i enjoyed seeing that at MoMA a few years ago
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 19:41 (seven years ago) link
Elle played 32 N American screens last weekend, doing OKish.
They probably should have marketed it as a comedy.
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 19:43 (seven years ago) link
well it is that, but partly something very much not.
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 7 December 2016 19:51 (seven years ago) link
I wouldn't say there have been 10 French films that are must-see in any given year in my film-going lifetime. It doesn't work like that.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 December 2016 21:31 (seven years ago) link
Every year the Glasgow Film Festival takes part in a season of French cinema that features quite a lot of films by new or young French filmmakers, so it still feels like French is a productive cinema country (more so than the UK, anyway). These are films in an arthouse mode, generally - I have no idea about what constitutes 'popular' cinema in France now, if it even exists (I remember family holidays in France in the 1970s, when you would see big posters for obscure French comedies that would never ever play in the UK - would love to see a season of that stuff now - Ozon's Potiche seems to be partly a tribute to that 'genre'). As always, it's hard to make general comments about a large national cinema when we only get to see a tiny fraction of the totality, but any country where Godard, Dumont, Bonello, Denis, Desplechin, Assayas etc are still active can hardly be written off entirely.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 8 December 2016 21:46 (seven years ago) link
i don't know if it's still subsidised, but france is large enough population-wise to sustain a film industry without having to worry enormously about selling same all round the world
(also -- or at least this was true back when i read whatever it was that taught me this^^^ -- it doesn't give a cultural fvck about its TV, and as a consequence a lot of its film basically fills some of the dramatic slots that TV offers in the UK)
― mark s, Thursday, 8 December 2016 21:54 (seven years ago) link
that sounds about right but Peak TV is beginning to hit france too with some quality stuff like Trepalium and Bureau Des Legendes
but yes LOADS of stuff that just never gets translated.
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 8 December 2016 22:05 (seven years ago) link
yes there've been a handful of things getting into the nordic slot during scando downtime -- spiral most obviously (also a belgian thing abt a fancy bank robbery)
― mark s, Thursday, 8 December 2016 22:08 (seven years ago) link
Yes, Spiral.
Was gonna say Carlos by Assayas was a made for TV thing (which played here at the cinemas, but I saw it on DVD).
As for French films this year there have def been a couple (and there always is a couple). Loved Things to Come.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 8 December 2016 22:17 (seven years ago) link
well most mainstream French cinema consists of comedies, all more or less descending from the 70's "Les Bronzés" mold (ie middle class shenanigans in communal settings)In a very different syle, I saw "Le Prénom" ("What's in a Name") the other day and thought it was surprisingly good for a mainstream comedy.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 9 December 2016 11:06 (seven years ago) link
Caught up with Bonello's Nocturama at its NY premiere, variously put in mind of Bresson, mid-60s Godard and Rio Bravo. Maybe his best, along with the brothel movie.
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/toronto-international-film-festival-2016-bertrand-bonellos-nocturama
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/nocturama-review-bertrand-bonello-terrorism-consumerism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J122E5Ygz5s
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 5 March 2017 17:21 (seven years ago) link
I might have preferred Saint Laurent (to both of them) but yeah, it's really good.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 5 March 2017 17:36 (seven years ago) link
https://d26dzxoao6i3hh.cloudfront.net/items/1w1B2G1r2I3F3z0J2r3C/image1.JPEG
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 20 December 2017 17:49 (six years ago) link
tsk tsk
see BPM btw
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 December 2017 17:52 (six years ago) link
my god Betty Blue, a recent beneficiary of the Criterion treatment, is garbage.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 February 2020 20:24 (four years ago) link
lol. otm
― Frederik B, Thursday, 13 February 2020 20:45 (four years ago) link
have never been an avid cinemagoer, so my opinion might be ignorable, but still: the only film showing I ever walked out of (this must have been ‘87), because it was just so not good and so not for me (my companion felt exactly the same).
― breastcrawl, Thursday, 13 February 2020 21:13 (four years ago) link
the sheer quantity of french films about bourgeois city dwellers 'out of water' on a ill-advised adventures to the countryside where they learn to connect with what's real and also have a fling with a local or two before returning to the real world wiser and more fulfilled is just staggering, is there a quota or something?? it's like the french version of origami, or king cab pickups - a timeless art that they can produce endless minute variations on for centuries
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 5 December 2021 21:40 (two years ago) link
"city dwellers 'out of water' on a ill-advised adventures to the countryside where they learn to connect with what's real and also have a fling with a local or two before returning to the real world wiser and more fulfilled"
my family and ! have been joking that is the plot of every Hallmark Christmas movie (except in those there is only one fling and there is no return to the real world)
― Dan S, Sunday, 5 December 2021 23:20 (two years ago) link
I really enjoyed Petite Maman and Only the Animals recently, which fit these conditions to a point
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Sunday, 5 December 2021 23:29 (two years ago) link
The free translated opening from a paywalled Le Monde article:
In recent weeks, the rare images filmed by Jean Eustache (1938-1981) that were roaming the Internet have vanished; to be reborn better, in the coming months. After a meticulous restoration, the works of the filmmaker close to the New Wave, author of the legendary La Maman et la Putain (1973) , will finally find their way back to theaters.The dispute which hindered the distribution of his filmography, never released on DVD and rarely shown on television , has just been lifted, following an agreement between the heir, Boris Eustache, and Les Films du Losange, as well as reveals to the world its new president, Charles Gillibert . Passed by MK2, founder of CG Cinéma, this 44-year-old producer took over this emblematic New Wave authors' house in July 2021, with two partners, investor Alexis Dantec and entrepreneur Jacques Veyrat.
