Classic French films

‘How was originally devised by Hargreaves for an audience of adults returning home from the pub’.
It was great as an afternoon show. I wish they’d have stuck to the original slot.

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With the very unsexy (imo) Bunty (they should have got Susan Stranks or Val Singleton) and the boffin Jon Miller who was a cousin of Yehudi Menuhin apparently.

Out of Town. Well until the next time, Cheerio

les enfant du paradis is long, two parter, but one of he most stunning films ever made in any language.

Curious comment Peter. Ironic? French cinema is widely regarded as the best in the world.

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Yeah Peter, there’s the French connection, French lieutenants woman a d the absolute classic French fried vacation :rofl::rofl::rofl:

‘ Best in the world’ ? In what sense and according to who ?

Some is supposed to be ‘artistic’ apparently but no more than some Brit movies imo.

There’s a lot of pretentiousness in France about their film industry. I have seen loads of French films over the years and would rate most as ‘mediocre’ at best, certainly no better than GB or US movies. My favourite is probably La Bonne Année which is all about a bank robbery taken place over the New Years period.

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wishful thinking perhaps :thinking: :slightly_smiling_face:

Here’s a list that might disprove Geof’s contention that French cinema is “widely regarded as the best in the world”. I’m not saying France doesn’t occasionally produce great film but thinking back over the last 20 years, with the exception of ‘A Prophet’, ‘Amelie Poulain’, ‘The Artist’ and ‘Elle’ l don’t think the ‘Widely regarded’ statement is accurate, in my opinion.

100 Best Movies of All Time That You Should Watch Immediately (timeout.com)

Well, that’s the view of a couple of TimeOut journos! Try some more objective views:

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Your narrow view on world cinema is somewhat surprising but l should have known the Guardian would have featured somewhere. Give this list a try:

Top 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (The Ultimate List) - IMDb

Or this one from the British Film Institute:

The 100 Greatest Films of All Time | Sight and Sound (bfi.org.uk)

Have you got some sources from non Anglosphere publications? Far more than, shock horror, American and British publications think almost all the best films are American and British, it would be far more interesting to be to see these sorts of lists from all over the globe, and then maybe a ‘best of the best’ totting up the totals of 50 lists from 50 countries or whatever. I’d be fascinated to see how things looked then.

Edit: The BFI list, the one I’d expect to be most… ‘educated’ if you like, features one Indian film, made in 1955. The incredible breadth and depth of the Indian film industry for the last 70+ years and they managed one film, which rather highlights my point.

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Apologies, if l had a spare couple of months and was fluent in many foreign languages perhaps we could answer your question. I do know from a small amount of research that most European countries prefer their home grown productions closely followed by US imports. Here is a view from Germany:

I’m not a great movie watcher but my top three from the first list would be
Schindlers List
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Some Like It Hot

But probably not….

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I agree with their number 1 choice, though I can imagine there are many who’ve never seen that film, let alone enjoyed it.

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Both Schindlers List and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are hardly films to enjoy, but they are some of the most powerful cinema I have ever seen. Neither film do I think I could watch again, but I remember the ending of Schindler’s List as so powerful and beautiful that I am deeply, profoundly grateful I did see it.
Cuckoo’s Nest - to this day I remember where I saw it - in a cinema in Sao Paulo that was so packed there was nowhere to sit and we stood at the back, barely able to see between the heads in front. I don’t think I moved through the entire film I was so rivetted.

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Schindler’s list is on a list of films to see sometime.

OFOTCN connected much more to the schoolboy in me, with its battle against authority and the inevitable defeat of the main character. That’s not to put it down in any way, but like Easy rider and Quadrophenia, the outcome felt inevitable and for me it occupies the same genre, even if the style was different.

I found Schindler’s list rivetting too and the thing that stands out in horror amongst the horror was when I realised that the SS guards were not speaking German, but Polish. Poland wasn’t the only country where the locals used war as an excuse to rid themselves of Jews.

Not in the same league of course but the book I have just started reading is by a man who started secondary school in Leeds at the beginning of the war and the fact that their country had just declared war on a country which was intent on eliminating Jews whilst in an ordinary school in Leeds the irony was lost on some who gave plenty of verbal if not physical discrimination.

Cuckoo’s Nest yes, but believe it or not I have never seen Easy Rider.
Favourites, on a lighter note, Alfie and The Italian Job. Favourite scene? The brawl that started in the pub over Alfie stealing a lorry driver’s hitch hiker (Jane Asher) and the wonderful Queenie Watts belting out a song on stage all the while dodging missiles. :rofl:

Surely Les Visiteurs is a French classic non?? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

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Non, well maybe in France.