Heads up! Last chance to catch one of the best unreleased movies of the year--FREE!

The below is re-post of TM's take on a film first seen at Rendez-vous with French Cinema this past March. I and many of my compatriots loved the movie and imagined that it would be picked up for U.S. distribution (films by Robert Guédiguian usually are). No such luck. But thanks to The Cultural Services of the French Embassy and its yearly program of Films on the Green, New Yorkers have at least one more chance to see the movie. It plays tomorrow night, Friday, June 8, at 8:30 (admission is free but get there early and bring food and drink) -- in Washington Square Park, just below the end of Fifth Avenue by that big faux French arch.

Enjoy!

It's not Hemingway. No, it's better than that. The great strength of writer/director Robert Guédiguian is how he tells his stories from so many points of view, not in some stylish, what-is-truth? Rashomon manner, but intuitively, organically, from the inside out and so that we come to see how the people involved on all sides of a given situation understand that situation and will gain or lose from it. With THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, the filmmaker has outdone himself. (I can't think of a better film from him, in a raft of very good ones.)  Snows takes a layoff of workers in a shipyard as a starting point for exploring responsibility -- to oneself, one's family, friends, co-workers and even beyond.

The events that spin outward from this layoff (above) are both expected and not, and how the pivotal, negative and lawless post-event changes everything -- but not just for the worse -- turns the film into one of the richest, most intelligent and moving experiences in all of this year's Rendez-vous. Guédiguian is a political filmmaker, and a left-leaning one, I believe. But he never shies from showing us the other side -- not the right-wing one -- but the side that takes our beloved shiboleths and turns them inside out, forcing us to struggle with right and wrong from new angles. Yet the filmmaker is also a supreme humanist who never allows a principle to trump a person. That's what makes his work such a joy: the people are deep and real, and the life around them is, too.

In Snows, that life is lived by husband & wife Michael & Marie-Claire -- the "greats" Jean-Pierre Darroussin (above, left) and Ariane Ascaride (above, right) -- oft-used by this filmmaker. We get to know them, their best friends, and their children (in all, including the elderly woman taken care of by Marie-Claire, we see four generations here). We also come to know one of those laid-off workers, Christophe -- played by one of France's fine, up-and-coming new stars Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet (below, center, of Love Songs: click and scroll down) and The Princess of Montpensier). How these people connect and what happens subsequently is the stuff of great storytelling.

Along the way, we meet everyone from a delightful waiter with an eye for Marie-Claire (the terrific Pierre Niney of this Rendez-vous' 18 Years Old and Rising) to Christophe's mom (played exceedingly well and nastily by Karole Rocher, who was also the mom in this Rendez-vous' Last Screening and the recently released Polisse: She's cornering the market on bad moms!). Ms Rocher has a scene with Ms Ascaride that had me so angry I wanted to slap her face and shout, "Then have your tubes tied, bitch!"  (Really, this is so unlike me.) But it's a stunner of a scene that, again, allows you to see things -- appallingly irresponsible as they are -- from the viewpoint of this exceedingly selfish woman who has managed to connect herself to some even worse men.

By the time The Snows of Kilmanjaro concludes, you'll have lived through a lot and come out of it with greater understanding of how our lives are shaped by so many opposing forces. It's a wise movie, and Guédiguian's a wise movie-maker.  Don't miss this one -- which as yet, shockingly, has no U.S. distributor so far as I know. Maybe some enterprising distributor will show up at Film on the Green in Washington Square Park tomorrow night -- Friday, June 8 -- at dusk, watch the film, note the audience response, and take a chance on it.  We can hope.  (Click here to view this year's entire Films on the Green program.)

Preparing RENDEZ-VOUS, TrustMovies takes a break....

Even as the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Unifrance prepare for the annual RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA series, TrustMovies is preparing his annual and complete coverage of this event, which means viewing every one of the 22 new films, mulling and then posting.  

TM can tell you now, however, that the question What do we do with our immigrants? hovers over many of the films in the fest in some manner, major to minor. Whether those immigrants are in prison (above, in Free Hands), singing and dancing in a new musical (below, from Leila), part of a grand comedy of escalating events (as in Top Floor, Left Wing, shown at bottom) or -- as in one of the gems of this year's fest -- opening up the heart and soul of a bourgeiois gentleman of a half century ago in Service Entrance, shown at top), they play their parts sadly, comically, beautifully, meaningfully. And they keep that immigrant question bubbling on the front burner.

With 22 movies to cover (TM has seen almost all at this point), it'll take awhile, so when you hear from him again (early next week), that post will be up.  Meanwhile, you can peruse the entire festival, which this year has four separate venues, here (where you'll find the Walter Reade Theater schedule), here (that of the IFC Center), and here (the BAMcinématek). Opening night this year is at Manhattan's Paris Theater (but, as usual, opening night is already sold out).

At FIAF: two full months of Tuesdays featuring women in cinema -- French style!

Cinéma des femmes: Perspectives on Women Filmmakers is the name of this special CinémaTuesdays Film Series, and your host is the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF). Films screen each Tuesday, from February 8 through March 29, and the place is Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street in Manhattan, as New York's premiere French cultural center devotes itself to the rich history of women's film-making in France.

Co-curated by Marie Losier and Sam Di Iorio, Associate Professor of French at Hunter College, the series promises to explore a cross-section of films that represent a more eclectic list than the expected canon, and includes a U.S. premiere -- Nouakchott Rocks (click and scroll down; photo shown above), a 20-minute film from 2010, directed by Moira Tierney about daily life in Nouakchott, a coastal capital in Saharan Africa -- as well as an in-person appearance by one of France’s most acclaimed young directors, Mia Hansen-Løve (shown below, the writer/director of last year's a widely-heralded movie The Father of My Children), who will present her debut feature All Is Forgiven (Tout est pardonné). Click here and scroll down for my "take" on her earlier film.

The two-month series assembles a cross-section of female voices that have produced everything from an eighties musical to a handful of contemporary comedies, several auteurist favorites, silent shorts, and a rare precursor to cinéma vérité. Presented together, the curators claim, these films create an ideal starting point for fresh discussions on the history of women’s filmmaking in France, as well as an opportunity to begin answering the question posed in the title of Coline Serreau’s documentary “But What Do Women Want?” -- which is also included in the series.

Other highlights of the series include several shorts by Alice Guy Blaché, the first woman director and first woman to establish and preside over her own film studio; Christelle Lheureux and Sébastien Betbeder’s All Mountains Look Alike (Toutes les montagnes se ressemblentm, a still from which is shown above); Paula Delsol’s powerful New Wave gem La dérive; the U.S. premiere of Cecile Paris’ The Italians, A Debut (click and scroll down; photo shown below); Claire Denis’ acutely personal coming-of-age film U.S. Go Home; and Jackie Raynal’s moving documentary Merce Cunningham (click and scroll down), which she will present in person.

You can view the entire series -- with dates, screening times and the opportunity to buy tickets -- by clicking here.  This special series, as are all the CinemaTuesdays, is free to FIAF members: quite the good reason for joining, don't you think?

On-Demand: Dahan/Rocher's THE HORDE is one of the better, 2nd-tier zombie flicks

If only THE HORDE, the 2009 French zombie-movie-in-the-guise-of-an-action-flick (or maybe it's the other way around) had appeared a few years ago, it would have created a very big stir. As it is, the film is surprisingly watchable and often a lot of fun -- if you've a taste for zombie mayhem.  It's the first film among many in this need-of-new-blood genre that follows, nearly to the letter, the rules of some of the best action flicks (The Nest, for one). Consequently, action trumps everything and the film moves speedily (& gorily) along.

