ANNOUNCING VIVE LA FRANCE FILM BLOGATHON

 

 

The Vive la France Blogathon  hosted by Lady Eve’s Reel Life and silverscreenmodes.com  is live for its first day and second days of August 25 and 26,  2019.

Links to posts are embedded in the titles in bold below. Enjoy!

Sunday, August 25
4 Star Films | Leon Morin, Priest (1961) 
Caftan Woman | Paris Blues (1961)
Critica Retro | Faces of Children/Visages d’ enfants (1925)  

Lady Eve’s Reel Life |The French Roots of Noir: Two Films by Marcel Carné with Jean Gabin
Maddy Loves Her Classic Films | Five French Classics You Should See 
Make Mine Film Noir | Merci pour le chocolat (2000) 
The Midnite Drive-In | The Blue Meanies: Fantastic Planet/La planete sauvage(1973)
Mike’s Take on the Movies | Farewell Friend (1968) 
The Old Hollywood Garden | Les Diaboliques (1955) 
Once Upon a Screen | Disney’s The Aristocats (1970) 
A Person in the Dark | Liliom (1934): A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hollywood…or What Happened When 2 Germans and a Frenchman Met in Budapest 
A Shroud of Thoughts | The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Silver Screenings | The Baker’s Wife (1938): The Importance of Good French Bread 
Strictly Vintage Hollywood | Gay Purr-ee (1962) 
The Stop Button | Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
Twenty Four Frames | Deneuve, Polanski and Repulsion 

AND MONDAY’S SCHEDULE:

Day 2: Monday, August 26 
Anybody Got a Match? | Funny Face (1957)
Classic Film & TV Cafe | The Bride Wore Black (1968)  
Lady Eve’s Reel Life |  Hitchcockian: Francois Truffaut’s The Soft Skin (1964) 
Movies Silently | A Tale of Two Cities (1911) 
Old Hollywood Films | All This and Heaven, Too (1940)
Reelweegiemidget | Leon (1994)

Retro Movie Buff | La Grand Fête: The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)

Silver Screen Modes | Z: The 50th Anniversary (1969)
The Stop Button | Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)

THANK YOU ALL PARTICIPATING BLOGGERS!

 

 

The VIVE LA FRANCE Blogathon features:

  • Classic films made in France, classic films made in Hollywood (or elsewhere, if you like) that are set in France (fully or partially).
  • Profiles of the stars of French films (like Jean Gabin, Catherine Deneuve, etc.) and profiles of French-born stars who had significant Hollywood careers (like Charles Boyer,  etc.).
  • Films on significant French writers, directors, producers, and the same for French-born Hollywood behind-the-camera folks.
  • American films set in France
  • Basically, the focus is France and French, with broad application including animation.

French movies are very diverse and have a long history. You may already have a favorite film, star, or director that you may want to enter into the blogathon. If not, there are many possibilities. French filmmaking has a rich tradition that has also included American and other “expats” into the fold. The American director Jules Dassin left when blackballed and directed some of his greatest films in France. American actor Eddie Constantine made a career playing a hard-boiled detective in France. Or other nationalities like the English actress/singer Jane Birkin or the Belgian singer/actor Jacques Brel. Popular French actors are legion, a few among the women include:
Jeanne Moreau; Simone Signoret; Brigitte Bardot; Anouk Aimee; Emmanuelle Riva, or Catherine Deneuve. Among the men are: Jean-Paul Belmondo; Alain Delon; Jean Gabin; Yves Montand; and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Some popular genres have existed
in France in their classic films. Although Westerns are popular in the imagination, they never got a footing in filmmaking. Film noir however, generated some excellent material, including: Elevator to the Gallows; Purple Noon; Rififi; Le Jour Se Leve; Touchez Pas
au Grisbi; Bob le Flambeur; and Le Samourai, among many others. Musicals, although disjointed due to WWII, had some great material in such modern and old classics as: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg; The Young Girls of Rochefort; Under the Roofs of Paris (1930) and A Nous la Liberté (1931). Comedy has been a French staple but is not well known here as one usually needs to understand French to catch the humor. Still, Jacques Tati as a “mime” has caught on and some individual movies like Le grand Blond avec Une Chaussure Noire (1972) and La Cage aux Folles were hits and were remade in American versions. And there’s my favorite L’Emmerdeur (Pain in the Ass, 1973) with Jacques Brel and Lino Ventura.

The French “New Wave” offers an abundance of films such as Breathless, 400 Blows, Jules et Jim, Alphaville, and Hiroshima Mon Amour, among many others. The New Wave’s directors also offer a plethora of opportunities with such important figures as
Jean-Luc Goddard, Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Louis Malle, and others. And then there are French actors who worked, or are working, in the USA. There are famous examples including Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert,
Simone Simon, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Louis Jourdan, and others. These are just a few examples of what French Cinema and French actors have to offer for the Vive la France Blogathon on August 25 and 26, 2019.