French Films
 

A bounty of riches around.
I saw "good evening, ladies and gentlemen"with Jeremy Irons and French songbird, Patricia Kaas in her first film.
"The swimming pool "charlotte Rampling and incredible body, Ludivine Sagnier.
"Cet Amour-La" Jeanne Moreau playing Margerite Duras

Hi, Mimi! I saw Man on the Train, with Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday--excellent, as was L'Auberge Espagnole. Thinking of going to the Swimming Pool tomorrow. Was it a good story? Want to see Jet Lag with Binoche and Reno, too, when it gets here.

Sue,
I saw Swimming Pool very recently in Paris. Very dark, but Charlotte Rampling is doing a suberb job, similar to her role in Sous Le Sable (Under the Sand?).
I think the movie is much better than Francois Ozon's previous one (8 Femmes).

As for Jet Lag (Decalage Horaire), it's a pretty funny comedy. And Jean Reno, oh la la...

Right now, waiting for Claude Chabrol's new one (La Fleur du Mal) starring Nathalie Baye and Suzanne Flon which will be out next month.

Sue, your two were excellant. I won't tell you the plot of Swimming pool because on another forum I did and this old Al-igator didn't like my revealing my interpretation of the ending.
Another Reno fan here Ursula!

Ah, Sundays and Cybell, anyone?

And while on gliterrati, see any significance to October 1963 in Paris? My very, very early teen years, but I was there, and I remember. Anyone remember with me?

Mimi
Last night we saw an entertaining film with Isabelle Hupert and Michel Seuralt, The Swindle. See it??
Swimming Pool made me long for a French country house~
I am waiting to see Jet Lag, did you see Jean Reno in a film made in Japan called Wasabi? that was fun, especially if you like Jean Reno:)
I loved Man on the Train and I am still waiting to see L'Auberge Espagnole.
See you at the cinema~

L'Auberge is superb, showing kids from various nations in a small apartment in Spain, trying to come to grips with the new Europe and life in general. Quite charming.

No takers on 10/63? I'm surprised.

Smilestravel, do you mean; "Operation big lift?"(when we sent the troops reinforcement)
Sundays and Cybele, yes I remember that, the little girl and the soldier in hiding.
There was a Spanish film with a little girl who also was a fabulous actress, a must-see film,
"Secret of the Beehive."

Smiles, unless you mean that that was the month Jean Cocteau died? As I recall, he was preparing a radio show to honor Piaf when he expired.

CigaleChanta, Piaf died of cancer in Paris in 1963. I was a young student pre-Sorbonne, in the 6eme, and watched tributes to her on realy French TV in cafes. Quite an intro to Paris, and still fresh even today.

sorry, make that "early" French TV.

Hi, all. I may have an opportunity to see "Swimming Pool" next week. It sounds like a good story but I am also wondering if there are some nice shots of the countryside. One review I read said that the house was in the "town of Luberon." [sic] Since I just was there last month, I'm hoping the film might be a partial cure for my "homesickness."
Anyone know exactly where it was shot?

Shot in Luberon, near Lacoste. Terrific film.

The house is in Menerbes but you do see the countryside when she drives to the house and when she goes to Lacoste wandering around the ruins of DeSade
The Luberon refers to the range of mountains. It is in the department of the Vaucluse. Provençals exclude the Alpes -Maritimes when discussing eastern Provence and almost noone would describe the Coté d Azur as Provençal.

smiles that's when Cocteau dies too preparing a tribute to Piaf.
I'm a big Cocteau fan.

Yes, both are giants. Her career was so short - first performed in Paris in '61, dead in fall '63. He died in the work on her. Very sad. The world is different today, I think.

cigalechanta, I would like to know your interpretation of the ending of Swimming Pool, I saw it last week and two of us have different ideas about it over here in LA.
One of my friends said the whole movie went to pot after she opened her blouse on the veranda.

