Forum

 
  Back to OzPolitic.com   Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register
  Forum Home Album HelpSearch Recent Rules LoginRegister  
 

Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
French cinema (Read 1113 times)
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
French cinema
Jul 26th, 2017 at 10:47am
 
I'm a big fan and have been for decades.
There used to be at least 3 cinemas in Sydney CBD back in the 50/60s which showed exclusively foreign movies, mainly French & Italian. Whatever happened to all that? TV I guess mainly. So this is one thing we have to be grateful to SBS for, that and soccer coverage, though I've lost my frenetic love for that.

French movies have a mood about them that is different from the realism or romanticism of the UK and certainly the infantilism of the USA.
I watched one last night - "Wild Grass" from the great director Alain Resnais. Made in 2010, it wasn't highly regarded by critics but who cares. I've enjoyed it twice.

And another thing that gets me about French cinema is that the female characters are women of substance, beautiful from the inside, not just your boobs & pretty faces.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
issuevoter
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 9200
The Great State of Mind
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #1 - Jul 27th, 2017 at 1:56pm
 
I'd say French and Italian movies are some of my favourites, but good Australian film is right up there too.
Back to top
 

No political allegiance. No philosophy. No religion.
 
IP Logged
 
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #2 - Jul 27th, 2017 at 1:59pm
 
Yes, agree, but the heyday seems to be over don't you think.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
Grendel
Gold Member
*****
Offline


OzPolitic

Posts: 28080
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #3 - Jul 27th, 2017 at 7:59pm
 
Mmmmm, French, not my favourite.

But there are a few: Delicatessen, Beauty and the Beast, Leon:The Professional, Un Monstre a Paris, The City of Lost Children, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Fifth Element, The Red Balloon, Lucy, Ultraviolet.
Some are not strictly just French.
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
Wolseley
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 1453
Sydney
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #4 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 10:54pm
 
I have seen quite a few French and Italian films (and some Spanish ones too) over the years, all of them, as far as I can recall, at one of the Palace (Verona or Norton Street) or Dendy Opera Quays or Newtown) Cinemas.

Come to think of it, we haven't been to a foreign language film this year (although, as my wife is Italian, I don't think that an Italian film would strictly speaking be foreign in our household).  Time to see another one.
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
rhino
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 17179
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #5 - Aug 13th, 2017 at 11:01pm
 
I used to like the Monsieuir Hulot films. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Hulot
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #6 - Aug 16th, 2017 at 10:20am
 
Another one I watched last night. Would have been on SBS during the last week.
"Two days and One night" or was it the other way round.

Very good I thought. It was about a woman fighting to keep her job. She had been sick with depression and the employer had said the workers could decide between getting their bonuses of 1000 euros or keeping her on, the firm couldn't afford both.

Very human stuff in a France obviously economically depressed and a situation I imagine is playing out in many places around the world right now.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #7 - Oct 15th, 2017 at 6:37am
 
I've seen a few Audrey Tautou movies and enjoyed them mostly.
But not Delicately (La Delicatesse ?).
It had some good moments and Tautou was proficient but it lacked that spark. It was no Amelie.

It could have been good. The story concept might have been turned into something great but for me it never got there.
And I'm all for "slice of life" movies but you have to have a resolution you can imagine. This just hit a brick wall.
And the male lead was just a blank wall.
Very disappointing.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #8 - Oct 15th, 2017 at 7:16am
 
Another French movie I've been watching in instalments recently is called "The Queen's Reader".
Very good I thought and the lead actress extraordinarily sensitive.
It's set in the last days at Versailles for Marie Antoinette before she is forced off to imprisonment in Paris and eventual execution.
It conveys very well the atmosphere of the collapse of a system and the panic and despair of the  people, especially the servants and courtiers, who depended.on it for their existence.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
bogarde73
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Anti-Global & Contra Mundum

Posts: 18443
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #9 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 12:40pm
 
bogarde73 wrote on Oct 15th, 2017 at 7:16am:
Another French movie I've been watching in instalments recently is called "The Queen's Reader".
Very good I thought and the lead actress extraordinarily sensitive.
It's set in the last days at Versailles for Marie Antoinette before she is forced off to imprisonment in Paris and eventual execution.
It conveys very well the atmosphere of the collapse of a system and the panic and despair of the  people, especially the servants and courtiers, who depended.on it for their existence.


For some reason this movie came into my mind as I sit here with a glass of wine.
Among other things, I was thinking a lot of people probably would say these bastards - the court hangers-on, minor aristocracy etc - deserved everything that was coming to them.
But I take another view. These were like people anywhere, doing what they did, carrying out whatever mindless function, to make the best of life that was available to them.
The ideas were really only in embryo stage that the entire system their country operated on was corrupt, cruel, oppressive and the rest of it.

So watching the movie, if you ever get the chance, and it seems to have stuck with me, needs to be in the context of an understanding of all of that . . . .but I suppose you need to know the history reasonably well.
Back to top
 

Know the enemies of a civil society by their public behaviour, by their fraudulent claim to be liberal-progressive, by their propensity to lie and, above all, by their attachment to authoritarianism.
 
IP Logged
 
Frank
Gold Member
*****
Offline


Australian Politics

Posts: 39937
Gender: male
Re: French cinema
Reply #10 - Jan 14th, 2018 at 6:19pm
 
As Depardieau was getting fatter French movies were getting more and more 'French', inauthentic. There are still some gems but  they are rare.
Back to top
 

Estragon: I can’t go on like this.
Vladimir: That’s what you think.
 
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print