Get documents about "FRENCH
Document Sample
Reviewed 10-10-08
FRENCH
** All feature-length movies have English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.
Educational/Textbook Video
Allons-y! (2000), 95 min. OC
--A lively mix of narrated cultural segments and situational presentations
illustrating language use.
VHS format
American and French Revolutions/ the Western Tradition (1989), 25 min. SAN
--A copy of a Professor giving a lecture to a group of students about the
colonization of America.
VHS format
Note: The recording is of poor quality.
Bonjour Les Amis! Volume One (1992), 50 min. OC
--This instructional program is the first in a two-part series from Monterey Home
Video designed to teach the French language to English-speaking children.
Instructor Marie-Pierre Moine is joined by animated pal Moustache the cat, as
she takes little ones through a series of lessons in which dozens of French words
are covered. ~ Matthew Tobey
VHS format
Bonjour Les Amis! Volume Two (1992), 50 min. OC
-- Designed for children age four to age nine, this release is volume two of the
Bonjour les Amis: French Made Easy for Children. One does not have to see the
first volume in the series before watching the title in order to get something from
it. ~ Perry Seibert
VHS format
French in Action (1987), 30 min. OC, SAN
-- A video instructional series in French for college and high school classrooms
and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs. This series uses active
participation to increase fluency in French, while introducing French culture.
Pierre Capretz’s proven language-immersion method is presented within a
humorous teleplay with native speakers of all ages and backgrounds. The
storyline of an American student and a young Frenchwoman's adventures in
Paris and the French countryside is reinforced by Dr. Capretz’s on-camera
instruction. The series is also appropriate for teacher professional development.
VHS format
1
Reviewed 10-10-08
Horizons Third edition (2006), 93 min. SAN, OC
-- Provides audio for listening practice to accompany the exercises in the
workbook/lab manual.
DVD format
Feature Movies
Alias Betty (Paris, 2003), 101 min. OC
--Grieving after the death of her young son Joseph, novelist Betty Fisher enters a
dark depression. Hoping to bring her out of it, her mother Margot arranges to
kidnap another child, Jose, to replace the son Betty lost. Although she knows its
wrong, Betty accepts Jose as her new son. Meanwhile, Jose's mother Carole is
looking for her son with the help of her boyfriend Francois and some of his
criminal cohorts.
DVD format
Not rated
A Loving Father (Switzerland, France, Quebec, 2002), 103 min OC, SAN
--Leo is a highly successful novelist who has just won the Nobel Prize.
Unfortunately, he has been an emotionally distant failure as a father, forcing his
twenty-something son, Paul to live in his shadow. While traveling, Leo is
kidnapped by Paul, and tries to make one last attempt to establish a true
connection with his father.
DVD format, both campuses
Not rated.
Amelie (Paris, 2001), 122 min. OC, SAN
-- Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie is a delicious pastry of a movie, a lighthearted
fantasy in which a winsome heroine overcomes a sad childhood and grows up to
bring cheer to the needful and joy to herself. You see it, and later when you think
about it, you smile. ~ Roger Ebert
VHS format, both campuses.
Warning: Rated R for sexual content.
And now Ladies and Gentleman (Morocco, France, England, 2003), 128 min. OC
--Valentin is a criminal mastermind, but his exploits don't prove much in the way
of satisfaction. Thus, he sets out on a one-man sailing trip around the world in a
last attempt at finding meaning in his life. Meanwhile, in Morocco, a burned-out
jazz singer named Jane is trying to forget a fizzled love affair. And so begins the
journey of these two lost souls who are destined to cross paths. ~ Sujit R. Varma
DVD format
PG-13
2
Reviewed 10-10-08
A Summers Tale (Dinard, Ille-et-Vilaine, France, 1996), 133 min OC
-- Made nearly a decade ago when Rohmer was already in his mid-seventies, A
Summer's Tale is a beautiful and bittersweet romantic comedy from the
evergreen French writer/director. Part of the filmmaker's Tales Of The Four
Seasons series, it unfolds over several weeks at the Brittany resort of Dinard,
where the vacationing student Gaspard finds himself torn between three
appealing young women: ethnologist Margot, her forthright pal Solene, and his
supposed girlfriend Lena. ~ Tom Dawson
VHS format
Not rated.
A Very Long Engagement (France, 2004), 133 min. OC, SAN
--This movie tells the story of a young woman's relentless search for her fiancée,
who has disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One.
―To be assigned to the front was essentially a sentence of death, but not quick
death, more often death after a long season of cold, hunger, illness, shell-shock
and the sheer horror of what you had to look at and think about. Jeunet depicts
this reality as well as I have ever seen it shown on the screen, beginning with his
opening shot of a severed arm hanging, Christ-like, from a shattered cross.‖
~Roger Ebert
DVD format, both campuses
Warning: Rated R for violence and sexuality.
Apres Vous (Paris, 2005), 110 min OC, SAN
-- A busy manager of a fancy restaurant cuts through a park in his rush to meet
his frustrated girlfriend when he stumbles across a depressed man attempting to
hang himself. He saves the man, takes him home, and feels obligated to find him
a job at his restaurant. As the movie progresses, the humor is ―light and sweet as
street vender coffee.‖ ~ Peter L’Official
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R for language.
An Affair of Love (Paris, 2000), 78 min. OC
-- This movie is about having a part of you that has been your precious secret
since you can first remember, a part you thought you could never share, and
finding someone whose own secret part is a match for your own. The discovery
of this other person forces you to catch your breath as the two of you, together,
regard what stands for truth and beauty in your lives. You are not in love with the
other person; so much as the two of you share tenderness because each knows
how hard the other has looked, and how hopeless the search seemed at times. ~
Roger Ebert
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
3
Reviewed 10-10-08
Au hazard Balthazer (Guyancourt, France, 1966), 95 min. OC, SAN
-- A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history
of cinema, director Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey
Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but
all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that
of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of man. But
despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s
unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this seemingly
simple story becomes a moving parable of purity and transcendence.
DVD format, both campuses
Not rated
Avenue Montaigne (Paris, France, 2006) 101 min SAN
-- It tells the tale of a charming young woman, Jessica, who leaves her small
province to come to Paris to experience life’s adventures. She gets hired for a
waiting job at the old-fashioned Café des Arts on the fabled Avenue Montaigne,
which is Paris’ nexus for art, music, theater and fashion. There, she meets a
variety of characters which include a depressed Classical Pianist a dissatisfied
TV actress, a liquidating art collector, and his estranged son somehow get
intrigued by this small-town country girl and lay all their problems on her. ~ Gary
Miraz
DVD format
PG 13
Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (France, 1997), 100 min. OC
-- Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) is best known for his
plays, Le Barbier de Séville and Le Mariage de Figaro, which became the
inspiration for two great operas, by Rossini and Mozart. What is less well known
is Beaumarchais’ reputation as a womanizer, a merchant, a Republican
sympathizer, an arms dealer and an unwilling secret agent for the kings of
France. This film touches on all these diverse aspects of Beaumarchais’ life and
manages to be both a convincing and highly entertaining study of a very
complicated character.
VHS format
Not rated.
4
Reviewed 10-10-08
Beauty and the Beast (Chateau de Raray, 1946), 93 min. SAN
--Renowned director Jean Cocteau's version of a classic story.
The Beast's dwelling is one of the strangest ever put on film--Xanadu crossed
with Dali. Its entrance hall is lined with candelabra held by living human arms that
extend from the walls. The statues are alive, and their eyes follow the progress of
the characters (are they captives of the Beast, imprisoned by spells?). The gates
and doors open themselves. As Belle first enters the Beast's domain, she seems
to run dreamily a few feet above the floor. Later, her feet do not move at all, but
she glides, as if drawn by a magnetic force. (This effect has been borrowed by
Spike Lee.) She is disturbed to see smoke rising from the Beast's fingertips--a
sign that he has killed. When he carries her into her bed chamber, she has
common clothes on one side of the door and a queen's costume on the other. ~
Roger Ebert
VHS format
Not rated
Blame it on Fidel! (Bordelais, Paris, Spain, 2006), 95 min. OC
-- Julie Gavras’s wonderful film, ―Blame It on Fidel,‖ is a deeply political movie
that sidesteps strident polemics by viewing the ideological conflicts within a
French-Spanish family through the eyes of a smart, willful child. As the daily life
of 9-year-old Anna is drastically revised after her parents, Fernando and Marie
de la Mesa, suddenly become radicals, she resists change with the ferocious
determination of a youngster who is told that she must part with her favorite toys.
