french films.

lili

do you like french films?
which films have you already seen?

simu

Well, it depends - there's good (Amélie Poulain, Tanguy, the 3 colours films, the Astérix films etc) and bad films (Absolument fabuleux...uurgh) and some are just ok. Generally though, I'm more interested in films that were not made in the USA as I'm really sick of that country and French films are also useful for learning more French expressions!

simu

Oh, now that I think of it, weren't the 3 colours films directed by a Polish guy? Or maybe he was also a French citizen. I don't know. Is it necessary to classify films into strict categories of nationality?

Karl Hungus

Got a few French films on DVD here myself...
City Of Lost Children, Dobermann, and Brotherhood Of The Wolf.

Great films.

lili

"3 couleurs" is a trilogy from the polish kieslowsky, about the 3 colours of the french flag : bleu (liberty), blanc (équality), rouge (brotherwood).
we can talk in this thread about the non hollywood movie of course:)

"absolutly fabulous" is a remake of the english serie. and i agree with you, it was not a good remake, i prefer the english serie so far.

"tanguy" is absolutly hilarious, i recommand it to everyone who want have a good laugh:)
also astérix mission cléopatre is a very good movie, beautiful pics and good laugh too, and the comic strip is respected.

lili

Originally posted by AngelWhore
Got a few French films on DVD here myself...
City Of Lost Children, Dobermann, and Brotherhood Of The Wolf.

Great films.

i didn't see dobermann, it's too much violent for my taste, but i did see the others, if "trotherhood of the wolf" is the film i'm thinking about, i don't know with the translation. is it the film with vincent cassel and monica belluci? about the gevaudan beast?

Karl Hungus

Yes, that is indeed the film, lili.

Vincent Cassel is also in Dobermann.
He was great in La Haine also.
Dont have that film myself though.

Exit

Anything by Jeunet is pretty good. Even Alien Resurrection though it's not French exactly.

Capt'n Midnight

Betty Blue - the bit with the piano

The Visitors

Alphaville

Dleicatessen - look at the eyes of the guy dressed in newspapers

And of course Cyrano De Bergerac (no not the john nettles one) esp. with the subtitles by John Gueilgood (SP)

The_Bullman

The Fifth Element- Isn't this frances highest grocing movie ever?

SweetBirdOfTruth

have to confess to being a little less than enthuastic about current french output. historically they have a reputation, but current french fare can be dreadfully trite. the recent cinefrance season in the ifi threw up v few surprises, though i loved (for its photography) raymond depardon's Un Homme Sans L'Occident (Untouched By The West) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d0003190c ) and the donnie darko / david lynch -esque Pas De Repos Pour Les Braves (No Rest For The Brave) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d00032032 ).

neither Un Homme, Un Vrai (A Man, A Real Man) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d00031650 ) or antoinne de caunes (monsieur eurothrash himself) costume drama / conspiracy theory Monsieur N (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d000318e4 ) were really worth bothering with.

lucas belvaux's la trilogie (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/20031205 ) is worth seeing, Un Couple Epatant (An Amazing Couple - Trilogy Two), Cavale (On The Run - Trilogy One) and Apres La Vie (After Life - Trilogy Three) between them having something for everyone, even if overall being slightly disappointing after the high hopes held out for them.

bertrand tavernier's Laissez-Passer was one of the best french films i've seen this year, telling the story of french cinema under german occupation in world war ii.

francois ozon's Swimming Pool and (last year's) 8 Femmes (8 Women) were both beautiful to look at and two very different takes on standard crime thrillers.

Les Tripletts De Belleville (Belleville Rendez-Vous) was fantastic, especially if you love the tour de france.

Le Temps Du Loup (Time Of The Wolf) was challengingly enjoyable and very dark.

L'homme Du Train (The Man On The Train) was sweetly gentle and johnny halliday was wonderful to watch.

Embrassez Qui Vous Voudrez (See How They Run / Sumer Things) was a quintessentially french comedy of errors / comedy of eros, though based on a joseph connolly novel and still remarkably true to connolly's style.

L'Auberge D'Espagnole (Pot Luck) was a dreadful euro-pudding.

Le Fils (The Son) was more annoying than entertaining, too subserviant to a make-it-real cinematic ethic.

Petites Coupures (Small Cuts) wasn't up to much. ditto Sex Is Comedy and Vendredi Soir (Friday Night).

Capt'n Midnight

Nikitta (SP) remade as Assassin for some unknown reason.
Mr Reno is excellent as the cleaner with his bottles of HCl

SweetBirdOfTruth

oh, and i forgot gasper noe's Irreversible, which is worth seeing with friends if only for the arguments that will ensue

lili

Originally posted by AngelWhore
Yes, that is indeed the film, lili.

