Tag Archives: Lino Ventura

cinema of the uncles (film: Les tontons flingueurs – Georges Lautner, 1963)

Almost every reference to ‘Les tontons flinguers‘ includes the phrase ‘cult film’. To be honest, I don’t know exactly what this expression means, but I suspect that what is meant in this case is that director Georges Lautner‘s film has … Continue reading

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damned be the savior (film: 125, rue Montmartre – Gilles Grangier, 1959)

The year 1959 in which Gilles Grangier‘s ‘125 rue Montmartre‘ was made was not an ordinary year in the history of French cinema. It was the year of the release of films like ‘Les quatre cent coups’ and ‘Hiroshima mon … Continue reading

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the killer and the suicidal (film: L’emmerdeur – Édouard Molinaro, 1973)

What a gem is ‘L’emmerdeur‘ (distributed in the Anglophone market as ‘A Pain in the Ass‘), the 85-minute film made in 1973 by Édouard Molinaro. It is a ‘noir’ comedy that catches Lino Ventura at the peak of his popularity … Continue reading

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night in the city (film: Un témoin dans la ville – Édouard Molinaro, 1959)

‘Un témoin dans la ville‘, the third feature film made in 1959 by Édouard Molinaro, begins with a scene of a murder on a train that seems taken from an Alfred Hitchcock film and ends with an anthological and original … Continue reading

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much more than a crime drama (Film: Garde a vue – Lino Ventura, Romy Schneider, 1981)

‘Garde a vue‘, made in 1981, brings together on screen two of the super-stars of French cinema from the ’60s and’ 70s, each of them in one of their last films, although neither their age nor their artistic form indicates … Continue reading

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code of honor (film: Classe Tous Risques – Claude Sautet, 1960)

A discovery. Made in 1960, at the peak of the French New Wave, ‘Classe Tous Risques‘ is a classic gangsters movie, directed by Claude Sautet, the screen adaptation of a novel by José Giovanni. Like many other filmmakers who began … Continue reading

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before The Godfather was The Clan (film: Le clan des siciliens – Henri Verneuil, 1969)

Half a century after its making of ‘Le clan des siciliens‘ (English title – ‘The Sicilian Clan’ – a 1969 production) remains in my opinion one of the best mob films ever made. Of course, the casting of Jean Gabin, … Continue reading

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film noir in Paris and Marseille (film: Le Deuxième Souffle – Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966)

Nowadays, films that last more than two hours or even two and a half hours are no longer a rarity, on the contrary, they have become almost the norm. This was not the case in 1966, when Jean-Pierre Melville directed … Continue reading

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looking for the lost life (Film: Le silencieux – Lino Ventura, 1973)

I decided to see ‘Le Silencieux‘ especially for Lino Ventura, an actor whom I greatly admired in the 60s and 70s. Specializing in ‘rough’ characters from one side or the other of the law, Ventura played in feature films. action … Continue reading

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Film: L’Armee des Ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969)

I was writing a while ago that when Quentin Tarantino was making Inglorious Basterds he was not so much making a film about the Second World War and the Holocaust, but more a Tarantino film that happens during the Second … Continue reading

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