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583,506 | 1,219,578 | 22,335 | 8 | Welcome to the hotel | Safe in hell what a title ! When you watch it , you will agree that the title was thoroughly justified . It was hard to be a hero ( or a heroine ) in Wellman's brilliant movies of the thirties : from the wild boys of the street to Lilly Turner , they all got a raw deal . Gilda leaves a macho world to wind up in anoth... |
583,949 | 1,219,578 | 80,700 | 8 | Incompreso | It was not the first time Luigi Comencini had tackled childhood ( and it would not be the last ) : " Incompreso " was very moving and unforgettable ; " Pinocchio " was very different from Disney's cartoon ; later in the eighties he would transfer , with great talent , De Amicis's " Cuore " , then redo " Marcellino pan ... |
582,783 | 1,219,578 | 43,303 | 8 | Plenty of room at the Red Inn ! Such a lovely place ! Such a lovely face ! | L'Auberge rouge has recently been restored , and the copy I saw was wonderful . The pictures are glittering black and white . The subject was not new : the inn where you take your life in your hands when you enter ; such a sinister place was a permanent feature of the FRench melodramas of the nineteenth century . Aft... |
583,944 | 1,219,578 | 53,126 | 8 | Teatime on the North West bound train . . | All that you expect from an adventure yarn is present in this absorbing film , often filmed on location in the splendid landscapes of India . A top-notch cast , with extremely great actors who survive their sometimes cardboard character and make them endearing : K . Moore , the military man with a good dose of humanity... |
584,935 | 1,219,578 | 85,180 | 8 | money is the root of evil | L'Argent is Robert Bresson's very last film and a piece of work that went through a lot of financial problems to see the light of day . It was dismissed by many producers before being finally taken in hand by the Ministry of the Arts . At that time , Jack Lang was the ministry and his daughter served as a " model " f... |
582,779 | 1,219,578 | 53,137 | 8 | The last shore | The French title is " le dernier rivage " ( the last shore ) The intellectuals dismiss this movie in France and I've always thought they were wrong . Ava Gardner had never been better with the eventual exception of Huston's " night of the iguana " . My favorite part is the central one : one of the soldiers tries to fin... |
582,976 | 1,219,578 | 37,630 | 8 | The film belongs to Maria Casarès . | Till 1950 , Robert Bresson used professional actors . This explains why those previous movies are much more accessible - and thus generally overlooked by the " true " RB connoisseurs , this naive audience who is still thinking that French cinema did begin with him ; this mindless belief was fueled by the director himse... |
583,337 | 1,219,578 | 98,327 | 8 | Die Dinge | Michael Haneke is one of these directors who have a style of their own , a world where it's sometimes dangerous to tread , in a nutshell he's an auteur . He studies his characters like an entomologist : no compassion , no despair , no dramatization , no complacency , but an icily impersonal camera which searches the ba... |
584,418 | 1,219,578 | 37,695 | 8 | Barnyard stories | The story , even if takes place when agriculture was beginning to modernize ( the threshing machine ) , was arguably inspired by Emile Zola's " La Terre " . Vanel's character recalls the Père Fouan even if he does not want the earth to be shared between his brothers and sister . He loves the earth and nothing else and ... |
585,207 | 1,219,578 | 115,964 | 8 | crash is sex | The title of my review is not meant pejoratively . " Crash " is one of these films I completely decried the first time I had watched it . Actually , I reacted like a part of David Cronenberg's fans whereas it's the kind of film that requires a second vision . So , I watched it again recently and I changed my mind about... |
583,633 | 1,219,578 | 55,194 | 8 | Molinaro's best . | Molinaro's career cannot boast a lot of masterworks : most of his movies are commercial , the likes of " la cage aux folles " . But there are exceptions , notably " un témoin dans la ville " " Arsène Lupin contre Arsène Lupin " , and mainly " la mort de Belle " . Adapted from Georges Simenon , " la mort de Belle " is a... |
584,114 | 1,219,578 | 188,589 | 8 | Enclosure / A God-forsaken world | L'enclos is completely forgotten today . A demanding , ambitious uncompromizing work , it was completely overshadowed by the so-called masterpieces of the French nouvelle vague . And however " l'enclos " remains unique ; it's not an entertaining movie , it's not " Hart's war " or " the great escape " . It's something... |