The dispute which hindered the distribution of his filmography, never released on DVD and rarely shown on television , has just been lifted, following an agreement between the heir, Boris Eustache, and Les Films du Losange, as well as reveals to the world its new president, Charles Gillibert . Passed by MK2, founder of CG Cinéma, this 44-year-old producer took over this emblematic New Wave authors' house in July 2021, with two partners, investor Alexis Dantec and entrepreneur Jacques Veyrat.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 19 January 2022 23:42 (two years ago) link
Cool, thanks.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 20 January 2022 02:40 (two years ago) link
Excellent news!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 20 January 2022 12:24 (two years ago) link
niiiice!
― Piano Mouth, Thursday, 20 January 2022 13:24 (two years ago) link
Could someone give me some hints as to what the most essential French filmmakers of the 70's and 80's were? Making my way through a Tavernier box and would like to get a better grasp of the context he was operating in. Feels like international attention stayed focused on the nouvelle vague/left bank crowd for the most part.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 10:04 (two years ago) link
Pialat probably first and foremost
― Eggs Benedick (Eric H.), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 13:03 (two years ago) link
Bertrand Blier too.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 13:11 (two years ago) link
Beineix.
― joni mitchell jarre (anagram), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 13:13 (two years ago) link
I know Chabrol was technically nouvelle vague but he was so damned prolific, and seemed to do the bulk of his most acclaimed work in that 70s/80s period.
― Eggs Benedick (Eric H.), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 13:15 (two years ago) link
Don't know how high his commercial profile was at the time, but André Téchiné?
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 17 May 2022 13:17 (two years ago) link
Bit obvious but Rohmer?
― ignore the blue line (or something), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 21:38 (two years ago) link
MallePialatBeineixRohmer Denis
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 17 May 2022 21:48 (two years ago) link
PialatSautetEustache
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 18 May 2022 05:30 (two years ago) link
Rohmer and Malle are part of that 60's canon I mentioned before, thanks for all the other recs!
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 09:52 (two years ago) link
Yeah, but they were at their best in the '80s. Rohmer never topped his 1980s filmography.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2022 10:08 (two years ago) link
Not disagreeing, it's just that my initial prompt for asking is that I feel 70's and 80's French cinema is v much overshadowed by those figuring towers from the 60's and I wanted to explore what was going on beyond that.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 10:13 (two years ago) link
Guess his standing isn't great but I caught some 80s Carax and I liked them.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 10:18 (two years ago) link
Will respectfully disagree that Malle was at his best in the 80s
― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 18 May 2022 10:33 (two years ago) link
Bresson still essential in the 70sJacques Deray made a number of interesting, mainstreamish thrillers throughout the 70s and 80sMarguerite Duras stands aloneClaude Berri's Jean De Florette and Manon des Sources - MASSIVE hits in the 1980sI don't really know Claude Sautet's work from the 70s, but again I think he was a reliable, more mainstream auteur
Two favourites from the 1980s:
Le Cop aka My New Partner (1984) - genuinely entertaining French comedywith a great lead performance from Phillipe Noiret as a corrupt cop La Letrice (1988) - a film about reading and erotic pleasure, couldn't really get any more French if you tried
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 11:00 (two years ago) link
"Marguerite Duras stands alone"
Very much so.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 11:18 (two years ago) link
If Swiss and Belgian Francophones count, Alain Tanner and Chantal Akerman.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 18 May 2022 11:49 (two years ago) link
Malle began the decade with two of his strongest films, though, yeah, Au Revoir les Enfants is meh.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 May 2022 12:01 (two years ago) link
New 4K restoration of The Mother and the Whore opens Cannes with Jean-Pierre Léaud and Françoise Lebrun in attendance:
https://www.cahiersducinema.com/actualites/eustache-les-yeux-neufs/?fbclid=IwAR0K8g-Z9Bt6TdEh3Aqlg4xgZQn31zDUg3KGgol14-KIfyURajRLGRsDPwk
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 19 May 2022 13:36 (two years ago) link
Is there an ok for a DVD?
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 19 May 2022 13:47 (two years ago) link
I think that's the plan - legit, remastered physical media releases for all of Eustache's stuff, finally approved by his estate.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 19 May 2022 14:11 (two years ago) link
Great, great news!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 19 May 2022 14:14 (two years ago) link
Janus Films has the US rights, so forecasters are anticipating Criterion Collection editions.
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Thursday, 19 May 2022 16:03 (two years ago) link
Did the auteur movement signify a shift in opportunity and power from playwrights to screenwriters to directors? How was this enabled by Hollywood? Has a similar shift ever been thought possible from composers to conductors? Is there a difference in performative or interpretive license or in recognition of sources of inspiration or authorship? Does the concept of inspiration in the arts or in human endeavor originate from what one can do with language?
― youn, Monday, 6 June 2022 07:37 (two years ago) link
What does a shift in opportunity mean?
I think if it means power or credibility or prestige then there is some of that. You seldom get a retro season which is focused on a producer or cinematographer though you get seasons on an actor. The focus on a director definitely takes it away from the array of technicians that work on film.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 6 June 2022 08:37 (two years ago) link
Auteur theory was never a 'movement'
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 6 June 2022 08:46 (two years ago) link