Cinema belongs to the French. They started it. And nothing the Americans can do is gonna take it away from them. They own it, just like they owned it in 1983, 1999 and 2001. As you shall see below. On y va?
AT FIRST SIGHT (COUP DE FOUDRE / ENTRE NOUS) (1983) - DIANE KURYS
This beautiful film from Diane Kurys is a woman's picture for everyone. Its depiction of life in mid-century France for two young married women (Isabelle Huppert and Miou-Miou) isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it's sweetly and perceptively handled. Huppert and Miou-Miou are as magnetic as they are beautiful, and the film's elegance extends to all aspects of its creation.
POLA X (1999) - LEOS CARAX
A disarming adaptation of Herman Melville's Pierre, ou les Ambiguities from Leos Carax, Pola X subtly, strangely defies classification. It's a grand, tinny symphony of noise and image, and madness suppressed. The trick is to let it take you wherever it wants to go, and don't expect Carax to cater for your every whim. Abstruse even in its abstruseness.
TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) - CLAIRE DENIS
Of course, the Hidden Treasures post dedicated to French film would feature 2/3 female directors. Claire Denis followed up her breakthrough masterpiece Beau Travail with this wilfully artsy addition to that most depraved of sub-genres, known as the 'New French Extremity'. It's a hypnotic poem, but on what? I can't profess to know, but I can urge you to check out this stylish, disturbing film, which remains one of Denis' most critically-reviled films, and not justly so.
POLA X (1999) - LEOS CARAX
A disarming adaptation of Herman Melville's Pierre, ou les Ambiguities from Leos Carax, Pola X subtly, strangely defies classification. It's a grand, tinny symphony of noise and image, and madness suppressed. The trick is to let it take you wherever it wants to go, and don't expect Carax to cater for your every whim. Abstruse even in its abstruseness.
TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) - CLAIRE DENIS
Of course, the Hidden Treasures post dedicated to French film would feature 2/3 female directors. Claire Denis followed up her breakthrough masterpiece Beau Travail with this wilfully artsy addition to that most depraved of sub-genres, known as the 'New French Extremity'. It's a hypnotic poem, but on what? I can't profess to know, but I can urge you to check out this stylish, disturbing film, which remains one of Denis' most critically-reviled films, and not justly so.
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