I would hate to tell my interpretation of the ending, it would spoil things for so many people having not seen it yet.
But I would like to say that it was a good book, if you know what I mean? :)

I too would love to hear other opinions of the Swimming Pool ending.
Saw Happenstance on DVD and thought it was excellent.
Joy

I liked Happenstance too! Although coming after Amelie, it might have suffered a little by comparison.
We need to have a Swimming Pool thread where only those who have seen it or know the ending can post:)

If you email me at hotmail.com I'll tell. Endings of books and films do not bother me being revealed, it is hiow it is done, like seeing the talented Mr. Ripley, and comparing it to the French Purple noon. But as I said in the earlier post, this guy was upset because I gave the ending(my thinking what it is)

gee -- I think Happenstance just arrived in the mail from Netflix! I'd like to see Swimming Pool...maybe this weekend :)

Bonjour uhoh :) !!!

Bonjour!

Mimi, just don't talk about how it ends, or there will be another Al-igator! :)

Well, I had a chipmunk crisis (somehow one made it into the house and I had a heck of a time catching him--it involved a trashbasket, a peanut butter cracker and two hours of surveillance), so didn't make it to Swimming Pool today, but I will tomorrow! Thanks for not revealing the ending. A separate thread would be great.

Winged Migration was beautiful, but no French. :-(

Smiles, I didn't get there till 4/64, but I still saw Sundays and Cybele. In fact I have a copy.

I agree with LVSue; "Winged Migration" was indeed beautiful. I've also seen "Swimming Pool," whose ending pleasantly shocked me. Let me just say that as great an actress as Charlotte Rampling is, I never want to see her naked again.

Other French (or French co-presented?) movies I've seen this year are:

1. "Les marchands de sable" (from 2000, a crime film)
2. "A la folie, pas du tout" / "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" (w/ Audrey Tautou in a very different role from "Amélie")
3. "Un hirondelle a fait le printemps"
4. "Chaos" (my favorite!)
5. "L'auberge espagnole"
6. "Vendredi Soir" (very elegant film without much dialogue)
7. "Fureur"
8. "Ni pour ni contre" (the most recent Cédric Klapsich film with the very beautiful Marie Gillain)
9. "Décalage horaire"
10. "L'homme du train"

I guess most of the aforementioned movies are already on DVD. If only I had a DVD player...

I think a thread for Swimming Pool is a must!
I also wish that Sue would post the story of the chipmunk capture! Has all the sounds of a spy novel!!
Are you sure you aren't using code? :)

The new Audrey Tatou film is here, we have yet to see it, but it seems quite different. I still want to see Loves me, Loves me not (how many times have I said that!)
Loved Winged Migration ! I picture geese flying around with small digicams on their backs still~

Charlotte Rampling has never had a problem with taking off her clothes in films:) and in this one I was pleasantly surprised to see that for her age, she has nothing to be ashamed of..if only I look so good..now about her eyes......

it's too early yet to do a "Swimming pool" thread because some people have yet to see it open in their town. Some who have seen it are emailing me for discussion.
The Tautou film is directed by Stephen Frears. All I'll say it that it's a mystery about immeigrants working in a London Hotel.

I just rented Purple Noon :)

Great film. Marie LaForet, the girl is also a singer.Ronet is R.I.P I loved him . There's an old depressing film he made called 'Fire Within."The background music is one of my favorite pieces, Satie's "Gymnopédie.

"Swimming Pool" looks interesting. And I still want to see "L'Auberge Espagnole."

While having my teeth cleaned this morning, my dental hygenist was telling me about her recent visit to France, on a Rick Steves tour. They visited the town in Burgundy (I forget the name right now) which was the setting for the non-river scenes in "Chocolat."

Capo, nice to see you with clean teeth!!
The town is Flavigny-sur-Ozerain but the river scenes were filmed in England in Wiltshire.
You will Love 'Auberge Espagnole.

Didn't make it out again today (dark clouds and lightning made me fear flash floods--I try to stay in when it rains). I checked fandango.com and SP will still be here next week, so I'll wait and go with my friend.

