French films: 'Frankly tits' ?

[Kameron]

Perhaps tits is a compliment?

Lots of great French cinema around in my experience. La Haine would have to be my favourite, with Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Blanc, Rouge close behind. I also have a soft spot of La Fille sur le Pont. In fact no French films that I've really hated spring to mind though Marc Caro's Delicatessen was a bit of a head fuck.

May be I've just been trawling history, I don't think I've seen any very modern French films?

 

[tobyjug]

You do realise most French directors do shitloads of illegal drugs. I'd stop watching them if I were you.

Yeah, yeah whatever.

 

[SubZeroCat]

I know this is a really silly film that some of you prob haven't heard of but Le Diner des Cons is very funny

 

[tobyjug]

Marc Caro's Delicatessen was a bit of a head fuck.

Delicatessen is my wife and I's favourite film. We also like all those old French detective/crime films. (Back when Alain Delon was a lad).

 

[DJWrongspeed]

If you compared the pathetic excuse for a film industry in Britain to the French Film industry it's obvious who'd win. Like it or not, french films stride with a confidence and self-belief rarely found in the UK.

 

[Brainaddict]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

Gazon Maudit is a comedy and a bloody good one as well.

 

[mauvais]

Les Visiteurs is too, and that's hilarious, as are the Taxi films, and apparently the aforementioned Le Diner de Cons.

 

[tobyjug]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

Delicatessen is a comedy.

 

[Brainaddict]

Well I've never seen those films, I'm just saying that the French comedies I have seen in the past that were described as 'hilarious' made me want to gouge my eyes out. I think the problem here is that I almost invariably don't like 'hilarious' films

 

[Brainaddict]

Delicatessen is a comedy.

Case in point. I can't watch that film without wanting to kill kittens out of sheer rage.

 

[SubZeroCat]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

French humour can be hit and miss (with me anyway), this is a major generalisation but on the whole (and compared to British humour) I find it can be a bit naff.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

Brainaddict

no. Just no.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

there are some great french films but....

a lot of them seem to follow the same pattern -

scene 1. slightly cooky teenage arty waif rebel looks whimsical for ages while coveting a strange object/animal
scene 2. friends talk philosophically in a cafe
scene 3. sex
scene 4. suicide

repeat until 3 hours is up

je ne pense pas de un filme de that kind monsieur, not le single un. What est tu talking about?

 

[Groucho]

They've got some good ones: Cousin Cousine comes to mind, as does Chocolat.

That's all I'm going to think up, because it's 6:30.

Amelie is a great film. Delicatessen also great.

But Chocolat was disappointing. It wasted its potential. needed a little more weirdness.

 

[maximilian ping]

je ne pense pas de un filme de that kind monsieur, not le single un. What est tu talking about?

monsieur, you know exactement what i'm talking about

 

[Moggy]

If anyone's interested (which some of you blatently are), on the 5th december both a Ingmar Bergman dvd set (Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Persona and Autumn Sonata) and a Francois Truffaut dvd set (The 400 Blows, Jules et Jim, La Peau Douce and The Last Metro) are being released, although a bit overpriced in most places i might add.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

why must you constantly amaze with insane knowledge of things you poreviously made no mention of?

Sylvia Plath fan?!

Love you man

PS how much for th truffaut set i could give it to my parents and wait to inherit it.

 

[Moggy]

Haven't scanned around too much but most places are selling it at £39.99 or therabouts so basically £10 a film.

EDIT: Haven't read much Plath passed the Bell Jar and The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Remember that conversation with J*** about how much it must have hurt to have cooked your head in an oven?

 

[E.J.]

I know this is a really silly film that some of you prob haven't heard of but Le Diner des Cons is very funny

Or how about Les Visiteurs a cult French comedy classic with Jean Reno (a bit of heart-throb on these boards) imvho which was released in 1993. I'm sure that there was a Hollywood remake of that movie. The movie was about a French nobleman and his squire (or servant) are transported from 11th Century by old sorcer into the 20th Century.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

You think James Bond is cool? You think Han Solo is cool? You think John Shaft is cool? Well they're not bad, but they're not as fucking cool as Alain Delon in Le Samourai. Highly recommended for a rain lashed October Sunday afternoon, best watched with a jug of black coffee and a pack of Gitanes by your side. Mr fucking ice.