The movie, adapted from a novel by the Italian writer Domitilla Calamai and set in
France, begins in 1970 and spans Anna’s school year, then leaps to 1973. It
perfectly recreates the excitement of a time when many in the bourgeoisie
forsook comfortable lives to dive headlong into radical activism. ~ Stephen
Holden
DVD format
Not rated.
Blue (Paris, 1993), 98 min. OC, SAN
--In Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Blue," the rehabilitation of a human spirit after painful
tragedy is given stunning, aesthetic dimension. A story about a woman who loses
her family in a car crash, this Polish-French production is also a spectral array of
blues -- cold, heart-chilling and beautiful. "Blue," the first of a trilogy, inspired by
the French flag's blue (liberty), white (equality) and red (fraternity) stripes, is a
symphony of color-coded significance. ~ Desson Howe
VHS format, both campuses.
Warning: Rated R
5
Reviewed 10-10-08
Bon Voyage (Arcachon, Paris, 2004), 115 min. OC, SAN
--A romantic comedy, about a motley group of Parisians who head south to
escape the imminent German occupation. Among them is an undercover Nazi
spy who’s intent on stealing a top-secret formula from a pretty physics student,
who has her eye on a handsome murder suspect, who is hot on the trail of the
real killer, a celebrated mistress of a spineless government minister.
DVD format, both campuses
PG-13
Brel/ SA derniere tournee (1966) SAN
--Some music, interviews and shows about the famous singer writer and actor.
VHS format
Note: In French without subtitles.
Brotherhood of the Wolf (Esparros, France, 1999), 104 min. OC, SAN
-- In 1765 something was stalking the mountains of central France. The King
dispatched envoys to find out what was happening and to kill the creature. The
Beast is a popular myth in France, albeit one rooted firmly in reality. Somewhat
surprisingly, it is little known to the outside world, and perhaps incredibly it has
never been made into a movie. Until now... Based on the true story of the Beast
of the Gevaudan that terrorized France in the mid-XVIIIth century, the movie
aims to tell first and explain afterwards.
VHS format at San, DVD format at OC.
Warning: Rated R for violence and nudity.
Cache (France, Austria, 2005), 117 min OC, SAN
--―I wish you a disturbing evening!‖ This is how Michael Haneke, who won Best
Director award at Cannes this year for Caché (Hidden), introduced his films one
evening at a festival in London. Audiences — and their complacency towards the
political conflicts ―hidden‖ in the screen — is a prime target for this Austrian
intellectual. Caché is a case in point. The story of a TV producer haunted by
creepy cassettes, videos of his own house, sent him by an angry Algerian in his
past, it boldly addresses the issue of first-world seclusion from the third-world —
and the collaboration of the media, and its audiences, to keep this issue hidden.
~ Karin Badt.
DVD format; both campuses
Warning: Rated R for a brief episode of violence.
Café au Lait (Paris, 1993), 94 min. OC
--A West Indian beauty living in Paris confronts her two lovers with her impending
motherhood, and then flatly refuses to reveal which of the two men is the father.
Actor/director/writer Matthieu Kassovitz has never been afraid to confront racism
in France. From the edgy, confrontational intensity of Hate to the chilling
eugenics of the villains in Crimson Rivers, racially charged issues have always
run through his films. While these themes don't fit as smoothly into a comedy,
Café au Lait is certainly unlike any other romantic comedy ever made.
VHS format
Not rated.
6
Reviewed 10-10-08
Camille Claudel (Paris, 1989), 159 min. OC
--"Camille Claudel," Bruno Nuytten's film about the French sculptor, who studied
with Rodin and became his lover, has a tempestuous, romantic spirit. The truly
rare and great accomplishment of the film, though, is that it manages to express
the impulses that drive artists in their work. Because of its kinetics, sculpture is
an ideal form for this, and watching Adjani in the throes of creation, ravaging her
clay with a combination of frustration and furious love, we see how much a
product of emotion these works are.~ Hal Hinson
VHS format
Not rated.
Capitaine Conan (Saint-Suliac, Ille-et-Vilaine, France , 1996), 130 min OC, SAN
--In this epic of the Great War and its aftermath, a dedicated career soldier lays
down his arms and attempts to extricate his men from the dirty war upon the
signing of the 1919 Armistice.
VHS format, both campuses.
Not rated.
Chaos (France, 2001) 109 min SAN, OC
-- Coline Serreau's "Chaos" defies categorization. It is an exciting film--part
thriller, comedy, revenge tale, and feminist drama, blended together with
compelling finesse. Hélène and Paul are a seemingly dull bourgeois couple--
always busy, always late, professionals with a terrific apartment--whose lives are
forever changed when they witness the savage beating of a prostitute on the
hood of their car. They do nothing. Paul locks the door to his fine automobile, and
when the pimps run off--the beaten woman lying bleeding and unconscious in the
street--the shaken couple takes the sullied car directly to a car wash. ~ Marcy
Dermansky
DVD format both campuses
Not rated
Changing Times (Morocco, 2004) 109 min SAN
-- A movie about two lovers who meet in Tangier to rekindle their romance.
DVD format
Not rated
Chocolat (Cameroon, West Africa, 1989), 105 min. OC, SAN
--"Chocolat" is one of those rare films with an entirely mature, adult sensibility; it
is made with the complexity and subtlety of a great short story, and it assumes
an audience that can understand what a strong flow of sex can exist between two
people who barely even touch each other. It is a deliberately beautiful film - many
of the frames create breathtaking compositions - but it is not a travelogue and it
is not a love story. It is about how racism can prevent two people from looking
each other straight in the eyes, and how they punish each other for the pain that
causes them. ~ Roger Ebert
VHS format, both campuses.
PG-13
7
Reviewed 10-10-08
Claire’s Knee (Lac d'Annecy, Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France, 1970), 106 min. OC
-- Revered as French cinema's preeminent emotional miniaturist, Eric Rohmer,
explores the fickle affairs of the heart in the lovely and psychologically astute
Claire's Knee, the fifth of his six "Moral Tales." Exquisitely shot by the great
cinematographer Nestor Almendros at Lake Annecy, near the French/Swiss
border, this leisurely, talky film is a keenly observed character study of great
delicacy and insight, at once heady and bittersweet. Although Claire's Knee
occasionally veers close to becoming a static gabfest, Rohmer's deceptively
simple story of a middle-aged man torn between desire and fidelity has an
emotional frankness that's tremendously beguiling.~ Tim Knight
VHS format
PG-13
Clara et Moi (Paris, France, 2004), 90 min. OC, SAN
-- A gentle, wistful little film, that didn't take me long to realize how taken I was
with it. If anything, it's worth watching for the early scene that takes place in the
Metro, which is one of the most memorable and unabashedly sweet depictions of
silent seduction between strangers I have ever seen. That the entire sequence is
so obvious makes it even more enchanting. The same could be said about the
entire film. ~Jesse Ataide
DVD format, both campuses
Not rated.
Code Unknown (Romania, Mali, Paris, 2000), 113 min. OC
--German-born filmmaker Michael Haneke continues the bleak, formalist
experimentation of his 1994 breakthrough 71 Fragments of a Chronology of
Chance with this similarly fragmented tale of racism, intolerance, and hatred in
modern-day Paris. The focus of the narrative is split between three sets of
people: the wife, her husband and in-laws; a Romanian woman, Maria, who
struggles to raise money for her family back home; and a teacher for the deaf
who is at odds with his resolute African clan. Throughout, Haneke punctuates the
action with his unique editing and use of sound. ~ Michael Hastings
DVD format
Not rated.
