Tag Archive | "features"

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Cult of the Cults – The Golden Age (L’Age d’Or)

Posted on 20 July 2008 by admin

Luis Bunuel’s L’Age d’Or provoked such a fierce reaction among the Right that it was almost immediately banned by the French authorities after its release and not shown for another 50 years (it was finally allowed to play in Paris again in 1980). Suffice it to say, when you see it, you’ll understand why: especially the final sequence.

Bunuel and Dali’s surreal visions of tireless yet unfulfilled lovers through time imposed upon by “polite” society and driven to (in his case) madness and atheism and (in her case) nymphomania and desperate debauchery is a wild and amazing work of art.

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La Femme Nikita , 1990

Posted on 30 May 2008 by admin

Nikita is young and attractive, but has already gone to the bad. During a hold up of a pharmacy (drug store) with her drug-crazed criminal gang, she deliberately kills a policeman, coldly shooting him in the face.

She is condemned to prison for life, but the French secret services, looking for cold blooded killers, have identified the potential in her. They offer her an alternative future. If she proves herself, she could become a secret agent herself. She accepts and starts a hard career.

Director Luc Besson manages to keep a high level of energy and our interest – from the opening scene – a violent drugstore shootout until the very last moment. A high adrenaline anti-heroine thriller.

IMDB Rating : 7.5 /10

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Delicatessen, 1991

Posted on 23 March 2008 by admin

Delicatessen! Is it horror? Yes and no. Is it a comedy? Yes and no. Is it brilliant? Oh yes definitely!
In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher’s daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

This is a very funny film which, in spite of the storyline, is not as black as the opening scene would suggest. Jeunet and Caro’s filmographic style is unusual – in fact genuinely surreal in places. The extraordinary performances from all of the cast members (particularly Pinon and Dougnac), the spooky incidental music, and the creepy sets all add to the bizarre, other-worldliness of this film.

IMDB Rating : 7.9/10

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Le Mepris (Contempt), 1963

Posted on 27 February 2008 by admin

French cult-director Jean-Luc Godard made this masterpiece way in 1963 but it is still as captivating as it was then. Le Mepris, Featuring superstar Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli as her husband- screenwriter who is hired to write a screenplay based on the ancient Greek myth “The Odyssey”.

The story deals with the creative process of film making as viewed by Godard, but also focuses on the breakdown of a marriage by the growing contempt of Bardot for her husband , whom she feels is selling out to greedy US producer Jack Palance.

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The Return of Martin Guerre , 1982

Posted on 23 February 2008 by admin

The film tells us a true story about a young man from Southern France who leaves his village to fight in the Wars of Religion in the 16th century. He comes back to his village and family eight years after he left – now a different man.

Nobody notices the changes in him after many years until one day a vagrant claims to recognize him and says that he is not the real Martin Guerre. His family had to consider the possibility that he may not be really Martin Guerre. Eventually the question goes to court. The film was remade in English, and updated to the Reconstruction, in 1993 as Sommersby, starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. See this original instead of the imitation. The film story flows well and the cinematography is great.

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