Vincent Cassel is also in Dobermann.
He was great in La Haine also.
Dont have that film myself though.

vincent cassel is one of the most busy french actors of his generation. and i must admit he plays always with good directors.
personately i like those ones :
- l'appartement
- la haine
- les rivières pourpres
- sur mes lèvres

and soon he will be in the yan kounen film (the director who made doberbann) this film is a spece of western "blueberry".

lili

Originally posted by Exit
Anything by Jeunet is pretty good. Even Alien Resurrection though it's not French exactly.

indeed, jean-pierre jeunet got his own univers. i haven't seen alien resurrection, but i heard it was not at the level of the others aliens.
he like making work a french actor i like a lot : dominique pinon.
he is the litle blond guy, with a special face (he is also in amélie poulain) really great actor.

lili

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Betty Blue - the bit with the piano

The Visitors

Alphaville

Dleicatessen - look at the eyes of the guy dressed in newspapers

And of course Cyrano De Bergerac (no not the john nettles one) esp. with the subtitles by John Gueilgood (SP)

betty blue an adaptation of the book "37.2 le matin" written by philippe djian, a writer i like a lot (a spece of bukowski )
this movie was the first of a sulfurous french actrice : béatrice dalle. she fit perfectly the character, she is like that in the real life:)

i liked the "visitors" the scene when jean réno distroye the postman's car is quite hilarious:p

as for cyrano de bergerac, i have seen many actors for this film and theater stuff, no one is at the level of gérard depardieu, this guy is a monument!

lili

Originally posted by The_Bullman
The Fifth Element- Isn't this frances highest grocing movie ever?

well, luc besson is special in the french production. he is a business man now (not really appreciated by the french critizing.
his productions are the most expensive of french cinema. not far than the holliwood way except he got the final cut.:)

lili

Originally posted by SweetBirdOfTruth
have to confess to being a little less than enthuastic about current french output. historically they have a reputation, but current french fare can be dreadfully trite. the recent cinefrance season in the ifi threw up v few surprises, though i loved (for its photography) raymond depardon's Un Homme Sans L'Occident (Untouched By The West) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d0003190c ) and the donnie darko / david lynch -esque Pas De Repos Pour Les Braves (No Rest For The Brave) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d00032032 ).

neither Un Homme, Un Vrai (A Man, A Real Man) (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d00031650 ) or antoinne de caunes (monsieur eurothrash himself) costume drama / conspiracy theory Monsieur N (spoilers - http://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/_entry/d5a8e8444f2470443fc8923d000318e4 ) were really worth bothering with.

lucas belvaux's la trilogie (spoilers - [urhttp://www.foneblog.ie/o2/LoopDiLoop/20031205[/url] ) is worth seeing, Un Couple Epatant (An Amazing Couple - Trilogy Two), Cavale (On The Run - Trilogy One) and Apres La Vie (After Life - Trilogy Three) between them having something for everyone, even if overall being slightly disappointing after the high hopes held out for them.

bertrand tavernier's Laissez-Passer was one of the best french films i've seen this year, telling the story of french cinema under german occupation in world war ii.

francois ozon's Swimming Pool and (last year's) 8 Femmes (8 Women) were both beautiful to look at and two very different takes on standard crime thrillers.

Les Tripletts De Belleville (Belleville Rendez-Vous) was fantastic, especially if you love the tour de france.

Le Temps Du Loup (Time Of The Wolf) was challengingly enjoyable and very dark.

L'homme Du Train (The Man On The Train) was sweetly gentle and johnny halliday was wonderful to watch.

Embrassez Qui Vous Voudrez (See How They Run / Sumer Things) was a quintessentially french comedy of errors / comedy of eros, though based on a joseph connolly novel and still remarkably true to connolly's style.

L'Auberge D'Espagnole (Pot Luck) was a dreadful euro-pudding.

Le Fils (The Son) was more annoying than entertaining, too subserviant to a make-it-real cinematic ethic.

Petites Coupures (Small Cuts) wasn't up to much. ditto Sex Is Comedy and Vendredi Soir (Friday Night).

woooooooooh! what a cinéphile!;)

i know depardon because his notorious, but haven't seen yet his documentaries.
i heard he had a litle fight with richard gere once, almost break his noze:D


i like françois ozon, have you seen "sitcom" with the big rat? if not i recommand it to you:)

i enjoyed to see "l'auberge espagnole" particulary the scenes with the english girl's brother and the scene when he explain the difference between the italian way and the german way:D

le fils is a belgium film, i watched it last week, great actor performing but sure the subject is not very happy.


