Jon OBrien

[quote user="NormanH"]I'm delighted to see someone else interested in this thread which I have let drift a bit since not many people seem very interested.[/quote]I may not be contributing but I am interested in the thread. I don't get much chance to discover new French films so I've been relying on this thread  for some time to point me in the direction of ones which might be worth watching. Please do keep posting if you have recommendations.

[quote user="Clair"]I was thinking of Red when I was writing about her earlier, her best performance in my eyes...[/quote] I'm pleased I'm not the only one! I thought it a better performance than she produced to win the Oscar for Chocolat. Perhaps it was playing opposite Trintignant (what a craftsman!) which brought out the best in her. And perhaps the American financing made Chocolat a more likely Oscar vehicle. Cynical, me? [quote user="Clair"]...along with her role opposite Daniel Day-lewis in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.[/quote] A superb film, with a much better performance from Day-Lewis than his Oscar winner in There Will be Blood, in my opinion. But it's the scenes with Binoche and Olin that have stayed with me.

[quote user="Clair"]...I feel Depardieu's laurels are largely undeserved now... He doesn't have an ounce of the charisma and talent he showed in the early days of his career.[/quote] That's the sad part. He has produced some superb, highly memorable perfrmances. Somewhere along the road he seems to have given up putting any effort into what he does. I haven't seen all of his films but I'd guess that it dates from somewhere around or after Green Card. Perhaps he fell for the BS the sycophants in Hollywood spew out as a substitute for sincerity. Maybe he should turn his attention to his vines now, as he's been threatening to do. [quote user="Clair"]His recent comments about Juliette Binoche illustrate how full of hot air he really is and I can only assume he lives surrounded by an army of sycophants who feed his massive ego all day long.[/quote] I'd missed that, oddly enough because I was in the wilds of Bergerac at the time, so had to do a search to find out what you meant. It's utterly baffling to me that he should say she has 'nothing'. She's not my favourite actress but I can't understand how anyone who's seen the Three Colours, for example, could dimiss her performances as 'nothing'. In particular, I thought many of her scenes with Trintignant in Red were excellent.

[quote user="NormanH"]I beg to disagree.[/quote] Chacun à son goût! I seem to be increasingly out of step with modern cinematic tastes, I'm afraid, so maybe it's just me. Everyone was raving about [OT warning!] There Will Be Blood, for example, which I thought was an utter waste of time. Someone wrote that Daniel Day-Lewis' performance was 'The finest ever captured on film'. I thought it was ham of the purest sort but he won an Oscar for it, so who am I to criticise? [quote user="NormanH"]Did you watch 'Le Boucher' last week?[/quote] No, I didn't know it had been on. I suppose it was shown as a tribute? A sad loss. I did see it when I was living in Paris in the early seventies, however. I can't remember that much about it, I'm afraid, except that it was the first Chabrol film I ever saw.

[quote user="Gardener"]We watched this last night as it was one of the hundred or so we could watch free on Orange and we really enjoyed it. Thanks for the tip[/quote] I'm glad you enjoyed it. My wife and I were pleased to find that we enjoyed watching it on DVD every bit as much as when we first saw it on TV all those years ago. By contrast, I watched a film on UK TV the other night which was a real disappointment. Despite a very good perfomance by Cécile de France, 'Quand j'étais chanteur' wasn't a patch on R&J in my opinion. Apparently Depardieu won a Lumiere for his performance but I thought it entirely lacklustre. I can't help thinking that he seems to get awards just for opening his mouth these days. The one thing I would credit the film for was avoiding the temptation to fill the screenplay with extraneous detail. For example: we didn't get an explanation of what was going on at the other end of a telephone conversation which had a powerful effect on a character. Nor did we find out what the relationship was between a couple of minor characters and a central character. Neither pieces of information would have progressed the story one iota but I think many writers would have felt obliged to burden us with that baggage.

Yes, already found and ordered. Thanks again.

[quote user="cooperlola"]Romuald et Juliette?[/quote] Yes, that's it! According to IMDB it was Firmine Richard's first film, too. Whoever cast her in the role deserves a big pat on the back. She was superb. Many thanks for your help. Nowto try and find the DVD.

I hope it's OK to post a query in this thread. It seemed like the logical place and the answer, if any, might be of interest to anyone that loves French films. I'm trying to find a French film I saw on UK television quite a few years ago and would appreciate any help I can get in identifying it. The story revolves around a white company boss and the black woman (a single mother or divorcée) who cleans his company's offices. It's a superb piece of cinema: beautifully written, wonderfully acted and one of those films which builds an entrancing story out of next to nothing. One of those films the French do so well. I've never forgotten the film, just its title! Many thanks in advance for any suggestions.