Notizie

André Téchiné, who was once a film critic, reached a turning point with his 1981 masterpiece Hôtel Des Amériques, a psychodrama of doomed romance in early middle age, set in the French resort town of Biarritz. In his telling, it was the film where he finally broke his addiction to movie references and pastiche. The truth is that he didn’t quit cold turkey (Hôtel Des Amériques is almost operatic in spots), but he began a process through which he would refine the concerns of his generation of post-French New Wave filmmakers into a form of classicism. It’s easy to make Téchiné’s movies sound boring or stodgy, which is probably why they’ve never had the following they deserve in America. These are dramas in which the constancy of seasons, landscapes, and chapters gives definition to messy and unpredictable consequences, conveying the flaws of human nature in deft ...

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

Above: Us poster for Le Sauvage (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France/Italy, 1975).

Since my column last week on the lesser-known posters of Jean-Luc Godard got so much attention, and since this week the great Catherine Deneuve turned 70 years old, I thought I’d do the same for the grand diva of French cinema. Deneuve—“the most beautiful woman in the world”—has graced well-known posters for numerous masterpieces, whether for Bunuel’s Tristana or Belle de Jour, Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg or Donkey Skin, Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid or Polanski’s Repulsion, and when I was searching for a poster to mark her birthday last Tuesday, these were the films that kept popping up. But Deneuve has been making films for over 50 years and has appeared in over 110 of them so there should be a lot more to choose from. So that is what I want to focus on here to celebrate Ms.