Mark, Aaron and Scott Nye kick off the first of a seven episode series about French cinema in the 1930s. We give an overview of the decade and some historical context, and discuss the French silent tradition and how that it transitioned to sound. We also get into detail about two important filmmakers, Jacques Feyder and Jean Vigo. Feyder was an important filmmaker in his time, but his works are not as prominent today, whereas Vigo was nearly forgotten in the 1930s and discovered after the war.
Episode Links & Notes
Special Guest: Scott Nye from CriterionCast and Battleship Pretension. You can follow him on Twitter.
3:15 – Dedication and Thanks
9:35 – Intro to French Film Series
28:15 – From Silent to Sound
46:30 – Jacques Feyder
1:13:30 – Jean Vigo
Criterion Collection: Poetic Realism Flicker Alley: The House of Mystery French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1929 Flicker Alley: L’Inhumaine Flicker Alley...
Episode Links & Notes
Special Guest: Scott Nye from CriterionCast and Battleship Pretension. You can follow him on Twitter.
3:15 – Dedication and Thanks
9:35 – Intro to French Film Series
28:15 – From Silent to Sound
46:30 – Jacques Feyder
1:13:30 – Jean Vigo
Criterion Collection: Poetic Realism Flicker Alley: The House of Mystery French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1929 Flicker Alley: L’Inhumaine Flicker Alley...
- 9/25/2016
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
Newsroom (Real and Algerian): Malek Bensmail’s Checks and BalancesOn the eve of the general election for President of the Algerian Republic in 2014, Algerian filmmaker Malek Bensmail set off to Algiers to document the campaign that will eventually lead to the 4th mandate of Abdelaziz Bouteflika. As he did in 2004 for his Le grand jeu, Bensmail uses documentary cinema to examine the struggle of his country to conquer real democracy, come out of an infernal cycle of political crisis and civil conflicts, and to break with the "old ways" (structured by corruption, confiscation of power by a caste and the lack of a modern project).In 2004, Bouteflika campaigned for his second mandate and Bensmail was in the "war room," examining the mechanisms of control and corruption under the mask of a civilian regime. This time, the campaign is seen from the offices of the most important and respected independent French-speaking daily,...
- 8/16/2015
- by Marie-Pierre Duhamel
- MUBI
Jean Grémillon's Gueule d'amour (Lady Killer) of 1937 is almost an archetypal French film of its period. It uses North African colonial settings, like Pepé le Moko. It features the French foreign legion, like La bandera and Le grand jeu. It celebrates male friendship over the perfidy of women, like La belle equipe. It stars Jean Gabin, like everything else.
Partly, the movie succeeds in avoiding the appearance of an identikit picture because it's so well-crafted: Grémillon was a supremely stylish and sensitive filmmaker, whose films typically not only fulfill their genre requirements but hint at broader, more mysterious concerns—in Renoir's phrase, he's adept at "leaving a door open." His collaborators on this one include Günther Rittau, who worked on Metropolis, and Charles Spaak, who worked for almost every major director and whose continuing neglect is one of the more regrettable consequences of the auteur theory. (Partial credits for Spaak: La grand illusion,...
Partly, the movie succeeds in avoiding the appearance of an identikit picture because it's so well-crafted: Grémillon was a supremely stylish and sensitive filmmaker, whose films typically not only fulfill their genre requirements but hint at broader, more mysterious concerns—in Renoir's phrase, he's adept at "leaving a door open." His collaborators on this one include Günther Rittau, who worked on Metropolis, and Charles Spaak, who worked for almost every major director and whose continuing neglect is one of the more regrettable consequences of the auteur theory. (Partial credits for Spaak: La grand illusion,...
- 7/8/2010
- MUBI
Profound Desires Of The Gods
Eureka, Blu-Ray
With most films you can guess when they were made, to within five years, just by looking at them. Some films, however, are so locked into their own little world, so perfectly and unwaveringly delivered, that you'd be hard-pressed to date them with any accuracy. This near-forgotten classic from Shohei Imamura (better known for Pigs & Battleships and the incredible 1979 serial killer film Vengeance Is Mine) slides easily into the latter category. Released to mass bafflement and public indifference in 1968 after an indulgent 18-month production schedule, it looks and feels as if it could have been made any time within the past five decades. Set on a fictional island near Okinawa, the tale concerns a Tokyo engineer sent to oversee the construction of a well for a sugar mill. His encounters with a shamed local family provide a story that touches on both farce and allegory.
Eureka, Blu-Ray
With most films you can guess when they were made, to within five years, just by looking at them. Some films, however, are so locked into their own little world, so perfectly and unwaveringly delivered, that you'd be hard-pressed to date them with any accuracy. This near-forgotten classic from Shohei Imamura (better known for Pigs & Battleships and the incredible 1979 serial killer film Vengeance Is Mine) slides easily into the latter category. Released to mass bafflement and public indifference in 1968 after an indulgent 18-month production schedule, it looks and feels as if it could have been made any time within the past five decades. Set on a fictional island near Okinawa, the tale concerns a Tokyo engineer sent to oversee the construction of a well for a sugar mill. His encounters with a shamed local family provide a story that touches on both farce and allegory.
- 6/18/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
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