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Michel Blanc, the French actor best known for his role in “Les Bronzés” (“French Fried Vacation”), died Friday morning of a heart attack precipitated by anaphylactic shock. He was 72 years old.

Blanc’s death was shared by his family with Agence France-Presse. He was remembered online by French President Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on X, “He made us cry with laughter and moved us to tears. A monument of French cinema, Michel Blanc has gone. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and his acting accomplices.”

Prime Minister Michel Barnier also shared a remembrance for Blanc. “We all have a little bit of Michel Blanc in us. From the offbeat confidence of Jean-Claude Dusse to the seriousness of Gilles in ‘L’Exercice de l’État’, he made us laugh and think. With his unforgettable role in ‘Je vous trouve très beau’ [‘You Are So Beautiful’], he knew how to move us. Today, like...

It’s been a four-year long wait, but Ari Aster has finally made his return. The director’s third film “Beau is Afraid” journeyed into theaters April 14, bringing surrealist comedy to audiences through the auteur’s famously punishing perspective. The film, which is as loved as it is disliked by critics and audiences, stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character: a repressed man making a grueling odyssey back home to see his mother.

The film’s title and premise comes from Aster’s 2011 short film “Beau.” One of several shorts he made as a student at the American Film Institute Conservatory — the most infamous being the viral incest drama, “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons” — the original “Beau” was a much smaller production than the director’s latest, focusing on the title character (played by the late Billy Mayo) as he’s locked in his apartment following the disappearance of his keys.

Highest honors go to this stylish, cinematically refined adaptation of a George Simenon thriller. Michel Blanc becomes a person of interest for a murder investigation mainly because he’s disliked and anti-social; Sandrine Bonnaire is the neighbor that he peeps at nightly, to stir his secret passion. Director Patrice Leconte directs with almost perfect control, turning the show into an emotional workout.

Monsieur Hire

Blu-ray

Cohen Film Collection

1989 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date October 25, 2022 / Available from / 29.95

Starring: Michel Blanc, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luc Thuillier, André Wilms, Eric Bérenger, Marielle Berthon, Philippe Dormoy, Marie Gaydu, Michel Morano, Nora Noël.

Cinematography: Denis Lenoir

Production Designer: Ivan Maussion

Costume designer: Elisabeth Tavernier

Film Editor: Joëlle Hache

Original Music: Michael Nyman

Scenario, adaptation and dialogue by Patrice Leconte, Patrick Dewolf from the book Les fiançailles de M. Hire by Georges Simenon

Produced by Philippe Carcassonne, René Cleitman

Directed by Patrice Leconte

We’re fond...

[Editor’s note: The following list was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated multiple times since.]

It’s been more than three years since Ari Aster unleashed the skull-cracking terror of “Midsommar” unto unsuspecting audiences. The writer/director’s sophomore outing from 2019 — a cult film starring Florence Pugh that’s best remembered for its fiery finale and lush production design — echoed and exploded the finesse of his first: a nasty and spare possession flick starring a career-best Toni Collette and the dauntless Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro.

Aster’s breakout feature debut “Hereditary” turned the writer/director into one of the hottest indie filmmakers of 2018. Formerly known for his stomach-churning short “The Strange Thing About the Johnsons,” the AFI graduate became the face of A24’s burgeoning art house of horrors just as his work came to shape the so-called “elevated horror” moment of the late 2010s. It’s a fitting arc for a filmmaker who has described a lifelong love affair with the horror genre.

Home video label Vinegar Syndrome is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, and today brings along with it the launch of a brand new sub-label from the company.

Titled Vinegar Syndrome Labs (Vsl), the aim of the sub-label is to expand and defy expectations with the diversity of films the company restores and releases. The team explains, “As the name implies, Vsl will serve as a kind of testing area for releasing genres and eras of film that one might not immediately expect to come from Vs.

“The ultimate objective of Vsl will be to see if these types of films will find an audience, and if so, pursue and release more of them…and even if not, still serve as a means of restoring more of the weird, rare, and unusual movies you might not expect from Vinegar Syndrome.”

The first release from the new label, now available for pre-order,...

The Cannes Film Festival has set its lineup for this year’s Cannes Classics program, which shines a spotlight on restorations of classic movies and features contemporary documentaries about film. Kicking off the sidebar is Jean Eustache’s controversial film The Mother and the Whore, the 1973 Cannes Grand Prize winner which incited riots at the time. Also included in the program are films by Vittorio de Sica (Sciuscià), Satyajit Ray (The Adversary), Orson Welles (The Trial) and Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz), as well as a new 4K master of Singin’ in the Rain to mark the movie’s 70th anniversary.

