Classic French Cinema Discussion Thread

As you say, a recurring theme. We can add BAT's favorite The Face Behind the Mask (1941) dir: Robert Florey, Dark Passage (1947) dir: Delmer Daves, the first section of the portmanteau film Le Plaisir (1952) dir: Max Ophuls, and Face/Off (1997) dir: John Woo, among others.

May I thank Aj_june for starting this thread, one of the most informative on the board?

I was late to this party. You guys and gals had already racked up eleven information-packed pages before I arrived. I therefore assumed there would be no movies left for me to nominate, but I found there have been some surprising omissions.

For starters, possibly my favorite French movie ever, and one which I wrongly assumed, because of its subject matter, would be a big deal here. It was the movie which re-awoke my interest in French cinema. I had been caught up in all the New Wave hype in the 'sixties, but had only rarely watched French movies in more recent decades until this movie stimulated my taste-buds again:

Laissez-passer Safe Conduct (2002) dir: Bertrand Tavernier is about making movies under the German Occupation, with a thin fictional veneer. While the number of films released may have diminished, there was no fall-off in quality, and some of the greatest French movie emerged at that tragic time. Some of the major figures in French cinema appear as characters, Maurice Tourneur, Spaak, Autant-Lara, etc.

The hero is Jean Devaivre (played by Jacques Gamblin), who was a real-life post-war director who only made a couple of half-decent movies before lapsing into mediocrity. The second strand in the movie is Devaivre's Resistance activities. These involved a trip to England as courier, and this is a really clunky part of the movie, included no doubt to add a little exciting action for the viewing public as well as honoring Devaivre's courage, but the long movie (nearly three hours) could have done without it. Otherwise I have only good things to say, and anyone interested in French cinema of the '40s should see it.

Note that the Nazis were running short of hand-guns by the later stages of the war:

Plenty of British "Kitchen Sink" movies in the late '40s and early '50s. Just not labelled as such at that time. Working-class social realism.

You are right, thanks. That is my evening viewing sorted, and for free too, which is even better.

Of course I know about the CC button. I tried that first time around and again after reading your recent post. Only saw French automatically-generated subtitles. Then I clicked on the "screen-shaped" button to the left. When I clicked on subtitles there I had to sign in to confirm my age. Having done that, no problems!

Never been through that process before. I wonder how many other movies I have missed out on? Lots of interesting Russian movies are announced on YouTube as "with English sub-titles", but no dice. 

Many thanks for taking the trouble to come back to me.

I will post what I think of the movie tomorrow.

Maybe it was a health-related safety precaution and watching Sylvia Kristel naked is bad for my heart at a few days short of 80, so they wanted to warn me? They need not have worried. She is not my type. After 13 years in the Caribbean I have evolved a specific taste.

It had been ten years and thousands of quality films since since last watching Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959) completely forgotten I was absolutely stunned by the artistic genius after a recent reappraisal.... 

 Filmed in the bare minimalist  style of the director, the compelling drama is intricately plotted & choregraphed , focusing intensely on the “confinement” of the main character a striking debut from a non actor Martin LaSalle  and his efforts to avoid capture after the thrill of pickpocket crime.
With remarkable composition who else could frame a doorway with such profound dimension, 
Taking us out of the flow of action and into reflection , shots often begin with just a static view of a room or a doorway captured for several seconds before anyone appears,  once departing from the scene the  camera is still held on the now-empty setting as we process our thoughts.

Bresson wrote the original screenplay, A masterwork that expresses Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and Camus through its fascinating protagonist. It has been said the film is an example of "parametric narration" ? one in which the style "dominates  or is seemingly equal in importance to the plot.

                   

We have not finished with Jean-Pierre Jeunet yet. What about his steam-punk trilogy? Jeunet shared directorial credits with Marc Caro on the first two of these, as on many early works before they hit the big-time. Their relationship reminds me of that between the magicians (Angier and Borden) and John Cutter, the ingenieur who designed their tricks and machinery, in "The Prestige" (and this no doubt reflected most real-life acts). There is a direct line from Jeunet back to Méliès who played both roles, being an engineer, illusionist and film director.

Jeunet has said he is not so interested in plot as in spectacle (though his greatest film, "Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles" [2004] more than satisfies on both counts). He coached the actors, while Caro was his ingenieur, coming up with an endless stream of ingenious props and steam-punk devices. The downside is that, having invested so much time, money and mechanical genius in these wonderful gimmicks, they gave them too much footage.

"The Steam-punk Trilogy" of black comedies (my own nomenclature) comprises:

Delicatessen (1991) about citizens driven to cannibalism in some future dystopian Paris. The interesting thing about this is how it strongly reflects the desperate food shortages during the German Occupation (and even worse, after the Liberation) as shown in films like "Laissez-passer" Safe Conduct (2002) dir: Bertrand Tavernier and "Le Dernier Métro" (1980) dir: François Truffaut, which depict incessant haggling and squabbling over provisions.





