Henri Colpi
2021
Life Lesson
Boris Lehman
Loup Abramovici, Blanche Irène Albera
To attain knowledge, man and woman had to be willing to give up their innocence," says Boris Lehman. Life Lesson is a poetic and philosophic reflection on the theme of paradise lost. Some fifty persons illustrate the planet's convulsions and the world's vacillations. Trying to communicate, to commune with the invisible, they cry out, sing out, give out messages, each in their own way, in their own state of solitude. These are like multiple echoes that resemble waves in the water or stars in the sky. " Behind these images and sounds that have been stifled by today's society, Lehman hunts for noises, cries, songs, messages that go astray. He says that if we look at the invisible we may hear the words. He invites us to look beyond the appearances of social life and to vibrate in tune with life's polyphony that is all around us."
Life Lesson
Codine
Henri Colpi
Alexandru Virgil Platon, Răzvan Petrescu
An ex-convict struggles to survive by brute force alone in a turn-of-the-century slum in Bucharest. Codine is the thug who served 10 years for murdering a friend. He returns home to his miserly mother, whose penny-pinching ways infuriate her son. A young boy looks up to Codine, and through the man's eyes he sees the economic and social injustices from an adult perspective. When Codine kills another man who violated his trust, his mother becomes more unhinged and paranoid. Thinking her son will steal her hoarded money, she plots to kill her only son. The impressionable child watches in horror and amazement at the cruel machinations of the adult work that surrounds him.
Codine
The Long Absence
Henri Colpi
Alida Valli, Georges Wilson
Therese, a café owner, mourns the mysterious disappearance of her husband sixteen years earlier. A tramp arrives in the town and she believes him to be her husband. But he is suffering from amnesia and she tries to bring back his memory of earlier times.
The Long Absence
Happy He Who Like Ulysses
Henri Colpi
Fernandel, Rellys
For 25 years now, under the Provence sun, Antonin, a farmhand, has shared his work and everyday life with a horse named Ulysse. What a shock when Pascal, the farmer, tells him he has decided to sell Ulysse to a picador for being too old. Not only will he be separated from his faithful companion, but he is well aware too that the arenas of Arles mean death for Ulysse. Being unable to stand such injustice, Antonin runs away from the farm in the company of Ulysse. Together, they go through the Lubéron, the Baux de Provence, the Alpilles, the Crau and the Vaccarès. Yet, their journey is no pleasure cruise, specially when it comes to crossing National Road 7. After a visit to Marcellin, an old friend of his, Antonin sets off again with Ulysse, this time towards the Rhône River.
Happy He Who Like Ulysses
Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
Jean-Louis Comolli
Georges Delerue, Oliver Stone
Documentary covering the career of French composer Georges Delerue, famous for film scores for such films as Platoon, Contempt, Shoot the Piano Player, and Jules and Jim.
Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
Lacenaire
Francis Girod
Daniel Auteuil, Jean Poiret
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
The Elegant Criminal
La isla misteriosa
Henri Colpi, Juan Antonio Bardem
Omar Sharif, Ambroise Mbia
1865, The American Civil War: Five POW manage to escape by balloon from Fort Richmond. Caught in a storm and with the balloon damaged they find themselves 'shipwrecked' on a volcanic desert island somewhere in the Pacific. Just before crash landing their leader, the brilliant engineer Cyrus Smith falls to his apparent death in the raging waters, but later turns up completely unharmed and with no memory of how he was saved. His fellow castaways are: the famous journalist Gedeon Spilett, the salty sailor Bonaventure Pencroff, the orphaned boy Harbert Brown and the black servant of Smith, Nab. The dog Top also joined them in the escape.
The Mysterious Island
Rafael Kubelik A Portrait
Henri Colpi, Åke Falck
Rafael Kubelík
A comprehensive portrait of one of the 20th century's most brilliant and charismatic conductors working with three great orchestras: The Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Vienna Philharmonic, performing works by Beethoven, Mozart and Bruckner. Kubelik didn't arrive on the podium trailing clouds of glory like von Karajan or Leonard Bernstein. He seemed to just appear there, shyly and without fanfare. His 'bed hair' curling outward, making his head look like the letter w. His appearance and demeanor suggested that a timid, tentative performance was likely. Then he'd rip into a taut and crisp Eroica or an effervescent, crystalline Prague Symphony.
Rafael Kubelik A Portrait
