French films are shit. Porquoi?

I just saw "The Last Mistress" -- directly translated it should be "An Old Mistress" as in "an old story" but eh

I thought it was wonderful - a "small" film in a way but I never realized Asia Argento was such an actress! Christ almighty she was like an animal. I've known people like that.

My favorite thing may have been the way it was a period piece, set in the height of 1830s Parisian society, yet you still got the slightly damp, dingy feel that must have pervaded even the poshest drawing rooms in those days

I mean I'm just so accustomed to any period film feeling like every prop cost a million dollars, that every drop of sunlight fills a room with a luxurious glow, that all is powdered and pampered and smelling of leather and roses, when actually even the nobility of those days lived in some rather rough and drafty places and never washed, despite their rococo brocade

La France mostly sucks.

i just saw that movie The Last Mistress which i really liked

I'm sure Eric H will, too.

What can I say? Surmounter and I share a love for pillowy male lips.

Me too, but the hairy femme "lip" closeups...

That's where the Sex is Comedy thing comes in.

one of my favorite movies is french... "Diva".
also :"Ponette"

nooo asia's lips were fine.

although that blond actress, she was something ELSE. hermangarde.

Ramz, I refer you to the wall o' 'ginas that's floating around ILX.

hah

how did we get this far with no mention of banlieue 13, renaissance or immortel? all of which are gorgeous and basically awesome except renaissance has a really disappointing score + a few scary "uncanny valley" bits with the mo-cap

oh right I'm the only person who cares about foreign digital backlot cinema

Clouzot's Les Diaboliques is pretty unbeatable for French noir.

-- Jonathan Z., Tuesday, January 6, 2004 4:10 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Link

i thought renaissance was a total zzzzzz

Eff that digi-shit, Jacques Tati pisses on it. More pantomime!

Nice to be reminded of the "golden age" of ILx.

^'There are no new waves, there is only the ocean'

I just tried to see The Last Mistress but the print had mysteriously not turned up. I suspect some filthy London projectionist has squirreled it away for his personal Asia Argento collection. It's being rescheduled for September.

i thought renaissance was a total zzzzzz

it was pretty zzzz at points but it had some really really awesome bits. I give them probably more credit than they deserve for the purposeful obtuseness of going to great lengths to combine all that technology just to make a film that has like five colors

I saw this

http://thecia.com.au/reviews/h/images/hidden-cache-poster-2.jpg

last week and it's absolutely brilliant. So, not shit at all.

Two words for Pete: Carole Bouquet.

I don't think that poster for Hidden his very good. Daniel Auteil looks like he's drunk and embarrassing his wife at a wedding reception disco.

Recently watched Leconte's Tango, which managed to be really entertaining even while harping on the "lol men and women sure are different amirite" theme. Crazy husband-murdering girl was way cute.

I can watch Melville's Le Cercle Rouge endlessly. Not sure exactly why but I think the lack of dialoge helps.

http://www.premiere.fr/var/premiere/storage/images/cinema/photos-film/themes/les-brigands-bien-aimes/alain-delon-dans-le-cercle-rouge-1970-de-j-p-melville/12396138-1-fre-FR/alain_delon_dans_le_cercle_rouge_1970_de_j_p_melville_reference.jpg

perhaps I just didn't understand La France:

http://academichack.net/reviewsMay2008.htm#France

wasn't that review basically what the NYT said?

no, the NYT doesn't go into that kinda arcana.

Matt Groening's Paradox of Cinema:

- the French are funny
- sex is funny
- comedies are funny

Yet, no French sex comedies are funny.

rong

speaking of which: i'm watching LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON and i'm not into it, and i usually like rohmer.

partly i just don't like zouzou at all

yeah, that one is probably my least favorite Rohmer and Zouzou is a big factor. Great ending though, which made me realize that with Rohmer the main action is a always off camera.

YES you are so right, the last scene redeemed the movie.

do you think we were expected to judge the zouzou character?

anyone been?

http://www.camdenartscentre.org/exhibitions/?id=100481

just for the envy of Alex in SF:

http://www.filmforum.org/films/crimewave.html

i'm sick of films "full of atmosphere, emotion and angst"

very late xpost to amateurist:
I think Rohmer never really judges his female leads. In the Conte Moraux cycle, the two recurring types of the good girl and the tempteress are just shown as leading their healthy lives, while the man chases paper mills and ultimately comes across as pathetic. 'Genou de Claire' is my favorite example of this.

One counter-example is 'Nuits de la Pleine lune' where Bulle Ogier takes on that role. Again we realize at the end of that movie that while the main character was building up all these tiny dramas on camera, the real stuff was happening behind teh scenes.

I will say that Diva has both artiness and action (Jules riding his moped through the Metro).

I don't exactly recommend Ne Le Dis a Personne, but it was refreshing to see a French movie that wasn't exclusively set in BoBo dinner party-ready Paris apartments. Although that may owe something to having been based on an American novel.

Guillaume Depardieu dies at 37:

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006843.html

Wanted to see this for a couple of years, can't wait:

http://www.institut-francais.org.uk/cine-lumiere/films/my-little-loves.html

haha man that looks SO FRENCH

yes its PROPER FRENCH!!!

Went back for Vivre sa Vie today, cracking stuff - well done Lumiere, renovation is terrific and groundbreaking on the leg room front.

Next month I see the Nouvelle Vague thing is 50 years old: really looking fwd to a couple of curios and the Varda screening at the nft way more than Truffaut (who is ok but don't feel like checking out more than I have), and I don't really know what's so special about Chabrol.

Truffaut's Vivement Dimanche (a crazy Hitchcock ode) is one of the best things I saw this year so far.

I don't really know what's so special about Chabrol.

'Cause he's one of the few Hitchcock disiples who has actually gotten beyond jerking off to the Vertigo/NxNW/Psycho trilogy?

Abel Gance's Napoleon is coming to town (in two parts) later this week. I hope to make the screenings.

French critics really into this film right now: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1314280/

looks awwwful