The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Essential Viewing

France/Italy/Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Cinematographer: Edmond Richard

Cast: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Julien Bertheau, Milena Vukotic

A group of wealthy friends attempt to enjoy a dinner party but are constantly interrupted, in Buñuel’s bitingly funny, enigmatically satirical, and delightfully cynical portrait of the idle rich, attackingly depicting corruption, prejudice, double standards, and illogical social conventions. Iain.Stott

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Love in the Afternoon (1972)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: L'amour l'après-midi

Writer/Director: Eric Rohmer

Cinematographer: Néstor Almendros

Composer: Arié Dzierlatka

Cast: Bernard Verley, Zouzou, Françoise Verley

When the sexy former girlfriend of an old pal re-enters his life after a gap of six years, a Parisian businessman, happily married with a young family and a comfortable bourgeois existence, finds himself reassessing his life and questioning his ingrained notion of sexual ethics, in Rohmer’s subtle, authentic, and thoroughly compelling film, the sixth and final instalment of his Moral Tales series. Iain.Stott

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Nil by Mouth (1997)

Highly Recommended

UK/France

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Gary Oldman

Cinematographer: Ron Fortunato

Composer: Eric Clapton

Cast: Ray Winstone, Kathy Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse, Edna Doré, Chrissie Cotterill, Jon Morrison, Jamie Foreman, Steve Sweeney

Ray Winstone is extraordinary as a bullying yet charismatic small time criminal, who spends much of his time drinking heavily and taking out his frustrations on his long-suffering wife’s face, in Gary Oldman’s painfully visceral, emotionally devastating, and absolutely convincing portrait of booze soaked, blood stained lives. Iain.Stott

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Lost Highway (1997)

Recommended

USA/France

Feature Film

Director: David Lynch

Writers: Barry Gifford, David Lynch

Cinematographer: Peter Deming

Composer: Angelo Badalamenti

Cast: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Loggia, Robert Blake, Gary Busey, Lucy Butler, Natasha Gregson Wagner

Lynch’s enigmatic, disquieting, and thoroughly bonkers thriller presents a pair of intertwining lives brought nightmarishly together with dream logic, combining tales of gangsters, jazz musicians, mechanics, and porn stars in a sexy, blood-stained Los Angeles. Iain.Stott

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Journey to the Beginning of the World (1997)

Essential Viewing

Portugal/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo

Writer/Director: Manoel de Oliveira

Cinematographer: Renato Berta

Composer: Emmanuel Nuñes

Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Yves Gautier, Leonor Silveira, Diogo Dória, Isabel de Castro, Cécile Sanz de Alba, José Pinto, Adelaide Teixeira, Isabel Ruth

Whilst participating in a French-Portuguese co-production being filmed in Portugal, members of a film’s cast and crew take a journey into their past, visiting the hometown of the director’s youth and the ancestral home of the lead actor, unveiling a rich tapestry of personal, familial, and national history, in de Oliveira’s gently humorous, quietly moving, and painfully yet beautifully human film. Iain.Stott

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U Turn (1997)

Cautiously Recommended

USA/France

Feature Film

Director: Oliver Stone

Writer: John Ridley

Cinematographer: Robert Richardson

Composer: Ennio Morricone

Cast: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Voight, Powers Boothe, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes

A down-on-his-luck former tennis pro, in debt to the Russian mob to the tune of $13,000, finds himself stranded in the small Arizona town of Superior when his car overheats and he loses all of his money in a bungled robbery; thoughts of escape seems futile until a potential murder or two offer a chink of hope, in Stone’s sexy, unpredictable, and guiltily pleasurable jet black comedy. Iain.Stott

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Syndromes and a Century (2006)

Essential Viewing

Thailand/France/Austria/UK

Feature Film

Original Title: แสงศตวรรษ

Writer/Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Cinematographer: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom

Cast: Nantarat Sawaddikul, Jaruchai Iamaram, Nu Nimsomboon, Sophon Pukanok, Jenjira Pongpas, Arkanae Cherkam, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Sin Kaewpakpin

Weerasethakul’s spellbindingly compelling, gently humorous, vaguely unsettling, and joyously human film, one of seven pieces commissioned for the New Crowned Hope Festival (part of Vienna’s celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday), pays tribute to the film-maker’s parents, both of whom were doctors, presenting, plotlessly in two mirrored parts, Thai hospital life (the first part in a small rural hospital, the second in a large urban one). Iain.Stott

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Live Flesh (1997)

Recommended

Spain/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Carne trémula

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Writers: Pedro Almodóvar, Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Ray Loriga, Ruth Rendell

Cinematographer: Affonso Beato

Composer: Alberto Iglesias

Cast: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal, Ángela Molina, José Sancho, Penélope Cruz