Among the documentaries is Ethan Hawke’s study of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, The Last Movie Stars. Executive produced by Scorsese, it features Karen Allen, George Clooney, Oscar Isaac, Latanya Richardson Jackson, Zoe Kazan, Laura Linney and Sam Rockwell among others in an exploration of the iconic couple and American cinema.

This year’s line-up will also celebrate classics such as Singin’ In The Rain and Indian director Satyajit Ray’s 1970 work The Adversary.

Late French filmmaker Jean Eustache’s recently restored cult 1973 drama The Mother And The Whore will open Cannes Classics this year, the line-up for which was announced on Monday (May 2).

Other highlights include two episodes of the series The Last Movie Stars directed by Ethan Hawke about Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman; a screening of Singin’ In The Rain to coincide with the 70th anniversary of its release and a restored 4K version of Vittorio de Sica’s 1946 work Sciuscià.

If discovering brilliant filmmakers appeals, it’s difficult to to better than this five-disc, nine-feature labor of recovery and restoration from Lobster films. Julien Duvivier is well known for a couple of pictures, one of which screened not so long ago on Eddie Muller’s TCM film noir show. But seeing his silent masterpieces may change your thinking about real cinematic art: theory meets narrative effectiveness through both technical innovation and delicate direction of actors. One silent in this set, about the economic power of a department store (!) is so effective, at the finish you’ll be convinced that a sync sound version couldn’t possibly be better. The set is appointed with expert introductions and analysis . . . this is the real French cinema that no ‘New Wave’ can invalidate.

Cinema of Discovery Julien Duvivier in the 1920s

Blu-ray

Flicker Alley

1925 – 1930 / B&w

1:33 Silent Ap. / 14 hours, 17 min.

Street Date January...

In film history, the anthology genre is the most challenging. Episodic films often have several directors and screenwriters which gives them an inconsistent tone and quality. But the genre’s pitfalls haven’t stopped such filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa (“Dreams”), the Coens (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”); Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (“New York Stories”); and Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg (“Twilight Zone: The Movie”).

Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.

If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...

Wes Anderson’s long-awaited “The French Dispatch” is finally here. After world premiering to strong reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in July, the anthology film traveled to Telluride and the New York Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release October 22. The movie is billed as “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th century French city.” The cast includes Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.

IndieWire’s Eric Kohn awarded “The French Dispatch” a B+ review out of Cannes. “It’s hard to imagine another living filmmaker with a style as instantly recognizable as Wes Anderson, a feat that works against him no matter how expansive his approach,” Kohn wrote. “‘The French Dispatch’ doubles down on it, with a freewheeling...

With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.

As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...

The French city of Lyon is gearing up for its annual Lumière film festival which will be honoring the work of New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion on this 13th edition.

The event, named after the Lyon-born brothers who staged the first cinema screenings, is a star-studded affair that celebrates both heritage and contemporary cinema in crowded theaters throughout the city.

It is run by the Institut Lumière, an institution dedicated to film heritage preservation and distribution, whose director is also Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux.

Festival-goers will be able to enjoy some 440 screenings, ranging from black and white classics by the likes of Luis Buñuel (“Un Chien Andalou,” 1929), Sergueï Eisenstein and Julien Duvivier to premieres of highly anticipated films including Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”, Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” – all Netflix pics that will be presented by the directors themselves in Lyon.

Among authors who didn’t live to witness their own success, Louis Hemon is a particularly unfortunate case — his novel “Maria Chapdelaine” was published in 1913, the same year as his train-struck death. Thus he didn’t see it become an early Quebec-lit classic taught to generations of schoolchildren, published in translation worldwide or adapted into many other media over the past century. Among prior screen versions were two made in his native France, the 1934 one notable as Julien Duvivier’s first collaboration with Jean Gabin.

The slim book, drawing on adventure-seeking Hemon’s own experiences briefly working as a farmhand in the Lac Saint-Jean region, has been treated with less-than-strict fidelity by previous dramatists. Sebastien Pilote’s new film is probably the most faithful to date by far — though that isn’t entirely a plus. . It’s a well-produced episodic tale whose incidents and personalities remain too modest to sustain nearly three hours’ illustration,...

Bertrand Tavernier breaks the barrier between fans of European movies and 101 classic French pictures that most of us have never gotten a peek at. The key to this eight-hour film clip excerpt round-up is the hosting-curatorship of Tavernier — the fascinating miniseries has plenty to offer both fans that have never seen an old French movie, and some of us that thought (until now) that we knew something about them. The author and director is also a great storyteller, presenting his favorite underrated directors, actors & composers and putting them, in historical context. Tavernier is a deft film clip picker — all are riveting, none are spoilers, and you’ll come out learning fifty new French words, most of them clean. Highly, highly recommended.

