Backed with money inherited by his wife, Chabrol wrote, produced and directed Le Beau Serge in 1958, a film often cited as the first New Wave feature. Shot over nine weeks in Sardent, using natural light and real locations, the film portrays a detailed picture of working class life in a bleak provincial village. Reflecting the influence of both […]
Tag Archives: Godard
Céline and Julie go boating – The quiet achiever of the French new wave goes epic.
posted by lisathatcher
How does one describe a film that encompasses the entire world in its enormity? This is easily one of my all time favourite films. I love it for nostalgic reasons and I love it for itself. It is a holy epic, pure in its revelations, uncompromising in its commitment to its own depth. There is so much to say […]
Contempt – Enjoy a little Avant-Godard
posted by lisathatcher
“’The cinema,’ Andre Bazin said, ‘substitutes for our gaze a world that corresponds to our desires.’ Contempt is a story of this world.” I just cried my way through a third viewing of Contempt (Le Mépris) a film I never ever tire of. I know there are some vague problems with this film – it doesn’t have […]
Au Hasard Balthazar: Life in a world that hates us.
posted by lisathatcher
In New York City at the moment there is a Bresson retrospective and I am insanely jealous – what wouldn’t I give to be in New York to see this at the Forum at the moment (besides the obvious – the cash to get there)! One of the films on offer will be Au Hasard […]
Jules and Jim: Genius locked away in a moment in time.
posted by lisathatcher
There are many ways to appreciate a Francoise Truffaut film. In this respect he is the aesthetes greatest friend. There is never the moral simplicity we see in a Bresson film or the obtuse avantgarde we see in Godard. Truffaut is an artist who makes films he thinks are beautiful. Jules and Jim is an […]
Lisa Thatcher 