Somewhere between Woody Allen and Freud, between documentary and fiction, Histoires d’Amerique conjures up the destinies of several generations of Jewish immigrants in New York.
Tag: FRANCE
For generations, the Torrignes family have lived in a splendid old house in the south of France. By the early 1930s, the family’s fortune has dried up and there is no other recourse than to sell the house. The present occupants are the widower and amateur photographer Walter Lherminier, his 16-year old daughter Juliette, and his elderly spinster sister Délie. For the last time, they invite the other members of the family to the house so that they can spend one last summer together.
In this war drama blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, the working class and the bourgeoisie of 19th century Paris are interviewed and covered on television, before and during a tragic workers’ class revolt.
——UPGRADED——
Inspector Maigret investigates the mysterious murder of a Dutch diamond dealer, found dead in a stolen car. The car belongs to an insurance agent, Michonnet, and has been abandoned in the garage belonging to Carl Andersen.
Maldone is a canal worker, happy with his life after running away from his family estate. He falls in love with Zita, a young gypsy girl, during a local fete. However, after his brother dies, Maldone is called back to manage the estate. There, he takes up the life of a landowner and marries a neighbor’s daughter. Years later Maldone is still restless on the estate, and becomes obsessed with Zita, after meeting her by chance one evening.
Victor Meynard is an assassin for hire, and he’s proud of it. It’s part of his family’s business. However, in this comedy, there are occasions when he simply cannot bring himself to pull the trigger and make a “hit.” Instead, he adopts the boy who would have fallen to his gun, and trains him in the niceties of the assassin’s game. He is assigned to kill an art forger who is much too cute for such a fate. When he adopts her as well, things really start to get out of hand.
A handsome but penniless young man takes a summer job as a swimming instructor in a picturesque Alpine lake resort. He falls in love with a young heiress who is staying there with her father, but he also grabs the attention of tomboyish Puck who lives on the other side of the lake and who saves him from drowning one foggy night. Further havoc is caused by the arrival of Eric’s old sweetheart whose husband is wanted by the police.
Louis Coline assists the head of advertising of a department store in decline. He has little to do, but seems content with his marriage to Nina, his visits to his mother and grandmother, and poker games with friends. When new boss Bernard Malair arrives to turn the store around, Louis fears for his job; but Bernard, with his numbers man Paul and his factotum François, invites Louis into an inner circle of long hours of work, nightclubs, and dinners with an androgynous vamp. Nina objects, but Louis cannot say no to Bernard’s demands, no matter how personal. In desperation, Nina leaves Louis, but that drives him further into Bernard’s orbit. Can anything break this spell?