monsieurk's - Favourites List
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The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)Les parapluies de Cherbourg
Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Genevieve Emery (Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, the pair share a passionate night. Genevieve becomes pregnant and then must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an attractive offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel). - Director:
- Jacques Demy
- Cast:
- Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon
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A Blonde in Love (1965)Lásky jedné plavovlásky / Loves of a Blonde
A subtle and beautifully observed social satire that deftly balances hope and despair, 'A Blonde in Love' is widely celebrated as one of the great films of the 1960's. This bittersweet romance from Milos Forman, the multiple Oscar-winning director of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and 'Amadeus', unfolds as a sweetly seductive tale of young love, but also provides a wry critique of life under totalitarianism. Aided by gorgeous cinematography and naturalistic performances, the film adeptly distils universal truths from the simplest of situations, presenting them with a sharp yet compassionate eye. - Director:
- Milos Forman
- Cast:
- Hana Brejchová, Vladimír Pucholt, Vladimír Mensík
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The South (1983)El Sur
Recalling her youth in 1950s northern Spain, Estrella revisits her relationship with her beloved father Agustin, raised in the south, and realises how little she knew of him and his secrets. Victor Erice's delicate and mysterious film reveals his abiding fascination with memory and loss, missed opportunities and the links between private dreams and political realities. The performances, like the meticulously lit compositions and evocative soundtrack, are superb; Omero Antonutti is a charismatic Agustin, while Sonsoles Aranguren and Iciar Bollain shine as, respectively, the young and teenaged Estrella. Exquisitely beautiful, profoundly moving. - Director:
- Víctor Erice
- Cast:
- Omero Antonutti, María Massip, Sonsoles Aranguren
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Ossessione (1942)Obsession
A restless wife, Giovanna (Clara Calamai), meets Gino (Massimo Girotti), a rough and handsome vagabond. Their passionate affair leads to the murder of Giovanna's boorish husband. Can a strong and sensual affair survive the guilt? Adapted from the James M. Cain's classic novel 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', 'Ossessione' is a dark and provocative drama of sexual tension. It heralded a new era of Italian cinema, establishing Luchino Visconti as a leading and controversial exponent of 'neo-realism'. - Director:
- Luchino Visconti
- Cast:
- Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Dhia Cristiani
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Casque D'Or (1952)Golden Marie
Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), an honest woodworker, falls in love with Marie (Simone Signoret), the moll of minor crook Roland (William Sabatier). Gangster boss Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin) orders Georges and Roland to fight a duel to the death over the girl. Felix then pins the blame for Roland's death on Georges' boyhood chum, Raymond (Raymond Bussieres), knowing that the woodworker will nobly accept the blame; this will leave Marie alone, which is what lustful Felix has wanted all along. When Georges learns he's been set up as a dupe, he plots his revenge. Based on the true-life Leca-Manda scandal, 'Casque D'Or' brilliantly mixes violence with tenderness to capture the brutality of the French underworld and the tragedy of doomed love. - Director:
- Jacques Becker
- Cast:
- Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin
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The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)Le chagrin et la pitié
Marcel Ophuls' four-and-a-half hour portrait of the French town of Clermont-Ferrand under German occupation from 1940-44 is one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as important as Claude Lanzmann's 'Shoah' in its value not just as a film but as an essential historical record in its own right - not least since its interviewees are all long dead. Describing the fall of France and the rise of the Resistance, with the aid of newly-shot interviews and eye-opening archive footage including newsreels and propaganda films, Ophuls painstakingly crafts a complex, nuanced picture of what really happened in France over this period. He also demolishes numerous self-serving national myths to such an extent that, although he made the film for French television, they wouldn't show it for over a decade. But, as he demonstrates again and again, the overwhelming majority of French citizens during this period weren't heroes, villains or cowards, but simply ordinary people trying to make the best of an impossible situation. And it's Ophuls' portrayal of these people, their hopes, their fears and their appalling moral quandaries, that remains unmatched in film history. - Director:
- Marcel Ophüls
- Cast:
- Georges Bidault, Matthäus Bleibinger, Charles Braun
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Le Trou (1960)The Night Watch / The Hole
1947. A young man, Gaspard Claude (Marc Michel), is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, although he is innocent of the crime. He is sent to the notorious Sante Prison in Paris and is placed in a cell with four hardened criminals. The latter have decided to escape from the prison by digging their way out of their cell. Reluctantly, they take Gaspard into their confidence and labour digging their way out of their cell. Then, just when escape appears certain, Gaspard is called away to see the prison governor... - Director:
- Jacques Becker
- Cast:
- André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
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Kaos (1984)Chaos