582,430 | 1,219,578 | 55,184 | 8 | Marylin Monroe's last dance | It was certainly too late when Miller wrote this screenplay for his then-wife : " The misfits " can't hold a candle to such early works as " Death of a salesman " or " a view from the bridge " . It sounds contrived , it seems that Miller uses the screen as a way of washing his dirty linen in public . After Monroe's dea... |
583,120 | 1,219,578 | 43,164 | 8 | Waltzing into darkness | The first thing to bear in mind is that , at the time , Michèle Morgan and Henri Vidal were the ideal French couple for sixteen-year old schoolgirls . They met when they were making " Fabiola " and they got married . Jean Grémillon and Albert Valentin do what they do best : setting a working class milieu against the bo... |
583,780 | 1,219,578 | 35,521 | 8 | Once upon a time . . | It's the only Carné-Prévert movie that takes place in another era , the Middle Ages . During the German occupation , it was an alibi : the Devil was meant to represent Hitler and the two lovers the Resistance . But for the people at the time , their hints at French plight were so disguised - or else , it would have bee... |
583,445 | 1,219,578 | 104,756 | 8 | The miracle workers | It's impossible to remain indifferent to this family's sufferings . Susan Sarandon and Nick Nolte - in spite of his fake Italian accent - give superlative performances . That moment when Nolte is crying in his stairs is one of the most harrowing desperate scene I have ever seen . What's really extraordinary is that we ... |
582,666 | 1,219,578 | 47,484 | 8 | A cast of thousands ! | Often unfairly dismissed as academic , boring and pretentious this three-hour movie is actually a delight from start to finish . A cast of thousands , including all the who's who of the fifties actors . ( the question is not : who plays in this film ? but rather who DOESN'T ? ) They're all here from Jean Marais to Mich... |
583,859 | 1,219,578 | 234,988 | 8 | A far cry from Marcel Pagnol . | For a lot of cine buffs , Marseille evokes the Pagnol Trilogy " Marius " ( " Marius et Jeanette , get it ? ) " Cesar " and " Fanny " . But be here now . This is 2000 , no longer the thirties . " La ville est tranquille " is a thoroughly contemporary movie , the despair of which sometimes recalling such works as " Roset... |
582,677 | 1,219,578 | 52,948 | 8 | a brilliant adaptation of one of Jules Verne's best novels | Journey to the center of the Earth is a successful adaptation of Jules Verne's famous novel . Apart from a few weaknesses ( the love affair between Alex and his girlfriend ) , this is one of the science-fiction's highlights : awesome sceneries , stunning special effects ( the dinosaurs ) and especially an imposing pe... |
583,393 | 1,219,578 | 60,630 | 8 | It's a long way to Gibraltar . | La ligne de demarcation is arguably the most successful Chabrol movie of his transitional period - roughly from " l'oeil du malin " ( 1963 ) to " la route de Corinthe ( 1967 ) . Although there are many characters , this is a well-constructed script , adapted from the Colonel Remy's book . The film is dedicated to Fre... |
584,169 | 1,219,578 | 424,136 | 8 | Who's afraid of the big bad wolf ? | Hard Candy is a terrifying Huis Clos , a drama in camera , with only two characters on the " stage " ; few movies can say the same : " sleuth " by Mankiewicz ( 1972 ) and " Heaven knows Mr Allison " ( 1957 ) come to mind ; but their very subjects have nothing to do with " hard candy " . " Hard Candy " is about pedoph... |
584,338 | 1,219,578 | 98,000 | 8 | stranger in a strange land | Possible Spoilers . . . Launched in France in August 1989 and highly praised by French critics , " Nocturne Indien " is a peak in Alain Corneau's work . On a topic which has been used a lot in cinema or in literature , the disappearance of someone ( here a man named Rossignol is searching for one of his friends called ... |
584,627 | 1,219,578 | 315,110 | 8 | the being and nothingness | A photograph David goes looking for locations in the Joshua Tree area in the Californian desert with his girlfriend Katia . They don't speak the same language and the most palatable means of communication between them are gestures and looks . As soon as they arrive in this desert landscape , they bicker then reconcile ... |
585,501 | 1,219,578 | 57,263 | 8 | Bells and banjos | The pairing of Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen was a great idea . Both are excellent and make a film which might seem trite and a bit obsolete to today's audience a winner . Natalie gets pregnant by Steve and this kind of thing was not a windfall in the sixties . Particularly if you are of Italian extraction , in a fami... |
584,054 | 1,219,578 | 41,137 | 8 | In the kingdom of Heaven , Duvivier reigns ! | Kingdom of Heaven , what a title for a movie which takes place in a girls ' reformatory ! It has become difficult to find this Duvivier forgotten gem . It took me years and years of searching before finally laying my hands on a ebay second-hand video tape . Once more , I was stunned : in a career which spans - roughly ... |
584,078 | 1,219,578 | 98,532 | 8 | no love , no future , a desire for revenge | Iris is a young Finnish girl whose life has no horizon . She works in a match factory and still lives at her parents ' . She escapes by reading soppy love stories or by attending a dance . One night , she thinks she has found Prince Charming . But the latter reveals himself a scornful human being who has no considerati... |
583,745 | 1,219,578 | 83,257 | 8 | I do not leave you for someone else , but because you do not exist anymore . | Une étrange affaire is Pierre Granier-Deferre's magnum opus , where he goes for broke and proves he can be brilliant . He made another important work at the beginning of the seventies " le chat " but it owed a great deal to its stars Gabin and Signoret . Here , there's a veteran , Michel Piccoli , and Gérard Lanvin ,... |
582,536 | 1,219,578 | 115,744 | 8 | evening glory | Grimley , a small mining town in the Yorkshire is at death's door . The pit which constitutes for many blue collars their sole course of action ( even their " raison d'être " ) is on the brink of closing down . A good number of them gathers to play in a brass band , the Grimley Colliery Band , led by Danny , a tubercul... |
585,226 | 1,219,578 | 198,042 | 8 | A small gem | L'Ane de Buridan : Buridan supposedly wrote that text in the 14th century , about an ass that starves to death cause he cannot choose between two identical heaps of oats . . " to be like " l'Ane de Buridan " refers to any person who finds it impossible to make up their mind . Recently restored by " la Cinemathèque Fr... |
585,189 | 1,219,578 | 100,211 | 8 | Absorbing ! | This is one of Jessica Lange's best parts and one of Costa-Gavras ' s finest achievements . I have a tendency to prefer his American works to his French ones such as " Z " and " l'aveu " . Lange portrays a brilliant lawyer , but unlike so much Hollywood trial stuff , she has got something to lose in this case : she has... |
584,517 | 1,219,578 | 27,244 | 8 | Litvak's unjustly ignored work | Anatole Litvak's work is huge : there are German , French and American productions in an uneven filmography . Most people know for sure " Anastasia " " snake pit " and the suspenseful " sorry wrong number " . His " Mayerling " was superior to Terence Young's . The weakest works came at the end of his career : " nights ... |
585,336 | 1,219,578 | 44,977 | 8 | We want to live ! | That was the second film dealing with justice in France in Cayatte's long career ( 1942-1978 ) . François Truffaut was always putting him down , but won't you forget , for a while , the new wavelet and their notorious fusty Cahiers du Cinema ? Cayatte is a name to reckon with . If Richard Pottier ( " Meurtres " ) tackl... |
584,801 | 1,219,578 | 107,808 | 8 | the grandson of " Hunted " | In 1952 , Charles Crichton had produced a successful suspenseful movie with a derivative premise : a man ( an excellent Dirk Bogarde ) compelled to take a brat hostage with him because he was the witness of his murder and to flee with him across Britain to escape the police . This journey had brought the two runaways t... |
583,235 | 1,219,578 | 74,811 | 8 | The last great Polanski ? | Critically speaking , this Polanski work met mixed critical reception . One of his strangest efforts , it's the last one that is pure polanski - as - we - learned - toknow - him . Afterward , he would never be the same again and his career became erratic , encompassing various genres , such as Thomas Hardy's romantic d... |
583,968 | 1,219,578 | 192,293 | 8 | Backward ! the granddaddy of " Memento " ! | Albert Valentin was the most promising ( along with Clouzot ) of the French directors during German Occupation . Like Clouzot's " le Corbeau " , his film " la Vie de PLaisir " had problems after the Liberation . Whereas Clouzot could survive ( and give us more masterpieces , two of which are currently in the IMDb top 2... |
583,450 | 1,219,578 | 34,175 | 8 | Three Marlene . | Marlene Dietrich , even if she does not appear is present here : she's the marvelous Gene Tierney , the terrifying Ona Munson and the cynical Victor Mature . " The Shanghai gesture " is one of my favorite Sternberg movies . I love the lines which warns us at the beginning of the film : it's not real Shanghai , it does ... |
583,933 | 1,219,578 | 58,329 | 8 | A farewell to greatness ? | In my humble opinion , " Marnie " remains Hitchcock's last major work : subsequent movies will be entertaining at best ( " torn curtain " , " family plot " ) , overblown ( " Frenzy " ) when it's not downright disastrous ( " Topaz " ) . And however , " Marnie " has not got a good reputation . François Truffaut used to c... |
582,867 | 1,219,578 | 354,356 | 8 | she's a woman and he's a man | How to tell the life of a couple nowadays ? This is what François Ozon tried to study in his new feature-length movie , " 5x2 " ( 2004 ) . I went to see it at the movies on the first day of its release and it didn't disappoint me at all . Ozon chose to focus on five precise moments in the life of a couple . Originality... |
584,581 | 1,219,578 | 178,868 | 8 | one of the saviors of horror and fantasy cinema ? | Surely so ! Along with " the Blair Witch Project " ( 1999 ) , " the Sixth Sense " ( 1999 ) or " the Others " ( 2001 ) , this Japanese gem is a bonanza for the genre aforementioned insofar as it favors in real screenplays , pure psychological terror which is the leading thread to a crescendo . This crop of masterpieces ... |
584,107 | 1,219,578 | 62,089 | 8 | More innocents . | At the beginning of the sixties , Jack Clayton made a fine adaptation of " the turn of the screw " , called " the innocents " which featured P . Franklin too . This could be called " more innocents " but there's a strong difference between the two works . Although " our mother's house " verges on fantastic , there's no... |
585,006 | 1,219,578 | 45,029 | 8 | The journey | Phone call from a stranger is an unique movie . However much I search my memory , I cannot find a movie like this one , with the exception of Peter Weir's remarkable ( and overlooked , people liking weepies such as " dead poets society " best ) " Fearless " ( 1993 ) where James Bridge , being a survivor from a plane ... |
582,610 | 1,219,578 | 71,449 | 8 | racist attack . | Dupont-Lajoie easily passes for Yves Boisset's best work . One can say the demonstration is ponderous , one cannot deny its absolute efficiency . There's in this ruthless plot a spiral of violence which grabs the audience and pins it down till the last pictures . A petit bourgeois , Lajoie , ( Jean Carmet's finest pe... |
582,981 | 1,219,578 | 45,053 | 8 | God save the kings ! | The prisoner of Zenda ( 1952 ) is a wonderful swashbuckler , a movie the whole family can enjoy ! I've already seen it three or four times and I've never got tired of it . Stewart Granger is absolutely perfect as the hero , playing two parts with gusto : I love the crowning where he manages to be as majestic as a kin... |
584,188 | 1,219,578 | 257,360 | 8 | OUR rehearsals for retirement . . . . | Jack Nicholson is part of these unique actors who are not afraid of playing demeaning parts . While most of his peers in their sixties / seventies are still playing heroes , see what he does . He almost never played the brilliant - lawyer - with - good - prospects . Two examples : " one flew over the cuckoo's nest " an... |
584,644 | 1,219,578 | 58,265 | 8 | watch it , stupid . | A legend goes a s far as pretending that " kiss me stupid " is subpar . As far as Wilder comedies are concerned it's only one notch or two under the two Monroe ones and probably the underrated " avanti " , and probably superior to " apartment " " one two three " or " stalag 17 " Reductio ad absurdum that love between h... |
583,630 | 1,219,578 | 115,658 | 8 | I'm not like everybody else ; so I'm not everybody else ! | This movie takes a melodrama plot , gives it a black humor cum non politically correct lines treatment , then pushes it to absolute limits : actually , one thinks of what Etienne Chatiliez could have done after " la vie est un long fleuve tranquille " , hadn't he taken refuge in harmless comedies . Hélène Vincent's pre... |
583,379 | 1,219,578 | 74,860 | 8 | typical thriller of the seventies | Along with " Midnight Cowboy " ( 1969 ) , this is John Schlesinger's most important work in a rather undistinguished filmography . Although they belong to two distinct genres , these two works have some common points : the same backdrop New York , the same main actor , Dustin Hoffman , here hires for another type of ch... |
582,706 | 1,219,578 | 71,487 | 8 | Liberty is a concept by which we measure our laws . . | Although Bunuel was to make one more film , " cet obscur objet du désir " , " phantom of liberty " would remain his testament , his last sigh , to mention the title of his memoirs . The key to the movie is the segment dealing with the naughty gendarmes , the sociology teacher and Margaret Mead's books . Law must not be... |
585,576 | 1,219,578 | 37,913 | 8 | Imitation of life | For the melodrama buffs , it is cause for celebration ! Treasons , death , ambition , love , anger , murder everything is here ! Bearing more than a distant resemblance to Fanny Hurst ' s tear-jerker ( which was filmed in the thirties by Stahl and remade by Sirk in the late fifties ) , though the mother : daughter rela... |
583,366 | 1,219,578 | 304,907 | 8 | life will kill you ( Warren Zevon ) | Paul ( Sami Bouajila ) and Daniel Smaïl ( Jalil Lespert ) are two close-knit brothers who have trouble to do their own walks of life . In spite of his literature PhD on Moby Dick , Paul can't find a highly qualified work and has to rely on lowly jobs such as a pizza delivery man and a night watchman . He makes the acqu... |
585,422 | 1,219,578 | 53,285 | 8 | Scary Maleficent . | This is my favourite Disney movie . I saw it when I was 8 , and that was the first movie which scared me to death . Back home at night , I was afraid of the dark , I could not turn off the light , because I was afraid of Maleficent . One scene would go well in any horror movie : Princess Aurora , spellbound , comes up ... |
582,461 | 1,219,578 | 42,923 | 8 | Taxi 0 or Looking for Mister Forestier | This is par excellence the kind of film which it's trendy to put disparagement on . This is par excellence the kind of film the new wavelet buffs laugh at . This is par excellence the kind of movie the educated clever people , those who know Rivette , Godard and Rohmer by heart , love to put down . ( with notable excep... |
583,706 | 1,219,578 | 88,975 | 8 | Comencini , childhood poet . | Childhood has always been a central issue in Comencini's work . He made an outstanding version of " Pinocchio " , and in the cruel " lo scopone scientifico " , a young girl knew better than her folks . Like " Pinocchio " , " Cuore " is adapted from an edifying book , written at the end of the nineteenth century by Edmo... |
583,006 | 1,219,578 | 51,622 | 8 | Fly high . | George Langelaan is an absolutely original writer , whose obsessions are time and death . Although English , he used to write in French , he's been living in France for a long time . Richard Matheson might be his American equivalent . " The fly " is a " long " short story which Neumann and his scenarist James Clavell r... |
585,055 | 1,219,578 | 216,800 | 8 | Doctor Jekyll and mister Hyde in the French country . . . | One of the first moments of this movie makes inevitably think of " Shining " ( 1980 ) by Stanley Kubrick and " Funny Games " ( 1997 ) by Michael Haneke : an aerial shot which follows a car on the highway . Inside it , a typical French family who goes on holiday in their country house hoping to find some peace . It's pa... |
583,245 | 1,219,578 | 417,189 | 8 | the grandson of " Cléo De 5 à 7 " ( 1961 ) | time slips away and the light constantly fades . . . ( the Cure , Seventeen Seconds from the eponymous album , 1980 ) . Here comes François Ozon once again with a long-anticipated vehicle and a prickly topic which has been used countless of times in cinema with varying results : a person who has an incurable disease ... |
584,973 | 1,219,578 | 38,057 | 8 | Exile on Scarlet Street | Jean Renoir's " la Chienne " is a crucial film in the history French cinema : it's arguably the first talkie which is a true masterpiece . Fritz Lang certainly liked Renoir , for he remade two of his best works . In the fifties he would redo " la Bete Humaine " as " Human desire " ( and using the two actors of his prec... |
582,583 | 1,219,578 | 170,067 | 8 | I've got an idea . | Another good film by Roger Richebé , a director who little by little is restored to favor in France . I must say I've never seen a bad movie by him . " J'ai Une Idée " is a zany little comedy with Raimu on top of his game . The far-fetched story - it's a play transferred to the screen - is a little treat : involving En... |
584,527 | 1,219,578 | 344,604 | 8 | the game of love and chance strikes again . . . | Antoine ( Daniel Auteuil ) is a head waiter in a chic Parisian restaurant and lives with his girlfriend Christine ( Marilyne Canto ) . His work occupies a lot of place in his life . One evening , by going through a park to be more quickly at his apartment , he saves from suicide a neurotic man Louis ( José Garcia ) . A... |
582,505 | 1,219,578 | 129,167 | 8 | A treat for the whole family | What " le roi et l'oiseau " ( Jacques Prévert and Paul Grimault , 1977 ) did against tyranny , " the iron giant did it against wars . OKay , the ending of the movie does not promise us the end of all wars on earth as in Ted Hughes ' book , but the scenarists found excellent equivalents . They did not betray Hughes's sp... |
582,364 | 1,219,578 | 46,816 | 8 | Jose Ferrer's arm . | At the beginning of the trial , the lawyer , played by José Ferrer arrives with a wounded arm : no connection with the story , no affect on the end of the movie , completely gratuitous . So why ? In " the sniper " ( 1952 ) , there's also a mutilated arm . Some historians of the cinema think it must be Dmytryk's remorse... |
584,721 | 1,219,578 | 89,072 | 8 | good Charlotte . . . | François Truffaut and Jacques Doillon who have often worked with children know well one thing : making a movie about childhood or adolescence is a quite difficult thing . Here , it is Claude Miller's turn to broach the delicate topic of adolescence . The less we can say is that he signed here a sensitive and bitter wor... |