At this point in time, however, there have been so many second-tier zombie movies -- from the recent On-Demand (and very so-so) Mutants to the would-be franchise of REC and its sequel -- that, as good in some ways as is The Horde, more than a whiff of been-there/seen-that still clings (with teeth, at left) to the goings-on. For first-tier zombies, you must go back to films as different as the 1943 I Walked With a Zombie (from Lewton and Tourneur), Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead and Robin Campillo's strikingly original, socio-political-economic They Came Back, from 2004.

Co-directors (and co-writers, with help from a few others) Yannick Dahan (above, left) and Benjamin Rocher (above, right), after a fast and somewhat desultory exposition/introduction, get right to it. As usual in most of these Zom-movies, the plague (or whatever has caused the zombie appearance) seems to have happened nearly over-night.  In this case, it's nearly over-minute. By the time our cop non-heroes reach the roof of the decrepit public-housing building in which the bad guys reside, everyone else in France seems to have turned zombie.  (To the movie's credit, the scene below and in the distance, as seen from that roof, is startling and creepy.)

Given the action-movie pedigree here, the characterization is better-than-average -- and acted a bit better, too, by the likes of Eric Ebouaney (shown at right and so good in last year's Disgrace and 35 Shots of Rum); the beefy, sexy
Jean-Pierre Martins; the necessary female Claude Perron (who, though rail-thin, seems to have the strength of ten men); and Yves Pignot, below, who is introduced halfway along and adds more fun and zest to the proceedings.

What makes the movie zing are its many action set-pieces within the framework of the event-filled, escape-from-the-zombies plot. One after another of these occurs, with breathless pacing and enough surprise to keep us on guard -- the best of which may be M. Martins atop an abandoned car, below, looking for all the world like a rock star in the midst of his adoring fans. Except they're zombies, and he's whacking 'em to smithereens.  (The version of The Horde being shown On-Demand, by the way, is dubbed -- and pretty badly. Fortunately, dialog is not the film's strong point, though heard in its original French with appropriate subtitles, the opening scenes might have seemed better drawn and made a bit more sense.)

I should also say a word or two about the sound design on this movie. It's terrifically chilling and effective: You can savor every last whomp, smash, crunch and slurp.

Available now through November 11 via IFC's Midnight "On-Demand" series, The Horde should prove fine, dumb fun for zombie aficionados everywhere. Click here to learn how to get that fun.

Christophe Honoré's MAKING PLANS FOR LENA: the "entitlement" film of the year?

MAKING PLANS FOR LENA is writer/
director Christophe Honoré's third film to use Chiara Mastroianni, but it comes nowhere near the level of his earlier Love Songs. I find myself running hot and luke-warm to the work of this filmmaker; his latest is definitely in the latter category. Beautifully filmed in what I gather is Brittany (see photo at bottom), the movie -- as well as the Lena character played by Mastroianni -- fairly reeks of entitlement.

After a time, it is extremely difficult to watch Lena in action without wanting to haul off and smack the woman. Her behavior toward everyone around her grows more appalling as the movie progresses.

Could Honoré (shown at left) and Mastroianni be unaware of this? Is their film some kind of feminist statement? Embarrassing, if true. Women -- feminism -- need better agitators and explicators than are found here. But maybe that's just movie folk for you: They tackle life from, shall we say, a somewhat privileged position and expect to be congratulated for their efforts.

On the plus side is a cast filled with fine French actors -- from Marina Foïs (pregnant, center right) to Jean-Marc Barr (below, left), Marcial di Fonzo Bo and especially Marie-Christine Barrault (as the family's overbearing but dedicated mom). What a pleasure to see this great old actress in a good role again! Even that Honoré staple Louis Garrel (shown two photos below, bussing Ms Mastroianni) makes a short appearance, proving himself sexy and watchable, as always.

