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Cousin Bette (1998) More at IMDbPro »

2 items from 2012

9 September 2012 9:37 AM, PDT | Thompson on Hollywood | See recent Thompson on Hollywood news »

Feeling perky and well-rested as I settle in for the first of three French movies in a row: “Thérèse Desqueyroux,” the last movie by the gifted Claude Miller, based on a novel by Francois Mauriac that was previously filmed by Georges Franju. (Last week, in Telluride, I fell asleep counting Joan of Arcs – even Jane Wiedlin, in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” being greeted as “Miss of Arc!” Last night I counted Anna Kareninas: two Great Garbos, one Vivien Leigh, one Jacqueline Bisset, one Sophie Marceau, and one Keira Knightley. I now await yet another new version of “Cousin Bette.”) This version stars an unusually dour and severe Audrey Tatou – I vainly expected a dewy and girlish transformation to occur after sexual awakening, but no: Tatou is going to look worse before Paris and freedom, not sex, puts some bloom back in those cheeks. She marries to combine adjacent pine forests, »

- Meredith Brody

6 June 2012 9:35 AM, PDT | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

My Best Ami-o: De Maupassant Gets a Jackie Collins Dress

In the right hands, the works of literary figure Guy De Maupassant are fodder for great cinematic achievements, especially considering that Jean-Luc Godard and Max Ophuls credit some of their best titles to the French author (not to mention an excellent 1934 classic of Mexican cinema, The Woman of the Port). But let’s not forget that Maupassant is first and foremost regarded as one of the fathers of the modern short story. Newcomers Declan Donnellan & Nick Ormerod have chosen to adapt one of Maupassant’s few novels for their debut, Bel Ami, a text that’s been adapted before in several languages (and once before in the Us as The Private Affairs of Bel Ami with George Sanders and Angela Lansbury, 1947). An unwise choice for their first outing, considering its lack of character development and overall coherence suggest that the »

- Nicholas Bell

2 items from 2012