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Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSMegalopolis.The 2025 Oscar nominations were announced late last week following multiple delays due to the Los Angeles fires. Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez (all films 2024) received the most nominations (thirteen) followed closely by Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Jon Chu’s Wicked (ten each). The New Yorker’s Richard Brody unpacks the assumptions underlying the Academy’s choices and posits an alternate list of nominees for five categories.London’s Prince Charles Cinema, a mainstay in the West End since the early 1960s, is facing a serious threat of closure after their landlords have demanded “a rent increase significantly above market rates” in their new lease. Zedwell Lsq Ltd and their ultimate parent company Criterion Capital have...

Director of Get Out Your Handkerchiefs and Trop Belle Pour Toi! who saw his role as ‘attacking society: hard, repeatedly and below the belt’

Bertrand Blier, who has died aged 85, had the appearance of a placid, pipe-smoking academic and the disruptive spirit of an imp. “My films are an aggression against people, against logic, against good sense,” the director said. He saw his role as “attacking society: hard, repeatedly and below the belt”.

His pictures, tinged with Buñuelian mischief and often starring Gérard Depardieu, tended to begin with an outré idea which he then pursued doggedly to its conclusion. His masterpiece was Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978), which won that year’s Oscar for best foreign language film. It starts with a man (Depardieu) offering his doleful wife to a stranger in a restaurant in a bid to lift her spirits. She eventually finds fulfilment in the arms of a 13-year-old boy.

Bertrand Blier … "'an immense, non-conformist filmmaker, a passionate lover of creative freedom' Photo: UniFrance

The controversial and outspoken French film director Bertrand Blier, who gave Gérard Depardieu some of his best roles, has died peacefully in Paris at the age of 85, surrounded by his wife and family.

Bertrand Blier: 'Death is the only really interesting subject' Photo: UniFrance

The son of actor Bernard Blier he directed Depardieu in the 1974 cult hit Les Valseuses. The popular comedy known in English as Going Places established him as one of the most outrageous filmmakers with a trademark line in vulgar humour, no-holds barred sex and nudity.

The film which also starred Jeanne Moreau and Miou-Miou, gave Isabelle Huppert an early role while other actors with whom he collaborated on a regular basis, included Michel Blanc, Josiane Balasko and, of course, Depardieu with whom he went to make another comedy hit in 1978 Get Out Your Handkerchiefs...

Provocative French filmmaker Bertrand Blier, who scored hits with transgressive comedies featuring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert such as “Going Places” and “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs,” has died. He was 85.

Blier died on Monday night at his home in Paris surrounded by his wife and children, his son Leonard Blier told French news agency Afp.

“It is with great sadness that I learn of the death of Bertrand Blier. He was a genius of dialogue, in the tradition of Prévert and Audiard,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati said on X.

Born in 1939 in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, Blier was the son of actor Bernard Blier and grew up was steeped in film and theatre. He made his directing debut with cinema-verité documentary “Hitler—Never Heard of Him” in 1963 which earned critical kudos.

“Going Places,” which came out in 1974 and involved two brutal young men who drift about France in...

Bertrand Blier, the irreverent French film director behind Oscar-winning romantic comedy Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, has died aged 85.

Blier left his mark on 1970s and 1980s French cinema with films known for their dark humour and cynicism.

He helped to launch the international career of now controversial actor Gerard Depardieu, who starred in the director’s 1974 comedy drama Going Places (Les Valseuses) with Miou-Miou and Patrick Dewaere, about two aimless thugs on a crime and sex spree across the country.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez Vos Mouchoirs),about a ménage-à-trois, won the best foreign-language film Oscar for France in 1979 and...

Bertrand Blier, the irreverent French film director behind Oscar-winning romantic comedy Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, has died aged 85.

Blier left his mark on 1970s and 1980s French cinema with his films known for their dark humour and cynicism. His helped to launch the international career of now controversial actor Gerard Depardieu who starred in the director’s 1974 comedy drama Going Places (Les Valseuses) with Miou-Miou and Patrick Dewaere about two aimless thugs on a crime and sex spree across the country.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Préparez Vos Mouchoirs) about a ménage-à-trois won the best foreign-language Oscar for France in 1979 and...

The words offbeat, personal and edgy used to be a draw for movie fare — we’d check out a new relationship picture based only on an actor or two that we liked. Bobby Roth’s semi-autobiographical buddy story has a good stab at the early ’80s art + singles scene in Los Angeles, with a dash of macho clichés — pals Peter Coyote and Nick Mancuso fight in public and somehow suffer while bedding fantastic women. But the overall vibe is one of honest sensitivity, aided by fine performances from Carole Laure, Kathryn Harrold and Carol Wayne. Plus music by Tangerine Dream.