It's odd how differently we all react to watching the same thing. Stephen Holden, in his NY Times review found the odd section that tells (and shows) a folk take -- about a local bride, the villagers and dancing -- an kind of interruption that brings the film to a dead halt. TrustMovies found it much more pleasurable, if not completely comprehensible. At least it took us away from the the ridiculous Lena -- a character Holden found more interesting and worthwhile than did I.

Fans of Chiara Mastroianni, Honoré and the rest of his fine ensemble will certainly want to see the film, as did I prior to this theatrical run when the movie made its American debut last March during the FSLC's Rendez-vous With French Cinema. You couldn't have kept me from it, so maybe my warning review should not keep you from it, either.

Making Plans for Lena opens via IFC Films today, at Manhattan's IFC Center; click here for showtimes, etc.  Interestingly enough, the movie began its IFC-On-Demand run a week ago.  If you prefer at-home viewing, cilick here to see if it's available in your neighborhood.

The SFJFF must-see: Axelle Ropert's beautiful/devastating WOLBERG FAMILY; Q&A with the filmmaker

Of all the films TrustMovies has seen this year, one stands out. Not necessarily because it is the best (it is very, very good, however) but because it manages to somehow get at the heart of parental and family love  in a manner unlike most others. THE WOLBERG FAMILY (La Famille Wolberg) is the first full-length movie from writer, sometimes actress and now a director, Axelle Ropert, below, and it is a gem of almost perfect proportion -- small (less than 90 minutes long) bright, beautiful -- whose facets illuminate some unusual people and events.

There is a melancholy to the movie (from its present-day winter setting in France's northern Basque country to its soundtrack of American "soul" songs) that is rich and deeply-felt, yet it is consistently jolted into active life by the quirky characters on view and their fascinating, intelligent dialog. The family under the microscope is a highly intelligent one: Its members talk smart, think smart and act smart, but without undue pretension. This is simply who they are, and it's a pleasure to see a family of intellectuals brought to such alert, unapologetic life.

The father, the film's pivotal figure, is Mayor of the town.  His family consists of his own widowed father, a wife, her suddenly reappearing brother, and two children.  The outer circle includes the father's workplace assistant, the family doctor, and a "blond" (not quite what you will expect).  Few things happen in the movie but what does is enough to keep you thoroughly engrossed.

The theme here is how to protect those you love.  The Holocaust hangs over the film (well, the family is Jewish), though it is hardly mentioned, yet the cultural references are just as likely to be American as French.  As our understanding of the situation grows (Ms Ropert does a sterling job of parsing her exposition/information cleverly and correctly), so does our appreciation of all the charac-
ters, as well as the travails that each is going through. Toward the finale, my companion murmured aloud, "My god, he gets right to it!" He was speaking of the father's words at that moment but also of the manner in which Ropert has brought us to the point where we understand and feel this man's pain and desire in our very gut.

I admit that much of my fascination with The Wolberg Family lies in my identification with the father and his need to protect his family above all else -- at the same time as he knows that he cannot.  The film speaks to all parents who try yet fail to do this.  Despite our best intentions (even our most stupid mistakes), the situation is finally, at a certain level, out of our hands.  Ropert captures the moment -- and its attendant pain -- when the father give vent to this, and in doing so her film achieves a level of greatness.

When Ms Ropert's movie made its New York debut last March, as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Rendez-vous with French Cinema, I spoke with the filmmaker, who told me that it appeared her movie would indeed have a U.S. release. Now, according to its distributor, Pyramide International, this is not to be.  So these festival screenings may be the only chance Americans will have to see it. Fortunately, the SFJFF has scheduled four screenings of the film during the coming days: Monday, July 26, at 2:15pm in the Castro Theatre; Tuesday, August 3, at 6pm in the CineArts, Palo Alto Square; Thursday, August 5, at 6:30 in the Roda (Berkeley Rep) Theatre; and Saturday, August 7, at 6:45 in the Smith Rafael Film Center.  Click here for ticket information.