La Cité des Enfants Perdus (1995) is about the theft of street children by a mad scientist who wishes to steal their dreams to prolong his own life. As Jeunet acquired a growing budget the film expanded in length and ambition. I suspect Jeunet lost the plot a bit, but it is never less than an eyeful. Jeunet says it is suitable for children. Hmmmm.




Micmacs à tire-larigot (2009) is an anti-war film. Two friends plot to bring down two large companies of arms-manufacturers by playing them off against each other. Caro did not co-direct on this one, though there is no shortage of wacky gadgets.




These are not great films but all are worth a look and a mention in this thread. They evoke the spirit of the silent era at times.

So impressed was I with Bertrand Tavernier's Laissez-passer (2002, see my post above) that I invested in his Voyage à travers le Cinéma Français (2016). I was hoping for a brief crammer course in the history of French cinema, but instead of finding myself in a virtual classroom, I felt that I had wandered into a private house-party where most of the guests knew each other but I knew no-one. It is not a chronological survey, sometimes he comments on films by genre and sometimes by star, and I found it hard to keep track. It is somewhat restricted to those films from which he was permitted to show excerpts, so some big titles and important directors are not touched on. And it is a very personal survey, so he omits people he does not know or does not like.

Now I have seen a few more of the famous French classics I hope that I will get more out of it on a second viewing.



Another Tavernier movie I own is In the Electric Mist (2009) starring Tommy Lee Jones in one of James Lee Burke's "Dave Robicheaux" tales. A routine crime story "enlivened" by supernatural visitors, although most of the characters drink so much Bourbon they could be excused for seeing anything. I expect the book made more sense.

I could not negotiate the ebonics in 'Round Midnight (1986) so gave up after 15 minutes. As spiderwort liked it, I may try harder.

Coup de Torchon (1981) and Un Dimanche à la Campagne (1984) are on my shopping list.

I am not sure if I can squeeze my next title past Aj_June's rigorous frontier guards. It is set in Paris, was filmed entirely in Paris, is in French and most of the cast are French, including Jean-Pierre Léaud. It is based on a classic French novel. The production company is international but seem to be based in France. If submitted for an Oscar (which it was not - boo!) I guess it would have to be submitted as a French film. Good enough, Aj_June?

Well maybe not, because the director is Finn Aki Kaurismäki, two of the four leads are Finnish, as are most of the production crew. (Spot the cameos from Louis Malle and Samuel Fuller).

La Vie de Bohème (1992) is fairly closely based on Henrik Murger's novel "Scènes de la vie de bohème", which has suffered many interpretations down the years, most famously Puccini's opera "La Bohème", but also the theatre musical and its cinematic version Rent (2005). Kaurismäki's film cleaned up at the European Film Awards of 1992 and is available from Criterion.

Hi all,after hearing about it for ages,I decided to finally see a Comedy from Jean Rollin!

"How does it feel, how does it feel?,To be without a home

Like a complete unknown, like a Rollin stone. "

Schoolgirl Hitchhikers (1973) 7.








Made under a alias, directing auteur Jean Rollin (who has a funny cameo) reunites with his regular cinematographer of this period Jean-Jacques Renon and shows his hand from the moment Monica walks down a staircase in a manor house wearing a nightgown. Hitching a ride in the middle of his Horror run, Rollin continues to stylishly expand on his major recurring motifs, hitching Monica and her friend/ partner Jackie to a isolated manor house,frozen in wide-shots panning across the stilted surrounding woodland, landing on chic, shot through colourful panel lighting frolics of the duo and thieves.

Wisely not going for extreme close-ups on the raunchy thrills, Rollin keeps his unique mood flowing with soft-lit close-ups on the faces of the kinky duo. Rollin also displays an unexpected charm for a Comedy farce, gleefully mocking shoot-outs in Crime flicks with a extended fight between investigators and thieves.

Acting regularly in Rollin’s films, the screenplay (this site lists her as “Script”) by Natalie Perrey is dented by clear jumps/scenes being cut, (presumable for those being moments where Adult inserts were to to be placed) but overcomes those problem with a playful Grindhouse take on Rollin’s themes, with the jewel robbery gang finding their plans interrupted by the hypnotic Monica (played by a sultry Joelle Coeur) and Gilda Arancio (played by a eager Gilda Arancio) going for a hitch-hike.

My Rollin rank from best-worst:

The Night of the Hunted
Fascination
Living Dead Girl
Two Orphan Vampires
Schoolgirl Hitchhikers
La nuit des horloges
Sidewalks of Bangkok
The Escapees