News

Michele Morgan - in her heyday

The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.

Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.

She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.

Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.

Special Mention: Dressed To Kill

Directed by Brian De Palma

Written by Brian De Palma

1980, USA

Genre: Thriller

Brian De Palma’s films, like Tarantino’s, are a cinematic mash-up of influences from the past, and in De Palma case he borrows heavily from Alfred Hitchcock. Obsession is De Palma’s Vertigo, Blow Out his Rear Window, and with Dressed to Kill the director set its sights on Psycho. Dressed To Kill is more thriller than horror but what a stylish and twisted thriller it is! The highlight here is an amazing ten-minute chase sequence set in an art gallery and conducted entirely without dialogue. There are a number of other well-sustained set pieces including a race in the subway system and even, yes, a gratuitous shower murder sequence. Dressed To Kill features an excellent cast (Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson), a superb score (courtesy of Pino Donaggio) and...

Exclusive: Wild Bunch to launch new films from Verhoeven, Noé, Kechiche as well as Spring Breakers 2, Maniac Cop remake and market premiere Welcome to New York.

Paris-based sales and production powerhouse Wild Bunch has unveiled a packed Cannes slate, featuring future films from Paul Verhoeven, Gaspar Noé and Abdellatif Kechiche as well as Spring Breakers 2 and the remake of Maniac Cop.

The untitled Paul Verhoeven project is an adaptation of French writer Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel Oh!, revolving around a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge.

“Casting is being finalised. It’s a very intelligent script but it’s also pure Verhoeven, extremely erotic and perverted, so the actress has to be prepared to take that on,” said Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval.

Wild Bunch will also launch Spring Breakers: The Second Coming, in which the Spring Breakers do battle with an...

If asked whether cinema is a visceral experience or a narrative medium, ideally I would answer "both," but one answer is as good as the other. Enter the Void is, not surprisingly, a cathartic visceral experience, which should be expected from a visually uncompromising filmmaker like Gaspar Noé, who eight years ago spurred disturbed discussions with his film Irreversible.

Perfecting the techniques he first made use on that film, while expanding the limits of what he dares to show on camera, Noé delivers a standard-bending film about life, death and what comes after; although his vision of the afterlife is occupied with his primal obsessions in this life: sex, drugs and strobe lights.

Supposedly based loosely on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (although it's more like it references said book as a mean to explain itself), Enter the Void dons the gimmick of a first-person perspective. The role of Oscar,...