***********

In the following interview, which took place last March during the film’s premiere at the FSLC’s Rendezvous-With French Cinema, TrustMovie’s questions appears in boldface, and writer/director Axelle Ropert’s answers in standard type:

I really loved your film – really loved it.

Thank you.

So I just wanted to have ten minutes with whomever it was who made this film. I wasn’t even sure if it was a man or a woman—

(Axelle laughs)

--but then I noticed there was an “e” on the end of your name. So, I figured it was a woman.

Yes. With only one “l” and no “e” at the end, it would be a man.

So then I went on the IMDB and discovered that you also co-wrote La France.

Actually, I wrote La France all alone; I am the only scriptwriter on that film. I’ve known Serge Bozon for a long time, and we always work together.

That’s interesting because I don’t find a lot in common with those two movies, so I would never have imagined that the same person wrote them both. I liked them both, but I liked Wolberg so much more. I kept trying to “get” La France, but finally I couldn't. With Wolberg, I really felt like I “got” it. Do you think La France (a still from that film is shown below) is very different from Wolberg because the former is directed by a man?

I think it is very different because, even though Segre and I really like the same types of films to watch, we are very different when it comes to the kind of films we want to make. It’s sort of... well, Serge Bozon, like many men, is not so interested in psychology, but I, like many women, am!

Understandable. And that comes through very strongly in your film. The photography was really gorgeous, too, and I looked up who did it, and it seemed like the same person did several of the movies that are here at this year’s Rendez-vous: Regrets, Restless and your film

Yes, it was Céline Bozon, the sister of Serge. I work a lot with her. She is a young DP, 35 years old, and she is very talented.

Is 35 that young? Well, to me it is!

She’s had a lot of experience. She’s been working for about ten years.

And the music! I forgot to mention this in my (original) review, but it is wonderful! Yours is now one of my favorite soundtracks. Where did this come from? Did you love all these songs to begin with?

I really love American “Soul.” This is my favorite kind of music. If I put it into the film it is because I feel that it is music that is very melancholy but also very commercial. For me it is such a complicated equation -- to create films that are both melancholic and commercial -- this is what really fascinated me.

How do you create a commercial film? How do you know?

Well, my film is not very commercial. It was really important for me that each audience member would have his or her own say about the film. Because family is something that is common to all of us. And because I also really strove to create in this father figure someone that you are not quite sure if you are supposed to love or hate.

Oh, no! You love him -- but you feel very sad for him.

There are audience members who really hate him.

Really?! I didn’t hate anyone in the film. I loved everyone. That is so strange. The performances were all so, like, on point, like in ballet or something. I thought your movie was exceptional: a marriage of you and the performers. Everyone is so bright. And it was wonderful to see Jean-Luc Bideau again. I remember him from Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the year 2000 -- when he was a much younger man.

Yes…

Also, for me the Holocaust hung over the movie without ever being overtly mentioned. I wondered if, on some level, this was why the father was trying so hard to protect everybody.

The Holocaust is like a ghost for me in the film. I think the father figure doesn’t ever realize this. He is sort of inhabited by this ghost.

That is how I felt about it. It is not even brought up in the film.

There is a joke made in the film between the father and the brother-in-law – a very strange joke about Auschwitz: an awful joke.

I don’t remember this. So I must see your movie again. Does it have a distributor yet? I will make sure that everyone I know goes out to see this movie. But I can’t if it does not have a distributor.

In the USA, we are in negotiations for a distributor.

So it looks good at this point?

Yes. And a DVD of the film will be available on line in about a month.

With English subtitles?

Oh, yes.

(Note: This does not seem to have happened yet. As of now, the French distributor of the film, Pyramide International, says that there is no distributor in the USA.)

It would be great if it had a theatrical release. It is such a beautiful film to see. And on the big screen! (Axelle nods, yes) So—what are you going to do next?

