Search

Search only in certain items:

Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg
Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg
1971 | World
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I became popular in France prior to becoming popular anywhere else; for whatever reason they just adopted me. I didn’t speak any French, I didn’t tailor that in any way, but they said I was a bit like Serge and then I got into him as a consequence. The French are a weird culture, I’m really blessed that I’m popular there but I also think… fuck, it is quite uncool there. They’re the only nation in the world that clap on the one and the three, everyone else claps on the two and the four, so there’s something inherently corrupt about their understanding of music. They’re better at pastry than they are at music. Serge Gainsbourg understood how shit French music was, and he turned it around."

Source
  
Jean De Florette (1986)
Jean De Florette (1986)
1986 | International, Drama
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The second in the series of films you would recommend to a visiting alien species in order to explain humanity. This is an effort to try and engage followers of The Wasteland a little more, both via WordPress on the actual page and through the instagram account thewasteland.art.blog

If you have an idea which film or films you would choose to explain the complex emotions and motivations of humanity then just leave a comment below. If I like your suggestion enough I will include it in the series. We are thinking big, complex storytelling with tons of heart, passion and soul. No need to explain it, let the film stand for itself!

No. 2 Jean de Florette – Claude Berri, (1986) – Switzerland, France, Italy
  
40x40

Steve Gunn recommended Vive le Tour (1962) in Movies (curated)

 
Vive le Tour (1962)
Vive le Tour (1962)
1962 | Documentary, Sport
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I came across this at a time when I was obsessed with Louis Malle and purchased the box set of films that he made between his features. Vive le Tour shows his passion as a camera operator and cycling fanatic. Malle really gets in the mix with these guys, driving alongside the riders and capturing the race at another time. You can see Eddy Merckx swing into a café for a beer, stuffing a can in his jersey on the way out. Nuns, priests, cats, dogs, and the rest of the population of France gather on the roadside and cheer the racers through the villages on this seemingly national holiday. The film is a poetic series of candid snapshots from one of the best eyes in cinema."

Source
  
Five Quarters Of The Orange
Five Quarters Of The Orange
Joanne Harris | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the story of Framboise – no, not a bottle of raspberry liqueur (thank heavens), but rather the woman by that name from a farm on the river Loire in the French village of Les Laveuses. This is partially the story of Framboise’s troubled childhood with her brother (named Casis), sister (Reine-Claude) and especially her unwell and widowed mother (who was, of course, an amazing cook) during the years of WWII and Nazi occupied France. It is also the story of her no less troubling old age – accounted from the time she returns to the village in her ‘retirement’, in order to open a creperie. You can read the rest of my review here. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2015/02/22/the-last-squeeze-is-the-sweetest/
  
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
2002 | Action, Mystery
The first Jason Bourne film, in which Matt Damon plays the titular character who is discovered floating in the sea off France, with no memory of how he came to be there or of his previous life, but with a very particular set of skills (to steal a phrase from another actioner).

As he struggles to regain his identity, he finds himself pursued by shadowy government operatives, who believe that he has gone rogue from his post as an elite government agent.

The film is full of some bruising action and car chases; it's just a pity that it is also full of 'shaky cam' work that led to certain members of my family feeling car sick watching it!
(The sequels even more so!)
  
40x40

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Apr 3, 2022  
Sneak a peek at the literary fiction novel ODD BIRDS by Severo Perez and read a deleted scene from the book on my blog. Enter the giveaway for a chance to win your own autographed copy of the book - 2 winners!

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
The year is 1961. Seventy-year-old Cosimo Infante Cano, a Cuban-born artist in need of inspiration, follows his lover to Texas in what was to be a temporary sabbatical from their life in France. Unexpectedly, he finds himself stranded in San Antonio, nearly penniless, with little more than the clothes on his back and an extraordinary pocket watch. His long hair and eccentric attire make him an odd sight in what he has been told is a conservative cultural backwater.

Cosimo’s French and Cuban passports put a cloud of suspicion over him as events elsewhere in the world play out. Algeria is in open revolt against France. Freedom Riders are being assaulted in Mississippi, and the Bay of Pigs debacle is front-page news. Cosimo confronts nightmares and waking terrors rooted in the horror he experienced during the Great War of 1914–1918. His friends—students, librarians, shopkeepers, laborers, lawyers, bankers, and even a parrot—coalesce around this elderly French artist as he attempts to return to what remains of his shattered life.

His new friends feel empathy for his impoverished condition, but his unconventional actions and uncompromising ethics confuse them. He creates charming drawings he refuses to sell and paints a house simply for the pleasure of making a difference. In the process he forever alters the lives of those who thought they were helping him.
     
French Kiss (Flying into Love #1) by C.F. White
French Kiss (Flying into Love #1) by C.F. White
C.F. White | 2022 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
FRENCH KISS is the first book in the Flying Into Love series and, as the title suggests, the first country we land in is France. We have a tale of opposites as our two main characters try to figure out how to move forward.

It really is an opposites attract book! You have city vs. country, England vs. France, city slicker vs. lumberjack, and even easy-to-like vs. hard-to-like. Valentin saved this book for me as Dale was a little too contrary for me. He held onto his secret past for reasons, although explained, that still doesn't make 100% sense to me. He was completely self-centred and quick to jump to conclusions. Valentin, however, was a hardworking drifter with a strong work and personal ethic who wanted nothing more than to put down some roots. He managed to do that for a while caring for Dale's dad but that is in question with Dale wanting to sell the place.

The pacing was smooth, the story was sweet, and the bedroom scenes were steamy! The best bit for me was the descriptions of the cottage, plus the storm. It does make me laugh though as everyone in the city wants to 'escape to the country' and those who live there, usually want out.

An enjoyable read and I look forward to more stories in this series. Definitely recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 28, 2022
  
Five Quarters Of The Orange
Five Quarters Of The Orange
Joanne Harris | 2001 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I am always fascinated with any novel, fiction or otherwise, that is set in the time of World War II. This book took me a bit longer to get in to than is typical of a book set in this time period. But the end made it well worth the wait.
At times it is hard to follow because it bounces back & forth between Boise's life currently & her childhood spent in a small village in France during WWII. The story itself didn't form fully for me until it ended...all the loose ends were tied up & the events up to that point finally made sense. The 1 thing that frustrated me was Mirabelle, the mother. I was left not being quite sure whether or not she was really crazy.
  
40x40

Domonique (0 KP) rated The Nightingale in Books

May 12, 2018  
The Nightingale
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.9 (61 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was so good. It made me laugh, cry, and remember how strong human beings can be. I can't imagine what it could have been like to grow up in France during Hitler's reign, to lose loved ones that way and to have to...survive being scared that someone was going to take your children or worse, your life. Both Isabelle and Vivian were such strong women, willing to do the right things even when they could get them killed. I enjoyed both of their stories and they both touched me in different ways, I can't even say how much.

Books like this remind me that while human beings can be fragile creatures, we are also resilient, strong and most importantly, survivors. Great story, I could read it again tomorrow!
  
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) (2001)
The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) (2001)
2001 | Drama, Musical
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"If David Thewlis in Naked is my favorite male performance, then Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher must be my favorite female performance. I saw this with my mom at the theater when I was about fourteen or fifteen and we both loved it so much. I remember thinking, I want to make movies like that. I’ve always felt that the first films he made in Austria, especially the trilogy (The Seventh Continent, Benny’s Video, and 71 Fragments), were a little too academic. He really avoided performances. But when he moved over to France with Code Unknown and then The Piano Teacher, something happened where he started making very passionate filmmaking. The actors are giving great performances while still being very clinical and brutal in their rejection of sentimentality."

Source