Colonel Chabert (Poland, France, 1994), 111 min. OC
-- Angelo boldly establishes his command of the medium in drama's mesmerizing
opening sequence, a haunting depiction of the sorting out of fatalities after the
1807 Battle of Eylau. The soundtrack swells with the mournful second movement
of Beethoven's Trio in D Major, Op. 70 -- the only sound heard during the
otherwise silent sequence -- while bodies are stripped of uniforms and valuables
and prepared for mass burial. But in that group of nameless, faceless dead lies a
man who is still alive, if just barely. It takes him a decade to recover and make
his way back to Paris. ~ Joe Leyden
VHS format
Not rated.
8
Reviewed 10-10-08
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), 138 min. SAN
--A long-nosed soldier uses his poetic talent to help a tongue-tied fellow soldier
woo the sensitive Roxanne.
VHS format
Not Rated
Danton (Château de Guermantes, Seine-et-Marne, France, 1982), 138 min. OC, SAN
-- The movie is basically about the conflict between two of the most striking
personalities of the period, the two revolutionary leaders Danton and
Robespierre, who were on the same side at the beginning but came to have
fundamental philosophical differences that only the guillotine could settle. This
movie may not be an accurate record of the events of 1793 and 1794, and
indeed in Paris the critics are up in arms over its inaccuracies. But as a record of
the fiery passions and glorious personalities of the revolution, it is absolutely
superb. ~ Roger Ebert
VHS format, both campuses
Not rated
Delicatessen (France, 1991), 95 min. OC
-- Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's
take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it
out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep. Jeunet and Caro take us on a
grimy, sooty journey into a twisted future where food is scarce, people are
fundamentally vile, and subterranean goggle-eyed raiders fight for their lives with
the (mainly) dispassionate maniacs above ground.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R for violence.
Diva (1981), 123 min. SAN
--A romantic thriller set in Paris; "actions, arias and assassins".
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
District B13 (France, 2006), 84 min SAN
-- Paris, 2013. Damien is a member of an elite police squadron, a special unit
highly trained in martial arts and the precise physical skills necessary to navigate
the treacherous urban landscape of Paris' future. He is now tasked with the most
vital and dangerous mission of his career: a weapon of mass destruction has
been concealed by the most powerful gang of the suburbs of District B13, a
walled off section of Paris in which the criminals rule themselves. Damien must
infiltrate the gang in order to either defuse the bomb or recover it.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R
9
Reviewed 10-10-08
East/West (Burges, Bulgaria, 1999), 125 min. OC, SAN
-- If the Soviet Union had made honorable use of the idealism it inspired in the
West, it might have survived and been a happy place today. Marxism seduced
and betrayed some of the best minds of its time. The executioner was Josef
Stalin. One of his cruel tricks, after the end of World War II, was to invite
Russians in exile to return to the motherland--and then execute many of them,
keeping the rest as virtual prisoners of the state. East-West tells the fictional
story of one couple who returned. ~ Roger Ebert
VHS format, both campuses
PG-13
Eight (8) Women (2002), 111 min SAN
-- Three generations of fabulous French actresses are featured in Francois
Ozon's musical mystery comedy. When a wealthy industrialist is found murdered,
eight women close to him become the most likely suspects.
DVD format
Warning: rated R sexual content
Fantastic Planet (France, 1973), 120 min OC
-- Adapted from a novel by Stefan Wul, the movie was inspired by the invasion of
Czechoslovakia by the Russians in the late '60s. On the planet Ygam lives a race
of giant, alien beings called Traags. These Traags, who are prone to
hallucinatory bouts of group meditation, keep the oddly human-like Oms as pets,
often treating them with the sadism and perverse maternalism humans frequently
inflict upon their own pets. As an added bonus, the DVD edition comes with
three earlier Laloux shorts—1960's Les Dents Du Singe (Monkey's Teeth),
1964's Les Temps Morts (Dead Times), and 1965's Les Escargots (The Snails)—
that are respectively thoughtful, haunting, and funny. ~ Joshua Klein
DVD format
Not rated
Games of Love and Chance (France, 2003), 117 min OC
-- For the most part "Games of Love and Chance," a hit in France and the winner
of several César awards, is a graceful and sympathetic look at how the lives of
teenagers intersect with a work of literature. Its script, which Mr. Kechiche wrote
with Ghalya Lacroix, choreographs a dizzying series of collisions between the
hip-hop influenced, Arabic-inflected staccato of working-class youth slang and
the decorous melodies of Marivaux's prose. ~A. O. Scott
DVD format
Not rated
10
Reviewed 10-10-08
Gabrielle (France, 2006), 90 min OC, SAN
-- Gabrielle is Patrice Chéreau's stunning adaptation of the short story "The
Return" by Joseph Conrad. Recreating turn-of-the-century France with superb
attention to detail, Chéreau casts an unrelenting gaze on the marital breakdown
that overwhelms a middle-aged bourgeois couple.
DVD format both campuses
Not rated
Gilles’ Wife (France, 2004), 103 min OC
-- Gilles' wife, Elise, who smiles when she thinks of him, cooks and scrubs and
cheerfully makes love to him, suspects during her third pregnancy that he is
having an affair with her coquettish younger sister, Victorine. Elise suffers,
usually in silence. She listens to her husband rave; she asks her priest; she
breaks picture frames; she weeps. She decides on a strategy to keep him. Will
she succeed? ~ jhailey@hotmail.com
DVD format
Not rated
Girl on the Bridge (Athens, Greece, Istanbul Turkey, 2000), 92 min. OC, SAN
-- Shot in sumptuous black and white, replete with dizzy, swooping camera
effects and gorgeous shots of Paris, Monaco, Athens and Istanbul, Girl on the
Bridge is like a pocket anthology of your favorite foreign movies (or mine,
anyway), a meticulous cut-and-paste collage of a half-dozen half-remembered,
dreamed-up movies by Godard, Truffaut and, above all, Fellini. The story is "La
Strada" without the poverty and fatalism: it follows the sadomasochistic,
symbiotic relationship between a knocked-around carnival performer and his
assistant. The homage to Fellini is far from subtle: there is the parade of clowns,
dwarves and contortionists, big luxury cruise ships and garish casinos, pore-tight
close-ups and careening crane shots. ~ A.O.Scott
VHS format, both campuses
Warning: Rated R for some sexuality.
God is Great and I’m Not (Paris, 2004), 95 min. OC
--After having just broken up with her boyfriend, Michele, a 20-year-old French
model, looking for something to believe in, meets Francois, a non-practicing
Jewish veterinarian, with whom she falls in love, which inspires her to try to
convert to Judaism. She becomes obsessed with Judaism, but her attempts to
convert confound the non-practicing Francois and his family.
DVD format
Not rated.
11
Reviewed 10-10-08
happily ever after (Morocco, Paris, 2004), 105 min. OC
-- A movie about the dumb things people do for reasons they don't understand,
and the smart things they do sometimes even against their better judgment. And
although "Happily Ever After" is ostensibly about adultery -- that is, an instance of
adultery provides its dramatic tension -- it's really about marriage, and the
unknowability of what makes good ones, as well as seemingly bad ones, work.
The picture is neither comedy nor drama but an iridescent blending of the two,
like the complex sky of a Turner painting. Is there trouble in that sky, or simply
vast, nearly incomprehensible beauty? ~ Stephanie Zacharek
DVD format
Not rated.
He Loves me, He Loves me not (Bordeaux, 2004), 96 min. OC
-- This is a film about the subjective nature of truth, and the inherent unreliability
of a story told from only one point of view. And seldom has a film had so much
fun with those themes. Angelique, a promising young art student, is house sitting
for a few weeks while trying to prepare work for a show. She is preoccupied,
however, with her infatuation with a cardiologist with whom we get the impression
she had a brief affair, perhaps only a one-night stand. He is supposed to leave
his wife for her. On his birthday, he stands her up. The darkness begins. ~ Eric D
Snider
DVD format
PG-13
High Tension (Bucharest, Romania, 2003), 85 min. OC
-- Marie and Alexia are schoolmates and best friends. Hoping to prepare for their
college exams in peace and quiet, they decide to spend a weekend in the
country at Alexia’s parents’ secluded farmhouse. But in the dead of night, a
stranger knocks on the front door. And with the first swing of his knife, the girls’
idyllic weekend turns into an endless night of terror...
