Summaries: Blue: A car accident causes the death of a well-known composer and his young daughter. Julie, the composer’s wife and the girl’s mother, survives the crash but withdraws into isolation and silence. She is slowly brought back to a social existence by small claims on her attention in her immediate proximity, and then by…
Tag: French Movies
La Roue (The Wheel): Film Summary & Analysis
Summary: A railroad operator, Sisif, saves a young child, Norma, from the wreckage of a train crash. He raises the orphan girl alongside his biological son, Elie. The children grow up believing that they are related by blood. Both Sisif and Elie fall in love with Norma. Sisif reveals his feelings for Norma and the…
The 400 Blows: Summary & Analysis
Summary: The narrative of The 400 Blows condenses events drawn from several years of Truffaut’s own childhood into what appear to be a few weeks or months in the life of Antoine Doinel. Antoine’s world revolves around three locations: the cramped apartment he shares with his mother (Claire Maurier) and adoptive father (Albert Rémy); the…
Pépé le Moko (Movie): Summary, Analysis
Summary: Directed by the prolific Julien Duvivier, Pépé le Moko is based on a pulp crime novel written by Détective Ashelbé, a pseudonym for Henri La Barthe. It tells the story of a charismatic and glamorous master thief Pépé le Moko, played by Jean Gabin in one of his iconic roles, who has fled from…
The Passion of Joan of Arc: Summary & Analysis
Summary: A chronicle of the trial of Jeanne d’Arc on charges of heresy, and the efforts of her ecclesiastical jurists to force Jeanne to recant her claims of holy visions. Analysis: The poet and proto-feminist ‘H.D.’ (Hilda Doolittle) wrote about her experience of watching this film in 1928. She describes feeling nervous to the point…
Betty Blue (37°2 le matin) – Synopsis, Analysis
This is the film to embrace or avoid (depending on your predilection) if you have ever loved someone madly. If you have ever loved with intensity and against common sense, you will understand this film perfectly. It is one of the greatest portrayals I have ever seen of that dilemma. It is a very moving…
Black Girl (1966 Movie) – Summary, Analysis
Summary: A young black woman in newly independent Senegal accompanies her employers to France to work as a governess. She imagines she will enjoy the comforts of bourgeois French society. Instead, she discovers her second-class status as an exotic outsider, leading to a crisis of identity and, ultimately, suicide. Analysis: Black Girl (La Noire de…
Mon Oncle (My Uncle, 1958 Movie) – Summary & Analysis
Summary: The young Gérard Arpel (Bécourt) lives with his mother and father in their ultramodern villa on the edge of Paris. Gerard finds it hard to adapt to the monotony and regimented routine of this life. The father (Zola) works for a large plastic pipe factory, while his mother (Servantie) cleans the house all day…
Hiroshima mon amour – Summary, Analysis
Summary: A Japanese man and a French woman meet and become lovers in Hiroshima in 1959. The woman is in Japan to act in a film aimed at promoting peace. The intensity of this brief love affair allows her to revisit the trauma of her first love at the age of 18 with an occupying…
La Haine / Hatred (Movie) – Summary, Analysis
Summary: Three friends from different ethnic backgrounds experience the prejudices of French society in the 24 hours after a ‘race’ riot. Vinz has found a handgun and seems crazy enough to use it. Hubert, searching for ways to create something positive from his life, is more thoughtful and seems more balanced. Said observes, watching events…