“You know I don’t like blondes.”
When referring to orgasm, the French use the term la petite mort which literally translates to “the little death.” At first glance, this seems morbid – why would we want to think of our own mortality in such a moment of extreme ecstasy – but at closer glance, sex and death may have more in common than meets the naked eye. After all, who hasn’t enjoyed the feeling of death and rebirth while basking in the glow of post-coital relief? Films dedicated to each bear out this connection as well. Horror and porn, both maligned and misunderstood, deal with bodies on screen – the giving and receiving of exquisite pleasure or pain. And that’s not to mention the many phallic weapons and stabbing acts of penetration scary movies are known for. Ti West explores this overlap in his throwback slasher X. By following the...
When referring to orgasm, the French use the term la petite mort which literally translates to “the little death.” At first glance, this seems morbid – why would we want to think of our own mortality in such a moment of extreme ecstasy – but at closer glance, sex and death may have more in common than meets the naked eye. After all, who hasn’t enjoyed the feeling of death and rebirth while basking in the glow of post-coital relief? Films dedicated to each bear out this connection as well. Horror and porn, both maligned and misunderstood, deal with bodies on screen – the giving and receiving of exquisite pleasure or pain. And that’s not to mention the many phallic weapons and stabbing acts of penetration scary movies are known for. Ti West explores this overlap in his throwback slasher X. By following the...
- 6/27/2024
- by Jenn Adams
- bloody-disgusting.com
Every time I see a Jean Grémillon film, I write about it for The Forgotten. I'm now going to break with tradition slightly, because thanks to the Edinburgh Film Festival's Grémillon retrospective, subtitled Symphonies of Life, I've now seen too many films to catch up on except through a kind of overview, which I will now attempt. I should stress that the retrospective isn't over yet, I haven't been able to see all of it, and anyway there are some films not showing. So this should be considered a work in progress.
Between La petite Lise (1930), which deserves to be considered alongside Lang's M when early sound cinema is discussed, and Gueule d'amour (1937), a magnificent melodrama that works along far more stylistically conventional lines, it's been hard to see exactly what kind of filmmaker Grémillon is. A great one, certainly, but what qualities unite his work?
This is now a bit clearer to me.
Between La petite Lise (1930), which deserves to be considered alongside Lang's M when early sound cinema is discussed, and Gueule d'amour (1937), a magnificent melodrama that works along far more stylistically conventional lines, it's been hard to see exactly what kind of filmmaker Grémillon is. A great one, certainly, but what qualities unite his work?
This is now a bit clearer to me.
- 7/8/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, La Bête Humaine Jean Gabin on TCM: Grand Illusion, Pepe Le Moko, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Gueule D'Amour (1937) A retired cavalry officer discovers the woman who won his heart was in love with the uniform. Dir: Jean Grémillon. Cast: Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin. Bw-88 mins. 8:00 Am Remorques (1941) A married tugboat captain falls for a woman he rescues from a sinking ship. Dir: Jean Grémillon. Cast: Jean Gabin, Alain Cuny, Bw-83 mins. 9:30 Am Le Jour Se Leve (1939) A young factory worker loses the woman he loves to a vicious schemer. Dir: Marcel Carne. Cast: Jean Gabin, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty. Bw-90 mins. 11:00 Am L'air De Paris (1954) An over-the-hill boxer stakes his fortune on training a young railroad-worker. Dir: Marcel Carne. Cast: Arletty, Jean Gabin, Roland Lesaffre. Bw-100 mins. 1:00 Pm Leur Derniere Nuit (1953) A schoolteacher...
- 8/19/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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
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