FanFare

[TRAILER] Club kid Romain has just graduated and makes a stop at his dealer's place to try a new pill. As he heads off to a party, he sees an injured woman on the side of the road and decides to help her. It's, um, not a fortuitous choice. A French horror film presented in "one shot" (actually five cleverly interconnected takes). [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Oct 24, 2024 - 4 comments

Original title: Vermines. Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders. A French language horror film from Sébastien Vanicek, who is currently shooting the sixth film in the Evil Dead franchise. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Apr 26, 2024 - 7 comments

[TRAILER] A cultured, naively idealistic German officer is billeted in the home of a middle-aged man and his grown niece; their response to his presence—their only form of resistance—is complete silence. AKA The Silence of the Sea. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 17, 2024 - 1 comment

[TRAILER] A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Feb 28, 2024 - 6 comments

[TRAILER] Squale (prime era Jean Reno) an ace spy, is called back from South America to carry out a tough operation. Goal: dismantle an international arms traffic masterminded by an important French government official. The problem is, an embassy worker's goofy husband (Christian Clavier) throws off Squale's plot. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 10, 2023 - 2 comments

[TRAILER] On board a French nuclear submarine, a rescue mission depends on a man with a golden ear. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Aug 8, 2023 - 6 comments

After getting a car ride from an unknown man, Lisa (Gaia Weiss) wakes up in a tube. On her arm is strapped a bracelet with a countdown. She quickly understands that every 8 minutes, fire burns an occupied section. She has no choice but to crawl into safe sections to survive. To know why she's there and how to get out, Lisa will have to face the memories of her dead daughter. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jun 19, 2023 - 6 comments

A beautiful young woman takes her father's place as the prisoner of a mysterious beast, who wishes to marry her. Trailer. [more inside]
posted by johnofjack on Nov 20, 2022 - 5 comments

[TRAILER] An 1867 painting by Jean-Francois Millet inspired septuagenarian documentarian Agnes Varda to cross the French countryside to videotape people who scavenge. Taking everything from surplus in the fields, to rubbish in trashcans, to oysters washed up after a storm, the "gleaners" range from those sadly in need to those hoping to recreate the community activity of centuries past, and still others who use whatever they find to cobble together a rough art. Highlighted by Varda's amusing narration. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 15, 2022 - 4 comments

[TRAILER] Eight-year-old Nelly has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother's childhood home. She explores the house and the surrounding woods where her mother used to play and where she built the fort Nelly has heard so much about. One day, her mother suddenly leaves, and Nelly meets a girl of her own age in the woods, building a fort. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Nov 14, 2022 - 5 comments

Three students celebrate their graduation with a visit of the Paris catacombs. When they discover a bunker, little do they know it's not the only thing that Nazi have left behind... [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Oct 31, 2022 - 1 comment

Charlie (Charles Aznavour) is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard (Jean-Jacques Aslanian) and Chico (Albert Remy), surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena (Marie Dubois), a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters (Claude Mansard, Daniel Boulanger) arrive, looking for his brothers. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Sep 28, 2022 - 0 comments

In this melancholy French social satire, André (Roland Toutain) is having an affair with Christine (Nora Gregor), whose husband, Robert (Marcel Dalio), himself is hiding a mistress. Meanwhile Christine's married maid, Lisette (Paulette Dubost), is romantically entangled with the local poacher. At a hunting party, trusted friend Octave (Jean Renoir) also confesses his feelings for Christine, as the passions of the servants and aristocrats dangerously collide. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Sep 8, 2022 - 4 comments

Old and decrepit Krank (Daniel Emilfork) has lost his capacity for dreaming and is attempting to fight death by stealing the dreams of children. Krank's cadre of cloned henchmen (all played by Dominique Pinon) snatch 5-year-old Denree (Joseph Lucien) to subject him to the horrific dream-retrieval process. The boy's father, One (Ron Perlman), the hulking strongman of a traveling circus, and his precocious 9-year-old friend, Miette (Judith Vittet), join forces to defeat Krank's minions and save Denree. Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's macabre fairy tale. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jun 14, 2022 - 20 comments

Playtime, 1967 French-Italian comedy film directed by Jacques Tati, is considered his masterpiece, as well as his most daring work. It is featured as #47 on The Sight & Sound Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time. Tati again plays Monsieur Hulot, who had appeared in his earlier films 'Mon Oncle' and 'Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot'. It is structured in six sequences, linked by two characters who repeatedly encounter one another in the course of a day. [more inside]
posted by growabrain on Mar 3, 2019 - 15 comments