#453 – Breaking the Waves, 1996, Lars von Trier
In a small and conservative Scottish village, a woman’s paralytic husband convinces her to have extramarital intercourse so she can tell him about it and give him a reason for living.
Tag: France
#454: Rififi
#454 – Rififi, (Du rififi chez les hommes), 1955, Jules Dassin
Out of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of local gangster Pierre Grutter during Tony’s absence. Expanding a minor smash-and-grab into a full-scale jewel heist, Tony and his crew appear to get away clean, but their actions after the job is completed threaten the lives of everyone involved.
#464: Death in Venice
#464 – Death in Venice, (Morte a Venezia), 1971, Luchino Visconti
Composer Gustav von Aschenbach, travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.
#470: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
#470 – The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie), 1972, Luis Buñuel
In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.
#471: The Double Life of Véronique
#471 – The Double Life of Véronique, (La double vie de Véronique), 1991, Krzysztof Kieślowski
Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.
#487: Léon: The Professional
#487 – Léon: The Professional, 1994, Luc Besson
Léon, the top hit man in New York, has earned a rep as an effective “cleaner”. But when his next-door neighbors are wiped out by a loose-cannon DEA agent, he becomes the unwilling custodian of 12-year-old Mathilda. Before long, Mathilda’s thoughts turn to revenge, and she considers following in Léon’s footsteps.
JUMBO CACTUAR APPROVED FILM
#494: Le Samouraï
#494 – Le Samouraï, 1967, Jean-Pierre Melville
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 trench coat 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 gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.
#496: Celine and Julie Go Boating
#496 – Celine and Julie Go Boating, (Céline et Julie vont en bateau), 1974, Jacques Rivette
A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives pre-empted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.
#501: The Piano
#501 – The Piano, 1993, Jane Campion
After a long voyage from Scotland, pianist Ada McGrath and her young daughter, Flora, are left with all their belongings, including a piano, on a New Zealand beach. Ada, who has been mute since childhood, has been sold into marriage to a local man named Alisdair Stewart. Making little attempt to warm up to Alisdair, Ada soon becomes intrigued by his Maori-friendly acquaintance, George Baines, leading to tense, life-altering conflicts.
#508: Z
#508 – Z, 1969, Costa-Gavras
Repression is the rule of the day in this film that skewers Greek governance of the 1960s. Z, a leftist rabble rouser, is killed in what appears to be a traffic accident. But given the political climate, the death of such a prominent activist raises troubling questions. Though it’s too late to save Z’s life, a postmortem examination suggests that the ruling party was behind his death. As the facts leak out, those who tell the truth pay the price for their honesty.
Jumbo Cactuar Film Index 