Maurice Pialat shines with 5 classics

By GTVW Staff

Photos Agency

For all fans of independent films,  5 Classics by Maurice Pialat will come as one of the best collections that will be played in Los Angeles from September 25 to October 1 at the Laemmle Royal Movie Theater (11523 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles, California 90025).  The iconoclastic French auteur, called “the French Cassavetes,” created films that were, in the words of Film Comment’s Kent Jones “all about the shock—startling, violent, eternally and teasingly promising—of being alive.”

This collection of masterworks includes 1987’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, “Under the Sun of Satan,” with Gérard Depardieu and Sandrine Bonnaire, “Loulou,” a tale of tortured love with Isabelle Huppert and Depardieu, “Van Gogh,” a chronicle of the last days of the artist, family drama “The Mouth Agape,” with Nathalie Baye, and the slice-of-life film about teenagers in suburban France “Graduate First.”

 “Loulou” will be a masterpiece of subtlety and eroticism

During 117 min, you will discover to Nelly who meets Loulou, a down-and-out young man. After her husband kicks her out, she goes off to live with Loulou. She is soon with child, but Loulou doesn’t change his wayward life, spending time with his pals and pulling off small-time robberies. Deeply hurt by his attitude, Nelly decides not to keep the baby. With a great cast such Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, Guy Marchand,  Humbert Baln, Bernard Tronczyk, Christian Boucher, Frédérique Cerbonnet. Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert reflect their job as the sexiest couple in the history of the cinema.

 “Van Gogh” painted his own life

Cast:  During 158 min. Vincent Van Gogh settles in Auvers-sur-Oise, in the home of Doctor Gachet, an art lover and patron. Vincent keeps painting amidst the conflict with his brother, Theo, and the torments of his failing mental health. He has an affair with Marguerite, his host’s daughter. However, she soon realizes that he doesn’t love her and that his heart beats only for his art.

Definitely, a well structured film full of good scenes with an interesting plot, intelligence and acted with earnest conviction with an experienced cast such Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Gérard Séty, Bernard LeCoq, Corinne Bourdon, Elisa Zylberstein, Leslie Azzoulai.

When cancer gets suffering of a French family in “The Mouth Agape”

During 1h 22m, the viewer will experience pain and suffering after cancer strikes the mother of the family in this French film, everyone in the family expresses a previously invisible caring and tolerance of the others. The father has always been a bit of a drunk, and is forever chasing younger women. Despite that, he and his wife care for each other, and he tends attentively to her in her last days while remaining unchanged in character. The son and daughter-in-law, whose marriage is somewhat sterile, have similarly penetrating interactions with the dying mother. Full of dramatic scenes with a great cast as Nathalie Baye, Philippe Leotard. Definitely, a heartbroken film full of emotions, tolerance and deep feelings strengthened.

Deep feelings of particular teenagers in “Graduate First”

During 85 min in a town in northern France, teenagers sitting for the baccalaureate await the fateful date with anxiety tempered with indifference. The past year has been the scene of their conflicts with adults and teachers alike who consider the exam as the highway to employment. The disillusioned teenagers played by  Sabine Haudepin, Philippe Marlaud, Annick Alane, Michel Caron, all of them will see it more as the dead-end street to unemployment. These teenagers will experience the real labor life, including sacrifice and suffering in a new and modern society.

Controversy in “Under the sun of Satan”

During 100 min, Donissan, a mediocre seminarian, haunted by Evil and the failure of his divine mission, mortifies his body and is unable to establish any rapport with his parishioners. Until the day the abbot meets young Mouchette, who has just committed a mortal sin. Based on Georges Bernanos’s novel, the viewers will enjoy pure drama in each scene. Definitely this great cast Gérard Depardieu, Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Alain Artur, Yann Dedetmade an excellent performance in each character.