Focus on Film & Television Reviews and writings about these subjects. As well as Pop Culture at times. With a bit of an edge and some color
Written & Directed By: Michel Gondry
Cinematography By: Laurent Brunet
Editor: Elise Fievet
Cast: Ange Dargent, Theophile Baquet, Audrey Tatou, Diane Besnier, Ely Penh
Two young friends embark on a road trip across France in a vehicle they built themselves.
Story By & Directed By: Rossano Brazzi
Written By: Rossano Brazzi, Diana Crispo, Renato Polselli & Piero Regnoli
Cinematography: Luciano Trasatti
Editor: Amedeo Giomini
Cast: Adrienne LaRussa, Rossano Brazzi, Nino Castelnuovo, Paola Pitagora, Alberto De Mendoza, Idelma Carlo
Mario consigns his girlfriend Licia to a whorehouse for an evening in order to get the photographic goods to blackmail her father with. To get her out of the way, Licia is then consigned to a mental hospital by her father.
Written & Directed By: Sion Sono
Cinematography By: Hideo Yamamoto
Editor: Jun’ichi Ito
Cast: Jun Kunimura, Fumi Nikaido, Shin’ichi Tsutisumi, Hiroki Hasegawa, Gen Hoshino, Tomochika
A renegade film crew becomes embroiled with a yakuza clan feud.
Written & Directed By: Celine Sciamma
Cinematography By: Crystel Fournier
Editor: Julien Lacheray
Cast: Kardija Toure, Assa Syla, Lindsay Karamoh, Marietou Toure, Idrissa Diabate, Sima Soumare, Binta Diop, Djibril Gueye, Cyril Mendy,
Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of 3 free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom. reinventing herself and gaining a sense of self confidence in the process. However, she soon finds that this new life does not necessarily make her any happier.
Written & Directed By: Gaspar Noe
Cinematography: Benoit Debie
Editor: Denis Bedlow & Gaspar Noe
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Sarah Belala, Romain Guillermic, Souhelia Yacoub
In the mid 90’s 20 French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD. Quickly, the atmosphere becomes charged and a strange madness will seize them the whole night. If it seems obvious to them that they have been drugged, they neither know by who nor why. And it’s soon impossible for them to resist to their neuroses and psychoses, numbed by the hypnotic and the increasing electric rhythm of the music. While some feel in paradise, most of them plunge into hell.
Written & Directed By: Francois Ozon
Cinematography: Pascal Marti
Editor: Laure Gardette
Cast: Marine Vacth, Geraldine Pailhas, Charlotte Rampling, Fredtic Pierrot, Fantin Ravat, Johan Laysen
After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.
Continue reading “YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL (JEUNE AND JOLIE) (2013)”
Directed By: Yorgos Lanthimos
Written By: Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Cinematography By: Thimios Bakatakis
Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Cast: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia, Hristos Passalis, MaryTsoni, Anna Kalaitzidou
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence ‘the sea’ refers to a large armchair and ‘zombies’ are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the über-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission. The father is the only family member who can leave the manicured lawns of their self-inflicted exile, earning their keep by managing a nearby factory, while the only outsider allowed on the premises is his colleague Christina, who is paid to relieve the son of his male urges. Tired of these dutiful acts of carnality, Christina disturbs the domestic balance.
Directed By: Paul Verhoeven
Written By: David Birke
French Adaptation: Harold Manning
Based on the book by: Philippe Djian
Cinematography By: Stephane Fontaine
Editor: Job Ter Burg
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Cosigny, Charles Berling, Christina Berkel, Vilmala Pons, Alice Issaz
Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle’s life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game-a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.
Written & Directed By: Gaspar Noe
Cinematography By: Benoit Debie
Editor: Dennis Bedlow & Gaspar Noe
Cast: Aomi Muyock, Karl Glusman, Klara Kristin, Ugo Fox, Gaspar Noe, Juan Saavvedra, Isabelle Nicou
Written & Directed By: Coralie Fargeat
Cinematography By: Robrecht Hayveart
Editor: Jerome Eltabet, Bruno Safar & Coralie Fargeat
Cast: Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchede
Never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting – a violent lesson for three wealthy married men.
Cut To The Chase 