Journeys Through French Cinema

Blu-ray

Cohen Media Group

2017 / Color + B&w / 1:78 widescreen + 1:33 flat / 459 min. without beating any particular bias-drum.

Even when championing directors he dubs The Forgotten Ones,...

Actress Alex Essoe walks is through some of her favorite dream sequences.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Starry Eyes (2014)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010)

Mandy (2018), as usual

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Death of Me (2020)

Life Dances On (1937)

Tales of Manhattan (1942)

I Love You, Alice B Toklas (1968)

Papillon (1973)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

The Conversation (1974)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)

Nashville (1975)

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

The Exorcist (1973)

Shutter Island (2010)

The Exorcist III (1990)

A Shot In The Dark (1964)

Another Woman (1988)

Stardust Memories (1980)

8 ½ (1963)

Interiors (1978)

Dumbo (1941)

Mulholland Drive (2001)

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Mulholland Falls (1996)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Fletch (1985)

The ’Burbs (1989)

Dreams (1990)

Ran (1985)

Homewrecker (2019)

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Wicker Man (1973)

Other Notable Items

Howard Hughes

Panos Cosmatos

The Haunting of Bly Manor TV series (2020)

Shelley Duvall

Tfh Guru Darren Lynn Bousman

The American Cinematheque

The New Beverly Theatre

Julien Duvivier

Jean Renoir

Jean-Luc Godard

François Truffaut

John Cassavetes...

In a reaffirmation of its ambitions to hold an on-site event this year, France’s Lumière Festival, run by filmmaker and film historian Bertrand Tavernier and Cannes Festival head Thierry Frémaux, has formally announced dates for its 2020 edition

The Lumière Festival 2020 has also unveiled its first program highlights: Tributes to French screenwriter Michel Audiard and to Clarence Brown, maybe the least known of Hollywood Silent Era “name” directors.

Running Oct. 10-18, the 12th Lumière Festival will take place “in movie theaters and the environs of Lyon, the festival announced Thursday in a written statement.

It could hardly be otherwise. Steered by Tavernier and Frémaux, the president and director of Lyon’s Lumière Institute, the Lumière Festival punched 200,000 admissions in 2019, despite a robust focus on classic film restorations, re-issues and retrospectives.

Key to that has been the presence in cinema theaters and on the streets of Lyon of some of the...

It’s a classic from the Golden Year of 1939, directed in fine style by Wild Bill Wellman and well cast with Paramount stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston, and with Brian Donlevy as one of the movies’ most hissable villains. The popular story has been remade and spoofed innumerable times, yet this remains the indelible best version. A commentary with William Wellman Jr. and Frank Thompson points out many things we didn’t notice before, including where some excised scenes belong, and what originally happened in them.

Beau Geste

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 112 min. / Street Date April 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Charles Barton, James Stephenson, Heather Thatcher, George P. Huntley, Donald O’Connor, Billy Cook, Martin Spellman, Ann Gillis, David Holt, Henry Brandon, Nestor Paiva, Francis McDonald.

A central figure in French cinema, Bertrand Tavernier has an encyclopedic knowledge of the craft of filmmaking akin to the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. The sense of history he possesses is seen in both his narrative and documentary, the latter of which is perhaps best exemplified in his recent film My Journey Through French Cinema. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, that 2016 documentary has now received a follow-up expansion with an eight-part series and we’re pleased to debut the U.S. trailer.

Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...

Kino Lorber resurrects Diabolically Yours, the final film from French auteur Julien Duvivier, arguably the most neglected member of the “Big Five” of classic French cinema. However, Duvivier, who died in a tragic car accident several months before the premiere of his final feature, was in his seventies by this time, and his last film plays like a gender reversal of Clouzet’s classic 1955 title Diabolique.

Adapted by Roland Girard and Jean Bolvary (a duo better known as producers on many of Claude Sautet’s titles) from a novel by Louis C.…...

Stars: Viviane Romance, Michel Simon, Paul Bernard, Lita Recio | Written by Julien Duvivier, Charles Spaak | Directed by Julien Duvivier

The setting for this 1946 gem is a small French town, and the fast-moving plot concerns the murder of a local woman, Aurore Noblet. While the police are baffled by the killing, the locals are quick to assume the culprit: Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), a reclusive and friendless man who’s too smart for his own good.

When the beautiful Lili (Vivian Romance) – Aka “Alice” – comes to town, she runs straight into the arms of her lover, Alfred (Paul Bernard). Alfred is, of course, the killer – and now the beneficiary of a purse containing 7,000 francs. However, Hire apparently has proof of Alfred’s guilt, so it is imperative that the scheming couple get him out of the way, and they will do so by blaming him for the murder of Noblet. Helpfully for them,...

