French films are so depressing

[UndertheOcean]

and tad bit unbelievable , some of them.. Like the film I just saw of the woman who trafficked her mentally disabled sister's daughter to get a donkey for carrying water.

[kentauros]

1. There here are a couple of good ones:

City of Lost Children
Delicatessen

:D

[Robeson]

2. The Red, White, and Blue trilogy are probably some of my favorite....

...movies ever. I guess some may view them as depressing, but mostly, they're art.

[RainDog]

22. and White is very funny.

the trilogy is so beautiful.

[ghostsofgiants]

3. French New Wave = One of the greatest movements in film.

Jean-Luc Godard was a genius.

[kentauros]

4. I was going to mention Alphaville

but I can't remember the ending ;)

The Wages of Fear is a great suspense movie. It was later remade equally well by William Friedkin as "Sorcerer" :)

[Forkboy]

5. I actually liked Sorcerer more than the original.

Both are great movies, but I always loved Roy Scheider. How they filmed that scene with the truck on the bridge is beyond me. Talk about a harrowing movie. :)

[kentauros]

6. Yes, the bridge scene is one of the best ever

and probably why they used it for the movie poster and soundtrack cover. Although the scene in the original of the truck slowly running over the older man trapped in the big pool of oil was harrowing, too.

[alphafemale]

8. I enjoyed Wages of Fear. But the character of the "girlfriend" was absolutely awful.

She was so clingy and subservient it made me literally cringe.

[Forkboy]

11. Try the remake.

No clingy women. In fact, there's no women at all, clingy or otherwise. The movie is great, but it's worth it just for the scene in this pic alone. If this scene doesn't make your heart race and your palms sweat then nothing will. :)

[alphafemale]

13. YIKES!!

:scared:

Yeah. That looks worthy of a place on the Netflix Queue.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

39. Yes, and play it loud

I like the soundtrack (Tangerine Dream).

I saw it at an actual movie theater (big room, sticky floor, remember those?). It felt strange to get behind the wheel after that movie.
:scared:

:hi:

[RainDog]

23. Even better, imo, Jean-Paul Melville and the guys just before Godard.

[Richard Steele]

7. A fella I once knew had the GREATEST comment on that....

He had been stationed in Europe for two years in the 1980's,
and he once declared:
"The only thing WORSE than French films...are French PORNO films."

:rofl:

[rug]

9. I know what you mean. Next, they'll be making movies about a man who dresses like a bat.

[Forkboy]

10. Well that would just be stupid.

:P

[Burma Jones]

12. French Comedy is Superb

If you want depressing, I suggest "Jean de Florette" and "Manon des Sources"

[Critters2]

15. They can't hold a candle to the Scandinavians. They can make ANYTHING depressing!

To wit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmA7MkAjOiA


Not a rickroll

[Burma Jones]

42. True, Ikea depresses the hell out of me, and it's just a damned furniture store.....

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. Louis de Funes - the greatest comedic genius I have ever seen

His films from the 1960s are hysterically funny. He always played a dry, little fast-talking nervous guy with tics who had a touch of larceny in his soul. His physical comedy was extraordinary in films like The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob, Jo, Oscar, and his Gendarme series of films. He has been described as a French-speaking Donald Duck who would fly into intense and extreme nervous rages completely over the top.

[Arkham House]

14. Very depressing...just like those miserable Psalms...

[RainDog]

21. Le Million

Rene Clair was great.

[billyskank]

17. Amelie isn't. Taxi isn't. Delicatessen isn't.

There's three films that aren't. People who know more could suggest many others.

[nytemare]

18. Delicitessen is just a tad depressing

but, in a hilarious way...lol.

Amelie is probably my favorite film. Love Jeunet.

[billyskank]

20. I thought it was sweet and charming.

[nytemare]

35. I love his films for their charm

They really are works of art. I would have never heard of him were it not for finding Amelie in target one day. I'm happy I judged that book by its cover. He has wonderful films.

[RainDog]

19. Ma Vie En Rose (Belg/French), La Cage Aux Folles, the orig. 3 Men and a cradle..

which was FAR, FAR FAR FAR better than the crappy American version.

white, as noted above.

the one about the knight that gets stuck out of time...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. C'est ridicule, ça.

