News

Cinema isn’t a beauty contest, but if it were, Alain Delon surely would have won the title of the 1960s’ most handsome actor.

That’s a subjective call, of course, and as such, Delon is the kind of figure about whom writers tend to fall back on the word “arguably” — as in, “arguably the most handsome” — which is kind of a cop-out, as it leaves the argument to somebody else. When it comes to Delon, plenty have made the case. I loved Anthony Lane’s longform analysis of Delon’s allure in The New Yorker earlier this year. And none other than Jane Fonda, who co-starred with Delon in 1964’s “Joy House,” described him as “the most beautiful human being.”

The French star, who died Sunday, made more than 100 movies in a career that spanned 50 years, but for that one transformative decade in film history — beginning with the Patricia Highsmith...

Tensions between his children had erupted behind the gates of the French actor’s home in the village of Douchy

It has been some time since Alain Delon was last seen in the village of Douchy, his country home for the past half a century and the place he designated as his final resting place. Local people remember when back in the 1970s and 80s he would be spotted at the nearby chemist shop or the only restaurant, or even at the annual school fete with Mireille Darc, an actor and one of the great loves of his life.

“When I was a schoolgirl they would come for the end-of-year party. They would play Father Christmas and give everyone a present,” one woman recalled.

Film legend Alain Delon passed away at his home in France on Sunday at the age of 88, surrounded by his three children. Delon was a famous French actor known for his good looks and roles in many important European movies from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Delon got his big break in 1960 when he starred in “Purple Noon,” adapted from the novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” He played the character Tom Ripley, who was not a good person. This performance made Delon very famous and he often acted as charming but dangerous characters after that. In the 1960s, Delon worked with famous directors on movies like “Rocco and His Brothers” and “The Leopard.” Another famous role was in the 1967 film “Le Samouraï” where he played a quiet hitman, which many saw as reflecting his own personality.

While popular in Europe, Delon did not have the same fame in America. He...

Alain Delon, the French actor who became a screen icon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai, has died aged 88.

Delon died “peacefully in his home in Douchy, surrounded by his three children and his family”, according to a statement released to the Afp news agency by his family.

As well as his famous role as professional hitman Jef Costello in Le Samourai, Delon collaborated with Melville in 1970 heist The Red Circle and 1975 crime thriller Flic Story.

Delon’s career began after he was spotted at Cannes Film Festival in 1957 by US talent agent Henry Willson, recruiting on behalf of David O. Selznick.

French acting star Alain Delon, whose many iconic roles included Le Samouraï, Plein Soleil and The Leopard, has died in France at the age of 88.

The actor’s children said in a statement that their father had passed away in the early hours of Sunday, surrounded by his family and beloved Belgian Shepherd Loubo, in his long-time chateau home in the village of Douchy, in the Le Loiret region some 100 miles south of Paris.

Delon’s death marks the passing of one of the last surviving icons of the French cinema scene of the 1960s and 70s, when the country was on an economic roll as it reconstructed in the wake of World War II.

Related: French Pres. Emmanuel Macron Leads Tributes To Alain Delon: “More Than A Star, A Monument”

The star, who was at the peak of this career from the 1960s to the 1980s, fell into acting by chance.

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

“Careful With That Knife, Lady”

By Raymond Benson

The great Richard Matheson wrote a number of fabulous works in genre fiction—novels, short stories, screenplays, and teleplays—and was one of the main writers of the original The Twilight Zone TV series. This reviewer considers the man a genius of his craft, as Matheson was responsible for some truly classic science fiction, horror, and mystery tales.

Matheson’s first published novel, Someone is Bleeding (1953), however, is not one of the author’s best-known titles. It is a psychological thriller in which the leading lady may or may not be a crazed killer. The novel was adapted and filmed in 1974 in France with the title Les seins de glace, which translates to… Icy Breasts, though the film was released in some countries under the novel's title.

Perhaps Richard Matheson ended up being happy that...

French actress Nathalie Delon, who was known for her glamorous on-screen persona and high-profile personal life, has died at the age of 79.

The actor Anthony Delon, son of Nathalie and her former husband Alain Delon, told Afp that she died on Thursday after a “very fast cancer”.

Nathalie and Alain famously starred together in the Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 neo-noir Le Samourai. The 21-year-old Nathalie had met the 29-year-old actor in a nightclub when he was in the media spotlight after a stormy five-year engagement to Romy Schneider. Following an affair, the pair were married in secret and departed for the U.S., with the actor engaged in a short-lived contract with MGM. Their son Anthony was born shortly after.