Paris — A True Renaissance Man of French cinema, director, historian and film preservationist Bertrand Tavernier can now claim another title – maestro.

For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.

To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.

The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.

What are the roots of this project?

This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...

Initially a box office flop and critical failure, French auteur Julien Duvivier’s 1946 title Panique is now hailed as one of the great technician’s finest achievements. The film was digitally restored and re-released theatrically in the Us in early 2017, but initially premiered at the 1946 Venice Film Festival. In a career which spanned nearly fifty years as a director, from 1919 to 1967, the title is arguably the best-known work from his mid-period, if not his entire career (with Patrice Leconte famously remaking it in 1989 with Sandrine Bonnaire and Michel Blanc as Monsieur Hire).…...

For directing skill and sensual sophistication this psychologically intense murder tale equals or betters the most sophisticated American noirs. Julien Duvivier gives us Michel Simon as Monsieur Hire, a strange man loathed by his neighbors. Entranced by the woman he spies through his bedroom window, Hire doesn’t realize that she’s helping to frame him for murder, and then set him out like bait for a vengeful mob. The restored French classic is a beauty in every respect; the extras include a highly educational, must-see discussion of movie subtitling, by Bruce Goldstein.

Panique

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 955

1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 98 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 18, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Michel Simon, Viviane Romance, Paul Bernard, Charles Dorat, Lucas Gridoux.

Cinematography: Nicolas Hayer

Film Editor: Marthe Poncin

Special Effects: W. Percy Day

Original Music: Jean Weiner

Written by Julien Duvivier, Charles Spaak from a novel by...

The Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series concludes this weekend. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

There are three more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:

Friday, March 23rd at 7:00pm – Le Samourai

In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trenchcoat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, “Le samouraï” is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American...

The 10th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

This year’s fest kicks off with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema,” the director’s personal reflections on key films and filmmakers. Several of the works he highlights — such as Jacques Becker’s “Casque d’or” and Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samouraï” — are screened at this year’s fest.

The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features New Wave master Jacques Rivette’s visually sumptuous “La belle noiseuse.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with Jean Renoir...

Foreplays is a column that explores under-known short films by renowned directors. Jean Epstein's Les feux de la mer (1948) is free to watch below. When not greeted with indifference or merely mentioned in passing, Jean Epstein’s Les feux de la mer (1948) is frequently regarded as a strange and mismatching film, containing only a few sparks of Epsteinian poetry. Commissioned by the United Nations, this 21-minute short—the final installment in Epstein’s Breton cycle that began with Finis terrae in 1929—was part of a larger project involving a series of movies from fourteen different countries, around the theme of international cooperation. As often happens with institutional films, Les feux de la mer has been too easily dismissed as compromised and propagandistic, overshadowed by a didactic discourse diametrically opposed to the very notion of audiovisual lyricism that normally defines Epstein’s cinema. In Les feux de la mer, there...

http://criterioncast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/60-Late-Ozu-Part-3.mp3

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this final episode of a three-part series (and perhaps the podcast itself), David and Trevor are joined by Matt Gasteier to discuss two films (Late Autumn and The End of Summer) from Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu.

About the films:

Master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu directed fifty-three feature films over the course of his long career. Yet it was in the final decade of his life, his “old master” phase, that he entered his artistic prime. Centered more than ever on the modern sensibilities of the younger generation, these delicate family dramas are marked by an exquisite formal elegance and emotional sensitivity about birth and death, love and marriage, and...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces

What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).

Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*

Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...

Robert Bresson’s Lancelot Du Lac [pictured] included in deal.

French mini-major Gaumont and Eclair, the European cinema technologies specialists and part of Ymagis group, are joining forces to restore more than 100 feature films.

The films will be selected from Gaumont’s catalogue. The deal is an extension of a pre-existing partnership that has already seen Eclair restore a number of the company’s film library using digital technology.

In 2016, Eclair restored 25 Gaumont features, including Louis Malle’s My Dinner With André (1981), Maurice Tourneur’s Samson (1936) and André Barsacq’s Le Rideau Rouge (1952).

Titles selected for 2017 include Julien Duvivier’s Untel Père Et Fils (1945) and L’homme Du Jour (1937) Jacques Doillon’s La Femme Qui Pleure (1979) and Robert Bresson’s Lancelot Du Lac (1974).

Since Eclair launched its restoration division in 2000, more than 750 films have been restored by the company.