Mariagrazia's two favoured sons have emigrated to America and lost contact with her, whereas she refuses to acknowledge the one who stayed. On the first full moon after her wedding, Sidora (Enrica Maria Modugno) discovers the horrific truth about a husband that she barely knows. A large olive jar is broken, with awkward consequences for owner and repairer alike. A tiny village's inhabitants petition their landowner for the right to bury their dead respectfully. And Pirandello himself (Omero Antonutti) has a conversation with his long-dead mother. - Director:
- Paolo Taviani
- Cast:
- Margarita Lozano, Orazio Torrisi, Carlo Cartier
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Amarcord (1973)I Remember
A proud woman in red draws leers and admiration. A bosomy tobacconist sparks the fantasies of adolescent boys. A mentally challenged uncle takes refuge in a tree and announces: "I want a woman!" They are among moments and events knit by memory...and a legendary filmmaker in peak form. 'Amarcord', which means "I Remember", is Federico Fellini's lusty, often funny look at growing-up perhaps not unlike his own. The setting is a village in 1930's Italy. Teen hormones are surging. Family, church and friendship are proving grounds of love and loyalty. Fascism's rise is just down the street. Sex is around any corner. And life viewed in the local cinema is a touchstone for life lived. The memories, big and small, endure. - Director:
- Federico Fellini
- Cast:
- Magali Noël, Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio
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The Life of O-Haru (1952)Saikaku ichidai onna
Winner of the 1952 Venice Film Festival silver lion award, Kenji Mizoguchi's tragic tale, set in the 17th Century, of a young noblewoman's fall from grace established his reputation as one of Japan's greatest directors. Kinuyo Tanaka stars as O-Haru, a beautiful courtesan who surrenders to her passion for a commoner, played by Toshiro Mifune. As punishment, she and her parents are banished into exile where O-Haru desperately attempts to escape her past. A compelling and powerful critique of feudal Japan as seen through the eyes of a woman, 'The Life of O-Haru' portrays the human dramas and historical settings with unflinching realism and atmospheric detail, demonstrating Mizoguchi's complete mastery of the medium. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Kinuyo Tanaka, Tsukie Matsuura, Ichirô Sugai
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Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)Ugetsu
In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory, respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. - Director:
- Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast:
- Masayuki Mori, Machiko Kyô, Kinuyo Tanaka
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Voted the best Czech film of all time, Marketa Lazarová is a powerful and passionate medieval epic set in the mid-13th Century. Based on avant-garde writer Vladislav Vancura’s novel, it follows the rivalry between two warring clans, the Kozlíks and the Lazars, and the doomed love affair of Mikolá Kozlík and Marketa Lazarová. Vlacil draws upon remote historical sources to recreate an authentic primitive world and fashion a film with surprising contemporary impact. Owing as much to the stylistic vigour of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai as it does to the rich tapestry of Czech fiction, this ambitious and poetically extraordinary film is the crowning achievement of Vlacil's career and an undiscovered cornerstone of world cinema. - Director:
- František Vlácil
- Cast:
- Josef Kemr, Antonie Hegerlíková, Magda Vásáryová
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Diary of a Country Priest (1951)Journal d'un curé de campagne
Based on a novel by George Bernanos, 'Diary of a Country Priest' marked the first in Director Robert Bresson's so-called "prison trilogy" (followed by 'Pickpocket' and 'A Man Escaped'). The film begins with the arrival of a young, sickly priest (Claude Laydu) at the godless parish of Ambricourt in Northern France. Here he becomes drawn into the complex domestic life of a wealthy Count (Jean Riveyre), his tormented wife, his manipulative daughter and his mistress, Miss Louise (Nicole Maurey). Narrated by excerpts of the priest's diary, the film follows his efforts to awaken the villagers from their spiritual lethargy, with their struggles, suffering and triumphs representing in a microcosm those of humankind itself. Bresson's intensely personal style, minimalist approach to dialogue and music, and use of non-professional actors marked a new kind of filmmaking, which was to influence such diverse directors as Paul Schrader, Richard Linklater and Andrei Tarkovsky. - Director:
- Robert Bresson
- Cast:
- Claude Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral, Jean Riveyre
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Pather Panchali (1955)Song of the Little Road
'Pather Panchali' tells the story of a family living in the grip of poverty in a small Bengali village, focusing on the experiences of a young boy, Apu (Subir Banerjee), and paying careful attention to a series of ordinary events: Apu's father sets off to the city in search of work, leaving his wife to take care of the children and an elderly aunt; a frugal meal is prepared; rains flatten the landscape; a train passes by; someone dies. - Director:
- Satyajit Ray
- Cast:
- Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Subir Banerjee
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The Dream Life of Angels (1998)La Vie Rêvée Des Anges
The Dream Life Of Angels is an absorbing film about two young French women struggling to find their place in life. Isabella is twenty-one, moving from town to town with all her worldly belongings in her backpack, intelligent yet without much of a future. Marie is the same age and in the same rut, seemingly without any anchor herself... Both are solidly working class, unskilled and rootless. Circumstance has thrown them together and the film describes a two-month period as they house-sit the apartment of a car accident victim. Their prospects are not great, and each deal with the hand life has dealt them very differently. - Director:
- Erick Zonca
- Cast:
- Élodie Bouchez, Natacha Régnier, Grégoire Colin
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