They received rave write-ups for Le Samourai but their marriage was stretched by the actor’s infidelity, including an affair with actress Mireille Darc when they appeared together in Jean Herman’s 1969 crime pic Jeff.

Other leading contenders include See You You There, Barbara and Bloody Milk.

Source: Cannes

‘Bpm (Beats Per Minute)’

Robin Campillo’s Aids activism drama Bpm (Beats Per Minute) leads nominations in France’s 2018 César awards which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning (Jan 31).

Scroll down for the key nominations

The feature drama took 13 nominations including best film, best director and best screenplay and best male newcomer for its co-stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Arnaud Valois.

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations at its traditional news conference at the Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées.

The popularity of Campillo’s film among the academy’s members came as little surprise. Although ignored by Oscar and Golden Globe, the Cannes Grand Prix winner has been a critical and box office success in France where the film has drawn more than 800,000 spectators for Memento Distribution.

It also leads the nominations in the upcoming...

French actor best known for mainstream films who earned her place in the New Wave pantheon with her performance in Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend

Mireille Darc, who has died aged 79, was a French film star known for her zestful appearances in a string of popular sex comedies and cops and robbers movies. Mainly in the 1960s, she played a variety of good-natured call girls and gangsters’ molls, while not being averse to disrobing when the plot required it, and sometimes when it did not.

One of her most famous roles was in The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire, 1972), an espionage farce in which she displayed a black backless dress to the astonishment of unwilling spy Pierre Richard. The dress, designed by Guy Laroche, is now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Continue reading...

Mireille Darc as Corinne Durand in Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend with Jean Yanne (Roland Durand). Photo: Unifrance The French actress and model Mireille Darc who was one of the beautiful people of the Sixties and Seventies and a constant companion over many years of Gallic superstar Alain Delon, has died last night (August 27) in Paris, her family have announced.

Mireille Darc: 'When I saw myself a blonde, I realised that it was me' Photo: Unifrance Darc, who was 79 and who chose her surname as a reference to Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc), was born in Toulon on May 15, 1938 as Mireille Aigroz. She began her career as a model and television presenter before turning to cinema.

Early on, she landed roles in various films, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend (1968), and at the opposite end of the spectrum Ken Annakin’s comedy romp Monte Carlo Or Bust! (1969) with Tony Curtis,...

An icon of French cinema and a frequent collaborator of Georges Lautner and Alain Delon, Mireille Darc has died. Her family confirmed the news to French media outlets this morning saying she passed away during the night on Sunday. She was 79. Darc, who was born in 1938, was often compared to Brigitte Bardot. Her film career began in 1960 and she went on to make about 50 movies, including 1964’s Dandelion By The Roots which kicked off her work with Lautner. The pair would…...

Film Movement continues with its Classic series and delivers their next title in a continuing line-up of new Blu-ray presentations, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, a seminal French comedy of the period from director Yves Robert. A stylized paean to the comedic tradition of Jerry Lewis, this is straight-faced screwball comedy not quite as daring or inventive as the title’s sterling reputation promises (it did win the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival). Notable, especially considering the significant talent in front of and behind the camera, it’s a comedy classic of uncomplicated froth, though its ability to amuse now seems dwarfed by expectation.

Traveling violinist Francois (Pierre Richard) is misidentified as a superspy by France’s national intelligence. As a host of people desperately attempt to interpret Francois’ strange actions, everyone becomes more and more assured of his significant skills. Meanwhile, Francois is embroiled...

Jean-Luc Godard in his youthful days. Jean-Luc Godard solution for the Greek debt crisis: 'Therefore' copyright payments A few years ago, Nouvelle Vague filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, while plugging his Film Socialisme, chipped in with a surefire solution for the seemingly endless – and bottomless – Greek debt crisis. In July 2011, Godard told The Guardian's Fiachra Gibbons: The Greeks gave us logic. We owe them for that. It was Aristotle who came up with the big 'therefore'. As in, 'You don't love me any more, therefore ...' Or, 'I found you in bed with another man, therefore ...' We use this word millions of times, to make our most important decisions. It's about time we started paying for it. If every time we use the word therefore, we have to pay 10 euros to Greece, the crisis will be over in one day, and the Greeks will not have to sell the Parthenon to the Germans.

‘La Cage aux Folles’ director Edouard Molinaro, who collaborated with Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, dead at 85 Edouard Molinaro, best known internationally for the late ’70s box office comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, which earned him a Best Director Academy Award nomination, died of lung failure on December 7, 2013, at a Paris hospital. Molinaro was 85. Born on May 31, 1928, in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, to a middle-class family, Molinaro began his six-decade-long film and television career in the mid-’40s, directing narrative and industrial shorts such as Evasion (1946), the Death parable Un monsieur très chic ("A Very Elegant Gentleman," 1948), and Le verbe en chair / The Word in the Flesh (1950), in which a poet realizes that greed is everywhere — including his own heart. At the time, Molinaro also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with, among others, Robert Vernay (the 1954 version of The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Jean Marais) and...

Director of witty French comedy-thrillers

Since the dawn of cinema, France has simultaneously and uninterruptedly produced good mainstream movies and arthouse films. Georges Lautner, who has died aged 87, unabashedly claimed that the almost 50 films he directed from 1958 to 1992 belong to the former category. Lautner's mainly cops-and-robbers movies were among the most popular films ever made in France.

"I didn't want glory or to make masterpieces but popular films that would please the greatest number," he once explained. "International recognition didn't interest me. I was passionate at what I did with my faithful team. We made the films we wanted as quickly as possible. But with time, my commercial films appear almost intellectual."

Lautner's underestimated films were never invited to Cannes until, in 2012, the festival put together a belated "Homage to Georges Lautner". His death prompted President François Hollande to declare that his films had "become part of the cinematic heritage...

These days you can watch any movie you desire online. Yet there's still one thing the magical wonders of instant streaming haven't solved for indecisive movie-lovers: what the heck to watch! Moviefone is here to recommend the best streaming movies from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant each week in the Moviefone Stream.

This week's Moviefone Stream picks range from zombie killing and apartment arguments, to movie mystery solving and murderous couples. Check out our suggestions below and happy streaming!

Comedy: 'Get Shorty' (1995)

This Barry Sonnenfeld mobster comedy follows Chlli Palmer (John Travolta), a gangster loan collector who travels to Hollywood to collect a debt from a movie producer (Gene Hackmackman). Chili soon realizes though that the movie business is much like the mob. Also starring Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, and James Gandolfini, "Get Shorty" gives a hilarious insight to the film industry and is just as funny today...

Mademoiselle C director Fabien Constant as Buster Keaton in The General Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Fabien Constant's meticulously dashing portrait of Carine Roitfeld in Mademoiselle C works as a triple treat with style, beauty and grace. We witness the launch of Cr Fashion Book, the new magazine by the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, and watch how dreams are made. We see Kirsten Dunst and Harvey Weinstein applauding in the audience, at Carine Roitfeld's Cannes amfAR gala fashion show, before the documentary whisks you away to a photo shoot with Karl Lagerfeld.

For Cr's inaugural issue 0, classic models transform into French movie stars of the Sixties in front of Lagerfeld's lens: Stephanie Seymour becomes Nathalie Delon, Linda Evangelista becomes Anna Karina, and Carolyn Murphy turns into Mireille Darc.

Right before New York Fashion Week, Fabien Constant gave us some insight and took a turn as Buster Keaton for my camera.

800x600

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Godard’S Nightmare Road Trip

By Raymond Benson

Jean-Luc Godard was the bad boy of the French New Wave. Whereas his contemporaries such as Francois Truffaut were “safe” and “accessible,” Godard liked to shock people. A lot of his work, especially in the sixties, was also political in nature—this was a man unafraid to scathingly portray French bourgeois society at its worst and trumpet his views on class discrepancy with the ferocity of a bull dog. In other words, he enjoyed pissing off audiences.

Released in 1967 with the opening titles caveat that “children under 18 should not see this film,” we are told at the beginning that Weekend (or Week End or Week-end, depending on what country you’re in) is a film “found on the trash heap.” It is one of the darkest and most vicious black comedies ever made,...

Weekend capped Jean-Luc Godard’s insanely productive year of 1967, and can rightly be considered the director’s Götterdämmerung. Both projects make their respective points with sledgehammer subtlety, and along with Godard’s previous features that year, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her and La Chinoise, Weekend consummates an anti-consumerist thematic cycle.

As one of its frequent title cards proclaims, Godard approached Weekend as “a film found in a dump.” It is a Dadaist, no holds barred decimation of modern French society filled with shocking violence, Marxist theory and some really, really awful driving. Told through a series of set pieces –often with elaborate and impressive production techniques– Weekend leaves no aspect of class struggle unexplored or unscathed. As the world lurches by in fits and starts, Godard’s ever evolving absurdist tableau amuses, stuns and mystifies, casting a cinematic butterfly net over a society at war with itself.

The film...

“Weekend” can be retroactively seen as a turning point in Jean-Luc Godard’s still-growing body of work. This is partly because the film’s nightmarish, picaresque plot makes some of Godard’s more recent movies look high-concept. In a new essay commissioned by the Criterion Collection for their recent DVD and Blu-ray release, Gary Indiana describes the film as: “...the last ‘real’ movie Godard made for several years, until ‘Tout va bien’ (1972)—‘real’ in the sense that it relies on cinematic illusion, however thing, to move from point A to point B, relates a story one can summarize coherently, and could, conceivably be viewed with pleasure even by an audience indifferent to its sociological and political didacticism.” Godard’s fifteenth feature is, as Indiana suggests, meandering but relatively cogent. It follows a bourgeois couple, played by popular contemporary actors Mireille Darc...

By Allen Gardner

Pier Paolo Pasolini’S Trilogy Of Life (Criterion) Pier Paolo Pasolini was Italy’s last Neo-Realist, a product of post-ww II Europe who was fervently Catholic, openly gay, defiantly Marxist, and one of the most original voices of the 20th century’s second half. Before his brutal murder in 1975 (after the premiere of his still-controversial swan song, “Salo”), Pasolini directed a trilogy of films based on masterpieces of medieval literature: Boccaccio’s “The Decameron,” Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” and “The Thousand and One Nights (also known as “The Arabian Nights”). The three films celebrate the uninhibited, earthy, raw carnal nature of the original texts, leaving little to the imagination, but also offering Pasolini’s own very unique and pointed views on modern society, consumerism, religious and sexual mores (and hypocrisies), and an unexpurgated celebration of the human body, both male and female. Extraordinary production design by Dante Ferretti and another evocative,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 13, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Weekend, the scathing 1967 comedy-satire film by France’s legendary Jean-Luc Godard (Histoires du Cinema), remains one of modern cinema’s great anarchic works.

Western civilization crashes and burns in Godard's Weekend.

Determined to collect an inheritance from a dying relative, a bourgeois couple (Jean Yanne and Mireille Darc) travel across the French countryside while civilization crashes and burns around them. After their own car is destroyed, the pair wanders through a series of vignettes involving class struggle and figures from literature and history, revealing a world that is at once humorous and beautiful, and senseless and frightening

Featuring a justly famous centerpiece sequence in which the camera tracks along a seemingly endless traffic jam (the single shot runs for some eight minutes), Weekend is a surreal, funny and disturbing call for revolution, a depiction of society retreating to savagery, and...

Weekend

Jean-Luc Godard 1968 French black comedy with satirical twist, new 35mm print

Plays Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2011 at Nuart, Los Angeles

Janus Films presents Weekend, opening November 25, 2011, at Landmark.s Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles for a one-week engagement.

Weekend is a black comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard and starring Mireille Darc and Jean Yanne, both of whom were mainstream French TV stars. Jean-Pierre Léaud, iconic comic star of numerous French New Wave films including Truffaut’s Les Quatre Cent Coups (The Four Hundred Blows) and Godard’s earlier Masculin, féminin, also appears in two roles. Raoul Coutard served as cinematographer. In Weekend, a bourgeois French married couple. Roland (Yanne) and Corinne (Darc), both have secret lovers and are both planning each other’s murder. They set out by car for Corinne’s parents’ home in the country to secure her inheritance from her dying father, by murdering him,...

Hey Los Angeles… grab your popcorn, because Landmark Theatres has announced it’s Fall-Winter film calender for the Nuart Theatre. It highlights limited-run films to avid cinephiles in Los Angeles, offering an essential guide for audiences to discover exciting films that may never enjoy the publicity of nationwide exposure. Included in the mix of programming are documentaries, reissues, features from a variety of foreign countries and other edgy, alternative cinema.

Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles

Showtimes and information: (310)281-8223

http://www.LandmarkTheatres.com

Features Friday, October 14 . Thursday, October 20

The Man Nobody Knew: In Search Of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

A son’s riveting look at a father whose life seemed straight out of a spy thriller, The Man Nobody Knew uncovers the secret world of legendary CIA spymaster William Colby, who rose through the ranks of “The Company” and soon was involved in covert operations in...