A romantic comedy, and again, very much inspired by the work of James L. Brooks.

Oh, good—we have not seen much by him lately! Spanglish, but it was a flop here, yet it was a wonderful film. Was that movie successful in France?

Unfortunately, no.

How did your film do it France?

Excellent. People actually went to see it and liked it.

So it was commercial!

Well, on its own scale. Which was small. But the critics were raving about it, and it received excellent reviews.

So the next one will be a romantic comedy after a type of James L. Brooks film?

Yes, (she laughs) and there will be no Jews in the film! I try to do not a Jewish movie next time.

It’s funny, but even though I say the Holocaust hung over your film, I did not find it such a Jewish movie. The Jewish part of it was not as important as the family part. That's one with which I think audiences can easily identify. You do not have to be Jewish to identify with the adultery part, or with the woman’s side, the man’s side, or the children’s. Even the brother-in-law. Everybody registers so strongly and truly – yet they are all a bit bizarre. Not bad bizarre. You think, gee, I have never seen people quite like this before, but I absolutely believe who they are!

I think what is strange in them is that they are absolutely inhabited by the passion they have for their next of kin. Nowadays in life, people tend to be passionate about their lovers…

Or their work.

But not about their wife, and their children, even the brother-in-law. This is rather strange.

Is this because…? Does the wife feel too protected, too loved? Is that why she must strike out on her own?

It is a very tyrannical kind of life, in a way.

Maybe good for the kids but not so much for the wife.

With the ghost of the Holocaust, love is supposed to build a kind of a wall around the family. But it is difficult to live when you are surrounded by a wall.

It is hard to build impregnable walls, too, because things like sickness, as you show, can come in and tear down that wall. So, in one month the film will be available on DVD.

Via Films Pelleas. This is the name of my producer.

Do you have anything to say that journalists never ask you but that you would like to talk about?

I like to say that my film is just as French as it is American. Because, for me, the USA has sort of been my second cinema homeland. I have been really, really, deeply influence by all of Jewish-American culture.

Are you Jewish?

A little. Only by my mother.

Oh, well then you are officially Jewish, right? My ex-wife is Jewish, so my daughter is Jewish. But you cannot live with Jews, I think, and not become somewhat Jewish.

Yes! (We laugh.)

What filmmakers in particular have influenced you?

In the classics, two of them: Vincente Minnelli and Richard Quine – for a movie that is not very famous in France -- Strangers When We Meet.

Oh, yes, Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas!

I love this movie, and it was very important for The Family Wolberg!

Wow-- really?

Oh, yes! Yes, the story between a married woman and a married man.

I saw that when I was like 17 or 18, when it first came out. And I wasn't too crazy about it.

It is not a movie for teenagers, but for adults. Very sad, very bitter. Very strange about how it affects us.

I am definitely going to watch that one again! (Since this interview, I have watched Strangers When We Meet again, and oh, yes, I can see what Axelle means -- and where the influences come from.)

But these influences are all very indirect. And with Minnelli, I really love his films that deal with the love that parents have for their children. For instance, Meet Me in St Louis!

Oh, yes!

And there is a movie with Glenn Ford as a widower, and his son is played by Ron Howard…

(Note: It’s The Courtship of Eddie’s Father: I looked it up post-interview on the IMDB)

I can’t think of anything else to ask right now, and I see that our time is up. I don’t know when I will post this interview, but it will be whenever the movie comes out for either theatrical release or on DVD or Streaming.

Thank you.

And thank you so much, Axelle. I will look forward to seeing The Wolberg Family again, just as soon as I can.

(And I must thank the SFJFF for giving me that opportunity to see the film again. I think it is extraordinary, in its own quiet way, so I hope moviegoers who live in the San Francisco area will take advantage of the four SFJFF showings of this film and see it now.)

