![]() ![]() This stunningly photographed and skilfully acted film uses an accretion of naturalistic detail to present an emotionally restrained but utterly compelling account of the last three months of van Gogh’s life. □ The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all-time Written by Tom Huddleston, Geoff Andrew, Dave Calhoun, Cath Clarke, Trevor Johnston, Joshua Rothkopf, Keith Uhlich and Matthew Singer No matter your experience level, you’re sure to discover something surprising. Sure, there are famous crowd-pleasers like Amélie and Criterion-canonised classics, but also more obscure gems to challenge even deep-diving Nouvelle Vague obsessives. ![]() So we’ve ranked the 100 best French movies ever made, less to craft a definitive canon but to give both newbies and hardcore Francophiles a jumping-off point. We understand that leaping in can be intimidating, though. But once you start exploring French cinema, it’s not difficult to see why it’s had such a powerful influence on global moviemaking – and that it’s not nearly as highfalutin’ and alienating as it can sometimes seem. And certainly, some of that stereotyping is based in truth – pioneering ew Wavers like Jean-Luc Godard and Agnès Varda prided themselves on their intellect. For many, French movies are the final frontier of film fandom: painfully stylish and achingly cool, with philosophical underpinnings and experimental structures that more mainstream audiences can find impenetrable. In the Films section, various undistributed festival picks are available for free: among them are Home, an impressively raw Flemish teen study, and Barrage, a low-key family drama from Luxembourg, starring Isabelle Huppert and real-life daughter Lolita Chammah.For any serious cinephile, all roads lead to France. A degree of vigilance is required, as is a willingness to take a chance on untested films. A limited number of virtual “tickets” to each film are granted – usually free – on a first come, first serve basis. There, international festivals offer web access to films concurrent with the festival itself: Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam and the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight are among the majors to take part. More of a niche proposition, Festival Scope is a two-tiered service, the most comprehensive of which is exclusive to film industry professionals and journalists the public section is smaller, but deserves to be better known. It is not a subscription service, and pay-per-view prices vary but members get a discount and exclusive free access to Curzon 12, a rotating dozen films currently including the Dardenne Brothers’ Rosetta and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang.Īudrey Tautou in Anne Fontaine’s 2009 crossover film Coco Before Chanel, available on Amazon Prime. The library of older releases is indexed by actor, director, genre and country: France, for example, brings up an old-new Agnès Varda double-feature of Cléo From 5 to 7 and Faces Places – the former just £3 to rent. French director Catherine Corsini’s heart-walloping melodrama An Impossible Love and Lars von Trier’s polarising The House That Jack Built are currently on that menu for £10 and £12, respectively. ![]() Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Curzon Home CinemaĪs befits the UK’s leading arthouse cinema chain, Curzon Artificial Eye’s home streaming service is a classy affair, balancing a smallish back catalogue with a range of current cinema releases simultaneously available to view at home – a godsend to discerning film-goers who live outside metropolitan areas. Subscriptions are £4.99 a month.īrigitte Federspiel in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1955 classic Ordet, available on BFI Player. A running strand, selected and introduced by the Observer’s Mark Kermode, covers classics like Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet and modern beauties such as Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena. Elsewhere, the film selection is rich on canon titles: the Italian Classics section includes works by Fellini, Pasolini, Antonioni, Rossellini et al, while Euro auteurs such as Éric Rohmer and Rainer Werner Fassbinder have their own dedicated collections. It is obviously the go-to platform for British cinema history, showcasing its extensive archive – including shorts, newsreels and assorted curios – for free. You’d expect a strong selection of classic and world cinema from the British Film Institute, and its attractively designed streaming service delivers – retaining the diverse, academic-but-accessible programming spirit of its cinema venues and DVD collection. Photograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy BFI Player Yannis Drakopoulos in Babis Makridis’s 2018 Sundance-acclaimed black comedy Pity, available on Mubi. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |