Bande à part by Jean-Luc Godard

Category: Non-English

Jean-Luc Godard's Bande à part hits out at the right notes and at the right places, quickly uncovering the plot of the movie in the first 10 minutes and then recapping it for you in the first 10 minutes itself is proof enough that he's one of the greatest directors or auteurs that ever existed.

Bande à part follows the lives of 3 restless youngsters who have the access to robbing a lot of money and eventually wanting to get away with it. Do they? That's the question you should be asking yourself right now, but that's not the point of this movie. Godard quickly pays tribute to all his influences & influences of those days - be it the Westerns, the gangster genre or the kind of cars his protagonists want to drive.

The film is fast paced at 97 mins and never lets up. The historical context is obviously shortly after DuGaulle decided to enter into Africa and take on the fight there.

A few things to watch out for:

- a minute of silence sequence

- the dance sequence

- A scene from a Truffaut film being spoken out (I think)

- Anna Karina's talking to the camera

- Franz' character

- Background score

-Godard's thoughts on the Louvre & museums in general, watch his protagonist run through the Louvre!

- Godard's control of the medium (cuts, deconstruction of Paris, genre of music, characters, pop culture digs, guns)

Recommendation level: 5/5. This is Godard at his finest, stand in awe at this masterpiece.

Night and Fog by Alain Resnais

Category: Non-English

I've been told a lot about this film by people around me and until I actually got around to watching it and...

Well obviously tons of quick thoughts on this film, Resnais uses a daunting score, a strong narrative and a narrator who is as cold as the harsh realities of the concentration camps set up during the second world war. He juxtaposes present day footage with that of the old archival footage he managed to lay his hands on. The result is an interesting blend of reality, documentation and of course cinema. The 31 minute documentary as it's pegged in some places is very far from a documentary since most French New Wave directors found calling a movie a "documentary" to be problematic. Who is doing the documentation?

Obviously the "in your face images" are very hard to take in and even though it's not as atrocious as the stuff they show in cinema today it's one of the hardest films I have had to sit through. Mostly because all of this stems from events based in our world. This movie brings to mind the Roberto Benigini film, Life is Beautiful. A movie in which the concentration camps are shown to be a little boys fantasy game played with his father, to think that anyone would want to downplay the relentless and brutal treatment meted out to the inmates of such a place is atrocious.

Back to the movie, it's obviously worth watching, but what Resnais does with reality and this film is remarkable, he doesn't make any bones that this is far from what reality actually was but how does one actually capture what happened then? There are some questions which even the normal fellow watching this will get, such as a "Who is responsible for this". Try moving past that. Creation of the sound track is also important as that forms a major arch of the film itself, do some research before actually watching this, it shall be rewarding.

Note: This was made about 10 years after the liberation of the concentration camps.

Recommendation level: 5/5.

Antoine and Colette by François Truffaut

Category: Non-English

Part of an omnibus, Antoine and Colette by François Truffaut is obviously the most stand out film from this lot. Taking on the task of furthering his character from The 400 Blows, Antoine Doinel returns for his first love affair with Colette who treats him like a friend and worse still her parents treat him like a son/lost cousin.

He continues to love her, does everything he must - note that most of this is largely semi-autobiographical. Truffaut eventually brings down the curtain on this love story which is actually quite brutal on his protagnoist but is carried out on a much lighter vein.

Recommendation level: 5/5 - the short serves it's purpose in eventually setting up the technical masterpiece Love on the Run.

Les Salades de l'amour

Category: Non-English

Not to much add in here, there's tons of features on Antoine Doinel and his adventures in Truffaut's universe. There's a lot of interviews with Truffaut himself revealing so much about the film-maker that we're not aware of.

There's also Les Mistons, Truffaut's first official short film about a group of boys who harass a young couple. Based on a novel the film has some trademark cuts and of France, this time in the country side too. Working with child actors again, you can see a decent amount of the 400 blows in this film, in fact he's improved so much for the 400 blows.

For the first time I think I was very emotional when you hear about his old screen writer friends talking about the greatness of Truffaut and the legacy he has created, the kind of films he stood for and the kind of work he had done before he started films. So much to learn from his personality.

Recommendation level: 5/5 - This is a little rare to come across but do find it if you can!

Love on the Run by François Truffaut

Category: Non-English

Antoine Doinel's character gets a final good bye in this film, even though Truffaut seems utterly disappointed at doing this. Vehemently admitting that Bed and Board was meant to be the final straw it is clear in some ways Truffaut doesn't have the same passion we see in the eyes of the young Antoine from the 400 Blows. By the time Bed and Board was completed, Truffaut wasn't happy with the product. He isn't with this either.

The movie features all the loves Mr. Doinel has encountered right from Collete to Christine to Sabine at the end. The film is brilliant for it's technical aspects because of the flash back. At the heart of it however it's a film that probably works for most people as a conventional send off. Perhaps that's where it disappoints.

Yes it's Love on the Run, but it's more about having love while running. Doinel isn't the most patient character we've come across, there's always some solid writing that goes behind it. There's more references to literature this time too.

Color to Black and White, cutting up images with memory. Truffaut is brilliant and completely in control of everything you're watching, even though it doesn't look like his best work.

Recommendation level: 4.5/5

Stolen Kisses by François Truffaut

Category: Non-English

Although not one of the hardest films to watch from the French new wave, Truffaut beautifully structures this movie, which incidentally hails the return of Antoine Doinel (first seen in The 400 Blows) to cinema. Antoine has now been discharged from the army and is on his way to the city. He decides to make ends meet with a few odd jobs prominent and the one in most focus is his stint as a Detective.

There's obvious references towards American detectives, Hitchcock and more, Truffaut is completely in control of the film.

Langlois, DuGaulle, Charles Trenet, Duality of Antoine Doinel, Emotion.

A few topics worth looking at before fully investing your time into this film, if you want to understand the movie of course. The movie is well crafted and definitely a must from the French new Wave.

Recommendation level: 4.5/5 - Because it's not the best of Truffaut's work but ideally aeons ahead of most film makers.

The 400 Blows by François Truffaut

Category: Non-English

Oh boy oh boy. This is quite likely the first movie of the French New Wave and who better to begin this movement in cinema than François Truffaut (a lot of people can disagree that he is the one who started it but feel free to discuss!). The movie itself has a very biographical feel to it as towards the end you can almost hear it as Truffaut's own voice. Yes, a lot of what happens to Antoine in some way formed a part of Truffaut's earlier life.

There's plenty of love shown for cinema in this film. It follows the life of Antoine who finds himself "trapped" in a family in Paris, France. There's the music, the concept, the cuts (oh boy, watch out for the one where the mother asks Antoine about the francs she gave him). There's plenty of references for cinema lovers in there. The first movie a film-maker makes is normally the subject closest to his heart and this is clear in Truffaut's treatment of the movie. On the surface you can scratch about this movie being about adolescent years, dig deeper, Truffaut is showing you things and making you listen to things so that you can realize there's a deeper meaning behind cinema and the art it creates. Watch out for Balzac's reference.

Incidentally enough I have watched more Godard than Truffaut and I find the latter as different and interesting as the former. What does that mean? Go figure!

Recommendation level: 5/5. You can't miss this no matter what. I saw it for free at a screening so I was lucky!