Yves Gringuillard heads up the restoration and preservation side of the business, which has a staff...

http://criterioncast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/The-Eclipse-Viewer-Episode-55-2.mp3

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor discuss two films (La tête d’un homme and Un carnet de bal) from Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties.

About the films:

Remembered primarily for directing the classic crime drama Pépé le moko, Julien Duvivier was one of the finest filmmakers working in France in the 1930s. Thanks to a formidable innate understanding of the cinematic medium, Duvivier made the transition from silents to talkies with ease, marrying his expressive camera work to a strikingly inventive use of sound with a singular dexterity. His deeply shadowed, fatalistic early sound films David Golder and La...

Mark, Aaron, David and Trevor return for part two of our exploration of the under-appreciated French director, Julien Duvivier. The first episode, Eclipse Viewer 54, looked at the first two films in his Eclipse set. This episode looks at the peak of his career, particularly La Belle Equipe, Pépé le Moko, and La Fin du Jour, along with an overview of his career and the availability (or lack) of his work in the states.

Episode Links & Notes Eclipse Viewer 54: Julien Duvivier in the 1930s Part 1 Criterion Close-Up 50: French Series Part 1 Criterion Close-Up 57: French Series part 2 Episode Credits Mark Hurne: Twitter | Letterboxd Aaron West: Twitter | Blog | Letterboxd David Blakeslee: Twitter | Website Trevor Berrett: Twitter | Website Criterion Close-Up: Facebook | Twitter | Email

Next time on the podcast: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg...

The silent French film Au Bonheur Des Dames (1930 – aka Ladies’ Paradise) screens Saturday May 6th at 11am at The St. Louis Art Museum (Forest Park, 1 Fine Arts Dr, St. Louis, Mo). The film will be accompanied by Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris. Tickets for this event are $15 general admission and $10 for museum members. Tickets can be purchased in advance from Metrotix or by calling 314.534.1111.

Julien Duvivier’s final silent film is a modern retelling of Emile Zola’s panoramic chronicle of mid-19th-century Parisian society, centering on a small fabric shop struggling to survive in the shadow of a luxury department store. With expressionistic shades of Erich von Stroheim and G.W. Pabst, the film captures the rhythms of urban life and creates a stinging portrait of capitalist ruthlessness, class tensions, and sexual competition. Scott Foundas in the Village Voice calls the film “an orgy of pure cinema,...

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this first episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Aaron West to discuss two films (David Golder and Poil de carotte) from Eclipse Series 44: Julien Duvivier in the Thirties.

About the films:

Remembered primarily for directing the classic crime drama Pépé le moko, Julien Duvivier was one of the finest filmmakers working in France in the 1930s. Thanks to a formidable innate understanding of the cinematic medium, Duvivier made the transition from silents to talkies with ease, marrying his expressive camera work to a strikingly inventive use of sound with a singular dexterity. His deeply shadowed, fatalistic early sound films David Golder and La tête d’un homme anticipate...

Starting this week, the Film Society of Lincoln Center hosts a retrospective of the 57-year career of one of the most iconic figures of modern cinema: Jean-Pierre Léaud. The child who grew up and grew old before our eyes, Léaud will forever be associated with one film above all, François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, made when he was only 14, and its character, Antoine Doinel, who he, in many ways, created. In a letter to his friend Helen Scott in 1962 Truffaut wrote, “I would prefer a film to change its meaning along the way rather than have an actor ill at ease. Jean-Pierre wasn’t the character I had intended for The 400 Blows.” When the Film Society first fêted Léaud, in 1994, in the series “Growing Up with Jean-Pierre Léaud: Nouvelle Vague’s Wild Child” (programmed by my future wife no less), the actor had only just turned 50. Léaud...

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this second episode of a two-part series, David and Trevor are joined by Pablo Knote to discuss two films (Cruel Gun Story and A Colt is My Passport) from Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir.

About the films:

From the late 1950s through the sixties, wild, idiosyncratic crime movies were the brutal and boisterous business of Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan. In an effort to attract youthful audiences growing increasingly accustomed to American and French big-screen imports, Nikkatsu began producing action potboilers (mukokuseki akushun, or “borderless action”) that incorporated elements of the western, comedy, gangster, and teen-rebel genres. This bruised and bloody collection represents a standout cross section of what Nikkatsu had to offer, from such prominent,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metrograph

Forman, Spielberg, Hitchcock, and more play as part of “Universal in the ’70s.”

Ronin screens on Friday; King Kong shows this Saturday.

Museum of the Moving Image

Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and New York, New York will screen as part of the ongoing Scorsese retrospective.

The Tilda Swinton-led Teknolust screens this Sunday.

IFC...