"embrassez qui vous voudrez" haha, i liked it a lot too. when the girls talk eachothers about the male's orgasm, one of them said :
-"i would like to know how it is for the males, it must be great to got a male's orgasm"
and the other girl said :
-"me, i just want to know how it is when we get an orgasm"
hehe:D

lili

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
Nikitta (SP) remade as Assassin for some unknown reason.
Mr Reno is excellent as the cleaner with his bottles of HCl

well, the remakes. i'm not against it if it bring something new at the subject, but here, indeed, it was not that good.
i think "nikita" was a film for a strong female performance acting. for once, the actress is not a spece of bimbo. not many directors take the risk to construct a film around a female character like for the "aliens".

lili

Originally posted by SweetBirdOfTruth
oh, and i forgot gasper noe's Irreversible, which is worth seeing with friends if only for the arguments that will ensue

gaspar noé, that's what i call a provocator;)
i really want to see this movie, i started to watch it, but when the scene of the rape started (in the corridor) i'd been couard, i couldn't watch.
what is your feeling about this film please?

simu

i enjoyed to see "l'auberge espagnole" particulary the scenes with the english girl's brother and the scene when he explain the difference between the italian way and the german way

I thought it was an interesting film because I did an Erasmus year in France myself but suggesting that all Germans are really organised and that Italians are messy is just reinforcing stereotypes. What I learnt from spending a year abroad and meeting people from all over the world is that national stereotypes are simplistic and constraining and that you have to judge people on their own merits. I think they did try to get this point accross in other parts of the film though.

I thought the main character was a bit too mopey and the rich woman he was having an affair with was quite pathetic. The film never even tried to explain why she was so strangely passive all the time - she seemed more like a woman of the 1950s rather than the 1990s.

Speaking of French films, I remember watching Godard's Weekend at uni. I actually enjoyed it - it's "completement déjanté" (completely up the wall) even if it does go on too long for my liking.

I also remember a film I saw at a friend's house in France, that I haven't heard about since - it was called L'an 01. Twas about people overthrowing society in the 60s - at the start it was a pretty straightforward description of a revolution and then it became increasingly bizarre and surrealistic.

Then of course, there's all those films like Manon des Sources (that the Stella Artois ads are based on). They're a bit too cheesy for my liking, though.

lili

simu, it's exactly what cédric klapisch denonced in his movie, the stereotype:)

as for the married woman, i think there is a lot of women in this case. women without really target in life and only worried to please to their husband.

i still don't understand what "cheesy" means, does that mean that it makes laugh without the wish of it?

manon des sources is from a book of marcel pagnol, of course it's naif and charming but it was the style of this méridional writer:)

simu

i still don't understand what "cheesy" means, does that mean that it makes laugh without the wish of it? manon des sources is from a book of marcel pagnol, of course it's naif and charming but it was the style of this méridional writer

Yes, that's what I meant. I'm not saying it's a bad film - it's just not my cup of tea and especially after the Stella Artois ads they have on TV in Ireland (parodying these films) and the fact that my lecturer (I watched the film in a class at uni) made lots of sarcastic jokes about it, I found it hard to take it seriously.

I don't really think there is an exact equivalent of cheesy in French - the closest I ever go was ringard or cucul la praline, depending on the context.

simu, it's exactly what cédric klapisch denonced in his movie, the stereotype

I know, but I think he didn't go far enough with his denunciation!

lili

cucul la praline, j'adore cette expression:D

well, for l'auberge espagnol he had other stuffs to developpe and in fact, the english guy was the catalysor, so he had just few scenes to talk about it.

SweetBirdOfTruth

Originally posted by lili
gaspar noé, that's what i call a provocator;)
i really want to see this movie, i started to watch it, but when the scene of the rape started (in the corridor) i'd been couard, i couldn't watch.
what is your feeling about this film please?

noe is, as you say, a provocateur and i refuse to rise to his provocation in irreversible. in the opening fight scene, where i'm supposed to be shocked, i found myself watching the violence intently to see how it was done, the face being pulped by the fire extinguisher, was it make-up or a mannequin. even the rape, i found myself distanced from, watching the strategic placement of her jumper on the ground in front of her, covering her modesty and denying even a hint of titilation in the scene. and the cgi penis was just unnecessary.

his own cameo - he's **** in the night club - more or less sums up the level of silliness in it for me.

technically, there's something to admire, but truth be told, bela tarr does long takes much better, and russian ark, one whole long take, makes a mockery of the dozen-or-so scenes that make this film up. plus also there's the fact that there are edits, even though noe initially wanted us to belive there was none.

structurally, it's interesting, the reverse story telling, but so was memento.

as for the rest, the message, well, as with so much modern french cinema, i just thought it trite. i've had discussions in which a reading of the film as being about france itself has been put forward, and that is an interesting idea, but i'm not really sure if that was noe's intent or just reading too much into a relatively blank canvas.

that said, i think it's a film you should watch, even disliking it i found more in it than i have in a lot of other films this year.

SweetBirdOfTruth

re the marcel pagnol books / films of the books. they do come up a lot as the french faves for people who don't watch french films. they are, between them, a lot like john b keane's the field, which i like. i do think they're good.

