Tag: France
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LE PROFESSEUR aka LA PRIMA NOTTE DI QUIETE aka INDIAN SUMMER
“Le Professeur” aka “Indian Summer” is a 1972 film directed by Valerio Zurlini. The story follows Daniele Dominici, played by Alain Delon, a disillusioned, gambling-prone poetry professor. He takes a temporary teaching position in the coastal town of Rimini, working as a substitute teacher at a high school for about four months. Daniele is emotionally…
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TWENTYNINE PALMS (NSFW)
“Twentynine Palms” is a 2003 psychological drama written and directed by Bruno Dumont, known for his austere, contemplative approach to filmmaking. Set against the stark beauty of the Southern California desert, the film follows an American photographer and his Russian girlfriend as their passionate yet tumultuous relationship spirals into alienation, violence, and despair. With minimal…
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MASCULIN FÉMININ
“Masculin Féminin,” directed in 1966 by Jean-Luc Godard, is a seminal work of the French New Wave—a playful yet probing exploration of youth, politics, pop culture, and sexual relationships in 1960s Paris. Subtitled “15 faits précis” (“15 precise facts”), the film unfolds as a loose mosaic of vignettes rather than a conventional narrative, capturing the…
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CALMOS aka FEMME FATALES (NSFW)
Calmos (also known as Femme Fatales, 1976), written and directed by Bertrand Blier, is a surreal and satirical comedy that takes the classic “battle of the sexes” trope and pushes it to absurd extremes with a dreamlike logic. The film begins with Paul (Jean-Pierre Marielle), a Parisian gynecologist who is exhausted and disillusioned after years…
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LE COUPLE TÉMOIN aka THE MODEL COUPLE (NSFW)
“Le Couple témoin,” also known as “The Model Couple,” is a satirical French comedy directed by William Klein in 1977. The film presents a unique blend of social experiment and absurdist critique, following an ordinary couple selected by the French government to live under constant surveillance in a “model apartment,” which is a prototype of…
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LA PLANÉTE SAUVAGE aka FANTASTIC PLANET
“La Planète sauvage” (also known as “Fantastic Planet”) is a 1973 René Laloux-directed French-Czechoslovak animated allegory set on the strange world of Ygam, home to the gigantic, blue-skinned alien species known as the Draags. Humanity—here called the Oms—are tiny, animal-like beings, often kept as pets or exterminated as pests. The film follows an Om named…
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LE JOURNAL D’UNE FEMME DE CHAMBRE aka DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID
“Le journal d’une femme de chambre” aka “Diary of a Chambermaid” is a 1964 satirical and unsettling drama directed by Luis Buñuel. The film critiques French provincial society, exploring themes of repression, xenophobia, sexual obsession, and class hypocrisy. The story follows Célestine (Jeanne Moreau), a brilliant yet disillusioned Parisian woman who takes a job as…
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TESS
“Tess” is Roman Polanski’s 1979, emotionally devastating adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The film tells the tragic story of a young peasant woman whose life is shaped—and ultimately destroyed—by the social injustices and moral hypocrisies of Victorian England. The film is divided into three distinct acts, chronicling Tess’s life, starting…
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THE FRENCH CONNECTION II
“The French Connection II” is a 1975 psychological sequel to the Academy Award-winning film “The French Connection” (1971). Directed by acclaimed filmmaker John Frankenheimer, the film continues the story of brash New York narcotics detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, again portrayed by Gene Hackman, in a performance that builds on the raw intensity of the original.…
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LE FEU FOLLET aka THE FIRE WITHIN
“Le Feu Follet,” aka “The Fire Within,” is a 1963 French drama directed by Louis Malle and based on the 1931 novel “Le Feu Follet” by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. The film is regarded as one of Malle’s finest films and a poignant exploration of depression, alienation, and existential despair. Set in Paris in the…
The Other Cinema 