DVD format
Warning: Rated R, violence, sex, language
Honey and Ashes (Tunisia, 1996), 80 min. OC
--The lives of three disparate Tunisian women -- united only by the treatment of
their gender by their countrymen -- intersect in this provocative drama that quietly
protests the continued oppression of women in North African Moslem countries
(Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide). Tunisian films have over the years, even
with little output made their mark on world cinema, and are considered to be the
best in Africa and the Arab world. There are many themes discussed in Tunisian
cinema, but one thread that ties most of the films, is the subject of women.
“mobby_uk"
DVD format
Not rated.
12
Reviewed 10-10-08
I Can’t Sleep (1996), 110 min. OC
--A ―granny killer‖ is loose in Paris, inciting fear and havoc amongst its residents;
based on the true story of Thierry Pauling, who with his male lover murdered
over twenty elderly women in the eighties.
VHS format
Not Rated
Indochine (1992), 156 min. OC, SAN
--A seemingly repressed owner of a rubber plantation in French Indochina sees
her family threatened by scandal. Set against the violence of the bloody
Communist uprising, Indochine is "a historically accurate epic of love and war".
VHS format both campuses
PG-13
Intimate Strangers (Paris, 2004), 104 min. OC, SAN
--Because she picked the wrong door, Anna ends up confessing her marriage
problems to a financial adviser named William Faber. Touched by her distress,
somewhat excited as well, Faber does not have the courage to tell her that he is
not a psychiatrist. From appointment to appointment, a strange ritual is created
between them. William is moved by the young woman and fascinated to hear the
secrets that no man ever heard. ~ Aline
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R for sexual dialogue
Jean de Florette (1986), 122 min. OC, (SAN Lib.)
--A principled man inherits a farm and hopes to become a gentleman farmer, but
his neighbor plots to steal the land.
VHS format
Jet Lag (France, 2003), 91 min SAN
-- She's running away from a man she still loves. He's running after a woman he
believes he still loves. She is a chatty extrovert who doesn't go unnoticed. He is
discreet, mild mannered, and totally withdrawn. Felix and Rose are so unready to
meet each other--until they are both delayed at a Paris airport and keep running
into each other over the course of the day.
DVD format
Warning: Rated
13
Reviewed 10-10-08
Joyeux Noel (France, Germany, Scotland, 2005), 116 min. OC
-- Based on a true story, the film opens with the usual callous killing among three
groups of soldiers - German, French, and Scottish - who face an oncoming
Christmas Eve in the trenches; the realities of fighting have precluded their
getting time to retreat for air. But a miracle happens: among the Germans is a
famous opera tenor who has aligned with his fellow troops in the trenches,
hoping he can bring some minor sense of Christmas and understanding to them.
His soprano partner finds a way to be with him in the trenches on Christmas Eve,
1914. ~ Grady Harp ~ Make sure you watch the interview with the director/writer,
Christian Carion for interesting details about fraternization among the troops
during World War One.
DVD format
PG-13
La Bûche (1999), 104 min. SAN
--When Yvette’s second husband suddenly dies days before Christmas, she
turns to her three daughters to console during the holidays. As their complicated
lives converge, secrets are revealed that will test their loves and loyalties.
VHS format
Not Rated
La Femme Nikita (1990), 117, min SAN
--Having killed a cop during a drugstore theft gone awry, young French sociopath
Nikita is reprieved from a death sentence in order to enroll in a government
finishing school, of sorts. Trained in etiquette and assassination, she’s released
after three years, and starts a new life with a new beau, all the while carrying out
agency-mandated assassinations.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R
La Moustache (Paris, Hong Kong, 2005), 84 min. OC
-- Marc decides on a whim to shave off the moustache he's worn forever. Oddly,
nobody notices the change. His wife, his friends, his coworkers, nobody says
anything to him about the disappearance of his moustache. At first Marc is
annoyed, thinking it's an elaborate prank played by his wife. But then his entire
existence is thrown for a loop when his wife tells him that he's never had a
moustache. Marc rapidly sinks into a state of depression, believing he's lost
touch with reality.
DVD format
Not rated
14
Reviewed 10-10-08
La Petite Jerusalem (Sarcelles, France, 2005), 94 min. OC
-- In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, "La Petite Jerusalem" is the nickname of a
low-income, concrete housing neighborhood with a substantial number of Jewish
and Jewish immigrant residents. Struggling to find her own voice inside a
crowded house, Laura refuses Ariel's orthodox ethical codes and renounces her
mother's superstitious background.
DVD format
Not rated
La Promesse (Belgium, 1996), 93 min. OC
-- This neo-realist drama casts a critical eye on European multiculturalism. Igor
and his father Roger rent to illegal immigrants and exploit them as a work force.
When immigrant Amidou falls off a scaffold, Igor makes a tough promise.
VHS format
Not rated
La Vie En Rose (Paris, 1996), 140 min. OC
-- An un-chronological look at the life of the Little Sparrow, Edith Piaf (1915-
1963). Her mother was an alcoholic street singer, her father a circus performer,
her paternal grandmother a madam. During childhood she lives with each of
them. At 20, she's a street singer discovered by a club owner who's soon
murdered, coached by a musician who brings her to concert halls, and then
quickly famous. Constant companions are alcohol and heartache. The tragedies
of her love affair with Marcel Cerdan and the death of her only child belie the
words of one of her signature songs, "Non, je ne regrette rien." The back and
forth nature of the narrative suggests the patterns of memory and association. ~
Jhailey@hotmail.com
DVD format
PG-13
Les Destinées (France, Belgium, 2000), 174 min. OC
-- This exquisite three hour film, set in France, begins at 1900 and ends around
1930, covering in the way three decades in the life of an idealistic man, Jean
Barnery, who, although began as an protestant priest, ended up becoming an
industrialist in his family porcelain factory.~ gtzam
DVD format
Not rated
Les Misérables (1995), There are two tapes; each175 min. SAN
-- Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as a retired fighter inspired by the Victor Hugo
novel. This illiterate boxer does everything he can, at great risk to his own life, to
save a desperate Jewish family during the Nazi domination of France. It won a
Golden Globe for its grand sweep and epic proportions.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
15
Reviewed 10-10-08
L’enfer (1994), 135 min. OC
-- Paul Cluzet plays the owner of a small hotel who has everything-a beautiful
wife, a new son, and a successful business located on a serene lake. But then he
hears voices and begins to question his wife's fidelity, which begins a downward
spiral into madness.
VHS format
Not rated
L’enfant. (Belgium, France, 2005), 100 min. SAN, OC
-- Bruno and Sonia are boy friend and girl friend, playful, immature. She's still in
her teens; they chase each other, share cigarettes, spray sodas and wrestle. The
thing is they also have a new baby. Just out of hospital, Sonia seeks out Bruno to
bring him his son. Bruno's indifferent. In the grimy Belgian city of Seraing, he's a
petty thief with no interest in work, no plan, spending money as fast as he can
fence cameras and jewelry. He sells the baby. Sonia's reaction and Bruno's
surprise at her response inform his subsequent actions. The camera follows and
observes him: has he a nascent conscience or any chance at redemption? Can
he help himself?
DVD format both campuses
Warning: rated R
Life and Nothing But (France, 1989), 135 min. OC
-- Bertrand Tavernier once again explores the awful legacy of war. Set in 1920,
this powerful drama unfolds in post World War I France--a country devastated
both physically and spiritually. It tells the story of two women of differing
backgrounds who are looking for the missing men they love.
