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NormanH
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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.

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
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[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.

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I beg to disagree.

This film was on the BBC in March I think.

I watched both times, and both times was knocked over, largely by Cécile de France (as you might expect) but also by Depardieu.

I know Claire doesn't share my opinion.

Did you watch 'Le Boucher' last week?

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[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.

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[quote user="Jon OBrien"]I watched ... 'Quand j'étais chanteur'... 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.[/quote]

[quote user="NormanH"]I beg to disagree... I... was knocked over... by Depardieu.

I know Clair doesn't share my opinion.[/quote]

I have not watched "Quand j"étais chanteur" and have no plans to do so.

I have said before that I feel Depardieu's laurels are largely undeserved now and Jon's comment matches my sentiments exactly. He doesn't have an ounce of the charisma and talent he showed in the early days of his career.

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.

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[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.

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[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Jon OBrien"]I watched ... 'Quand j'étais chanteur'... 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.[/quote]

[quote user="NormanH"]I beg to disagree... I... was knocked over... by Depardieu.

I know Clair doesn't share my opinion.[/quote]

I have not watched "Quand j"étais chanteur" and have no plans to do so.

I have said before that I feel Depardieu's laurels are largely undeserved now and Jon's comment matches my sentiments exactly. He doesn't have an ounce of the charisma and talent he showed in the early days of his career.

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]

That's not your usual fair-minded self.

In this rôle he plays someone who is very 'passé' in what he does, but who still has a certain easy charm...exactly like himself.

I found it one of his more authentic and less 'acted' performances.

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I just cannot get past the seemingly unjustified veneration at the feet of this monstre sacré.

All I'd see and hear is him and he gets up my nose.

monstre sacré: a venerable or popular public figure who is considered above criticism or attack despite eccentricity, controversy, etc.
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[quote user="Jon OBrien"]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]

I was thinking of Red when I was writing about her earlier, her best performance in my eyes, along with her role opposite Daniel Day-lewis in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

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[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.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
Mon Meilleur Ami / My Best Friend (IMDb page)

On BBC4 tonight (27 Jan) at 11:25 pm UK time / 12:25 Fr time

with Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon (of "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" fame):

"Selfish middle-aged antiques dealer Francois

suddenly realises he has no friends and dislikes most of the people he

knows.

Goaded into a bet by his business partner, he has just 10 days to

acquire a best friend or forfeit a priceless Greek vase. Fortunately,

help comes in the form of a talkative taxi driver, who teaches Francois

how to get on with other people.
"

Funny awkward Auteuil and straight-talking Boon. Great combo, good film.

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Cant believe this has been running since 2009 and I havnt seen it before !!

So many good films I have seen have already been mentioned but here is a few more I have seen and enjoyed ...

Summer hours and L'homme du train

I recently brought a 8 set of Claude Chabrol's of which I have watched a couple they are very good , and lets talk about the rain which I havnt had time to watch yet but will hopfully but that right this week ..

Amazon do a good selection and I like to pop in there for a few every now and then for a treat !!

I also have Danse avec lui which I got in france ...but sadley has no subtitles but im working on it as part of my private home work ...
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  • 1 month later...
Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to sit in peace and quiet to watch the DVD my daughter bought me for last Christmas. It was "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" or "I've loved you so long" in English. It starred Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman who has just been released from prison after serving 15 years for the murder of her 6 year old son. It was an excellent film charting her re-integration into society with the love and support of her younger sister, and exploring the attitudes and embarrassments of the people she mixes with.  Kristin Scott Thomas was totally believable as she felt her way out of her frozen state back into the warmth of familial relationships.

I'm glad I could watch it all by myself, I'm still thinking about it more than 24 hours later.

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[quote user="Frecossais"]Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to sit in peace and quiet to watch the DVD my daughter bought me for last Christmas. It was "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime" or "I've loved you so long" in English. ... [/quote]

See pages 6 & 8 of this thread! We enjoyed it too... [:)]
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Thanks Clair, I read the first 4 pages on this thread and the last 2, but I should have known that Il y a longtemps que je t'aime would have been picked up. It's too good not to have been. I have been using the film suggestions here to get some DVDs  from Amazon, you have good taste.

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  • 5 months later...
 A rather light film which I enjoyed 'quand même' was Le Fils à Jo

About a boy from a long line of Rugby playing macho men who rebels

Can be seen in streaming here:

http://www.novamov.com/video/99zhvo1z6ku4p

There are subtitles...

Correction: I have watched again since posting, and frankly it is just sentimental tosh...

Some nice shots of the Tarn though

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I don't think that I have real problems with my hearing and I watch french tv quite a lot sans problemes. So why do so many french films at the cinema have 'fuzzy' sound. The worst was Les Visiteurs, but I have found this with many other films. When I was at the cinema yesterday there was an advert with a french film in it, and yet again, it sounded like Catherine Deneuve had developed muffled speech, she along with Luchini and Depardieu.

Is it just me, has no one else not noticed this.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Another Kristin Scott-Thomas film: Sarah's Key. I saw it yesterday, a really emotional experience.

Perhaps it was an attempt to make France confront its role in the rounding up of Jewish people during WW2, but of course there were many "good" French characters in it too. I find myself fascinated by that period of French history and often wonder how I would have behaved as a French person. I always hope I'd have had scruples and humanity and at least a bit of bravery, but who knows?

The film was thoughtful and had a great storyline. Anyone seen it?

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