Heartbreakers

Blu-ray

Fun City Editions

1984 / Color / 1:85 / 99 min. / Street Date August 30, 2022 / Available from Amazon, Available from Vinegar Syndrome

Starring: Peter Coyote, Nick Mancuso, Carole Laure, Max Gail, James Laurenson, Carol Wayne, Jamie Rose, Kathryn Harrold, George Morfogen, Jerry Hardin, Henry Sanders, Walter Olkewicz.

Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus

Production Designer: David Nichols...

France has been a supreme force in the Oscars’ international feature race for decades. This year, three acclaimed films from women directors — Céline Sciamma, Audrey Diwan and Julia Ducournau — are believed to be at the top of the list to represent the country for the upcoming 94th ceremony, set to take place on March 27. Though France is the most-nominated country in the history of the category, it hasn’t walked away with the prize in nearly 30 years. Can that change this year?

The French submission is decided annually by the National Cinema Center. The committee will hold its first meeting on Thursday to pre-select a shortlist of films, with the producers being “auditioned” by the committee on Oct. 12, before the final choice is made. Sciamma’s “Petite Maman,” Ducournau’s “Titane” and Diwan’s “Happening” are believed to be the favorites for consideration. “Happening” was just acquired by IFC Films...

“French Dispatch” director Wes Anderson is so stranger to sharing his favorite movies. Now, he’s paired with the French Institute Alliance Francaise (Fiaf) for a seven movie series devoted to Anderson’s favorite French features. The screening series will coincide with the release of Anderson’s next feature, the aforementioned “French Dispatch” starring Timothee Chalamet.

The series will kick off with a free screening of Diane Kurys’ 1977 feature “Peppermint Soda” on September 14. The other features in the series, dubbed “Wes Anderson’s French Connection” includes Max Ophuls’ 1940 film “From Mayerling to Sarajevo,” Francois Truffaut’s “The Man Who Loved Women” from 1977, “Kings and Queen” (2004), Bertrand Blier’s “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs” (1977), “Max and the Junkmen” from 1971, and Jacque Becker’s 1947 film “Antoine and Antoinette.”

These are just a few of the inspirations associated with Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which follows a group of journalists at a fictional French magazine.

While Netflix is far from being a haven for admirers of classic cinema, they thankfully are backing strong repertory programming in New York City. After acquiring The Paris Theater, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, and briefly reopening with some runs of Netflix features and other specialty programming, they are now officially opening their doors again on August 6 with a more substantial slate of classic cinema.

Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.

One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup.

The Paris Theater, a beloved arthouse cinema in New York City, is reopening its doors next month.

To celebrate its return on Aug. 6, filmmaker Radha Blank is curating a slate of repertory titles to screen alongside her directorial debut “The Forty-Year-Old Version.” Her movie, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, is playing through Aug. 12.

The Paris opened in 1948 and is the only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan. Netflix acquired the 545-seat venue in 2019 and, prior to Covid-19, held premieres, special events and screenings of its films in the storied institution, which is just south of Central Park.

“I made ‘Forty-Year-Old Version’ in 35mm Black & White in the spirit of the many great films that informed my love of cinema,” says Blank. “I’m excited to show the film in 35mm as intended and alongside potent films by fearless filmmakers who inspired my development as a storyteller and expanded my vision...

The Paris Theater, an NYC cinematic landmark rescued by Netflix in 2019, will officially reopen August 6 with the streamer’s The Forty-Year-Old Version by Radha Blank and a week of repertory films programmed by the director.

The only single-screen movie theater in Manhattan and the borough’s largest, with 545 seats, has hosted limited theatrical engagements since March that included Netflix’ 17 Oscar-nominated films, retrospectives of Charlie Kaufman and Orson Wells, zombie movie classics and a Bob Dylan film series.

The Paris closed in August of 2019 after its lease with City Cinemas expired. That November, Netflix entered an extended lease agreement, said to be for ten years with owner the Solow Family, to keep the theater open and use it for events, screenings and theatrical releases of its films. The first was Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. The theater was shuttered by Covid-19 last spring.

(In May of 2020, Netflix acquired another storied theaters,...

More than 200 Cohen titles will be available through Kino Lorber and on its transactional VoD platform Kino Now.

Ash Is Purest White distributor Cohen Media Group and Kino Lorber have struck a deal for Kino to distribute all Cohen Media Group and Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray and DVD titles including the Merchant Ivory Collection.

More than 200 Cohen Media Group and Cohen Film Collection titles will be available through Kino Lorber and on its transactional VoD platform Kino Now.

The pact kicks off in December with Cohen Film Collection’s Buster Keaton Collection Vol 4: Go West and College.

Recent Cohen...

