Language: French – Page 2 – Wimbledon Film Club

Jules et Jim

To mark the 25 anniversary of Truffaut’s death, WFC brings you Truffaut’s third film, recognised now and then as a defining film of French New Wave cinema. The story tells of a menage a trois. Two young writers, Jules (Werner), an Austrian, and Jim (Serre), a Frenchman, live a decadent lifestyle in pre WWI Europe…

35 Shots of Rum

Widowed father Lionel (Descas) lives with his adult daughter Josephine (Diop). He knows that their tranquil, mutually supportive life cannot last, she must find her own way in the world. The stability and comfort of their relationship in a drear Paris suburb is a magnet for family friend Gabrielle (Dogue) and neighbour Noe (Colin). Will…

Conversations with My Gardener

A disillusioned Parisian artist (Auteuil – Jean de Florette 1987, La Fille Sur Le Pont 2000, Cache 2007) facing divorce, returns to his childhood home in rural France. There he hires his former schoolmate as a gardener (Darroussin – Feux Rouges 2004, Le Pressentiment 2006). What follows is a quintessentially French film consisting of conversations…

The Battle Of Algiers

This cinematic masterpiece of political drama is so convincing that director Pontecorvo announces at the beginning that no newsreel or documentary footage has been used in the making of the film. The Battle of Algiers tells the story of the early years of Algeria’s National Liberation Fronts fight for independence from the French in the…

Of Gods And Men

One of the most thought provoking films of 2010, this austere, meditative story about faith and martyrdom is based on real events in the Algeria in 1996. In a Cistercian monastery in Atlas Mountains eight monks become increasingly aware of their mortal danger as jihadists kill non-Muslim construction workers and rumours gather credence that they…

Les Diaboliques

Michel Delasalle (Meurisse) is the headmaster of a boys boarding school near Paris. He is verbally and physically abusive of both his wife Christina (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress, Nicole Horner (Signoret). The two women join forces to murder him, drowning him in his bath and subsequently attempting to make it look like suicide. When…

Le Herisson

Adapted from Muriel Barbery’s international bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, writer-director Mona Achache’s first film follows three main characters, an 11 year old girl and two eccentric characters in her building. Paloma (le Guillermic), a serious, articulate but deeply bored pre-teen has decided to kill herself on her 12th birthday, disgusted by the futility…

Incendies

Canadian Nawal Marwan has just passed away. The only people at the reading of her will are her twin adult children, Jeanne and Simon Marwan, and the executor, Nawal’s long-time employer and friend, notary Jean Lebel. The will contains many unusual requests, the most unusual being two sealed envelopes, one to be delivered by each…

Benda Bilili

Benda Bilili means See Beyond in English and is the name of a Congolese band of homeless disabled and able bodied musicians. This uplifting and moving film documents their daily struggle to survive on the streets of the Congo capital, Kinshasa, through to achieving global recognition as artists, with some riveting twists and turns along…

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Newly restored for its fortieth anniversary, this influential Oscar-winning classic constitutes one of the finest achievements of one of cinema’s greatest directors, working in his intensely creative late period. This comedy of manners centres on a group of vividly drawn and outwardly respectable upper middle-class friends, who are continually thwarted in their attempt to have…