SweetBirdOfTruth

re L'Auberge D'Espagnole (Pot Luck)

Originally posted by lili
simu, it's exactly what cédric klapisch denonced in his movie, the stereotype:)

but that's the problem with the film. the thing he denounces is the thing he uses the most in order to raise a titter. the only laughs in the film come from stereotypes.

i also found it annoying because of the central character, who's story it was, and who was clearly a junior klapisch. he sexually awakes mousy women, even lesbians fall for him, and he's just such an annoying and arrogant little ****.

and the many-colours-of-benetton ending made my teeth ache with its sweetness.

lili

well well, i didn't have seen all of those stuff, i found it quite emotionaly, i almost had a little tear when he left barcelona:)

if you can have access easely to french films, i recommand you :

- "monsieur hire" by patrice leconte.
and
- "capitaine conan" by bertrand tavernier.

Makaveli

Irreversible is a bit strong.
And that shaky camera and thumping base line when going through the club at the start gave me motion sickness. Then watching your mans head getting smashed in by the fire extinguisher was pretty fucked up too. Then of course there is the rape scene.

Another great French film that is nice and light hearted is Taxi. Great fun. The sequel isnt bad either, but I dunno about the wings on the car.

La Haine is a classic.

Dobermann is good too. Also leaning towards the violent side of things as already said.

And I enjoyed Brotherhood of the Wolf, although the martial arts seemed a bit out of place.

MisterAnarchy

I saw 'La Reine Margot' last night.
The winner of the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, is based on the book Marguerite de Valois by Alexandre Dumas, the movie portrays the epic role that one woman played in the history of France.
It is supposedly one of the best French films of all time.
I found it extremely disjointed .Seemed as if half of it was left on the cutting room floor.
I'd give it 2/5 at best.

lili

indeed, what a dissapointment this reine margot!
it's too bad because the director and the actors are famous.
but i think this film was too bloody and the actors had overplayed.

sceptre

Apart from the already mentioned I quite liked le diner de cons. Has that French farce feel to it.

I actually liked jean de Florette and Manon but then I sometimes like cheesy movies. Amants de pont neuf too. Like some of the quibblers above me, I thought La Reine Margot was very very overrated.

Exit

Can anyone tell me the name of this film I'm thinking of. I saw it years ago and I'm just want to find out what it was.

It was about a woman who just starts reading, and finds that she loves reading. And she starts having an affair with a professor or her reading teacher or something. And then she soon grows tired of sex, preferring to read. I could be completely wrong with these details. As I said, it was years ago. It was on Channel 4, so presumably it's somewhat famous.

It may have had livre (or other variations) in the title.

lili

Originally posted by sceptre
Apart from the already mentioned I quite liked le diner de cons. Has that French farce feel to it.

I actually liked jean de Florette and Manon but then I sometimes like cheesy movies. Amants de pont neuf too. Like some of the quibblers above me, I thought La Reine Margot was very very overrated.

ah! le diner de cons, that's a good film!
you should tell the story of it:)

lili

Originally posted by Exit
Can anyone tell me the name of this film I'm thinking of. I saw it years ago and I'm just want to find out what it was.

It was about a woman who just starts reading, and finds that she loves reading. And she starts having an affair with a professor or her reading teacher or something. And then she soon grows tired of sex, preferring to read. I could be completely wrong with these details. As I said, it was years ago. It was on Channel 4, so presumably it's somewhat famous.

It may have had livre (or other variations) in the title.

well, was this actress a blonde one?
because i know only one film on the subject, it's called "la lectrice", it's not exactly the story, but as you don't remember maybe it's this one. the actress is : miou-miou.

Exit

Yes that's it! Though from looking here http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0095511/ I got the story completely wrong, but yeah I'm pretty sure that's it.

Thanks lili!

lili

you're welcome:)
i see in the site you has quoted that the opinions on this film are shared, good! means it's an interesting film, i liked it.

nlgbbbblth

Some French films I like would be

Zero de conduite
Claire's Knee
L627
L'Appartement
A Bout De Souffle
Weekend
Smoking/No Smoking
La Grande Bouffe
Buffet Froid
Les Diner Des Cons
La Carne
Eyes Without A Face
La Haine
The Hairdresser's Husband
Jean De Florette
Merci La Vie
Les Nuits De La Plaine Lune
Pauline A La Plage
Slow Motion
Le Samourai
La Regle De Jeu

Jim

watchin one atm.

"The Officers Room".

bout a french soldier in WWII who gets injured and his time in hospital. one of the worst films ive ever seen. nothing has happened in hours.

lili

i think you missed the subject of this film.
it's not an action movie, more a reflexion on broken lives due to the ww1.
a tribute to the "gueules cassées". those soldiers who prefered certainly to be dead than to lose them face.