Today Pierre Cardin is celebrating his 89th birthday. The French designer has had a surprisingly rich and varied career that’s included creating costumes for many films and television programs such as Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946), Anthony Asquith‘s The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), Louis Malle’s Viva Maria! (1965), Roger Vadim‘s … Continue reading »
Filed under French Cinema …
Comic Book of the Week: Angelique (1978)
Toshie Kihara’s Angelique series was originally published in 1978 by Princess Comics. Angelique is a Japanese manga (comic book) based on the historical novels by Anne and Serge Golon published between 1957 and 1976. These historic novels focus on the romantic adventures of Angelique de Sancé de Monteloup as she braves misfortune and tragedy in … Continue reading »
Monsieur Hulot vs. The Modern World
Images from Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle (1958) I recently caught up with Jacques Tati’s delightful French comedy Mon Oncle (aka My Uncle; 1958). I had previously only seen one Tati film, Les Vacances de M. Hulot (aka Mr. Hulot’s Holiday; 1953) and frankly it didn’t engage me as much as I wished it had so … Continue reading »
A Belmondo Birthday Salute
Tomorrow Jean-Paul Belmondo will be celebrating his 77th birthday. He’s one of my favorite actors but I haven’t had the opportunity to write about him very much so I decided to rectify that over at the Movie Morlocks Blog. I watched Breathless (À bout de souffle; 1960) for the sixth or seventh time yesterday and … Continue reading »
Blood and Roses: The Soundtrack
I recently learned that portions of Jean Prodromidès’ sweeping score for Roger Vadim’s Blood & Roses (Et Mourir de Plaisir; 1960) will be released on CD from Disques Cinémusique on March 20th. I’ve written about my appreciation for this fantastic vampire film at length before in a piece simply called Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses … Continue reading »
Art Film As Fashion Trend
In 1962 Alain Resnais’ film Last Year at Marienbad aka L’année dernière à Marienbad (1961) debuted in America and made quite a splash with film critics as well as fashionistas. As the following fashion article from ’62 makes clear, women were obviously inspired by the lovely Delphine Seyrig and attempted to mimic her look including … Continue reading »
Modern Mondays: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)
If you’ve been reading Cinebeats for awhile you’re probably well aware of my fascination and fondness for spies. From the smart and exceptional Prisoner to the ridiculously silly Last of the Secret Agents?, I never seem to get tired of watching spy movies or television shows as long as they have a good soundtrack accompanying … Continue reading »
Modern Mondays: Innocence (2004)
Part horror film, part fairytale and pure allegory. Nothing in Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s 2004 film is as it seems. Much like her artistic partner, filmmaker Gaspar Noé, Hadzihalilovic is obviously interested in making films that push past expectations and delve into the unconscious mind. Innocence isn’t simply a film about what’s on the screen. It is … Continue reading »
Modern Mondays: Love Songs (2007)
When I first mentioned that I was going to start “Modern Mondays” at Cinebeats I briefly discussed how much I liked musicals so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about the best musical I’ve seen in recent years, Love Songs (aka Les chansons d’amour; 2007). Love Songs was directed by the talented French filmmaker … Continue reading »
20 Favorite DVD Releases of 2008: Part I.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but overall 2008 was somewhat of a lackluster year for new Region 1 DVD releases of ’60s and ’70s era films when compared to the previous two years (See: 2006 and 2007). Some of my favorite DVD companies such as BCI Eclipse and most recently New … Continue reading »
The U.S. Premiere of Les Idoles (1968)
If you live in New York or will be visiting the area on November 25th, you won’t want to miss the U.S. Premiere of the French pop musical spectacular, Les Idoles (1968). New York’s Film Society at Lincoln Center will be showing the film November 25th and following the film you can attend a fabulous … Continue reading »
Divine BB
If you’re a Brigitte Bardot fan I highly recommend picking up the latest Cinedelic Book/CD compilation simply called BB Brigitte Bardot. It’s a wonderful collection of beautiful photos of the actress, reproductions of classic movie poster art and music from many of Bardot’s most popular films including En effeuillant la marguerite (aka Plucking the Daisy/Mademoiselle … Continue reading »
Filmmaking & Politics in 1968
The following four videos make up a fascinating 40 min. film by D.A. Pennebaker called Two American Audiences: La Chinoise – A Film in the Making. It chronicles a meeting that took place in 1968 between director Jean-Luc Godard and NYU film students who discuss Godard’s film La Chinoise, filmmaking and politics. Two American Audiences: … Continue reading »
DVD of the Week: Alain Delon – Five Film Collection
A smokin hot Alain Delon in La Piscine (1970) This week Lion’s Gate is releasing their Alain Delon – Five Film Collection, which features the incredibly handsome and talented French actor starring in Diaboliquement vôtre (aka Diabolically Yours, 1967), La Piscine (aka The Swimming Pool, 1970), La Veuve Couderc (aka The Widow Couderc, 1974), Le … Continue reading »
Bits & Pieces
Elke Sommer and her bunny want to wish everyone a happy holiday weekend! Real world responsibilities, job hunting and a bad cold have been interfering with my writing and blog updates lately. I’m also going on a brief vacation tomorrow and I won’t return until Tuesday next week, but by then I should be feeling … Continue reading »
