Gaspar Noe and The Butcher
A dour middle-aged butcher and a brilliant young filmmaker: the pairing is an odd one, and yet the Butcher, as he’s known, remains the signature creation of Gaspar Noe.
On the “Late” Jerome Boivin
Continuing with my takes on cinematic underachievers, we come to France’s Jerome Boivin.
HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES
HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES is the title of the first volume of Charles Baudelaire’s renowned French translations of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. This volume, first published in 1856, is credited with inspiring Poe’s exalted reputation in Europe, so it makes sense that HISTOIRES EXTRAORDINAIRES was the name given to not one but two French-made compilations of Poe-adapted films.
French Horror: An Appreciation
Over the past week the world-renowned glories of France were tragically blighted by terror and death. No matter: the richness of French culture will persist
On THE DUCHESS OF AVILA
The 1973 French miniseries LA DUCHESSE D’AVILA/THE DUCHESS OF AVILA is one of the great unknown works of the fantastique
The Tangled Lineage of Belphegor
BELPHEGOR is a multi-film crime saga whose origins can be traced back to 1909
A WOMAN POSSESSED
A pompously psychedelic, nudity-filled account of witchcraft in the French countryside, A WOMAN POSSESSED was banned for many years in its native land, which is pretty hard to believe these days
THE MONK (1972)
A fumbled French made attempt at adapting Matthew Lewis’s gothic classic THE MONK to the screen
THE MACHINE
A much dumber than average brain-switch chiller from France. It contains one shocking sequence but is otherwise fatally clichéd and inert.
BEATRICE
The Age of Chivalry gets a thorough trashing in this bleak period piece from France’s Bertrand Tavernier, who was evidently obsessed with making BEATRICE as grim as possible