DVD format
Not rated
Lila Says (France, UK, 2004), 89 min. OC
-- Lila Says is based on a bestselling novel that caused much controversy in
France, with some commentators questioning whether author and first-person
narrator Chimo really was a 19-year-old North African from an estate who had
written it in two school exercise books. Doueiri's film, updating the story with
some post-September 11 references, follows young would-be writer Chimo as he
falls for Lila, the sexually forthright young French girl who moves in one day and
turns the neighborhood upside down.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R
Look at Me (France, 2005), 110 min. OC, SAN
--―Comme un Image‖ was shown at the Cannes Film Festival where it was
awarded the prize for the best screenplay. A film about power - in particular, the
way people choose to misuse it within relationships - family tensions, and the
monstrous egos.
DVD format, both campuses
PG-13
16
Reviewed 10-10-08
Love me if you dare (2004), 94 min. SAN
-- Eight-year-old Sophie and Julien are two outcast children whose lives changes
forever on the day that they meet. Together, they invent an outrageous game of
―Dare‖ to keep their spirits alive. As they grow older, the game becomes a
glorious addiction and the dares become more and more dangerous.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R sex and language
Madame Bovary (1990), 130 min. OC
--A beautiful woman feels trapped in a loveless marriage, based on Flaubert's
novel
VHS format
PG-13
Madame Rosa (1977), 104 min. OC
--Madame Rosa is an aging Jewish prostitute living in a Paris ghetto who earns
her living raising other prostitutes’ children when they can no longer tend to them.
VHS format
Not rated
Man on the Train (France, 2003), 90 min. OC
--At a deserted train station, a teacher and a gangster meet and realize that each
might have been better suited to the other man's way of life. As a friendship of
sorts develops between these opposite personalities, each starts to envy the
other and by the week's end, everything will change for both of them.‖ It is so rare
to find a film that is about male friendship, uncomplicated by sex, romance or any
of the other engines that drive a plot. These men become friends, I think,
because each recognizes the character of the other. ~Roger Ebert.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R language, violence
Manon of the Spring (1986), 113 min OC, (SAN Lib.)
--Sequel to Jean de Florette: Jean's daughter, Manon, becomes a teenager and
unravels the mystery of her father's struggles.
VHS format
PG
Marie Baie des Anges (1980), 90 min. OC
--In a dream-like Mediterranean landscape, summer vacationers rub elbows with
sailors from an American naval base who drive around in 1960's Caddies and
tap-dance through the mess hall. Fifteen year old petty thief Orso meets Marie, a
fourteen year old who spends her time entertaining the American sailors. They
come together only to be separated by a cruel fate.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
17
Reviewed 10-10-08
Ma Vie en Rose / My Life in Pink (1997), 89 min. OC, SAN
--Ludovic believes he was meant to be a little girl –and that the mistake will soon
be corrected. But where he expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection,
isolation and guilt.
VHS format both campuses
Warning: Rated R
Merci Pour Le Chocolat (2000), 99 min. SAN
-- Isabelle Huppert stars in Chabrol's wickedly entertaining thriller about a
wealthy heiress, her new husband, his son, a woman who may or may not be his
daughter, and the tasty beverage that binds them together.
DVD format
Not Rated
Mina Tannenbaum (1993), 128 min. OC
--This movie follows the ups and downs of a long-term friendship between two
Jewish French women. Young Mina and Ethel meet at ballet class, and instantly
take to each other. Through the years, they maintain their closeness, even when
their paths diverge.
VHS format
Not rated
Moliere (Chateau de Versailles, France, 2007), 121 min. OC
-- An impoverished playwright is freed from debtors' prison by an aristocrat. In
return, he must instruct the wealthy bourgeois in the craft of the stage as he
pursues a young mistress. Director Laurent Tirard has constructed a fictional love
story set in the three months when celebrated dramatist-in-waiting Molière
mysteriously vanished from public view. Sumptuously styled and wittily written,
it's an intoxicating speculation on what might have inspired the young wordsmith.
~Tim Evans
DVD format
PG-13
Monsieur Ibrahim (France, Turkey, 2003), 95 min SAN, OC
-- Against the background of the sixties, in a working class neighborhood, two
unlikely characters- a young Jew and an elderly Muslim--begin a friendship. Love
appears in many forms, both in life and the movies. ―One of the most touching
film incarnations on view recently comes in director Francois Dupeyron's
"Monsieur Ibrahim," a gentle, sensuous French film about a Jewish boy's rite of
passage and an old Muslim man's last journey.‖ ~ Michael Wilmington.
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R
18
Reviewed 10-10-08
Monsieur N (Paris, South Africa 2002), 127 min SAN, OC
-- After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoléon Bonaparte was exiled to the south
Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he died a few years later. Or did he? Telling
his story through a British lieutenant assigned to watch over Napoléon, this film
depicts the sordid antics of the inner circle of French Army officers who followed
the emperor into exile and implies that Napoléon escaped St. Helena so cleverly
that his escape has remained undiscovered to this day. ―The heart of the movie,
which flashes back from Paris in 1840, when Napoleon's body was exhumed and
returned to Paris, to his final years in exile, is set on the bleak, windswept island
in the south Atlantic. Contrary to what you might have assumed from high school
history books, the emperor wasn't simply cast away on a rock and left to fend for
himself. He was guarded by 3,000 British soldiers, 1,000 of whom kept watch
over his residence at Longwood House.‖ ~ Stephen Holden
DVD format both campuses
Not rated
Murmur of the Hearth (1990), 118 min OC
--A movie about a man’s sexual initiation and his complex, controversial
relationship with his mother. He is sent to a mountain spa under his mother’s
care to recuperate from a heart murmur. Their passion culminates in one of the
most controversial scenes in movie.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
My Best Friend (Parc de Princes, Paris, France, 2007), 95 min. SAN
-- François is a middle-aged antique dealer. He has a stylish apartment and a
fabulous life, but at a dinner with a group of people that he considers his dearest
acquaintances, he is blindsided by the revelation that none of them actually likes
him. Moving through Paris, he keeps encountering a trivia-spouting, big-hearted
cabbie named Bruno. Bruno's chatty, lowbrow ways grate against François's
designer temperament, but he covets the other man's easy way with people. He
convinces Bruno to teach him how to make friends and sets about learning the
"three S's" - being sociable, smiling and sincere - though they don't come easy.
Ultimately, François victory will depend on Bruno's naiveté in playing along, but
what's the cost of cheating at friendship? ~ IFC Films
DVD Format
PG-13
My Favorite Season (1997), 122 min. OC
--Set in beautiful southwest France, and marked by the symbolic passage of
season, this film explores the turbulent relationship between Emilie and her
brother Antoine during a particularly emotional eruption of their long time
dysfunctional family.
VHS Format
Not rated
19
Reviewed 10-10-08
My Father and I (France, 2004), 100 min. OC
--This film was originally titled, How I killed my Father. Forty year-old Jean-Luc is
a successful gerontologist living in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Versailles with
his beautiful wife Isa. On the surface, Jean –Luc appears to have everything one
could want from life, however the unexpected arrival of his long estranged father
promises to shatter Jean-Luc’s façade.
DVD Format
Not rated
My Wife is an Actress (2001), 95 min. SAN
-- Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Little Thief, Felix and Lola) plays the wife and
actress who stirs jealousy within her husband (writer-director Yvan Attal) when
she is cast opposite Terence Stamp, playing an actor infamous for his
womanizing.
VHS Format
Warning: Rated R language, sex
My Wife Maurice (Venice, France, 2002), 105 min. SAN
-- From Jean-Marie Poire, comes a wild and wacky French farce with bearded
drag queens, pratfalls, and vengeful women wielding power tools! Philandering
husband George tries to scare off his mistress by convincing a charity worker to
dress up in drag and pretend to be his spouse. This begins a roller coaster of
catastrophes, blunders, and misunderstandings that begin to spin out of control!
Witty dialog, perfect comic timing and a keen sense of Euro camp make this a
fun, cross-dressing romp.
DVD Format
Not rated
Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995), 103 min. SAN
--An unlikely relationship develops after Nelly (a young Parisian with marriage
and financial troubles) is introduced to the wealthy Arnaud by a mutual friend.