The Sicilian Clan

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 122 min. (French, without exit music); 118 min (American) / Le clan des Siciliens / Street Date February 7, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Lino Ventura, Irina Demick, Amedeo Nazzari, Danielle Volle, Philippe Baronnet, Karen Blanguernon, Elisa Cegani, Yves Lefebvre, Leopoldo Trieste, Sydney Chaplin.

Cinematography: Henri Decaë

Production design: Jacques Saulnier

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by: Henri Verneuil, José Giovanni, Pierre Pelegri from a novel by Auguste Le Breton

Produced by: Jacques-e. Strauss

Directed by Henri Verneuil

American crime fanatics wary of European imports now have access to a fully Region-a disc of a big-star, big budget French-Italian-American gangster film from 1969, Henri Verneuil’s exciting The Sicilian Clan. It was filmed in two separate versions, a multi-lingual European original and a less exciting, English language cut for America. A huge hit overseas, The Sicilian Clan didn’t...

Next month, the folks at Rialto will begin touring Julien Duvivier’s 1946 film, Panique.

Duvivier made 70 films between 1919 and 1967, many of them landmarks of French cinema. His first postwar project, a noir adaptation of Georges Simenon’s Mr. Hire’s Engagement (later adapted by Patrice Leconte as Monsieur Hire), stars Michel Simon as a reviled voyeur framed for a murder by the girl he adores. Now widely considered the finest Simenon adaptation but criticized at the time for its bleakness, the long-unseen Panique has finally been given the vivid restoration it deserves.

Here are the dates and places where the film will open first:

January 20 – 31 – New York, NY – Film Forum

February 3 – 9 – Chicago, Il – Gene Siskel Film Center

February 11, 13, & 16 – Baltimore, MD – The Charles

While Panique is not yet streaming on FilmStruck alongside several other Duvivier films, we’ll keep our fingers crossed for this film to join the Collection one day.

The New York Film Festival’s diverse slate of programming included a Revivals slate, a series of the latest restoration and re-releases of essential cinematic classics. Some of the films included Robert Bresson’s final film “L’Argent,” Edward Yang’s second feature “Taipei Story” and Julien Duvivier’s long-unseen postwar film “Panique,” which will have a two-week run at the Film Forum this January. Watch an exclusive trailer for the restoration below.

Read More: ‘The Lion in Winter’ Restoration Trailer: Anthony Harvey’s Beloved Adaptation Gets 4K Freshening — Watch

An adaptation of Georges Simenon’s “Mr. Hire’s Engagement,” the film follows Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon), a reviled, aloof voyeur who’s framed for murder by the very girl (Viviane Romance) whom he adores. It was Duvivier’s first film in France after his stint working Hollywood during World War II, and though it was criticized at the time for its bleakness,...

World War, a solemn vow, and a promise betrayed lead to a ‘night of the living war dead’ – all cooked up by the director of Napoleon, Abel Gance. The early, famed pacifist fantasy is back in near-perfect condition and restored to its full length. It’s a reworking, not a remake, of Gance’s 1919 silent classic.

J’accuse

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1938 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 120 min. / That They May Live; J’accuse: Fresque tragique des temps modernes vue et Réalisée par Abel Gance / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Victor Francen, Line Noro, Marie Lou, Jean-Max, Paul Amiot, Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcel Delaitre, Renée Devillers, Romuald Joubé, André Nox, Georges Rollin, Georges Saillard.

Cinematography Roger Hubert

Film Editor Madeleine Crétoile

Original Music Henri Verdun

Written by Abel Gance, Steve Passeur

Produced & Directed by Abel Gance

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Around 1973, UCLA film school professor Bob Epstein...

The already-incredible line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival just got even more promising. Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will hold its world premiere at the festival on October 14th, the NY Times confirmed today. The adaptation of Ben Fountain‘s Iraq War novel, with a script by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), follows a teenage soldier who survives a battle in Iraq and then is brought home for a victory lap before returning.

Lee has shot the film at 120 frames per second in 4K and native 3D, giving it unprecedented clarity for a feature film, which also means the screening will be held in a relatively small 300-seat theater at AMC Lincoln Square, one of the few with the technology to present it that way. While it’s expected that this Lincoln Square theater will play the film when it arrives in theaters, it may be...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the Retrospective section of the 54th New York Film Festival, an ambitious two-part lineup that is both headlined and directly inspired by Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema.” Nyff will screen Tavernier’s doc — which clocks in at a hefty and informative 190 minutes — along with a selection of French classics that feature prominently in the film. Additionally, Nyff will play home to a 12-film exploration of the films of Henry Hathaway, one of Tavernier’s favorite American directors. What follows is a feast of French cinema and a crash course in the works of Hathaway.

