French Beauty is a 70-minute documentary exploring the idea of femininity in French cinema. Through interviews with iconic actresses such as Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and others, interwoven with film clips, fashion imagery, and archival footage, the film investigates how beauty is constructed, perceived, and performed. It considers what it means to be a “French beauty” — the tension between private identity and public image, the implications of being nude on screen, loss of privacy, and how the star system and couture contribute to, and exploit, these ideals.
Tag: FRANCE
A film of Eric Serra’s audio recording session of Doudou N’Diaye Rose and his drumming ensemble outdoors on the island of Gorée, off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. The film concentrates on two performances — one shot in daytime, and one at night. Two performances are filmed, punctuated by images of the island.
Luc Moullet contemplates the twilight of his career—and his own mortality—in this comic pseudo-documentary, a characteristically charming, satirical, and yet intellectually serious inquiry into the struggle against “the end.” The film follows Moullet, playing a magnetic self-caricature, as he endeavors to rejuvenate his career and win over a whole new audience… by faking his own death, swapping his passport with that of a dead body he stumbles upon. An extremely free remake of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Whispering Chorus .
Nuit noire, Calcutta, a film commissioned by the pharmaceutical industry and hijacked by Marin Karmitz, unfolds as an intense, nocturnal meandering, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. Marin Karmitz rapidly abandons the informative intent of the project, adopting a much freer narrative. Although the film’s purpose is to promote a drug claiming to cure alcoholism, it transforms into a black-and-white mirage, starring Maurice Garrel as a drunken writer, a vice-consul in Calcutta, who is rendered creatively impotent.
What do painters’ models dream of during their breaks? The fantasy world of a young girl preoccupied with her own beauty… A mix of live action, animation, and video effects.
Eveil is, in a way, the story of humanity transposed through the dreamlike universe of Peter Foldes, who conceived, created and designed this original work. In an absurd and formless world, in continual mutation, a girl wakes up, naked as on the first day. Drawn into a mad dance, she is finally absorbed by computers and reproduced in thousands of living and identical copies that encounter war, cruelty, death, brutality, old age, physical love, and futility.
Animated film conceived and directed by Peter Foldes on a dark scenario that can be seen as a metaphor for human cruelty through the growth of a man from his birth where already a baby, breastfed by his mother, he ends up devouring her. As an adult, he experiences his strength, war and indulges in the destruction of everything within his reach.
Thirty-year-old Hlynur still lives with his mother and spends his days drinking, watching porn and surfing the net while living off unemployment checks. A girl is interested in him, but he stands back from commitment. His mother’s Spanish flamenco teacher, Lola, moves in with them for Christmas. On New Year’s Eve, while his mother is away, Hlynur finds out Lola is a lesbian, but also ends up having sex with her. He soon finds out he and his mother are sharing more than a house. Eventually he must find out where he fits into the puzzle, and how to live life less selfishly.