VHS format
Not Rated
On Guard (Le Mans, Sarthe, France, 1997), 128 min. OC
--Set in 18th century France, the movie is full of sword fighting, romance, and
gallantry. Like a great old novel (it's adapted from LE BOSSU by Paul Feval) the
film grips one's attention firmly from beginning to end, with Auteuil a dashing
Fairbanks-esque hero, Luchini a most hissable villain, and Gillain a damsel worth
dying for. Sumptuous photography lovingly captures the epic sets and
breathtaking outdoor locations without ever distracting from character, plot, or
pace.
DVD format
Not rated
20
Reviewed 10-10-08
Paris, Je T’Aime (Paris, 2006), 120 min. OC
-- This collection of 18 short films, all set in a different Paris neighborhood, has a
strange and lingering impact. Most of the shorts have the feeling of fragments, of
half stories, or of beginnings without ends, or ends without beginnings. Their
conclusions leave something hanging in the air, or at least something unsaid.
The result is that after two hours one gets the sense of having seen a panorama
of human experience, of having witnessed a moment of time in all its true
fullness.~ Mick LaSalle
DVD format
Warning Rated R
Place Vendome (Paris, Belgium, 1998), 117 min. OC
-- An elegantly wasted wife of a successful jeweler, who is lost in the haze of
alcoholism, notices that her husband's business is headed for bankruptcy. She
has never suspected him a criminal until he gives her five obviously stolen
diamonds to look after. When he turns up dead the next day, she finds that the
diamonds are being pursued by the De Beers cartel, her brother-in-law, and an
enigmatic man named Battistelli, with whom she had an affair many years ago.
This movie is an engaging crime drama and mood piece, one that projects an
aura of decaying grandeur and the hope of new beginnings.
DVD format
Not rated
Ponette (1997), 92 min SAN
--After a car crash injures her and claims the life of her mother, intelligent and
inquisitive four-year-old Ponette contends with the loss and her attendant
questions about the nature of human existence: a sensitive and thoughtful
meditation that authentically renders the child's perspective.
VHS format
Not Rated
Private Fears in Public Places (France, 2006), 120 min. OC
-- Six characters, either nearing or passing middle age, combine and recombine
into couples, seeking the warmth of human connection against the chill outside.
A pair of public spaces—a glass-walled real-estate office and a wowsers space-
age bachelor pad of a hotel bar—are the hubs they orbit before retreating to the
pitched battlefields of home. ~ Jim Ridley
DVD format
Not Rated
Queen Margot (1994), 144 min. OC
th
-- From the Alexandre Dumas novel about the historic 16 century arranged
marriage of Marguerite of Valois and Henry of Navarre.
VHS format
Not rated
21
Reviewed 10-10-08
Read My Lips (2001), 119 min. OC, SAN
--Carla, an overqualified secretary who is ridiculed by her coworkers, hires Paul,
an ex-con unqualified for the simplest of tasks. Nevertheless, her new assistant
ends up enlisting her in a revenge plot against a crooked loan shark.
DVD format SAN, VHS OC
Warning: Rated R language violence sex
Red (1994), 99 min. OC, SAN
--A "seductive story of forbidden love." A young model has a chance meeting
with an unusual stranger, which leads her down a path of intrigue and secrecy.
VHS format both campuses
Warning: Rated R
Ridicule (South France, 1996), 103 min. OC, SAN
-- The movie tells the story of a provincial baron with a scientific cast of mind.
The people of his district are dying because of the pestilent waters, which breed
mosquitoes and disease. He has a scheme for draining the marshes and making
the land tillable. He needs the help of the king, and so he journeys to Versailles
to press his case. But the king values verbal wit above all, and lives mostly to be
entertained. If the baron cannot develop a savage tongue, he has no chance. ~
Roger Ebert
DVD format
Warning: Rated R; nudity, sexuality, violence
Rosetta (Belgium/France, 1999), 95 min. OC
-- Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and critically acclaimed around the world,
Rosetta is a profound, uncompromisingly realistic portrait of a young girl trying to
survive a life of poverty. Desperate to get a job, suffering from stomach cramps
and aggressively protective and critical of her alcoholic mother, she grasps at the
slightest glimpse of hope--a job at a waffle stand.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R
Russian Dolls (St. Petersburg, Russia, Paris 2005), 95 min. OC
-- Xavier is now thirty. No longer a student, he is not yet a well-balanced, fulfilled
adult either. His career is unsatisfying: far from being the renowned novelist he
aimed to be, he must be content with little jobs such as reporter or ghost writer.
His greatest "achievement" in "literature" is his collaboration to the script of a
corny TV soap. It looks as if when he seduces a woman, beautiful outside and
inside such as Kassia or Wendy, he can't keep them. Will he ever bring his life
into focus? ~ Guy Bellinger
DVD format
Not Rated
22
Reviewed 10-10-08
Sequins (France, 2005), 88 min. OC
-- Claire Moutiers is the troubled 17-year-old at the center of Faucher's tale. Five
months pregnant, Claire wiles away her small town days by working at the local
grocery store, then indulging in her passion for creating intricate embroidery
patterns in her spare time. A delicate film which gently works its way towards a
comforting conclusion, SEQUINS is an intelligently written, slowly paced film that
serves to illustrate how solace can sometimes be found in the most unlikely
places.
DVD format
Not Rated
Sitcom (1998), 80 min. OC
--In this ludicrous comedy, a French family suffers twisted transformations after a
pet with strange powers is brought home.
VHS format
Not rated
She is One of Us (France, 2005), 103 min. SAN
-- Christine Blanc (Sasha Andres) is a 30-something temporary secretary who
yearns to belong, to have her work valued, and to become part of a team—any
team.
DVD format
Caution: contains nudity
Skin of Man/ Heart of Beast (1999), 94 min. SAN
-- A ghastly turn of events changes a seemingly peaceful summer vacation in the
south of France into a violent hell. Claiming to have run off and joined the
Foreign Legion, Coco returns home to the Southern Alps after a mysterious
fifteen-year absence. Before long, Coco’s unstable and increasingly threatening
presence awakens a legacy of savage aggression within the family.
DVD format
Not rated
Since Otar Left (Tbilisi, Georgia, Paris, 2004), 99 min. OC
-- Otar moves to Paris from Georgia and dies in a freak accident. Otar’s sister
and niece do not tell his mother that he has died by pretending that he is still
alive. This farce is successful as they compose letters that she believes that were
written by him. As its title suggests, this is a film about absence. It's a portrait of
water shortages, power cuts, financial drought and the other daily deficiencies
Georgians face. The director, Julia Bertucelli, said of this film,‖ I am not
interested in talking about France so much as in talking about how one comes to
fall in love with a foreign land one knows only from one's imagination, with all the
potential for disillusionment that that contains.‖
DVD format
Not rated
23
Reviewed 10-10-08
Small Change (Allier, France, 1976), 105 min. SAN
-- This is a marvelously touching, witty, and tender depiction of childhood, with
many moments of joy, sadness, and poignancy. Childhood is truly a time of grace
and Truffaut has devoutly captured its essence in this cinematic psalm. Truffaut's
own childhood was lonely and unhappy. In a broader sense, however, most of
the main characters in Truffaut films reveal the vestiges of their childhood
experiences. Truffaut had an unusually strong sense of how our formative years
impact our later lives. After a stint as a film critic, Truffaut became one of the
seminal figures of the French New Wave and one of the advocates of films as
personal statements and directors as auteur who provide the central creative
force for each filmmaking project.
DVD format
PG
Story of Women (1988), 110 min OC
-- Gerard Depardieu stars in this fine adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic
novel about an unjustly imprisoned man who returns to seek revenge on the
people who set him up. This eight hour mini-series ranks as one of the most
watched programs in the history of French television. The supporting cast
includes Ornella Muti and Jean Rochefort.
VHS format
Not rated.
