceinema de la Plage, that’s right, on the beach. You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool – an open-aired screening of a classic film on the French Riviera, away from the exclusivity of the Palais, and able to be enjoyed by Panini-eating passers-by on the Croisette. There should be more of this at the festival, it’s good for the soul.
This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.
Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...
This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.
Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...
- 4/26/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Cannes Classics is a recent addition to the festival, and will enjoy its 8th instalment this year. Part of the line-up of this section of the fest is screened at Ceinema de la Plage, that’s right, on the beach. You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool – an open-aired screening of a classic film on the French Riviera, away from the exclusivity of the Palais, and able to be enjoyed by Panini-eating passers-by on the Croisette. There should be more of this at the festival, it’s good for the soul.
This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.
Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...
This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.
Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...
- 4/26/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
We are here to continue with news from Cannes. We just learned that The Festival de Cannes will welcome Jean-Paul Belmondo on Tuesday 17 May with a special evening held in his honour. That definitely sounds great, and if anybody deserves to have a special night at this year’s Cannes, it’s Mr. Belmondo, I hope you all agree.
Since the late 1950s, Jean-Paul Belmondo has encapsulated the very best of popular cinema (Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Gérard Oury, Georges Lautner, Jacques Deray), ably blending this with the glorious art-house cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s. (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais, not to mention Vittorio Sica and Alberto Lattuada).
That Man from Rio, Breathless, Pierrot le Fou, Léon Morin,Priest, Mississippi Mermaid, Le Magnifique, Stavisky and Borsalino are just a few examples of his extraordinary range.
Or, as Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux...
Since the late 1950s, Jean-Paul Belmondo has encapsulated the very best of popular cinema (Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Gérard Oury, Georges Lautner, Jacques Deray), ably blending this with the glorious art-house cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s. (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais, not to mention Vittorio Sica and Alberto Lattuada).
That Man from Rio, Breathless, Pierrot le Fou, Léon Morin,Priest, Mississippi Mermaid, Le Magnifique, Stavisky and Borsalino are just a few examples of his extraordinary range.
Or, as Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux...
- 4/1/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
The Cannes Film Festival will honor Jean-Paul Belmondo on May 17 with a gala event celebrating the actor's career. French New Wave star Belmondo worked with directors Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Gérard Oury, Georges Lautner, Jacques Deray, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais, Vittorio Sica, Alberto Lattuada, and - of course - Jean Luc Godard, whose 1960 Breathless helped launch his long career. Among his other credits are That Man from Rio, Pierrot le Fou, Léon Morin, Priest, Mississippi Mermaid, Le Magnifique, Stavisky and Borsalino. See photo gallery and video clips below. “We are delighted," say Cannes's Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux. "His range and personal charisma, the precision of his acting, his cocky wit, the ease with which he carries ...
- 3/30/2011
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Festival de Cannes will welcome Jean-Paul Belmondo on Tuesday 17 May with a special evening held in his honour. “We are delighted that he has agreed to attend this gala evening in celebration of his talent and career. His range and personal charisma, the precision of his acting, his cocky wit, the ease with which he carries himself have made him, along with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon, one of the greatest French actors of all time, a fact to which many films bear ample witness. No doubt the entire panoply of French actors, headed by his Conservatory friends Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Pierre Vernier and Jean-Pierre Marielle, will want to walk up that Cannes staircase to celebrate ‘Bébel’ to the sound of the rapturous applause of his diehard fans,” say Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux. The time has certainly come to celebrate this extraordinarily talented French actor. Since the late 1950s,...
- 3/30/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
We at Mubi think that celebrating the films of 2010 should be a celebration of film viewing in 2010. Since all film and video is "old" one way or another, we present Out of a Past, a small (re-) collection of some of our favorite of 2010's retrospective viewings.
***
This is a list of older movies I saw for the first time in 2010—not necessarily the best, but the ones that gave me the greatest sense of discovery. It’s a sad commentary on contemporary film culture that only five of the twelve films I mention are available on Netflix.
Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA, 1986)
An essay film from the Godard’s former collaborator during his leftist Dziga Vertov Group days. The movie begins as a documentary about a group of model train enthusiasts in San Diego who have constructed an elaborate imaginary world with enormous and minutely detailed landscapes and a...
***
This is a list of older movies I saw for the first time in 2010—not necessarily the best, but the ones that gave me the greatest sense of discovery. It’s a sad commentary on contemporary film culture that only five of the twelve films I mention are available on Netflix.
Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA, 1986)
An essay film from the Godard’s former collaborator during his leftist Dziga Vertov Group days. The movie begins as a documentary about a group of model train enthusiasts in San Diego who have constructed an elaborate imaginary world with enormous and minutely detailed landscapes and a...
- 1/5/2011
- MUBI
One of the interesting things about David Goodis’s career, Steve Seid mentioned by way of introduction to François Truffaut’s Tirez sur le pianiste (Shoot the Piano Player, 1960), is that—even though Goodis’s first connection to filmmaking occurred in 1947 with Dark Passage and The Unfaithful—attempts to adapt his work have continued to the present day; Seid recently met someone working with Goodis’s 1951 novel Cassidy’s Girl. Along the way, going all the way back to 1954-1955, the French have been particularly attracted to Goodis’s novels and—of the twelve existing feature adaptations—eight have their roots in French filmmaking.
The earliest was Pierre Chenals’ Section des disparus made in Argentina during the mid-50s, continuing on with Henri Verneuil’s Le Casse (The Burglars, 1971), René Clement’s La Course du Lièvre à Travers Les Champs (And Hope To Die, 1972), Jean-Jacques Beineix’s La Lune Dans...
The earliest was Pierre Chenals’ Section des disparus made in Argentina during the mid-50s, continuing on with Henri Verneuil’s Le Casse (The Burglars, 1971), René Clement’s La Course du Lièvre à Travers Les Champs (And Hope To Die, 1972), Jean-Jacques Beineix’s La Lune Dans...
- 8/6/2008
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
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