Other Books by Roger Ebert
An Illini Century: One Hundred Years of Campus Life
A Kiss Is Still a Kiss
Two Weeks in the Midday Sun: A Cannes Notebook
Behind the Phantom’s Mask
Roger Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary
Roger Ebert’s Movie Home Companion (annually 1986–1993)
Roger Ebert’s Video Companion (annually 1994–1998)
Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook (annually 1999–2007, 2009–2012)
Questions for the Movie Answer Man
Roger Ebert’s Book of Film: From Tolstoy to Tarantino, the Finest Writing from a Century of Film
Ebert’s Bigger Little Movie Glossary
I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie
The Great Movies
The Great Movies II
Your Movie Sucks
Roger Ebert’s Four-Star Reviews 1967–2007
Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert
Scorsese by Ebert
Life Itself: A Memoir
A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length
With Daniel Curley
The Perfect London Walk
With Gene Siskel
The Future of the Movies: Interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas
DVD Commentary Tracks
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Citizen Kane
Dark City
Casablanca
Crumb
Floating Weeds
Other Ebert’s Essentials
33 Movies to Restore Your Faith in Humanity
25 Movies to Mend a Broken Heart
27 Movies from the Dark Side
25 Great French Films copyright © 2012 by Roger Ebert. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.
Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
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ISBN: 978-1-4494-2149-6
All the reviews in this book originally appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times.
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Contents
Introduction
Key to Symbols
Amélie
Au Revoir les Enfants
Belle de Jour
Breathless
Caché
Cyrano de Bergerac
Day for Night
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The 400 Blows
Grand Illusion
The Hairdresser’s Husband
Jean de Florette
Jules and Jim
La Vie en Rose
Le Belle Noiseuse
Le Boucher
The Man on the Train
Manon of the Spring
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
My Father’s Glory
My Mother’s Castle
Rendezvous in Paris
The Rules of the Game
A Sunday in the Country
Three Color Trilogy
Introduction
The three great cinemas of the world, it is generally agreed, are those of Hollywood, France, and Japan. Generalizations are dangerous, but in recent years, France seems to be in the lead. That may be because most new French films are made for adults, about adults. Upon the shoulders of Hollywood falls the weight of supplying the global market for action and violence. Hollywood also satisfies that market for France itself, leaving the field for grown-up films to the French.
France has a claim to have coinvented the cinema with some of the earliest filmmakers in the world. Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) introduced a new audience to the magic of Georges Méliès, whose works such as A Trip to the Moon (1902) showed a man delighted by the tricks he could play with special effects.
France also claims to have discovered Hollywood cinema, doing us a favor. The auteur theory, created by the critics and directors around the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, celebrated well-made genre works that were dismissed as “B movies” by American critics, but praised by the French as masterworks. Such directors as Hawks, Sturges, Ford, and Minnelli joined a new pantheon.
From that period came forth the French New Wave, introducing a new group of French directors who were mostly critics for the magazine. In this e-book I’ve provided a sample of their films: Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants; Godard’s Breathless; Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, Day for Night, and Jules and Jim; Rivette’s Le Belle Noiseuse; and Chabrol’s Le Boucher.
Then there are the great pioneers, most notably Jean Renoir, whose The Rules of the Game is often cited as one of a handful of the greatest of all films, and his Grand Illusion is often on the same lists. Luis Buñuel, from Spain, made films in Mexico and then made many contributions to the French cinema, of which I’ve suggested Belle de Jour and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
No category exists that includes Jacques Tati, a great original, whose Mr. Hulot’s Holiday invents a way of drawing great humor from characters regarded fixedly with fascination and consternation. There is a pair of 1991 films here by Yves Robert, My Father’s Glory and My Mother’s Castle, both based on books by Marcel Pagnol. Together they make a remarkable impression, but are rarely seen today. They might be a discovery for you.
Two other films, The Hairdresser’s Husband and The Man on the Train, are by Patrice Leconte, a stand-alone original who likes characters who frankly embrace their eccentricities.
And what can we make of Caché, a spellbinding film with a great puzzle it circles but never is able to quite resolve. I was so incautious to try to explain it in a blog, and inspired tens of thousands of words from readers trying to set me, or each other, straight.
And there are several more. The pleasure of a little collection like this is in imagining readers finding treasure in the glory of French films and continuing to explore.
ROGER EBERT
Key to Symbols
A great film
G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17
: Ratings of the Motion Picture Association of America
G
Indicates that the movie is suitable for general audiences
PG
Suitable for general audiences but parental guidance is suggested
PG-13
Recommended for viewers 13 years or above; may contain material inappropriate for younger children
R
Recommended for viewers 17 or older
NC-17
Intended for adults only
141 m.
Running time
2011
Year of theatrical release
Amélie
R, 115 m., 2001
Audrey Tautou (Amélie Poulain), Mathieu Kassovitz (Nino Quicampoix), Rufus (Raphaël Poulain), Yolande Moreau (Madeleine Wallace), Artus de Penguern (Hipolito [The Writer]), Urbain Cancelier (Collignon [The Grocer]), Dominique Pinon (Joseph), Maurice Bénichou (Dominique Bretodeau [The Box Man]), Claude Perron (Eva [The Stripteaser]). Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and produced by Jean-Marc Deschamps and Claudie Ossard. Screenplay by Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant.