It's difficult to make a film for adults which is at the same time artistic, erotic and enjoyable. The film of Philip Mond deserves a place in the conventional cinema. The only critic I can make is the story which is, as always in erotic movies, a bit weak. I sincerely regret that ZAZEL is the only work of Philip Mond. Could somebody explain that to me ? As far, I never saw a film so beautiful in the genre. No doubt Sasha Vinni is, with Dahlia Grey, the heroïne of Andrew Blake, one of the most beautiful women in the world.
Reviews
8 Reviews
La rage au coeur
(1994 TV Movie)
ONE OF THE BEST FRENCH FILM-NOIR OF THE LAST YEARS
7 September 2002
Fury at the heart ! This is not precisely a classic of the French cinema but the story of Jeanne and Marie deserves a place in the best movies of action. Robin Davis is not Hawks nor Wilder but he did certainly a good job.
Jeanne, her second husband, Michel, and her teen daughter Marie live quietly in the South of France. Actually she is hiding a mysterious past in which she took part with her first husband and his friend in a bank robbery.Her husband was killed in the action and only Jeanne knows where the money is.
One day, a man enters violently in their lives, raping Marie and turning the life in a nightmare for the two women. That man is seeking revenge for passing 15 years in jail and trying to recover the money. This is only the beginning of a long story with impressive consequences.
As I said after seeing " La Banquise ", Clémentine Célarié is a great actress and Robin Davis could go a long way as a director. My only surprise is that the members of IMDB have not yet put a rating at this good movie,eight years after his production. For me it's 9 out of 10.
Jeanne, her second husband, Michel, and her teen daughter Marie live quietly in the South of France. Actually she is hiding a mysterious past in which she took part with her first husband and his friend in a bank robbery.Her husband was killed in the action and only Jeanne knows where the money is.
One day, a man enters violently in their lives, raping Marie and turning the life in a nightmare for the two women. That man is seeking revenge for passing 15 years in jail and trying to recover the money. This is only the beginning of a long story with impressive consequences.
As I said after seeing " La Banquise ", Clémentine Célarié is a great actress and Robin Davis could go a long way as a director. My only surprise is that the members of IMDB have not yet put a rating at this good movie,eight years after his production. For me it's 9 out of 10.
La banquise
(2000 TV Movie)
THE WONDERFUL BUT SAD STORY OF A COURAGEOUS WOMAN
5 August 2002
Banquise in french means ice-bank. The title is a play of words, for it is what Clemence Van Khise is : a cold, tough, relentless woman.
The south of France. 1935. Clemence, a young woman dogged and knowing what she wants, raises alone her eleven years little boy, despising all the men who try to seduce her.A few days after their marriage she has rejected a husband who wasn't the man she was dreaming of.
1943 : the little boy is a handsome young man. Through him, one day, his father discovers his wife who works as an independent post-office-tobacconist in a little village. With a repugnant blackmail he proposes her a deal tan contemptible that she has no other choice but kill him. The same year the german army invades France. Riri, Clemence's son, decides to enter the " Resistance" with a spanish friend. Von Kandler, the german officer who occupies the village with his group,has instal- led himself in Clemence's house. They become lovers.
From here a game of spying, treachery, love, tenderness, hate, which gives the story an unexpected turn and an unforseeen final.
Clementine Celarié is a great actress, renowned in France, and deserving the success she gets right now on a Paris'stage. I liked this picture and recommend it. I give it a 4/5.
The south of France. 1935. Clemence, a young woman dogged and knowing what she wants, raises alone her eleven years little boy, despising all the men who try to seduce her.A few days after their marriage she has rejected a husband who wasn't the man she was dreaming of.
1943 : the little boy is a handsome young man. Through him, one day, his father discovers his wife who works as an independent post-office-tobacconist in a little village. With a repugnant blackmail he proposes her a deal tan contemptible that she has no other choice but kill him. The same year the german army invades France. Riri, Clemence's son, decides to enter the " Resistance" with a spanish friend. Von Kandler, the german officer who occupies the village with his group,has instal- led himself in Clemence's house. They become lovers.