A devilishly handsome but slightly naïve young man, the son of a prostitute who gave birth to him on a bus, gets out of prison, after serving six years for causing the paralysis of a police officer with an errant bullet, and determines to gain vengeance upon those he deems responsible for his ill deserved incarceration, but as time passes he begins to change his mind…. only fate has other ideas, in Almodóvar’s sexy, stylish, and thoroughly unpredictable thriller. Iain.Stott

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La Vie de Jésus (1997)

Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: La vie de Jésus

Writer/Director: Bruno Dumont

Cinematographer: Philippe Van Leeuw

Composer: Richard Cuvillier

Cast: David Douche, Marjorie Cottreel, Kader Chaatouf, Sébastien Delbaere, Samuel Boidin, Steve Smagghe, Sébastien Bailleul, Geneviève Cottreel

A bored, unemployed teenager afflicted with epilepsy, living in a small town in rural northern France, spends his days driving his motorbike around town with his friends and having sex with his girlfriend; but when a handsome Arab boy begins to show an interest her, tensions arise, in Dumont’s powerful debut, a thoroughly compelling and painfully authentic feeling anthropological study. Iain.Stott

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Ma Vie en Rose (1997)

Recommended

France/Belgium/UK

Feature Film

Original Title: Ma vie en rose

Director: Alain Berliner

Writers: Alain Berliner, Chris Vander Stappen

Cinematographer: Yves Cape

Composers: Dominique Dalcan, Zazie

Cast: Georges Du Fresne, Michèle Laroque, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Hélène Vincent, Daniel Hanssens, Laurence Bibot, Jean-François Gallotte, Caroline Baehr, Julien Rivière, Marie Bunel

When their youngest son, who has a fascination for women’s clothing, makeup, and dolls, declares that he will marry the boy next door when he becomes a girl, a married suburban couple struggle against their friends’, their neighbours’, and their own prejudices, in Berliner’s entertaining if slightly too neatly concluded film, which boasts a remarkable and remarkably restrained central performance. Iain.Stott

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Open Your Eyes (1997)

Recommended

Spain/France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Abre los ojos

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Writers: Alejandro Amenábar, Mateo Gil

Cinematographer: Hans Burman

Composers: Alejandro Amenábar, Mariano Marín

Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera, Fele Martínez, Najwa Nimri, Gérard Barray, Jorge de Juan

A man in a prison hospital, accused of murder, wearing a rubber mask, relates a fantastic story – involving beautiful women, disfiguring car crashes, revolutionary plastic surgery, and cryogenics – to his psychiatrist, explaining to him how he came to be there, in Amenábar’s thoughtful, disquieting, and thoroughly unpredictable piece of science fiction. Iain.Stott

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Harry, He's Here to Help (2000)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien

Director: Dominik Moll

Writers: Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll

Cinematographer: Matthieu Poirot-Delpech

Composer: David Sinclair Whitaker

Cast: Laurent Lucas, Sergi López, Mathilde Seigner, Sophie Guillemin, Liliane Rovère, Dominique Rozan, Michel Fau

Harry has idolised Michel since they were children; Michel doesn’t know Harry from Tom and Dick; a chance meeting in a motorway services toilet reunites them, and before you know it, inappropriate gifts, creepy poetry renditions, and the corpses of family members begin to pile-up, in Moll’s thoroughly surprising, excellently acted, and chillingly authentic feeling thriller. Iain.Stott

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Dans Paris (2006)

Highly Recommended

France/Portugal

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Christophe Honoré

Cinematographer: Jean-Louis Vialard

Composer: Alex Beaupain

Cast: Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Joana Preissm, Guy Marchand, Marie-France Pisier, Alice Butaud, Héléna Noguerra

Part New Wave homage, part sex farce, part character study, Honoré’s playful yet contemplative film – in which a young man (Duris, brilliant) breaks-up with his long-term girlfriend and returns to Paris to live with his divorced father and womanising, student brother, and generally mopes about for 90 minutes – is a painfully insightful and deeply moving yet thoroughly enjoyable and quite delightful work. Iain.Stott

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The Child (2005)

Highly Recommended

Belgium/France

Feature Film

Original Title: L’enfant

Writer/Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cinematographer: Alain Marcoen

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Segard

A young chancer, who spends his days stealing, begging, and generally enjoying himself, sells his 9-day-old baby son behind his girlfriend’s back, but when she finds out and goes to the police, he arranges for his return, which leaves him severely and dangerously in debt to some local gangsters, in this searing, visceral, and ultimately tremendously moving thriller cum character study from the ever brilliant Dardenne brothers. Iain.Stott

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Antichrist (2009)

Recommended

Denmark/France/Sweden/Italy/Poland/Germany

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Lars von Trier

Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle

Cast: Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Following the accidental death of their infant son, a grieving couple travel to an isolated cabin in the woods in an attempt to work through their grief, guilt, and fear, but their problems merely become exacerbated, in von Trier’s polarising psychological horror film; a harrowing, painful, and occasionally brilliant work, boasting two exceptional and exceptionally brave performances. Iain.Stott

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The Poisoner (2006)

Recommended

France/Belgium

Television Mini-Series

Original Title: Marie Besnard: L'empoisonneuse...

Director: Christian Faure

Writers: Daniel Riche, Olga Vincent, Anne Giafferi

Cinematographer: Willy Stassen

Composers: Charles Court, Carolin Petit

Cast: Muriel Robin, Mélanie Bernier, Jean-Yves Chatelais, Mado Maurin, Frank Geney, Annie Grégorio, Olivier Saladin, Gérard Chaillou, Marie-France Santon, Grégory Fitoussi, Pascal Reneric, Jean-Noël Brouté

When a wealthy landowner dies unexpectedly, his lover points an accusatory finger at his wife, levelling charges of poisoning, which gradually acquire public and official support, leading to her eventually being charged with twelve murders, in this well-made and decidedly unpredictable account of the real-life legal case of Marie Besnard, which proves to be an interesting examination of guilt and its perception. Iain.Stott

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Julia (2008)

Recommended

France/USA/Mexico/Belgium

Feature Film

Director: Erick Zonca

Writers: Aude Py, Erick Zonca, Roger Bohbot, Michael Collins

Cinematographer: Yorick Le Saux

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo, Aidan Gould, Jude Ciccolella, Bruno Bichir, Horacio Garcia Rojas, Gastón Peterson

A hopeless alcoholic commandeers a young Mexican woman’s plan to kidnap her estranged son, contriving to demand two million dollars from the boy’s rich grandfather, but her plan, like her life in general, doesn’t run at all smoothly, in Zonca’s painfully authentic feeling thriller, which can boast of a harrowingly dexterous performance from Swinton. Iain.Stott

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Le Serpent (2006)

Cautiously Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Le serpent

Director: Eric Barbier

Writers: Eric Barbier, Trân-Minh Nam, Ted Lewis

Cinematographer: Jérôme Robert

Composer: Renaud Barbier

Cast: Yvan Attal, Clovis Cornillac, Pierre Richard, Simon Abkarian, Minna Haapkylä, Olga Kurylenko, Gérald Laroche, Veronika Varga, Pierre Marzin

A man going through the pains of divorce finds his life further disrupted when a childhood “friend,” who he bullied casually and mercilessly in adolescence, contrives to frame him for the murder of a beautiful young woman, in this thoroughly unpredictable and enjoyably silly adaptation of Ted Lewis’s novel. Iain.Stott

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Romanzo Criminale (2005)

Recommended

Italy/France/UK

Feature Film

Original Title: Romanzo criminale

Director: Michele Placido

Writers: Giancarlo De Cataldo, Sandro Petraglia, Michele Placido, Stefano Rulli

Cinematographer: Luca Bigazzi

Composer: Paolo Buonvino

Cast: Stefano Accorsi, Kim Rossi Stuart, Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudio Santamaria, Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca, Elio Germano, Anna Mouglalis, Toni Bertorelli, Stefano Fresi, Massimo Popolizio, Francesco Venditti

Adapted from De Cataldo’s fact-based novel, this epic gangster film – following the ups and downs of a group of dirt-poor childhood friends, who grew-up together to become one of Rome’s most violent criminal gangs, dealing in drugs, prostitution, and vengeance – proves, despite its breakneck pacing and the odd cliché, to be a thoroughly entertaining if not particularly fresh addition to the genre. Iain.Stott

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A Good Marriage (1982)

Highly Recommended

France

Feature Film

Original Title: Le beau mariage

Writer/Director: Eric Rohmer

Cinematographer: Bernard Lutic

Composers: Ronan Girre, Simon des Innocents

Cast: Béatrice Romand, André Dussollier, Féodor Atkine, Arielle Dombasle, Huguette Faget, Thamila Mezbah, Sophie Renoir

A child-like 25-year-old art history student, fed-up with her lot in life, breaks-up with her married artist boyfriend, quits her unsatisfying job, and begins to pursue – mercilessly with the intention of marriage – a 35-year-old lawyer that she has only just met, in Rohmer’s engrossing, provocative, and talky portrait of a confused (sociopathic?) young woman, which frequently feels like it is about to morph into a thriller, but never quite does. Iain.Stott

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