 

[oi2002]

 

[Taxamo Welf]

You think James Bond is cool? You think Han Solo is cool? You think John Shaft is cool?

No they ae all plastic shit to me really.... Only liked them when i was 10. Yourself?

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

No they ae all plastic shit to me really.... Only liked them when i was 10. Yourself?

I am 10.

 

[John Quays]

Well, quite clearly some french filmS are tits and some aren't - but to seriously argue that French film itself is tits makes you the tit. I think they may often appear as poncy to us because they often tackle different subjects and in a different manner than what we're used to. They concentrate too much on Épaté le bourgeoisie stuff, which only reveals their own obsession with it - which to me indicates a failry conservative approach - one that most other countries moved on from in the early 60s.

They can't really do social realism in a way that makes it work either (don't mention that crap La Haine) and when they do attempt it they choose the wrong subject (Tavernier could do this well if he chose someone other than struggling m/c professionals and learnt to drop the obvious didactism when he approaches w/c situations). Ace mentioned there's whole group of younger directors from the banlieuswho are doing some really good stuff in this vein but we don't really see that much of it over here.

As for the 'intellectualism' that puts many people off, well i think that's a product of the french eduation system and it's own self-image. There are a lot of concpets used but to me they don't bear that much relation to real life when used in films - but they should, so at least they're trying.

And if he doesn't like anything from the French film industry from the late 50s/early 60s or the mid 30s then i don't think i'll be trusting his judgement on anything else connected to film - or much else.

Good post, especially regarding the education system - but enlighten me as to why La Haine is crap? I won't deny you your own taste in films good grief, but anyone who's lived in French suburbia can see what it's about and why it works.

There are too many introspective films about 'la vie en couple' as far as I can tell here, but film in general plays a different role than it does at home. New films are announced on the news (some of them) rather than as telly ads and actors like Jaoui, Cassel, Jugnot and so on are always doing the rounds on telly, radio and so on. Mind you, 'les Choristes' I refuse to go see to report that it's shit (think Billy Elliot I imagine) and there's a lot of nostalgia runing through the favourite works (Fabuleux destin d'Amelie etc, Choristes, air de famille, diner des cons etc).

grosses bises

 

[SubZeroCat]

You're right about nostalgia.

I'm half French and went to a French school from the age of 5 to 13 (and butchersapron is v right about the French education system - they are obsessed with education, grades, discipline, excellency etc..) and I'm not very much into films but one of the reasons I like watching French ones is cos I understand the language, the culture and the attitudes.

I watched La Haine again (last night, prompted by this thread) and I recognised that was I was laughing at was my own experiences/memories as well as the characters'.

 

[guinnessdrinker]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

louis de funes and his rather obvious comedies made many young kids and their parents/grandparents laugh their head off. the rest of the world does not have to watch them.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

nail in the coffin...

Mind you, 'les Choristes' I refuse to go see to report that it's shit (think Billy Elliot I imagine) and there's a lot of nostalgia runing through the favourite works (Fabuleux destin d'Amelie etc, Choristes, air de famille, diner des cons etc).

He really likes les choristes saying, ''french films are tits, which is why les choristres is such a welcome surprise'' ! That was how this whole thing arose in the first place, in a review of les choristes!

[that thud you just heard was the boy in question hitting the canvas. Sover.]

 

[marty21]

the ones that make it abroad are generally good imho, but i'm sure they make some rubbish films for the the french audience

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Ah, there is one problem I have with a lot of French films: humour. I would like to ask the French, on behalf of the entire world, to never, ever make a 'comedy' again.

? I thought 'Les Visiteurs' was side splittingly funny in places, what do you refer to?