Serge Bromberg excavates (and diddles) HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO

What you will see in the new documentary HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO is more of a meditation on jealousy -- and film-making -- than any kind of "real" documentary you'll have viewed in your movie-going career. As famous a non-existent film as Terry Gilliam's never-happened Don Quixote movie (which is said to be not happening yet again!), Clouzot's "Inferno," I would guess, holds a similar place in the annals of French filmmaking.

In 1964, fabled French filmmaker Henri George Clouzot began directing Romy Schneider, then 26, and Serge Reggiani, 42, in his new film L'Enfer (Hell). By the end of three weeks, all enfer had broken loose, worst followed worse, and what existed of this film -- never completed -- was stowed away in a vault, until...   One day, Serge Bromberg (below, right), the co-director (with Ruxandra Medrea, below, left) of this documentary, found himself stuck in an suddenly out-of-service elevator with a woman who turned out to be Clouzot's widow.  Chatting away their time together while the lift was repaired, she told him the story -- a whopping good one -- of the history and making of that never-completed film.

On the spot, it seems, Bromberg decided he must bring that story to the screen. He and Ms Medrea now have, but they have also tried to pull off a number of other things: create a vision of what L'Enfer might have been, while giving us a sense of the character of Clouzot himself and what he was going through at the time (a heavy dose of hell/jealousy all his own).  To this end the two documentarians have diddled considerably with their basic premise, and although the result is only partially successful, so unusual is their film in so many ways that it becomes a fairly fascinating and certainly one-of-a-kind achievement.

Clouzot (shown above with Ms Schneider), always a perfectionist -- of a sort, at least; the French New Wave was critical of his "meticulousness" -- was evidently given an unlimited budget on this film. And while "unlimited" back then was hardly commensurate with even most limited budgets today, this proved enough to become probably the single biggest problem for the production.  The director began to "experiment."  And then experiment again. And then some more.  We see the results, which seem to make up a large portion of the documentary, and we can fully understand why Clouzot became so enrapt with his creations -- most of which use the lusciously pert Ms Schneider as their subject.

He experiments with unusual uses of color,

background,

effects.

And though the "stills" above give you a hint of what was created, they are no match for what the director actually accomplished in terms of "film."  His images are alternately striking, artful, creepy and strange. We also note how lighting can appear to change the same expression, and even discover a very early example of those fast-moving clouds that bore me silly -- decades, I believe, before anyone else used them. Yes, these may be no match for the special effects we see today, but as they are done by a movie master, they deliver the heft and visual appeal of an artist at work.

Schneider looks ravishing, as usual, and since she usually turned in a good performance, we could probably have expected the same from her here. We also get a taste of M. Regianni (Le Doulos), a fine actor not so well known on these shores. The oddest thing the filmmakers have done is to use present-day performers, who fit relatively well into the Schneider/Reggianni mode, and have them act out sections of the "Enfer" script.  Jacques Gamblin (at right, below, The Color of Lies) and Berénice Bejo (at left, below, OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies) do just fine with this, but because the idea is not particularly intrinsic, it ends up seeming more like filler.

We hear from other filmmakers, such as Costa-Gavras, of what was going on during the shoot, and we begin to see, hear and even feel the film -- and Clouzot -- beginning to fall apart.  It's odd and creepy, but if jealousy is indeed to blame, we don't really get close enough to the source of it to begin to understand it.  However, I warrant that we've all suffered from the green-eyed monster at one time or other, so putting ourselves in the place of the filmmaker, we can at least identify a bit. And the sense of sadness and waste only grows stronger as the documentary moves along and we learn what happened to Inferno and its would-be creators.  Even so, and with all the tsuris experienced from within and without, I left this movie with absolute surety of only one thing: The biggest curse any filmmaker can have fall on him is his producer giving him an unlimited budget.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, a Flicker Alley/MK2/Lobster Films release, begins its theatrical run this Friday, July 16, at Manhattan's IFC Center.  You can find further screenings -- dates and cities -- here.