Scarlett, actually, there's not much in the telling of the great chipmunk caper. I heard a squeaking chatter and thought it was the fan. . .. except the fan wasn't on. A very intent cat was watching the corner bricabrac case. So I whisked him off to the bedroom, locked the dogs (much against their will) in the computer room, and moved things around on the bottom shelf, finding a very scared chipmunk who darted behind the couch.

Somehow I knew the animal would not realize I was only trying to help him, so I rigged up a pillowcase at one end of the couch and a plastic bag on the other, with a peanut butter cracker in each, and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, I moved the couch a little and got the angry chatter again, so I knew he was still there. I moved the throw that was dangling over the edge onto the floor, and he skittered out from it and behind a bookcase next to the couch.

Aha! I quickly stuffed towels in the far edge of the bookcase, so he couldn't escape that way, tilted edge of the couch against the wall and stuffed towels on the far side. That left a small opening between the two, which I blocked with a rectangular wastebasket (with pb cracker) on its side, leaving a triangle of space in the middle of all three. And waited.

Finally I went off to the bedroom to put away clothes. When I returned, I checked the triangle, and there the cheeky creature was, calmly giving himself a bath. So I watched him check out the rim of the wastebasket, head back toward the bookcase, head to the throw, and finally back to the wastebasket. He hefted his little body in, and whoosh! Faster than a speeding bullet, I swung it upright, and in the bottom was a very shocked little chipmunk with his tail all poofed up. Out to the back yard, and freedom! For him and for me!

I was quite proud of my ingenuity. And relieved that I wouldn't have a future dead chipmunk to ferret out some place in my house.

LVSue, I couldn't stop laughing about your adventurous chipmunk! We have chipmunk crises in our home about every other month during good weather. It all started when husband decided the aluminum screens marred the beauty of our 80-year old house, and promptly took them down. Four years ago. Throw one bored cat into the mix, one wife who is a fresh air fiend and must have open doors and windows, and you've got chipmunks all over the house.

I feel your pain! They are cute, though, aren't they??

Sue, thank you so much! It was an adventure story, a comedy and all with a happy ending, sigh~
And you didn't get bitten and have to get rabies shots!
What a kind person you are, pb and all :)

Someone help me. I have a squirrl crises, I would leave the door open that lead to my tiny outdoor space and they would enter and take our nuts. One year they ate away the wood that keeps the glass in the door, luckily I came in time to stop it. They birth every year on our condo roof, which means a daily huge cleanup, as they drop the branches or the wind blows them away. These trees are neighbors'weed trees, The foul Ailantus and foul mulberry trees that don't belong on a city street. It's exhausing cleaning every day, mess not your own. It's illegal to kill them, And I couldn't do that plus there are too many. I'd hate to be a serial killer.And to keep this in a French frame. They don't like my French Music. Bush's plants?

Sorry to dash your illusions, Scarlett, but I just thought the pb would smell really strong!

Ok back to French films.
Capo, "Láuberge Espanole is about a young Frenchman, moving into an apartment in Barcelona full of internatinal students, an Italian, an englïsh girl, a boy from Denmark, a girl from Belguim, a German and a girl from Andalusia, all played so well, Audrey Tautou is the French guys girlfriend he leaves behind but does visit him. Great shots of Gaudi's works and the director did a favorite of mine, "When the Cat's away.

Whoa! Just saw the Swimming Pool with my friends, and thanks to your clue, Scarlett, I emerged the heroine of the day, able to explain the end, upon which they all declared that with that in mind, it was a real masterpiece.

Plus, (keeping in mind that we are talking of US citizens, but French-born in their 70s) the husband of a friend of one not only didn't understand the end, but thought it was borderline pornographic. She couldn't understand that, and thought it was an excellent movie. Vive les femmes!

"Dirty Pretty things"with Audrey Tautou was excellant. She proves she's not such a pretty face playing a Turkish immigrant workig in a London Hotel.
Not for the squeamish.