From here a game of spying, treachery, love, tenderness, hate, which gives the story an unexpected turn and an unforseeen final.
Clementine Celarié is a great actress, renowned in France, and deserving the success she gets right now on a Paris'stage. I liked this picture and recommend it. I give it a 4/5.
The Daughters of Fortune
(1999)
The cheerless life of many russian women in this beginning of century
16 May 2002
Natasza,an attractive teacher, married with a nice guy, Andrei, lives in Moscow with her two girls, Masza and Katia.After losing his job, Andrei starts to drink. Desperate, Natasza decides to go to Varsovia with her best friend, Vera, and her daughter Masza to sell second-hand clothes bought very cheap in Moscow. But in Varsovia, Vera is involved in drug business and finally found murdered. To subsist, Olga starts to sell her body and becomes a luxurious prostitute. She tries by all means to keep Masza out of this sad world, full of sexual weirdness. The ability of directress Marta Mészáros and the talent of actresses Olga Droz-dova, Ewa Telega and Masza Petraniuk make of this picture one of the best made in Poland those last years. Mészáros shows us a sensitive and poetical portraiture of many women in the present Russia, obliged to use the saddest means to make a living. A very good film indeed !
Gloomy Sunday
(1999)
A " menage-a-trois" can be terribly pathetic
7 April 2002
Beautiful Budapest, end of the thirties. Lazlo Szabo a middle-aged jew Hungarian runs a chic restaurant with a beautiful waitress,Ilona who is also his mistress. One day they decide to hire a pianist, and it's Ilona who choose. And it's a good choice because the handsome young man, Andras, creates a wonderful mood on the premises. Little by little he falls desperately in love with Ilona and composes specially for her a song, very melancholic, and a bit misterious. He calls it " Gloomy sunday ". This song brings surprisingly a lot of suicides. The love-triangle functions pretty well until the time a german customer, Hans, who comes regularly in the restaurant falls in love with Ilona, without success.A few years later the german army invades Hungary, Hans is back as a highly placed officer and the jewish condition of Lazlo is going to complicate the lives of the four protagonists. This movie is a master- piece and I'd bet if the film had been produced in Hollywood with Stone, Douglas and Harrison Ford, directed by Cassavetes it would have gained several Oscars. It has all a movie fan can expect from a good film -and more. Beautiful scenery, very good story, marvelous music, talent of the actors, and even a bit of sex. I rarely see a picture twice on the same day. This time I did.
Forget Me
(1994)
A reflection on the sadness of love
20 March 2001
It is the story of people who don't succeed in realizing their lives and themselves. It could happen anywhere but once more it shows that, very often, love can bring sorrow and unhappiness if one demand too much of it. Noémie Lvovsky has taken the best of ordinary actors and of a common story. The picture is very good.
The Banned Woman
(1997)
Un unusual way to shoot a picture
1 July 2000
A beautiful picture. Official selection Cannes 1997. Nomination at the CESAR and Prix Romy Schneider for Isabelle Carré. 100% of joy. François is 39, married and a child. Lives confortably. Muriel is 22, single and free. They meet casually and the man tries to seduce the girl. What happens now is common place in an adultery. But the way Philippe Harel presents the story is unique. The dialogue and, most of all, the beautiful face of Isabelle casts a spell over us, the viewers. As a matter of fact we don't see anybody else than the young girl, not even her lover. All which is out of Muriel's feelings is left aside and, in his way to explore the intimacy of the human beeing, without unkindness nor complaisance, Harel reinvented the strategy of seduction, like it used to be 200 years ago, but introducing the erotism which was then concealed. I couldn't help thinking in the masterpiece of Paul Geraldy in 1913 " TOI et MOI" ( You and Me), a pure marvel.
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