Based on the childhood memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, author of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, Yves Robert's La Gloire de Mon Pre and its sequel Le Chteau de Ma Mre are two of the most loved and successful French films ever made.An adult Marcel nostalgically recalls idyllic retreats with his family to the hills of Provence. A love affair with the country began and during those perfect days he found new respect for his school-teacher father as he adapted to life away from the city, while the long journey there would soon bring its own adventures.Together these timeless classics stand as one of cinema's greatest celebrations of childhood, filled with warmth, love and a poignant nostalgia for bygone days they continue to captivate audiences.
Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau and cowriter Jean-Claude Carriere had the brilliant idea of casting Frances most lovably vulnerable hunk, the massive Gerard Depardieu, in one of French literatures meatiest roles: the sword-wielding poet Cyrano. Equipped with a massive nose and a heart to match, Depardieu soars as the heart-broken soldier who must lendhis words of love to another man to woo the woman he yearns for. Rappeneau spared no expense in taking this Edmond Rostand play into realistic locations for the battle scenes in the second act, making the film as exciting as it is romantic and funny. Depardieu attacks the role in great gulps, consuming all the oxygen in any room he enters. Macho but sensitive, he creates a larger-than-life Cyrano, whose wrenching sadness at the lack of interest from his lady love will have you reaching for the tissues. --Marshall Fine
Based on the childhood memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, author of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, Yves Robert's La Gloire de Mon Pre and its sequel Le Chteau de Ma Mre are two of the most loved and successful French films ever made.An adult Marcel nostalgically recalls idyllic retreats with his family to the hills of Provence. A love affair with the country began and during those perfect days he found new respect for his school-teacher father as he adapted to life away from the city, while the long journey there would soon bring its own adventures.Together these timeless classics stand as one of cinema's greatest celebrations of childhood, filled with warmth, love and a poignant nostalgia for bygone days they continue to captivate audiences.
Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau and cowriter Jean-Claude Carriere had the brilliant idea of casting France's most lovably vulnerable hunk, the massive Gerard Depardieu, in one of French literature's meatiest roles: the sword-wielding poet Cyrano. Equipped with a massive nose and a heart to match, Depardieu soars as the heart-broken soldier who must lendhis words of love to another man to woo the woman he yearns for. Rappeneau spared no expense in taking this Edmond Rostand play into realistic locations for the battle scenes in the second act, making the film as exciting as it is romantic and funny. Depardieu attacks the role in great gulps, consuming all the oxygen in any room he enters. Macho but sensitive, he creates a larger-than-life Cyrano, whose wrenching sadness at the lack of interest from his lady love will have you reaching for the tissues. --Marshall Fine
Staring a radiant Juliette Binoche and first-time actor Alexis Loret, Alice et Martin portrays a love affair that blossoms between the two protagonists and the effects on the relationship of a notable age gap and Martin's tortured past. André Téchiné has delivered some of the most delicate character pieces in recent French cinema, most notably the coming-of-age drama Wild Reeds. However, Alice et Martin, authored with help from Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep), never quite comes together as smoothly as his best work; it ricochets from lovely romantic flirtations to tortured psychodrama to family melodrama while Téchiné's oblique, reserved direction observes without penetrating the heart of the drama. Loret's Martin is more enigma than character, but Mathieu Amalric portral of Martin's long lost brother shows the same shaggy, understated charm he displayed in Late August, Early September and Binoche brings a sensitivity and toughness to the emotionally scuffed Alice. Her radiant presence gives the film its moments of emotional frisson a discreet, subtle power. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
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