The Accidental Hero (France, 2005), 90 min. OC
-- A 35-year-old, flight attendant mother, Valrie, must deal with her (frequently
arrested) 16-year-old son, Tom. On an especially hectic morning, on their way to
the airport, mother and son have a heated argument that distracts her from her
driving. When a mammoth truck looms straight ahead, she must swerve into a
ditch to avoid a head-on collision. The car flips over, and they both end up in the
hospital, but Valrie falls into a coma. When it is realized that she can no longer
even recognize her own son, the Department of Social Services places Tom in a
group home. Now he is forced to cope with a host of other young punks as well
as a headmaster with some pointed ideas about how to rehabilitate his charges.
Despite his own personal problems (and at great risk), Tom sneaks away from
the group home and dedicates himself to helping his mom recover her memory.
DVD format
Not rated
.
24
Reviewed 10-10-08
The Barbarian Invasions (Montreal, Quebec, 2003), 99 min OC, SAN
-- Writer/director Denys Arcand revisits the characters he created in 1986's The
Decline of the American Empire with The Barbarian Invasions. This time around,
fun-loving woman-chaser Remy feels the need to reunite with his estranged
businessman son after he's diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Though still
very antagonistic toward each other, the two soon find themselves lovingly
surrounded by their close circle of family and friends. Determined to put past
grievances aside and embrace life, father and son work to develop a new
understanding of each other before it's too late. Once you get past the title, this is
truly a very poignant movie about the end of an era.
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R language, sex
The Beat that my Heart Skipped (Paris, 2005), 107 min. OC, SAN
-- Romain Duris stars in a standout performance as a young man torn between a
life of crime and classical music. Audiard fuses two unlikely worlds into a
stunning vision featuring a menacing and dangerous Paris rarely seen on screen.
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Contains strong language and bloody violence.
The Chorus / Les Choristes (Chateau de Ravel, France, 2004), 97 min. OC, SAN
--A music teacher Clément Mathieu arrives in "Fond de l' Etang" ("Bottom of the
Well"), a boarding school for orphans and problematic boys, to work as an
inspector. The place is administrated with iron fist by the cruel director and most
of the boys have severe punishments for their faults. Clément decides to teach
the boys to sing in a choir, and identify the musical potential of the rebel Pierre,
the son of a beautiful single mother for whom he feels a crush. He also has a
special feeling for the young Pépinot, a boy that expects the visit of his father
every Saturday near the gate, but indeed lost his parents in the war. With his
methods, Clément changes the lives of the boys, of the other employees and his
own. ~ Claudio Carvalho
DVD format both campuses PG 13
The Count of Monte Cristo (Marseille, Naples, Paris, 1998), 7 hours OC, SAN
-- Edmond Dantès (the count), is a 19th-century French version of James Bond
or Batman, a rich, ruthless, and suave purveyor of homemade justice. This
French production goes all out, having the distinction of being the first filmed
version of the newly restored unabridged version of Dumas' classic, which runs
about 800 pages. Dumas, one of the most famous French writers of the 19th
century, is best known for the historical novels The Three Musketeers and The
Count of Monte Cristo, both written within the space of two years, 1844-45.
Dumas was among the first, who fully used the possibilities of roman feuilleton,
(a novel serialized in a newspaper; this form flourished in France in the 1840s,
bringing great financial rewards to authors).
DVD format both campuses
Not Rated
25
Reviewed 10-10-08
The Disenchanted (1990), 80 min. OC
--A unique, poetic and sometimes disturbing view of adolescent passage. The
film follows a 17-year-old girl trying to find her way on a confusing path largely
created by the sexual insecurities and economic needs of others. When her
boyfriend makes the bizarre request that she prove her love to him by sleeping
with the ugliest man she can find, young Beth decides instead to use the
challenge as a doorway to self-exploration.
VHS format
Not rated
The Dinner Game (1998), 81 min. OC
--A wealthy publisher and his equally prosperous friends compete in a cruel
game in which the object is to find the sorriest, most obnoxious guest possible.
The impossibly irritating seems like a sure victory, but as the publisher's life falls
apart, he begins to feel far less superior.
VHS format
PG-13
The Dreamlife of Angels (1998), 113 min. OC, SAN
--A touching story of two very different young women who share the joy and
heartbreak of friendship. The two lead actresses were jointly awarded Best
Actress at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
VHS format both campuses
Note: Also available at OC Library in DVD format.
Warning: Rated R
The Flower of Evil (Bourdeaux section of France, 2002), 101 min. OC
--Shortly after the son of the family, Francois, returns home from four years of
study in Chicago to his family's beautiful estate in Bourdeaux, anonymous
leaflets arrives at the house, suggesting that his beloved Aunt Line may have
caused the 1944 death of her father. The film then shifts between the present
day and a two week period in 1944, as we see what each of the people involved
were doing during that time.
DVD format OC
Warning: Rated R
The Girl from Paris (Vercors, France, 1976), 103 min. SAN
-- Sandrine is a computer expert who has successfully pursued a career in
business; however, her career path was chosen to please her family more than
herself, and Sandrine has decided to move away from the fast pace of city life to
rural France. Using her computer skills, Sandrine creates a website that
generates a whole new market for the goat cheese and fruit preserves the farm
generates, which helps her win Adrien's grudging respect, and when Adrien falls
ill and it looks possible he may not live out his final stay on the farm, he begins to
open up to her, sharing all he knows about the farm. ~ Mark Deming
DVD format
Not rated
26
Reviewed 10-10-08
The Horseman on the Roof (19th century France, Italy, 2000), 119 min. OC
-- The film's hero is an Italian soldier and patriot named Angelo Pardi, who is a
young member of the Carbonari, a secret society of horsemen bent on ridding
Italy of Austrian occupation. Reportedly the most expensive French production
ever made at the time of its release, this beautifully mounted historical drama,
tells about the soldier, who is fleeing his country in 1832. After the fall of
Napoleon, Austria is swooping down on Italy to take control of the nation, and like
many patriots, Pardi, is hoping to escape to France and fight for their freedom
abroad rather than submit to Austrian rule. However, as he discovers upon
arrival, an epidemic of cholera is sweeping the land. ~ Mark Deming.
DVD format
Warning: Rated R, a scene of nudity
The Housekeeper (2002), 86 min. OC
--Deciding to get his life back in order, a lonely bachelor hires a housekeeper to
plow though the mess that has overtaken his apartment. He soon learns that she
has never done a day of housework in her life, yet her presence adds a joyful
spark to his life.
VHS format
Warning: rated R brief sexuality, nudity, and language
The Lady and the Duke (France, 2001), 129 min. OC
--This film is notable for the spectacular outdoor scenes; if they look fake, it's
because they are. Rohmer commissioned Jean-Baptiste Marot to paint a
number of exterior shots, and then digitally inserted his actors in them. The
result is amazing. All of the outdoor scenes look surreal, as if there are actors
walking around in a lush, historical painting. The interior sets are just as
intricate. There are only a few, but they all demonstrate the elegance and waste
that typify the aristocracy in France at the time. Based on Grace Elliott's
journals of her life in Paris during the French Revolution, the film depicts the
violence of warfare and political upheaval against the story of Elliott's
relationship with Prince Philippe, the Duke of Orleans.
DVD format
PG-13
The Music Teacher (Belgium, 1989), 100 min. OC
--Shortly before the Great War, a celebrated singer suddenly announces his
retirement from the stage, leaving the opera world stunned. What follows brings
us "a poignant love story, a pulse-pounding international music competition"
VHS format
PG
27
Reviewed 10-10-08
The Pact of Silence (Spain, Portugal, 2003), 89 min. OC, SAN
--Shot mostly in Spain and Portugal in older locations, the film's crumbling
environment really lends to the mysterious atmosphere. Harboring a secret from
his violent past and having found solace in the church, a Jesuit priest finds
himself caught in a web of intrigue when a young Carmelite nun, Sarah, is rushed
to his hospital.
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R violence, language
The Story of Adele H. (1975), 98 min. OC
--Adele, daughter of French author and patriot Victor Hugo, is beautiful and filled
with the same writing talent as her famous father. However, Adele is driven not
by literary aspirations but by love.
VHS format
PG
The Taste of Others (2000), 112 min. OC
--The lives and loves of several completely opposite men and women intersect a
funny web of romantic entanglements.
