Le Quattro Volte; The Beaver; Potiche; Bobby Fischer Against the World
The greatest problem with Le Quattro Volte (2010, New Wave, U) is figuring out how to describe it in a manner that doesn't sound either fantastically off-putting, unbearably pretentious or just plain boring. Calling it a "near-silent Italian goat farming film", for example, clearly does director Michelangelo Frammartino's extraordinary vision few favours, as does highlighting its central concern with archaic methods of charcoal production in Calabria that have been passed down from generation to generation. Labelling it a "meditation on life, the universe and everything" is even worse (this has nothing in common with Malick's Tree of Life), particularly when one adds to the mix an underlying thesis about the transmigration of souls. One sublimely comic scene – involving a dog, a van and a piece of wood – could be compared to those allegedly "unstaged" clips from You've Been Framed,...
The greatest problem with Le Quattro Volte (2010, New Wave, U) is figuring out how to describe it in a manner that doesn't sound either fantastically off-putting, unbearably pretentious or just plain boring. Calling it a "near-silent Italian goat farming film", for example, clearly does director Michelangelo Frammartino's extraordinary vision few favours, as does highlighting its central concern with archaic methods of charcoal production in Calabria that have been passed down from generation to generation. Labelling it a "meditation on life, the universe and everything" is even worse (this has nothing in common with Malick's Tree of Life), particularly when one adds to the mix an underlying thesis about the transmigration of souls. One sublimely comic scene – involving a dog, a van and a piece of wood – could be compared to those allegedly "unstaged" clips from You've Been Framed,...
- 10/8/2011
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
The French comedy Potiche, a satire about the war between the sexes and classes by the prolific François Ozon (Hideaway), arrives on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. on July 19 from Music Box Films.
Starring French film legends Gerard Depardieu (Inspector Bellamy) and Catherine Deneuve (Park Benches), Potiche is a loose adaptation of the popular 1970s French stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy (Cactus Flower).
Set in a provincial French town in 1977, the movie tells the story of Suzanne Pujot (Deneuve), who’s the housebound trophy wife of the tyrannical industrialist Robert Pjuol (Fabrice Luchini, Moliere). When the workers go on strike and her husband has a heart attack, Suzanne steps into the manager’s chair and proves herself a very capable woman of action. But when she gets romantically involved with her ex-beau, the union leader (Depardieu), things get complicated.
Incidentally, the title, Potiche, is a...
Starring French film legends Gerard Depardieu (Inspector Bellamy) and Catherine Deneuve (Park Benches), Potiche is a loose adaptation of the popular 1970s French stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy (Cactus Flower).
Set in a provincial French town in 1977, the movie tells the story of Suzanne Pujot (Deneuve), who’s the housebound trophy wife of the tyrannical industrialist Robert Pjuol (Fabrice Luchini, Moliere). When the workers go on strike and her husband has a heart attack, Suzanne steps into the manager’s chair and proves herself a very capable woman of action. But when she gets romantically involved with her ex-beau, the union leader (Depardieu), things get complicated.
Incidentally, the title, Potiche, is a...
- 7/12/2011
- by Sam
- Disc Dish
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
France has a rich history of cinematic farce, and of cinematic melodrama, but never have the two been so brazenly fused as in François Ozon’s Potiche.
Based on a play of the same name by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, the story charts the unexpected rise of trophy wife (‘potiche’ in French) Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve) against the backdrop of 1970s political and social unrest in a small French village.
Her husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini) is the man in charge of the local umbrella factory, and the main employer in the village. He acquired his position by marrying Suzanne, whose father founded the business, and has become an authoritarian boss. He’s none too please with the unrest, and blames mayor and former union man Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu).
Underneath these big political tensions lie gender assumptions, sexual flings and indiscretions, and familial problems as...
France has a rich history of cinematic farce, and of cinematic melodrama, but never have the two been so brazenly fused as in François Ozon’s Potiche.
Based on a play of the same name by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, the story charts the unexpected rise of trophy wife (‘potiche’ in French) Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve) against the backdrop of 1970s political and social unrest in a small French village.
Her husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini) is the man in charge of the local umbrella factory, and the main employer in the village. He acquired his position by marrying Suzanne, whose father founded the business, and has become an authoritarian boss. He’s none too please with the unrest, and blames mayor and former union man Maurice Babin (Gérard Depardieu).
Underneath these big political tensions lie gender assumptions, sexual flings and indiscretions, and familial problems as...
- 6/22/2011
- by Michael Edwards
- Obsessed with Film
Catherine Deneuve stars in Francois Ozon's stage adaptation, a hilarious French comedy of deliberate naffness, says Peter Bradshaw
If Hillary and Tenzing were to erect a tent at Everest's peak, on stilts, the overall effect could not be more high camp than this bizarre and often hilarious 1970s-set drawing-room comedy from French film-maker François Ozon, and starring a resplendent Catherine Deneuve. It is a period pastiche executed with brilliant attention to detail and a weird, suppressed passion, like a sitcom in a bad dream. A batsqueak of strangeness is audible above the dialogue and perky orchestral score, and something odd occasionally peeps out from the soft furnishings. Buñuel might have taken it further; Ozon coolly leaves it at the garish, minutely rendered surface level. There is, however, more than enough here to generate comedy, satire and shrewd comment on what might be going on in the collective mind of Giscard d'Estaing's France,...
If Hillary and Tenzing were to erect a tent at Everest's peak, on stilts, the overall effect could not be more high camp than this bizarre and often hilarious 1970s-set drawing-room comedy from French film-maker François Ozon, and starring a resplendent Catherine Deneuve. It is a period pastiche executed with brilliant attention to detail and a weird, suppressed passion, like a sitcom in a bad dream. A batsqueak of strangeness is audible above the dialogue and perky orchestral score, and something odd occasionally peeps out from the soft furnishings. Buñuel might have taken it further; Ozon coolly leaves it at the garish, minutely rendered surface level. There is, however, more than enough here to generate comedy, satire and shrewd comment on what might be going on in the collective mind of Giscard d'Estaing's France,...
- 6/16/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
HeyUGuys brings you the latest in World Cinema film trailers in association with Film Dates UK.
Each week we’ll be showcasing some of most anticipated foreign releases as well as highlighting a few hidden gems which may have fallen off your radar. It’s no surprise that Hollywood has turned to World Cinema for inspiration in recent years with the number of remakes getting more and more popular.
Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these remakes go on to succeed or stay true to their original story counterparts, we decided it was high-time we turned the spotlight onto the next wave of foreign films to grace our screens.
This week we have 5 new trailers for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Always Kabhi Kabhi UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011
Synopsis: A story centered on four students coming of age during a year at their school, St.
Each week we’ll be showcasing some of most anticipated foreign releases as well as highlighting a few hidden gems which may have fallen off your radar. It’s no surprise that Hollywood has turned to World Cinema for inspiration in recent years with the number of remakes getting more and more popular.
Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these remakes go on to succeed or stay true to their original story counterparts, we decided it was high-time we turned the spotlight onto the next wave of foreign films to grace our screens.
This week we have 5 new trailers for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Always Kabhi Kabhi UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 17th June 2011
Synopsis: A story centered on four students coming of age during a year at their school, St.
- 6/16/2011
- by Andy Petrou
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Empire have débuted the latest poster for Potiche, an upcoming French comedy of manners that you will become infinitely familiar with through Orange’s new cinema gold spot. That’s right, Rio is bye bye.
Potiche – based on Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy’s play of the same name - follows Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve), a French trophy wife who uses her husband’s illness, and his subsequent imprisonment by his revolting employees, to take the reigns of his business: an umbrella factory. With an old flame (Gérard Depardieu) back in the fray, however, the question is whether he will help, or hinder, her planned takeover.
You can check out François Ozon’s Potiche when it hits theatres on June 17, and with every cinema visit until Orange next get around to changing their infernal advert.
Potiche – based on Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy’s play of the same name - follows Suzanne Pujol (Catherine Deneuve), a French trophy wife who uses her husband’s illness, and his subsequent imprisonment by his revolting employees, to take the reigns of his business: an umbrella factory. With an old flame (Gérard Depardieu) back in the fray, however, the question is whether he will help, or hinder, her planned takeover.
You can check out François Ozon’s Potiche when it hits theatres on June 17, and with every cinema visit until Orange next get around to changing their infernal advert.
- 5/30/2011
- by Steven Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Here’s a quick French quiz to kick off your Friday. Is a 'Potiche' (a) a specialist potty, (b) Howard Marks’ favourite lunchtime dish, or (c) Catherine Deneuve in an old-school Adidas tracksuit?If you answered (c) congratulations! Take the rest of the week off. The legendary French actress, dipping into the Beastie Boys’ wardrobe for the film’s new poster, is the ‘potiche’ or trophy wife at the heart of François Ozon’s new comedy of manners. The script is adapted from a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy.It’s the kind of movie that only the French seem to pull off, with comedy squirrels sharing screentime with a coyly romantic Gérard Depardieu and a ‘70s backdrop straight out of a fashion catalogue in your parents’ loft.Deneuve is the wife of factory boss Fabrice Luchini, a sexist, militantly right wing cad, who treats both...
- 5/27/2011
- EmpireOnline
Reviewed by Jay Antani
(March 2011)
Directed/Written by: François Ozon
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier and Judith Godrèche
Catherine Deneuve continues her run as world cinema’s most gracefully aging actress. In François Ozon’s fitfully funny 1977-set “Potiche,” Deneuve plays Suzanne, bourgeois housewife to Robert (Fabrice Luchini), the haughty, irascible owner of an umbrella factory. Suzanne lives in a state of blissful submission — in other words, the “potiche,” or trophy wife, of the title — content with scribbling poems, housekeeping and needlework while her husband lords it over a factory full of discontented workers.
When the workers strike, however, a stress-induced heart condition forces Robert into months of recovery, so Suzanne takes over the business. Not only does she transform the factory into a model of style, productivity and worker satisfaction, she brings her homemaker daughter Joëlle (Judith Godrèche) and artsy college-student son Laurent...
(March 2011)
Directed/Written by: François Ozon
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier and Judith Godrèche
Catherine Deneuve continues her run as world cinema’s most gracefully aging actress. In François Ozon’s fitfully funny 1977-set “Potiche,” Deneuve plays Suzanne, bourgeois housewife to Robert (Fabrice Luchini), the haughty, irascible owner of an umbrella factory. Suzanne lives in a state of blissful submission — in other words, the “potiche,” or trophy wife, of the title — content with scribbling poems, housekeeping and needlework while her husband lords it over a factory full of discontented workers.
When the workers strike, however, a stress-induced heart condition forces Robert into months of recovery, so Suzanne takes over the business. Not only does she transform the factory into a model of style, productivity and worker satisfaction, she brings her homemaker daughter Joëlle (Judith Godrèche) and artsy college-student son Laurent...
- 3/22/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Reviewed by Jay Antani
(March 2011)
Directed/Written by: François Ozon
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier and Judith Godrèche
Catherine Deneuve continues her run as world cinema’s most gracefully aging actress. In François Ozon’s fitfully funny 1977-set “Potiche,” Deneuve plays Suzanne, bourgeois housewife to Robert (Fabrice Luchini), the haughty, irascible owner of an umbrella factory. Suzanne lives in a state of blissful submission — in other words, the “potiche,” or trophy wife, of the title — content with scribbling poems, housekeeping and needlework while her husband lords it over a factory full of discontented workers.
When the workers strike, however, a stress-induced heart condition forces Robert into months of recovery, so Suzanne takes over the business. Not only does she transform the factory into a model of style, productivity and worker satisfaction, she brings her homemaker daughter Joëlle (Judith Godrèche) and artsy college-student son Laurent...
(March 2011)
Directed/Written by: François Ozon
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini, Karin Viard, Jérémie Renier and Judith Godrèche
Catherine Deneuve continues her run as world cinema’s most gracefully aging actress. In François Ozon’s fitfully funny 1977-set “Potiche,” Deneuve plays Suzanne, bourgeois housewife to Robert (Fabrice Luchini), the haughty, irascible owner of an umbrella factory. Suzanne lives in a state of blissful submission — in other words, the “potiche,” or trophy wife, of the title — content with scribbling poems, housekeeping and needlework while her husband lords it over a factory full of discontented workers.
When the workers strike, however, a stress-induced heart condition forces Robert into months of recovery, so Suzanne takes over the business. Not only does she transform the factory into a model of style, productivity and worker satisfaction, she brings her homemaker daughter Joëlle (Judith Godrèche) and artsy college-student son Laurent...
- 3/22/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
"Cactus Flower" is in the midst of revival, but sitting through the off-Broadway production, one must ask why.
When we need to use the phrase "sitting through" as in enduring, it pretty much tells you everything. The other version of this now playing is "Just Go With It" the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie.
The plot revolves around a dentist, Dr, Julian Winston, (Maxwell Caulfield) a womanizer, who falls in love with Toni, (Jenni Barber) a zany waif working in a Greenwich Village record store. Barber unsuccessfully channels Goldie Hawn from the Oscar-winning 1969 film version.
Julian lies and tells her that he's that the married father of three, to avoid commitment.
The play opens with Toni trying to gas herself. Her neighbor, Igor Sullivan, (Jeremy Bobb) gallantly breaks in to her apartment, revives and falls in love with her.
Julian's nurse, Stephanie Dickinson (Lois Robbins) is in love with him.
When we need to use the phrase "sitting through" as in enduring, it pretty much tells you everything. The other version of this now playing is "Just Go With It" the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston movie.
The plot revolves around a dentist, Dr, Julian Winston, (Maxwell Caulfield) a womanizer, who falls in love with Toni, (Jenni Barber) a zany waif working in a Greenwich Village record store. Barber unsuccessfully channels Goldie Hawn from the Oscar-winning 1969 film version.
Julian lies and tells her that he's that the married father of three, to avoid commitment.
The play opens with Toni trying to gas herself. Her neighbor, Igor Sullivan, (Jeremy Bobb) gallantly breaks in to her apartment, revives and falls in love with her.
Julian's nurse, Stephanie Dickinson (Lois Robbins) is in love with him.
- 3/10/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Reviewed at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
Deneuve runs! France's most immaculate actress kicks off "Potiche" in a tracksuit, jogging through the woods, controlling her breathing and taking in the birds, deer and mating rabbits along the path. She plays Suzanne Pujol, an impossibly glamorous neglected housewife -- a potiche, a decorative object -- whose husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini) cheats on her, ignores her in favor of tyrannically running her family's factory (that makes, naturally, umbrellas) and, shame of all shames, forgets her birthday. Suzanne is uncomplaining and irreproachably coiffed, spending her days puttering around the house and turning a blind eye to her husband's indiscretions... until the stress of striking workers destroys his health and leaves her temporarily in charge of running the company.
Based on a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, and set in 1977, "Potiche" finds Ozon back in the campy territory of "8 Women," though the...
Deneuve runs! France's most immaculate actress kicks off "Potiche" in a tracksuit, jogging through the woods, controlling her breathing and taking in the birds, deer and mating rabbits along the path. She plays Suzanne Pujol, an impossibly glamorous neglected housewife -- a potiche, a decorative object -- whose husband Robert (Fabrice Luchini) cheats on her, ignores her in favor of tyrannically running her family's factory (that makes, naturally, umbrellas) and, shame of all shames, forgets her birthday. Suzanne is uncomplaining and irreproachably coiffed, spending her days puttering around the house and turning a blind eye to her husband's indiscretions... until the stress of striking workers destroys his health and leaves her temporarily in charge of running the company.
Based on a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy, and set in 1977, "Potiche" finds Ozon back in the campy territory of "8 Women," though the...
- 10/17/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
Photo by Fabrizio Maltese/Ef Press/fabriziomaltese.com, Venice 2010.
"Venice is this year becoming a festival notable for high drama and high camp, and so it proves again with this enjoyable, farcical French picture from the prolific master craftsman François Ozon, based on a 1980 stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy," begins the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "It's a wacky 70s-period screwball comedy with a blue-chip cast and a tone which is arch, knowing and self-aware but also somehow affectionate and even, I suspect, deeply serious about the indomitable spirit of France itself, in the queenly person of Catherine Deneuve. It is a veritable palimpsest of irony levels; perhaps only a French audience can fully respond to its nods and winks."...
"Venice is this year becoming a festival notable for high drama and high camp, and so it proves again with this enjoyable, farcical French picture from the prolific master craftsman François Ozon, based on a 1980 stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy," begins the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "It's a wacky 70s-period screwball comedy with a blue-chip cast and a tone which is arch, knowing and self-aware but also somehow affectionate and even, I suspect, deeply serious about the indomitable spirit of France itself, in the queenly person of Catherine Deneuve. It is a veritable palimpsest of irony levels; perhaps only a French audience can fully respond to its nods and winks."...
- 9/6/2010
- MUBI
Catherine Deneuve leads a blue-chip cast in a François Ozon screwball comedy which is arch, knowing and self-aware
Venice is this year becoming a festival notable for high drama and high camp, and so it proves again with this enjoyable, farcical French picture from the prolific master craftsman François Ozon, based on a 1980 stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy.
It's a wacky 70s-period screwball comedy with a blue-chip cast and a tone which is arch, knowing and self-aware but also somehow affectionate and even, I suspect, deeply serious about the indomitable spirit of France itself, in the queenly person of Catherine Deneuve. It is a veritable palimpsest of irony levels; perhaps only a French audience can fully respond to its nods and winks.
The British film industry might produce an equivalent, perhaps, by hiring Michael Winterbottom to direct a post-modernised screen adaptation of a Brian Rix farce, using...
Venice is this year becoming a festival notable for high drama and high camp, and so it proves again with this enjoyable, farcical French picture from the prolific master craftsman François Ozon, based on a 1980 stage play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy.
It's a wacky 70s-period screwball comedy with a blue-chip cast and a tone which is arch, knowing and self-aware but also somehow affectionate and even, I suspect, deeply serious about the indomitable spirit of France itself, in the queenly person of Catherine Deneuve. It is a veritable palimpsest of irony levels; perhaps only a French audience can fully respond to its nods and winks.
The British film industry might produce an equivalent, perhaps, by hiring Michael Winterbottom to direct a post-modernised screen adaptation of a Brian Rix farce, using...
- 9/5/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
We've all seen the pic of Catherine Deneuve in her red track suit, and now we've got two more to pad up our enthusiasm for what could be a great film from distinguished filmmaker François Ozon. Potiche is receiving its world premiere in Venice and is tethered to a logical release at Tiff, and what I'm expecting is a lighter commentary on gender and class differences -- a break from the seriousness we find in his last film Le Refuge (opens next month in L.A and New York next month), the pic describes how a bourgeois housewife takes on a rough union leader (Gerard Depardieu) by getting cosy with him. Why this wasn't included in Cannes is baffling - look for this import to be high up on the list of priorities for Sony Pictures Classics, IFC Films and nay of the distributors who might have picked up his...
- 8/19/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Coming off the recent, critically well-received, smaller in scale Le Refuge (a drama that initially is conceived as an addiction drama but is better labeled as a film about yearning and loneliness, François Ozon has commenced shooting his 12th feature titled Potiche. - Coming off the recent, critically well-received, smaller in scale Le Refuge (a drama that initially is conceived as an addiction drama but is better labeled as a film about yearning and loneliness, François Ozon has commenced shooting his 12th feature titled Potiche. He'll be A couple of last minute adjustments, headliners Ludivine Sagnier and Cécile De France appear to have been replaced by Karin Viard and Judith Godrèche, and Ozon will be reuniting with Catherine Deneuve (8 Women) and Jérémie Renier. Filling out the cast we find Gérard Depardieu take the supporting role and Fabrice Luchini playing the antagonist.
- 12/13/2009
- by Ioncinema.com Staff
- IONCINEMA.com
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