585,409 | 1,219,578 | 187,567 | 8 | bad day ( R . E . M . ) | This Miguel Courtois ' vehicle is overlooked when I check the mark : a more than lowly 5 , . Why is it rated so low ? What's the problem ? Already back in the spring 1999 when it reached the streets , it should have deserved a better commercial fate . Prior to this , the director Miguel Courtois cut his teeth on made-f... |
584,160 | 1,219,578 | 44,733 | 8 | Slaughterhouse museum | Franju had been making shorts for more than ten years before he broached the feature film in 1959 with his debut " La Tête Contre Les Murs " . With the exception of " Les yeux Sans Visage " his shorts are more famous around the world , particularly " Le Sang Des Bêtes " ( 1948 ) Two years later , " Hotel des Invalides ... |
583,242 | 1,219,578 | 263,448 | 8 | Wait for the final picture . | I saw this short a long time ago , I cannot remember where or when , but I have never forgotten it , which is pretty amazing since its running time is about 20 min . An old man lives in an old house , surrounded by dozens of cats . He treats them like human beings , feeds them with love and tenderness . They seem like ... |
584,241 | 1,219,578 | 64,323 | 8 | Chabrol's cinematographic language . | They often say that if someone wanted to see a French bourgeois circa 1970 , watching Michel Bouquet in a Claude Chabrol movie was enough ! Three times he portrayed this kind of character ( this movie , " la rupture " and " juste avant la nuit " ) . Three times he teamed up with the director's ex-wife , the luminous St... |
584,414 | 1,219,578 | 29,404 | 8 | I return to the Queen of Spades . . . | Although marred by an unlikely happy end - probably imposed by the producers - and a weak leading actress ( Madeleine Ozeray whose little girl's voice is a bit irritating ) , " La Dame De Pique " , which got unanimous thumbs down from French critics - not even one star on the " Guide Des Films " - is a real tour de for... |
584,522 | 1,219,578 | 102,141 | 8 | Who could do better than Agnes Varda ? | Absolutely nobody . After all , they were married for 33 years , their career began at roughly the same time , with the rise of the Nouvelle Vague ; Among the - sometimes outrageously overrated - directors of that school , Varda and Demy were among the less pretentious and their best works ( mainly Demy ) have stood th... |
585,381 | 1,219,578 | 31,345 | 8 | Silly plot , wonderful actors . | This is Lehman's only claim to fame , although he was helped by Claude Autant-Lara who was to become one of the most important directors of the years to come ( " Douce " , " le diable au corps " ) . It's not much of a plot ( a fric frac = break-in ) , but the fabulous threesome make it a winner . Michel Simon plays a g... |
583,001 | 1,219,578 | 109,731 | 8 | Maleficent obsession . | Among all the directors labelled " nouvelle vague " , Claude Chabrol was arguably the one who had more affinities with the precedent generation so despised by a lot of his sixties colleagues . And the generation before Chabrol included the genius Henri-George Clouzot . So , to film " les diaboliques " ' s director lost... |
583,686 | 1,219,578 | 27,480 | 8 | Face in the hole . | I was surprised when I saw that this excellent B-movie had no comments at all . I would go as far as to say that Billy Wilder borrowed some of his best ideas for his masterpiece " the big carnival " aka " ace in the hole " from " the crime of Dr Forbes " ( he reportedly said he was inspired by a news item ) . But how c... |
584,930 | 1,219,578 | 117,359 | 8 | my mummy's dead . . . . . . but she will come back | It's evident and it deserves to be mentioned . When Jacques Doillon films children ( un Sac De Billes , 1975 ) or teenagers ( la Drôlesse , 1979 , Le Petit Criminel , 1990 ) , it's what he does best and especially when he pores over the dark sides of childhood and adolescence like rejection , misunderstanding , lack of... |
582,973 | 1,219,578 | 38,202 | 8 | Madness inside . . . and madness outside . . . . | Un Ami Viendra Ce Soir is Raymond Bernard's most ambitious film . Today , it is looked upon , by most French critics as an extravaganza , a minor - albeit with a major potential - work . " Un Ami " , despite some reservations ( the second part looks like filmed stage production and the Madeleine Sologne / Paul Bernar... |
583,170 | 1,219,578 | 170,441 | 8 | The message . | It's almost impossible to see " poussière d'empire " in France nowadays . It was broadcast on FR3 ( the third channel ) about two years after its release and since it vanished into thin air . Like this dust of the title . The two French stars ( Dominique Sanda , De Niro's co-star in " 1900 " , and Jean - François Steve... |
584,295 | 1,219,578 | 13,933 | 8 | Hearts divided | Coeur Fidèle is a very simple story : Marie ' s in love with Jean , but she is forced to marry Petit Paul , who , in spite of his name , is an alcoholic brute . Epstein's script was probably inspired by the novelists from the nineteenth century , probably Victor Hugo and Emile Zola . Marie is nobody's child : she was... |
582,939 | 1,219,578 | 46,949 | 8 | The great lost epic . | It came before " the ten commandments " " land of the Pharaohs " " Ben Hur " and it's overlooked today . How unfair ! Based on Mika Waltari's mammoth novel , it doesn't cheapen it ! Waltari's novel was so huge only a miniseries could have done it justice ( I hope it will be done some day ) . Waltari , whose message is ... |
583,701 | 1,219,578 | 77,294 | 8 | Too late for the heroes | This movie came one year too late . " Star Wars " happened , for better or for worse , depending on whom you ask . This is clever sci-fi , very close to Crichton's work , before he gets bogged down in Jurassic Park and spielbergesque follies . ( " Mondwest " " Coma " and later " looker " ) Is it sci-fi anyway ? Admitte... |
582,309 | 1,219,578 | 40,338 | 8 | Through a child ' s eye , darkly . . . . | When you are a child , you often hope you will live absorbing adventures and that the fairy tale you are reading will come true . When you are , like the hero of Carol Reed's movie , an only child , cause your father is a VIP , you have a tendency to build your own world and to invent your own heroes who might have kil... |
585,373 | 1,219,578 | 140,074 | 8 | Gallows Bird | Unlike his former colleagues , Roger Richebé was slagged off , not by the young Turks of the Nouvelle Vague , but by one of the greatest writers of the Old Wave : Henri Jeanson . Everybody thought that he was right and now nobody wants to see Richebé's movies . And however . . . I saw a handful of his movies and I was ... |
584,855 | 1,219,578 | 94,336 | 8 | a shock duo in an almost immaculate film | London at the dusk of the sixties . Two unemployed young thespians , Withnail and I share a tawdry flat and wait in vain for the role that will change their lives once for all . They drown their sorrow in cigarettes and alcohol ( they spend a good part of the film smoking and drinking ) and occasionally in drugs that a... |
584,186 | 1,219,578 | 86,551 | 8 | François Truffaut's successful swansong | As I have often pointed out in several reviews , François Truffaut is far from being prominent in my canon of favorite French filmmakers of all time . I have always thought that he was one of the most overrated ones and he contributed in making me hate the New Wave and its pretensions . " Les 400 coups " ( 1959 ) is a ... |
582,722 | 1,219,578 | 44,602 | 8 | Quite mad , which is fine with me ! | Fanfan la tulipe is still Gerard Philippe's most popular part and it began the swashbuckler craze which throve in the French cinema in the 1955-1965 years . It made Gina Lollobrigida a star ( Lollobrigida and Philippe would team up again in René Clair " s " Belles de nuit " the same year . " Fanfan la tulipe " is com... |
583,217 | 1,219,578 | 335,385 | 8 | A great moment of French TV | Stellio Lorenzi , who passed away some years ago , was one of the French masters of the made - for-TV work . He was interested in history and his films often dealt with characters from the past . " The Rosenberg " is a different matter since it was not part of the French history . This is to my knowledge the first movi... |
584,666 | 1,219,578 | 60,138 | 8 | Les mémoires d'un âne | During the nineteenth century , the comtesse de Segur wrote a novel for the children called " memoirs of a donkey " . A very pious writer , she chose the donkey as a symbol of humility . . . as Robert Bresson did I suppose . The very first pictures of the movie , with the children , " christening " the donkey , might b... |
583,537 | 1,219,578 | 259,352 | 8 | Give peace a chance | A small village in France . Tired German soldiers are here . They know they have lost the war and they are waiting to surrender as the Americans are getting closer . But near the village , there are the resistant fighters : their country has been humiliated for four years and they need a revenge . Jean-Claude Tacchella... |
584,740 | 1,219,578 | 79,002 | 8 | from zero to hero | Francis Veber hasn't only written and directed for himself , he has also penned scenarios for the others . Thus , he well served Edouard Molinaro for " l'Emmerdeur " ( 1972 ) , Pierre Granier-Deferre with " Adieu Poulet " ( 1975 ) and Jean-Jacques Annaud with this " Coup De Tête " . Shot before more ambitious plans wou... |
585,142 | 1,219,578 | 269,329 | 8 | Fine rendering of the Rendell work . | When he's at his best , that is to say when his movies deal with childhood / parenthood ( " la classse de neige ) or the difficult passage from adolescence to adult age ( " la meilleure façon de marcher " , his towering achievement , and " l'effrontée " ) , Claude Miller makes really strong films . Whereas his adaptati... |
584,834 | 1,219,578 | 57,940 | 8 | Long walk home . | This is one of the most desperate of John Ford's movies , and in spite of its optimistic conclusion , we do know that the true ending will be much more atrocious . ( After all , it's not Winter yet ) . Such terrible is the Cheyennes's plight that Ford made some kind of anti-epic whereas a lesser talent would have put t... |
582,315 | 1,219,578 | 42,729 | 8 | Whose life is it anyway ? | 1950 was the year of euthanasia , at least in French cinema . Two movies dealt with this harsh difficult much-debated subject : André Cayatte's " Justice est faite " and Richard Pottier's " Meurtres " . Richard who ? Richard Pottier ! An unfairly overlooked director who did not produce masterpieces but made decent inte... |
583,904 | 1,219,578 | 31,385 | 8 | Hello Mister Chips ! | Some people will dismiss this movie as reactionary , cheesy , old hat , old fashioned , you name it . I do not buy it . I love Mister Chippings alias Mister Chips . Hats off to MIster Donat , as talented when he portrays a very young man , fresh from the university as when he is acting an old man on the evening of his ... |
583,180 | 1,219,578 | 73,221 | 8 | L'Oeil Etait Dans La Tombe . . . . . | . . . Et regardait Cain ( Victor Hugo , La Légende des Siècles ) ( trad : The eye was in the grave watching Cain . . . ) The follow-up to " la Rupture " , with the same actors ( Bouquet and Audran ) , " Juste Avant la Nuit " is its exact contrary . In the light of the chilly - and with hindsight , totally unfair-review... |
582,427 | 1,219,578 | 49,223 | 8 | Unforgotten planet | A thing of the past , this movie sure is , but a charming one . Of course the special effects seem dated today but the screenplay shows much more imagination than , say , " star wars " . Some " modern " movies , like the very mediocre " sphere " took here a lot of ideas . I see snatches in " Mission to Mars " too . Alo... |
583,927 | 1,219,578 | 51,404 | 8 | Neither Chabrolesque , nor nouvelle vague . . . | . . . This first effort , made on a shoestring budget , actually belongs to the old directors school and would not be out of place in , say , Duvivier's or Clouzot's brilliant filmographies . It even recalls Italian neorealism sometimes . Anyway , among all the directors of the otherwise a bit overrated new wave , Chab... |
583,897 | 1,219,578 | 47,099 | 8 | Before Agnès Varda , there was Jacqueline Audry . | . . . Probably the first important woman director France has ever known . Male chauvinism : her movies are very rarely broadcast on TV and her name is slowly fading . She often adapted Colette's works for the screen , but here , she tackles Jean-Paul Sartre , no less ! It's the philosopher's most famous drama ( with it... |
584,564 | 1,219,578 | 49,259 | 8 | Maria Schell was miscast | Why Maria Schell ? If you have read Zola's masterpiece - " l'assommoir " the seventh of the Rougon Macquart saga , and one of the finest , surpassed only by " Germinal " - , you wonder why Clement chose her when the part was tailor made for Simone Signoret . On the other hand , Suzy Delair was the ideal Virginie Poisso... |
583,287 | 1,219,578 | 49,261 | 8 | Sprawling | If you've seen this film several times ( and I guess it deserves it ) , you will notice that Jett Rink always remains in the periphery . Be he rich of poor , nice or hateful , young or old , he will always be a Nouveau Riche , this kind of people Jordan Benedict Jr cannot stand . JR is not present in the long prologue ... |
584,447 | 1,219,578 | 49,010 | 8 | The Father | Although referring to cortisone , " Bigger than life " is rayesque to the core . Davey ( " Run for cover " ) Plato and Jim ( " rebel without a cause " ) and the Chinese girl ( " 55 days at Peking " ) were in search of a father . Even the Jeff / Wes relationship in " lusty men " is of the same kind . Cortisone is just a... |
582,905 | 1,219,578 | 259,440 | 8 | Inconnu Au Bataillon | Here's another eloquent example of an actress who decided to show her potential as a female director : Zabou Breitmann also known as Zabou , full stop . The topic of her premier film gives the inkling that she doesn't fear thorny subjects . Indeed , Alzeihmer's disease and the loss of memory are rather way off cinema's... |
585,313 | 1,219,578 | 48,312 | 8 | Irish heartbeats | Although the film has a running time of two hours + , for it tells the story of a man's entire life , from his enlistment ( and even before ) to his old age , there is never a dull moment . John Ford was one of the most wonderful storytellers that ever was . The first part of the film is made of trivia , but everything... |
583,948 | 1,219,578 | 38,476 | 8 | Autant - Lara's career path | Fact 1 : Claude Autant-Lara's mother was a pacifist activist . She was a thespian of la Comedy Française and she was fired because of her opinions in WW1 . She was even jailed . When it was released , " le Diable au Corps " caused a scandal ; well-meaning people were saying that the Army , the Red Cross , the soldiers ... |
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