Director - Maurice Pialat
Pialat turns his eye on a group of bored teens in a tiny French town. We follow them as they mooch about town, meet up in the one café where they hang out, watch them form relationships that fall apart in the time it takes to smoke an incredibly strong French cigarette. They all dream of escaping to Paris, but will any of them actually get it together to do it? On paper it sounds dull, on screen it’s anything but. Hypnotic.
Director - Louis Malle
Bonkers Louis Malle film set in a not so distant future where the war of the sexes (literally) is in full swing. Lily (an Alice in Wonderland type) stumbles across a farm (Malle’s own county pile in fact), and ends up being drawn into the weird goings on inside. Malle made the film up as he went along and it shows, there’s almost no dialogue and what little there is emanates from the mouth of the various animals rather than the humans. Best approached as the sort of film you'll probably only ever watch the one time. But if you're a fan of Malle then it at least deserves that one viewing.
Director - Michael Haneke
Nasty tale about the relationship between a young piano student and his sadomasochist piano teacher. Not one to watch with your mum. Isabelle Huppert gives the sort of performance that if this was an American film would have everyone clapping their hands and talking about golden statuettes. But it’s a European film and as such you expect the acting to up to this standard. As with all of Haneke’s films this should be seen. And then talked about. It's quite icky though.
Director - Michael Haneke
Haneke’s post apocalyptic (or should that just be apocalyptic?) film about how rapidly society breaks down when things go tits up. It starts off in much the same way as Haneke's earlier masterpiece Funny Games (1997), with a family arriving at their summer house only to find it already occupied. Isabelle Huppert carries the majority of the first half of the film, before falling into the background for the final half. Rape, murder and animal cruelty. You’ll need a shower afterwards. As always with Haneke this is essential viewing.
