Deneuve x 8 begins this weekend at IFC

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/17/15 at 7:16am

IFC's new weekend classic series begins this weekend, and it's all Catherine Deneuve! (To my greatest sorrow, Donkey Skin was not one of the selected films, but Umbrellas of Cherbourg kicks off the series and Young Girls of Rochefort will play on the third weekend.)

On top of this, her latest movie "In the Name of My Daughter" opens next month. 

Here's a link to series line up: http://www.ifccenter.com/series/weekend-classics/deneuve-x-8/

I know there are other fans here, so enjoy! I know I will!

Updated On: 4/17/15 at 07:16 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/17/15 at 7:20am

This sounds fantastic!  As you probably guessed, I do share your disappointment that Donkey Skin isn't included (I mean the Cake Baking song has got to be one of THE iconic Deneuve moments, even if the film isn't very well known outside France.)

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/17/15 at 7:29am

"This sounds fantastic!  As you probably guessed, I do share your disappointment that Donkey Skin isn't included (I mean the Cake Baking song has got to be one of THE iconic Deneuve moments, even if the film isn't very well known outside France.)"

 The Cake Baking song (in my crazy mind ) is not only one of the most iconic Deneuve moments, but one of the most iconic in all cinema!! 

Donkey Skin is a giddy delight from start to finish and deserves to be more well-known. I wish I had that Donkey Skin costume to wear around the apartment if ever decided to do some baking!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/17/15 at 11:12am

Seen a few of them plus dvr'd Tristana from a French station we get on TWC.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/18/15 at 3:49pm

Another good one is Le Sauvage with her and Montand in a screwball comedy. A young Tony Roberts is in it and I never knew he could speak French in real life. It is a Spanish production in French and English & subtitles in both.

It is available on Netflix

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/18/15 at 4:42pm

 The Cake Baking song (in my crazy mind ) is not only one of the most iconic Deneuve moments, but one of the most iconic in all cinema!! 
Donkey Skin is a giddy delight from start to finish and deserves to be more well-known.

Amen, to that

 

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 4/19/15 at 6:49am

Whizzer - thank you for the thread. I love Catherine Deneuve but have never heard of Donkey Skin - just read the plot and I so want to see this movie. If you go - enjoy the movies x

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/23/15 at 5:55pm

Donkey Skin is really the missing piece in the Jacques Demy/Michel Legrand/Catherine Denueve musical trilogy.  It was a huge hit in France and is still a nostalgic favourite (I was introduced to it as I went to French Immersion school and in grade three or so we got to watch it as a treat.)  Of course it's also wonderfully campy and bizarre between its fidelity to Perrault and his incest plot, to the production designs which are a gaudy homage to Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/24/15 at 8:14am

I made it Umbrellas of Cherbourg last weekend and found it more enchanting than ever before. I really appreciated some of the those long takes that Demy used; once a new scene started it was actually very rare for any quick editing to occur.  There were a few abrupt close ups of Deneuve, and they basically startle, both because of their infrequency and Deneuve's beauty. 

Part three had always been my least favorite section, mostly because of Deneuve's absence, but I really felt for Nino Castelnuovo's Guy and the scene with Madeleine at the cafe where he (somewhat) halfheartedly expresses his love for her is rather touching. I like that Madeleine is smart enough to know that she might not fully have his heart and she's going into the relationship with eyes wide open.

Anne Vernon was always amusing as Deneuve's mother, but it wasn't until seeing the film with a full audience that I realized what I riot she was. Some of those lines!

A couple of the meta jokes are pretty funny too. Guy's co-worker at the garage saying her hates the opera- all that singing- I prefer the movies! Or when Vernon tells Deneuve to stop being so melodramatic, "people only die of love in the movies," shortly after which Denueve rather dramatically faints on the shop floor! 

A real treat and I'm excited for Tristana this weekend.    

Updated On: 4/26/15 at 08:14 AM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/24/15 at 2:05pm

I am planning on going to see YOUNG GIRLS when it screens at IFC in about 2 weeks.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/24/15 at 4:38pm

"I am planning on going to see YOUNG GIRLS when it screens at IFC in about 2 weeks."

 I'd be curious as to the colour of the restored print they use, after our discussion on the BluRay disc

 

WHizzer, your thoughts on Cherbourg make me want to re-watch it immediately.  I did see it in a movie theatre with a full audience 10+ years back, and it's true that sometimes you forget how much humour the film actually has.

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/26/15 at 2:32pm

Got back from Tristana this morning and was floored by Deneuve's performance. It's easily one of her best- top five for sure. 

I had only seen Tristana once before and had remembered it as inferior to Buñuel and Devenue's previous masterpiece, Belle de Jour, but now I think I have to re-evaluate my stance. Belle de Jour is flashier and more titilating, but her performance as Tristana is measured to perfection; the transformation from innocent virgin to heartless, destroyed, cynical monster is done so subtly and without any melodrama that it's fascinating how well she pulled it off. 

Another aspect of Buñuel's mastery is how he swings the sympathies of the audience from character to character. At first Don Lope is a disgusting pervert taking advantage of someone who trusts him, to say nothing of his treatment of Saturna, his maid. But he is so pathetic that it is hard to not pity him, making it all the more understandable why Tristana won't completely abandon him. The cruelty she employs in the last third is so harsh, both to Don Lope and the deaf boy, that you really don't know who to root for. Deveune's facial expression on the balcony after she exposes herself is so F*CKing brilliant- scorn, anger, pity, disgust, mockery all rolled into one. Take that Norma Desmond! She doesn't need any lines either!

And then the shot near the end of Tristana on the crutches going up and down the hallway while Don Lope sips his hot chocolate with his friends. It's so chilling. 

I know the film was nominated for Best Foreign Film, but Deneuve gives a performance that makes you look back and say how the hell wasn't she nominated too? 

 

 

 

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/26/15 at 3:11pm

I only first saw Tristana last year--would kill to see it on the big screen.  I actually think it's Deneuve's best performance.  Well, and Nero's too, but that's saying less.  It's certainly the Bunuel film, a director I have a huge appreciation with but not a lot of emotional love for, I connect to the most.  I agree with your take on the ending.

 

I've read there is some controversy about Bunuel's changes to the source material, that he makes Tristana a less strong character.  I can't imagine how he does so, but...

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 4/26/15 at 3:51pm

Nero didn't have a big part, but he was really hot, ha. 

Im not familiar with the source material. Tristana certainly was a strong character to me, especially in the second half of the film. I can't imagine either how someone could think otherwise, but I suppose it would take one of us reading the novel to know for sure!

Have you seen The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie? 

Updated On: 4/26/15 at 03:51 PM