One of Susan Sontag’s favorites, Alain Resnais’ acclaimed Mélo shines through its interplay between the theatrical and cinematic. Adapting Henri Bernstein’s play closely, Resnais’s rendition varies with immaculate long takes and compositions, highlighting outstanding performances from his actors.
Some 18 years after Cold Water, Olivier Assayas revisits his own autobiography for this deeply-felt yet unsentimental drama: a rear-view look at his adolescence in the aftermath of May 1968. A poignant portrait of a generation in mourning, coming-of-age in the face of failed revolution.
Filmed through a documentary approach and with nonprofessional actors, Jacques Doillon worked with teens from the impoverished suburbs of Paris to tell the story of a challenging childhood. A fiction ingrained in the real lives of its actors, Little Fellas resonates through its raw truthfulness.
In Jacques Doillon’s abrasive melodrama, an encounter between two couples takes tragic proportions as the quartet of lovers play with burning jealousy and possessive desire. The vampiristic and self-destructive impulses of love are explored with piercing honesty and through impassioned performances.