Read More: New York Film Festival Announces James Gray’s ‘The Lost City of Z’ As Closing Night Selection

Highlights of the “A Brief Journey Through French Cinema” section, as it’s being quite charmingly billed, include Jean Renoir’s revolutionary epic “La Marsellaise,...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the lineup for the Revivals section, taking place during the 54th New York Film Festival (Nyff). The Revivals section showcases masterpieces from renowned filmmakers whose diverse and eclectic works have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners.

Read More: Ava DuVernay’s Netflix Documentary ‘The 13th’ Will Open 54th New York Film Festival

Some of the films in the lineup include plenty of Nyff debuts returning once again: Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers,” which was the the Nyff Opening Night selection in 1967, Robert Bresson’s “L’argent,” and Barbara Kopple’s “Harlan County USA.” Also included are a program of Jacques Rivette’s early short films, Edward Yang’s second feature “Taipei Story,” Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu,” and Marlon Brando’s solo directorial effort “One-Eyed Jacks.”

The Nyff previously announced three of the films screening...

As much as we’re excited for the already enticing line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival, their Revivals slate is always a place where one can discover a number of classics or revisit favorite films. This year is no different as they have newly restored films from Robert Bresson, Edward Yang, Jacques Rivette, Marlon Brando, Kenji Mizoguchi, and more. Check out the line-up below and return for our coverage this fall. If you don’t live in New York City, there’s a good chance a number of these restorations will travel in the coming months (or year) as well as get the home video treatment.

L’argent

Directed by Robert Bresson

1983, France, 83m

Robert Bresson’s final film, an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story The Forged Coupon, is simultaneously bleak and luminous, and sharp enough to cut diamonds. The story of a counterfeit bill’s passage from hand...

Merle Oberon movies: Mysterious star of British and American cinema. Merle Oberon on TCM: Donning men's clothes in 'A Song to Remember,' fighting hiccups in 'That Uncertain Feeling' Merle Oberon is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of March 2016. The good news: the exquisite (and mysterious) Oberon, whose ancestry has been a matter of conjecture for decades, makes any movie worth a look. The bad news: TCM isn't offering any Oberon premieres despite the fact that a number of the actress' films – e.g., Temptation, Night in Paradise, Pardon My French, Interval – can be tough to find. This evening, March 18, TCM will be showing six Merle Oberon movies released during the first half of the 1940s. Never a top box office draw in the United States, Oberon was an important international star all the same, having worked with many of the top actors and filmmakers of the studio era.

In celebration of Japan’s oldest film studio, Nikkatsu, Arrow Video assembles its first collection of titles reflecting the late 1950s inauguration of a star system contracted for their ‘Diamond Line.’ This trio of features reflects the rising popularity of extravagant genre narratives in the evolving system, and includes obscure titles from master auteurs such as Seijun Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Buichi Saito (early titles from Suzuki and Masuda were also part of a notable 2009 Eclipse series set, Nikkatsu Noir).

The pearl of the collection is Suzuki’s Voice without a Shadow, a rare gem from the master director’s early period. One of four films he made in 1958 (another being the early classic Underworld Beauty), it feels rather heavily modeled after various American film noir tropes, but in true Suzuki fashion, much more complicated. If “Beauty” felt like a generous Sam Fuller riff, then “Voice” seems a recalibration of something like Sorry,...

Colcoa French Film Festival, "9 Days of Film Premieres in Hollywood," and its producer, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, have  announced the Focus on a Filmmaker program as well as an exclusive line up of predominantly digitally restored French Classics, presented as World, International or U.S. Premieres. All screenings will take place at the Directors Guild of America.

The Colcoa Classics Series will be shown from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 and on Monday April 25 as part of the 20th anniversary program.

Focus on a Filmmaker: Academy Award0 Nominee Jean-Paul Rappeneau

Colcoa will honor Academy Award-nominated writer-director Jean-Paul Rappeneau on Thursday, April 21 with the World Premiere of new digitally restored "A Matter of Resistance"  (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve and Philippe Noiret, as well as the U.S. Premiere of his new film "Families.," which had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. Rappeneau joins previous honorees, writer-directors Michel Hazanavicius, Cédric Klapisch, Bertrand Blier, Costa Gavras, Florent Siri, Julie Delpy and Alain Resnais, whose key bodies of work have been cited in past festivals.

Jean-Paul Rappeneau will make a rare personal appearance as well as meeting audience members for a Happy Hour Talk panel dedicated to his work. (Colcoa Classics + Panel +Premiere of "Families"). This focus is presented with the support of TF1 International.

International Premiere of Digitally Restored "More"

Writer-director Barbet Schroeder, feted at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, will have a Colcoa-presented International Premiere of his digitally restored masterpiece, "More" (1969), in association with Les Films du Losange and Janus Films. Initially banned in France, Schroeder's debut feature cast the myth of Icarus as a cautionary tale of free love and drug addiction in the shadow of the May '68 Paris, illustrated by an original score by The Pink Floyd. (Colcoa Classics)

45th Anniversary of "Delusions of Grandeur"

The digitally restored version of writer-director Gérard Oury's hit comedy, "Delusions of Grandeur" (1971), will have its U.S. Premiere at the festival. Co-written with his daughter, Danièle Thompson, and Marcel Jullian, this historical spoof of the Victor Hugo play,Ruy Blasfeatures a first -time collaboration of two French giants, Louis de Funès and Yves Montand ."Delusions of Grandeur" will be presented in association with French studio Gaumont (celebrating its own 120th anniversary). (Colcoa Classics)

- International Premeire of Digitally Restored "Marius"

Colcoa will present the digitally restored version of "Marius" (1931), the first part of the famous trilogy taking place in Marseille, created by novelist Marcel Pagnol and writer director Alexander Korda. It stars Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin , Raimu and Orane Demazis. This exclusive presentation in the U.S. is made possible by the Franco American Cultural Fund (Facf), which supported the restoration, La Cinémathèque Française and Les Films Marcel Pagnol. (Colcoa Classics)

- Internatonal Premiere of the Digitally Restored "They Were Five"

A special 80th anniversary screening of digitally restored "They Were Five" (La belle équipe) (1936) will be offered to the Colcoa audience just weeks after its French release. Thus, the festival will pay tribute to writer-director Julien Duvivier (born 120 years ago) who was the first filmmaker to cast two French stars Jean Gabin and Charles Vanel in this classic, popular, social comedy (presented with the support of Pathé International - (Colcoa Classics)

- World Premiere of Digitally Restored Colcoa Hit: "On Guard"  

Romance and revenge are the main ingredients in this sweeping swashbuckler set in a lavish 17th century backdrop. "On Guard,"   which premiered 19 years ago at Colcoa, stars Daniel Auteuil, Philippe Noiret, Fabrice Luchini, three of the multi-star cast and co-written and directed by Philippe de Broca. The festival will present the World Premiere of the restored version for its U.S. release by The Cohen Media Group (Colcoa Classics)

From April 18 to April 26, 2016, filmgoers will celebrate the 20th edition of Colcoa French Film Festival  at the Directors Guild of America.

The full line-up of films in competition for the Colcoa Cinema and Television Awards, will be announced before March 29 .

Here's something for hardcore cineastes: an incredible restoration of Marcel L'Herbier's avant-garde silent feature, which looks unlike any other movie of its time. The weird story is about a Swedish engineer who wins the hand of famous singer by demonstrating a machine that can revive the dead. The film's designs are by score of famous architects and art notables of the Paris art scene circa 1924. L'Inhumaine Blu-ray Flicker Alley 1924 / Color tints / 1:33 Silent Aperture / min. / Street Date March 1, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Georgette Leblanc, Jacque Catelain, Léonid Walter de Malte, Philippe Hériat, Fred Kellerman, Robert Mallet-Stevens. Cinematography Roche, Georges Specht Art Direction, design, costumes, Claude Autant-Lara, Alberto Cavalcanti, Fernand Léger, Paul Poiret, Original Music Darius Milhaud (originally), Aidje Tafial / Alloy Orchestra Written by Pierre MacOrlan, Marcel L'Herbier, Georgette Leblanc Produced and Directed by Marcel L'Herbier

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Followers of art, architecture, literature and French art movies of the early 1920s...

Celebrating its 40th year, the journal Film Criticism has relaunched as an online open-access journal. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Demme addresses the Academy's diversity problem; The Big Short, winner of the Producer's Guild award, read as a documentary; comparing and contrasting Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant; J. Hoberman on Julien Duvivier; interviews with Anna Karina, Laurie Anderson, Michael Caine, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Yoshihiro Nakamura, Manny Kirchheimer, Radu Muntean and a new book on Robert Ryan. » - David Hudson...

Celebrating its 40th year, the journal Film Criticism has relaunched as an online open-access journal. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Demme addresses the Academy's diversity problem; The Big Short, winner of the Producer's Guild award, read as a documentary; comparing and contrasting Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight and Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant; J. Hoberman on Julien Duvivier; interviews with Anna Karina, Laurie Anderson, Michael Caine, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Yoshihiro Nakamura, Manny Kirchheimer, Radu Muntean and a new book on Robert Ryan. » - David Hudson...