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L’Enfer (Hell) 1995

Last year I compiled a list of films featuring the mentally disturbed. It did not feature L’Enfer but it should have. The director is Claude Chabrol, the French Hitchcock. Like Hitchcock he is master of filming technique, Hitchcock learning his in the German new realist school of Fritz Lang [...]

April 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Jeune et Jolie

Francois Ozon is amongst the most celebrated of French directors and he is on form with Jeune et Jolie. The film, set over four seasons, depicts Isobelle (Marine  Vatch ),  a 17 year old who loses her  virgintiy in the summer on holiday, becomes a prostitute in autumn, is revealed as such in [...]

April 3, 2014 // 0 Comments

Yves Saint Laurent

The French Cinema has, over the past few years, produced some interesting biopics of their celebrated achievers: Piaf, Chanel and now Yves Saint Laurent. Although these are warts et tous they reflect a national pride which we do not  often see in British cinema Yves Saint Laurent was played by [...]

April 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

Judgement at Nuremberg

One of the claims one frequently hears of a contemporary American film is that is based on fact, even though – for example – Captain Phillips is being sued by eight of the crew he apparently saved. It was not always thus. Judgment in Nuremberg (1961) was based on hard fact. It did [...]

March 26, 2014 // 0 Comments

The Men Responsible

We film critics love to interview the stars but not the movers and shakers of the  industry. This is part of the celebrity culture where supposedly readers prefer the inanities of a luvvie to hearing about how a successful or more often unsuccessful film is made. Yesterday I had a drink with an [...]

March 13, 2014 // 0 Comments

Like an old friend whose brilliance never fades

Several weeks ago now, Channel Four broadcast the Mel Brooks’ classic 1968 movie The Producers, featuring Zero Mostel as Max Byalistock and Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom. The same year, Brooks received an Academy Award for ‘Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen’ [...]

March 11, 2014 // 0 Comments

10 films about music

Music films, like sports films, can suffer as an actor is not a musician. Against that you can rely on a good score. Here are 10 of my favourites: 1. Spinal Tap 1984 Rob Reiner Rock music is not noted for either its humour or self-criticism but this film achieves both, an achingly funny [...]

March 3, 2014 // 3 Comments

Boccaccio 70

In my list of films set in Rome, I included Boccaccio 70 and I revisited it yesterday. It is in fact a quartet of films, three of which are by Italy’s foremost directors Vittorio de Sica, Lucchino Visconti and Federico Fellini and featuring two international stars, Anita Ekberg and Sophia [...]

February 27, 2014 // 0 Comments

An underwhelming BAFTAs evening

I’m scarcely one to talk, as these days I rarely watch films – the last two I have seen in the cinema have been Formula One-related (the outstanding 2010 documentary Senna and 2013’s drama-documentary Rush) and this despite the fact I don’t even like motor racing – but, having [...]

February 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

Student Services

Student Services is the type of film the French do better than anyone. It’s the story of a 19 year old Freshman, Laura ( Deborah Francois), in applied modern languages who gets into financial difficulties. Accordingly she responds to a sexual meeting with an older man Joe (Alain Lauchi) and [...]

February 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

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