Smart, independent, passionate: Jeanne Moreau’s film personae on view in Cinematheque series

Film
Well, I didn’t even know she died. I can be forgiven as my own mother died the prior day. I was preoccupied. Still this eternal artist was not meant to perish. The magisterial French actress, the queen of assertive intellect and a noble sensuality, film star Jeanne Moreau (Jan 23, 1928 – July 31, 2017) ...

Strong female film characters on parade @ COL*COA

Film · Reviews
French actress Jeanne Moreau, platinum blonde and wrapped in a feather boa, poses in vast ennui in BAY OF ANGELS (1963) written and directed by Jacques Demy. Moreau plays a bored upper class housewife on an existential bender in the south of France. She gloms onto a young drifter, Jean, first by his pocketbook and ...

Paris arrives at L.A.’s doorstep for COL*COA @ the DGA

Film
We love the annual French film festival, COL*COA [City of Lights * City of Angels]. It’s a deep plunge, every April, into the latest of French cinema and, increasingly, the schedule is studded with digitally restored classics. The two viewing rooms at the Director’s Guild are among the loveliest in town; both are sparkling clean, ...

film noir francais 1

Film
Who knew? . . . when the American film establishment was hyping Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), that French director Rene Clement had filmed a superior version of Patricia Highsmith’s disturbing novel on location in Italy in 1960? And that Minghella’s version was a remake? Like, who knew that? I didn’t. arts•meme can’t ...