Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Le Cinéma

Posting will be light the next few days what with all of the cookin' and cleanin' and table settin'.

In the meantime, here are some of une femme's favorite French films, in no particular order:


Diva. Quirky characters and converging plotlines, a gorgeous aria, and some heartbreakingly beautiful cinematography. Even murderous thugs an explosion or two for the guys! (Actually, this is one of my favorite films of all time.)

Cléo de 5 à 7. Cléo waits to get news from her doctor, frets, flirts and roams through Paris. One of those fabulous little "slice of life" films, so quintessentially French.

Subway. Luc Besson wrote and directed, Christopher Lambert and Isabelle Adjani star. A blackmailer, a punk princess, incompetent métro police, and scruffy yet charming subway dwellers intersect.

Amélie. How can anyone not love this movie?

Les Triplettes de Belleville. Don't mess with Grandmere. Or her chien.

Indochine. Another visually stunning movie, set in colonial French Indochina (modern day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). Catherine Deneuve stars with Vincent Perez, who is even more gorgeous than some of the scenery.

Le Ballon rouge. Bien sur.

Jean de Florette and Manon des sources. New classics.


Two I haven't seen yet but am adding to my Netflix queue: Jules et Jim and Breathless.

I know there are some I'm forgetting. What are your faves?

Posted by at 6:00 AM
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8 comments:

  1. les enfants terribles

    I can't explain why. I was once captivated by the idea of living all your life in your bathrobe. I suppose with the rise of people working from their homes this is not such a radical idea.

    Interesting to me also because one of the main characters is employed as a model in a fashion house. From robes de style (I have no French) to bathrobe.
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  2. For years I resisted Amelie, feeling it was somehow a rip-off of Chungking Express. And then I fell for a girl who loved it, and I watched it again with new eyes. Now I own it and watch it once a week, especially since we're a body of water apart from each other.
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  3. Dejapseu:

    To your list, may I recommend adding:

    Trois Couleurs - Rouge, Bleu, Blanc;

    Le Souffle, for a once-only pleasure of great cinematography, although if you do see it more than once, do tell us all; I have not met many who did :-)

    PS: I had mentioned À Bout de Souffle, for the charm of a certain age, but I recalled you already have it listed by its English name. I think Blogger, like Wordpress, should allow commenters to see the post as they write comments...
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  4. Vildy - thanks, I'll add that one to my list.

    Thomas - I've never seen Chunking Express but I'll look it up.

    shefaly - I think I did see "blue" many years ago, but never saw the other two. I'll have to add those to my list too, thanks! Oh, and you can see the original post if you click on the link "Show Original Post" at the top of the comments page. If that doesn't work, let me know, and I can also change a flag so the comments appear as a separate popup window.
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  5. Bijoux du JourNov 23, 2007 07:27 PM
    Oh! You have to see King of Hearts(sorry I don't know it's French name). It is jsut the most charming and funny film ever. Alen Bates and Genvieve Bujold. A cast of "characters" to say the least. Rent it!
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  6. "King of Hearts" is a classic. I would have to add "8 Women" to the list (A colorful campy semi-musical "murder mystery"). Deja pseu, have you considered linking to www.imdb.com instead of amazon.com for the movies du jour? Just a thought. I am going to have to check out those on your list that I haven't already seen. Thanks!
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  7. I did link to imdb originally, but thought some readers might want to be able to get the DVD's.

    It's been eons since I've seen "King of Hearts". I'm adding to my Netflix queue right now; thanks for the suggestion!
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  8. Romuauld et Juliette - Daniel Auteuil and a matronly but beautiful black woman.

    C'est Tout Commence Aujourdui - can't even remember what happens, just remember I loved it.
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