Try "The Visitors," the black comedy of "Shoot the Piano Player," which has some very funny moments aside from being a tragedy.

For a serious film that starts depressing but improves in mood, try the newly released "I've Loved You So Long."

[RainDog]

25. The Visitors! I was trying to remember the name of that one.

also Man Bites Dog is a very good satirical mock-doc.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

28. A few other very funny ones

Le Diner de Cons (soon to be adapted to an English version called Dinner for Schmucks by Robin Williams and to be released in 2009) was very funny. Also great was Les Ripoux (aka My New Partner). Les Trois Freres and L'Emmerdeur (adapted into English as Pain In The Ass) were funny. La Chevre, with Depardieu and comedian Pierre Richard (later adapted to English with Danny Glover and Martin Short under the title Pure Luck) was hysterically funny (the French version, that is - it didn't translate well to English).

[RainDog]

29. I've hated every remake from French to hollywood

but then, I don't understand why Americans act like it's such a big deal to watch a movie with subtitles.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Bob Le Flambeur. Not hysterically funny, but has some funny moments. Even better is the heist plot and the characters themselves.

Criterion has a bunch of Melville movies I'd like to find in my christmas stocking, if we even do christmas stockings this year.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

31. The only remake I somewhat liked was The Talented Mr. Ripley

The original source is the Patricia Highsmith novel, so technically we're talking about adaptations of the same novel and not just a straight remake. But the French version of 1960 where Ripley was played by Alain Delon was pretty good and I thought the U.S. version was also well-done. I think a good adaptation of the very nice 1957 French film noir Retour De Manivelle could be done. The great French actress Michèle Morgan was particularly beautiful and seductive in that one. It was based on a mystery novel by James Hadley Chase, so it might lend itself to a better screen version in English.

[RainDog]

37. Oh I forgot about that one. yes, I agree

I recently re-watched the new version- I think it will stand the test of time. The Delon version was diff, iirc.. definitely a diff. ending. Matt Damon gave an incredible performance in that role. The period settings were definitely characters, too... and Chet Baker.

Highsmith was one-of-a-kind. Her biography was really interesting and I love some of her short stories... they are just so existentially... in your face amoral. She was an amazing writer - to be able to create a character like Ripley and not totally repulse people. As far as "anti-heros" go, Ripley is by far the most disturbing.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. Un drôle de paroissien (1963) is a French comedy that could never be made here

I found it very, very funny and I still watch it from time to time (I have a collection of about 600 video tapes of old French films). It starred the famous French comedian Bourvil.

The reason I think it probably couldn't be made in the U.S., even now, is the subject of the comedy. It's about a lazy aristocratic family of which Bourvil is the son. The entire family has lost its money and lives in a bare, unheated castle, but as they are aristocrats of noble birth, no one wants to actually go to work in the family to earn a living. It's considered a family sin to do that. Bourvil comes upon a plan to raid the tills of the churches throughout the city of Paris which turns out to be very successful and helps the family re-establish a small fortune. It's so irreverent with regard to stealing from the church that I think Americans would be up-in-arms if such a film were made here. But the notion of stealing from the donation boxes in large old churches in Paris and the almost scientific way the main character goes about discovering the best means to do that is extremely funny in itself. I think it's Bourvil's funniest movie.

[darkstar]

27. How about "Baxter," the one about the dog...I think that's French

wow...


Then There's Last Year at Marienbad...which I love...not sad, really, more mesmerizing and empty

[begin_within]

30. what was the one you just saw?

[UndertheOcean]

33. "Bent Keltoum"

[begin_within]

34. Oh... I haven't seen that.

"Au Hasard Balthazar" features a donkey throughout. It has some depressing parts but is a great film. "Mouchette" by the same director (Robert Bresson) is even more depressing. An uplifting film by Bresson is "A Man Escaped."

[HEyHEY]

32. sounds like a fair deal

[Haole Girl]

36. If you are prone to depression, you might want to stop watching depressing movies.

:hug:

[peacefreak]

38. Tante Danielle

The Visitors, La Cage au Folles, & Baxter are all pretty funny.

[kwassa]

40. "Mr. Hulot's Holiday" and other Jacques Tati classic comedies

Generally considered a comic masterpiece, a very great film.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

41. well, for a large part of the last century

living in France was no picnic either. I suspect that may have something to do with it, no?