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Showing posts with label Jacques Tati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacques Tati. Show all posts

Friday, April 15, 2022

Top French Films of All Time

Coming up with a Best French Films of All Time list is not an easy task given the thousands of worthy films to choose from over a century.

Top 30 French Films roughly in order of preference:

1. Pickpocket (1959, Robert Bresson)
2. Le ballon rouge (The Red Balloon, 1956, Albert Lamorisse)
3. La règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939, Jean Renoir)
4. Le Trou (1960, Jacques Becker)
5. Playtime (1967, Jacques Tati)
6. Le samouraï (1967, Jean-Pierre Melville)
7. Les quatre cents coups (The 400 Blows, 1959, François Truffaut)
8. Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows, 1958, Louis Malle)
9. Le salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear, 1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
10. Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cléo from 5 to 7, 1962, Agnès Varda)
11. Orphée (Orpheus, 1950, Jean Cocteau)
12. L’Age D’or (1930, Luis Buñuel)
13. L’Intrus (2004, Claire Denis)
14. L’armée des ombres (Army of Shadows, 1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
15. L’Argent (1983, Robert Bresson)
16. À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1960, Jean-Luc Godard)
17. Beau Travail (1999, Claire Denis)
18. Du rififi chez les hommes (Rififi, 1955, Jules Dassin)
19. La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer)
20. Que le bête meure (The Beast Must Die, 1969, Claude Chabrol)
21. Touchez pas au grisbi (Hands off the Loot!, 1954, Jacques Becker)
22. Hiroshima mon Amour (1959, Alain Resnais)
23. Vivre Sa Vie (My Life to Live, 1962, Jean-Luc Godard)
24. Les Vampires (1915, Louis Feuillade)
25. Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
26. L’année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad, 1961, Alain Resnais)
27. La Jetée (1962, Chris Marker)
28. Paris nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us, 1961, Jacques Rivette)
29. La maman et la putain (The Mother and the Whore, 1973, Jean Eustache)
30. Le genou de Claire (Claire’s Knee, 1970, Eric Rohmer)

List submitted for Wonders in the Dark's French film poll.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Forza Bastia

Jacques Tati's last directed work was a football film!

Tati directed Forza Bastia, a 26 minute documentary, in 1978 but the film only surfaced in 2001 thanks to his daughter Sophie Tatischeff. The film was shown at the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival in Amsterdam 2011 and can currently be viewed online in its entirety.

It is a remarkable film that shows the excitement in Bastia leading up to their first leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup final against PSV Eindhoven. Tati's focus is on the dedicated and loyal fans, showing their pre-game rituals along with their tension and anxiety during the game. There are some amazing sounds captured of the game itself which was played out on a water logged pitch and ended 0-0. Overall, this film is a great treasure not only of football's history but of cinema itself.

For the record, PSV won the second leg 3-0 to win the 1978 UEFA Cup.