Clive Langham spends one tormenting night in his bed suffering from health problems and thinking up a story based on his relatives. He is a bitter man and he shows, through flashbacks, how spiteful, conniving and treacherous his family is. But is this how they really are or is it his own vindictive slant on things?
Tag: FRANCE
The plot focuses on Gaillac, an electrician employed by the Paris Opera. In love with gorgeous ballerina Suzanne, Gaillac must play second fiddle to Suzanne’s wealthy “protector,” powerful politician Count Montoire. When the Opera personnel go on strike, Gaillac is appointed leader of the strikers, doing his job so well that he is ultimately elected Secretary of Labor in the French cabinet. Now on equal footing with Montoire, Gaillac is at last a “worthy” suitor for Suzanne – who can’t make up her mind between her two well-connected admirers, leading to a political rivalry the likes of which Paris has never seen.
A novel by Gaston Leroux (of Phantom of the Opera fame) was the source for this film. The story takes place on the Riviera, where the title character may or may not be involved in various shades of skullduggery, including murder. The film’s highlight involves a coffin containing the body of a man who committed suicide — or, did he? Huguette Duflos played the title character, while the comedy relief was in the capable hands of Belieres. In emulation of the 1928 American film The Terror, the opening credits are not printed on screen, but instead spoken by a mysterious “ghost” voice.
Henri Chatelard is well in his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciate women. When he meets Marie, a 18ish stronghead who just lost her father in a small fishermen village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.
Composed entirely by literary quotations from many different sources and from several historical periods, Godard’s film works as an allegory on film. The loose narrative tells about a drifter found by a rich woman who soon falls in love with him. A drowning accident takes place and the drifter dies but some time later, he reappears in the woman’s life looking for a job. Or could it be the man’s twin brother?
This complex and puzzling French drama walks the fine wavering line between the fictional and the very real as it tells the tale of a strangely erotic event in the life of a little girl and the musings of a schizophrenic woman. Also involved is an enigmatic spouse who prepares a surprise for a burglar.
This portmanteau film explores the highs and lows of a trio of twenty-something’s love affairs in the French capital, combining all those themes cherished by Rohmer aficionados: seduction, elegant language, and love for a city called Paris.
Willy, a middle-aged divorcee, decides to take his 15 year-old son, Thomas, on holiday to Ibiza, staying at an isolated villa on the unspoiled part of the coast. Thomas insists on bringing his friend Juliette, a girl of his own age with whom he enjoys a close platonic relationship. When it comes to physical love, Juliette is wise beyond her years. As the holiday progresses, Juliette realizes that Willy is attracted to her. She confides in Thomas that she will seduce his father and then reject him, in the hope that she can rid herself of his unwelcome attentions. Unaware of this subterfuge, Willy is torn between his physical attraction towards the teenage girl and his love for his son.