VHS format
Warning: Rated R language
The Town is Quiet / La Ville Est Tranquille (Marseilles, 2000), 132 min. OC
--Since 1980, French director Robert Guideguian has been enmeshed in an
ongoing filmmaking project without parallel in the history of cinema: twelve
feature films to date, all filmed in his home city of Marseilles and all featuring the
same three versatile actors: Ariane Ascaride, the filmmaker's wife, also Jean-
Pierre Darrousin and Gerard Meylin. ~ Gerald Peary. The Town Is Quiet includes
one of the most harrowing portrayals ever filmed of someone in the throes of
drug withdrawal. In the most searing scene, Michele simultaneously prepares a
fix of heroin for her daughter and heats her granddaughter's baby formula as
their piercing screams mingle into indistinguishable cries for help. ~ Stephen
Holden.
DVD format
Not rated
28
Reviewed 10-10-08
The Trilogy (France, 2003), Two Discs, 5 2/3 total OC
-- An unprecedented trilogy of films from Belgian actor/director Lucas Belvaux .
The trilogy comprises three films each of a different genre, but taking place within
the same time frame. The first, On the Run, is a taut thriller in the crime/gangster
tradition the second, An Amazing Couple, is a romantic comedy with a French
twist, and the third, After the Life, a serious drama. As protagonists from one film
in the trilogy weave into subsequent or previous ones as more minor characters,
Belvaux bravely takes the idea of ever-expanding narrative webs to a new level,
making for some great storytelling and some fantastic cinema that echoes Akira
Kurosawa's Rashomon and the novels of Honore de Balzac. ~ Angelika
DVD format
Warning: After Life/ On the Run are rated R
The Wild Child (1999), 85 min. SAN
--Film about the true-life tale of a young boy found living alone in the woods of
France in the 1700’s.
DVD format
PG
The Widow of Saint-Pierre (2000), 108 min. OC, SAN
--In this drama set in 1850 and based on a true story, a prisoner condemned to
death becomes the center of controversy as the police chief's wife fights to
reform and save him.
VHS format both campuses
Warning: Rated R sex, brief violence
Thieves / Les Voleurs (1997), 116 min. OC
--In this psychological thriller starring Catherine Deneuve, a sophisticated
professor falls in love with a young thief –and falls into her world of murder and
self-destruction.
VHS format
Warning: rated R
13 Tzameti (1999), 90 min. SAN, OC
-- From a very mundane beginning this film develops into the 'thriller' which it is
billed as. But the true strength of this film lies in following the journey of the lead
character who doesn't know what is going on until it is too late. To get the full
effect of this film you really ought to see it 'blind'. Even if you know something
about it I'd still definitely recommend it. Filmed in black and white and focused
very much on the lead character it tells a chilling story very well indeed. Ian
Caddy.
DVD format both campuses
Not rated
29
Reviewed 10-10-08
Time of the Wolf (Vienna, Austria, 2003), 109 min. OC, SAN
--Michael Haneke's Le Temps du loup was made following La Pianiste and prior
to Cache, two films which were more accessible and commercially successful.
Haneke claims he wanted to make Le Temps du loup before La Pianiste, but
could only fund the project following the success of the latter. In this minimalist
disaster movie, an unspecified ecological catastrophe has disrupted modern life,
and some of the survivors, huddled together in a bleak corner of the French
countryside, struggle to hold on to the trappings of civilization. ~A.O. Scott
DVD format both campuses
Warning: Rated R violence, language, sex
Time Regained (1999), 158 min. OC
--A dying Proust reflects upon his life from his deathbed, remembering many of
the people who've affected and influenced him during the course of his adult life,
from the 1880s to the early 1920s. Among them are Odette, a beautiful woman
who's succeeded in life, but whose husband betrays her with both a female
actress and a male pianist.
VHS format
Not rated
To Be and To Have (Auvergne region, France, 2002), 104 min OC, SAN
--A France’s highest grossing documentary of all time is an intimate and touching
portrait of life inside a one room schoolhouse in a rural French Village and one of
the most emotionally gratifying films about teaching even made. ―The
documentary is a deeply satisfying aesthetic and pedagogic experience, though
Americans may wonder how such terrific children can become such irritating
adults.‖ ~David Denby
DVD format both campuses
Not Rated
Train of Life (1998), 103 min. OC, SAN
--This tale of a Jewish village in France attempting to escape deportation and
death uses humor without diminishing the backdrop of the Holocaust.
VHS format both campuses
Warning: Rated R
30
Reviewed 10-10-08
Triple Agent (Paris 2004), 115 min. SAN
-- Loosely based on true events, Triple Agent is a quietly fascinating account of
espionage and ideology, set against the fermenting storm of approaching war in
late 30's Paris. Fyodor is an exiled White Russian General, living modestly in
Paris with his Greek wife, Arsinoe, and ostensibly working for The White Army
Veterans Association, a rag-tag band of Tsarist émigrés intent on reclaiming
Russia from the Soviets. Each day, he glides around the emerging 'Russian
Paris' of cramped offices, restaurants and makeshift Orthodox churches, filtering
the various scraps of intelligence he gathers from his fellow exiles. This
community of princes turned taxi drivers, ex-factory owners and army-less
generals, pursue a struggle which seems pathetically extinct in a rapidly
changing world. Fyodor drifts through this atmosphere of ambiguity and vague
unrest with an air of arrogance and acumen. However, he is not all he seems,
and his true allegiance is always in doubt, even by his beloved wife.
DVD format
Rated general
Un Coeur en Hiver (A Heart in winter) (1993), 100 min. OC, SAN
--A portrait of love and loss. Camille, a beautiful concert violinist, is betrayed by a
man whose heart is immersed in a winter of his own creation.
VHS format both campuses
Not Rated
Un deux trios Soleil (Marseille, 1993), 104 min. OC
-- This experimental drama is something of an actor's challenge: see if you can
convincingly play an age range from six to thirty six without any makeup or
costume changes, just by using your gifts as a performer. In this film, the role of
Victorine poses just such a challenge to Anouk Grinberg, who appears as this
child of the Marseilles slums. At any moment in the film, she is likely to be any
age. The young girl cowering at her mother's feet becomes a sexual wunderkind,
as well as observing the bizarre and often sexual antics of her multiracial
neighbors. If there is one theme for the movie beyond Victorine's odd life, it is
that everyone needs affection and support. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
DVD format
Not Rated
Va Savoir / Who Knows? (2001), 154 min. OC, SAN
--A comedy about the romantic misadventures of Camille and Ugo—a theater
director and his leading lady—whose already complicated relationship becomes
exponentially more difficult when they become entangled in the lives of four other
people.
VHS format both campuses
PG-13
31
Reviewed 10-10-08
Venus Beauty Institute (Paris, 2002), 103 min. OC
--A visually stylish comedy with dramatic overtones from director Tonie Marshall,
that looks at the lives of three women who work at a small but successful beauty
salon. Angele is an attractive woman just edging into middle age who is looking
for companionship without commitment, even when it comes knocking. Her co-
worker Samantha has more boyfriends than she knows what to do with, and
Marie , the youngest of the group, is still learning the ropes of both love and
beauty treatment. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
DVD format
Warning: Rated R
Wasabi (Tokyo, Japan, 2001), 94 min. OC
--Hubert is a French policeman with very sharp methods. After being forced to
take 2 months off by his boss, who doesn't share his view on working methods,
he goes back to Japan, where he used to work 19 years ago, to settle the
probate of his girlfriend who left him shortly after marriage without a trace. There
he meets his former colleague Momo and his daughter Yumi who he did not
know was ever born. Hubert eventually finds out why his girlfriend left him and
the reason becomes his and his new daughter’s problem. ~ Schwarz
DVD format
Warning: rated R
White (1993), 92 min. OC, SAN
--The mysterious tale of a man whose life disintegrates when his beautiful wife of
six months deserts him. Forced to begin anew, he rebuilds his life, only to plan a
dangerous scheme of vengeance against her.
VHS format SAN
Warning: Rated R
32
Reviewed 10-10-08
33