One of the most interesting sections of Cannes Film Festival each year is their Classics section, which is made up of new restorations and filmmaking-related documentaries. The lineup often gives a look ahead at what classic and overlooked films may be getting new Blu-ray editions, as well as digital debuts, and theatrical re-releases. Following the reveal of Cannes-selected premieres this year, they’ve now unveiled their Classics lineup.

This year’s slate, made up of 25 features and 7 documentaries, will screen at the Lumière festival in Lyon and by the Rencontres Cinématographiques de Cannes. Leading the pack, and announced a few months ago, is the new 20th anniversary restoration of In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar-wai. Also in the lineup is 60th anniversary restorations of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura, while a selection of Federico Fellini classics have been restored for this 100th birthday.

Peter Wollen’s Friendship’s Death,...

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for the 17th edition of Cannes Classics, a popular sidebar dedicated to restored heritage movies and documentaries that forms part of the Official Selection.

This year’s roster comprises 25 feature films and seven documentaries. The highlights are Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” which celebrates its 25th anniversary, as well as Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” and Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Aventura,” which are both turning 60. Cannes Classics will also turn the spotlight on Federico Fellini, the Italian master who would have turned 100 in 2020. Two films by Fellini are part of the selection, “La strada” and “Luci del varietà,” along with the documentary “Fellini of the Spirits” directed by Anselma dell’Olio.

Cannes Classics will also spotlight rare films such as Peter Wollen’s “Friendship’s Death” in which Tilda Swinton delivered a breakthrough performance in 1987, and “The Story of a Three-Day Pass,...

The work of Jim Thompson has had a healthy life on screen, ranging from adaptations in America and beyond, notably in Europe. Ahead of Yorgos Lanthimos tackling one of his most popular novels, we have a new restoration for 1979’s Série noire, which is adapted from Thompson’s 1954 novel A Hell of a Woman by writer Georges Pérec and director Alain Corneau.

Ahead of opening at New York City’s Metrograph this Friday, we’re pleased to debut the exclusive trailer for the restoration courtesy of Rialto Pictures. Starring Patrick Dewaere as Franck Poupart, a down-on-his-luck salesman who gets involved in a robbery scheme that pushed him ever further into despair, perhaps humorously so. Named one of the best French films of all time by Time Out, see the trailer below.

In one of the strangest pairings in film adaptation history, prankish French modernist experimentalist Georges Perec (Life: A User...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Bam

The largest-ever Us retrospective of one of our greatest filmmakers is underway with “Claire Denis: Strange Desire.”

Museum of the Moving Image

Three Mike Leigh masterworks screen this weekend.

La meilleur cochon, Miss Piggy, gets her highlight reel on Saturday.

Metrograph

Hopefully with a shower close at hand, the Harmony Korine retrospective continues, while...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Museum of the Moving Image

William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives plays this Sunday with a conversation to follow.

Wings of Desire screens again on Sunday.

La meilleur cochon, Miss Piggy, gets her highlight reel on Saturday.

Metrograph

Hopefully with a shower close at hand, the Harmony Korine retrospective commences.

Kent Jones...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Museum of the Moving Image

Two essential collaborations between Bruno Ganz and Wim Wenders can be seen.

In tribute to Jonas Mekas, Guns of the Trees screens this weekend.

Creature from the Black Lagoon plays in 3D on Saturday.

Metrograph

A young Björk proves the highlight of The Juniper Tree, a film absolutely worth your time.

"All that matters is that my wife is happy." Cohen Media Group has debuted an amusing trailer for their upcoming re-release of the French film Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, originally titled Préparez vos mouchoirs, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1979. The somewhat absurd comedy is about a worried husband who tries to find a lover for his depressed wife, but she falls in love with a bullied thirteen-year-old math prodigy and wants to have the boy's baby. Yeah, sounds very kinky, and very French. Starring Carole Laure, Gérard Depardieu, and Patrick Dewaere. The 35mm film has been restored to 2K (alas not 4K) and will get a small theatrical run beginning in New York in March. Looks like a fun watch. Here's the restoration trailer (+ poster) for Bertrand Blier's Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, on YouTube: A worried husband finds a lover for his depressed wife,...

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Bertrand Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs has been restored by the Cohen Film Collection and returning to theaters at Quad Cinema on March 15. Starring Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, and Carole Laure, the film follows a love triangle between the characters that turns both more comedic and more emotional. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1979, as well as the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Picture, we’re pleased to present the exclusive trailer and poster for the restoration.

Beloved by Pauline Kael, she said, “The social comedy Blier’s work is essentially sexual comedy: sex screws us up… and some people are so twisted that no matter what try to do for them they wreck everything… Sexually, life is a keystone comedy, and completely amoral—we have no control over who or what excites us.”

See the trailer and poster below,...

Convoi exceptionnel

The soon-to-be 80-year-old Bertrand Blier breaks a ten-year hiatus from directing with Convoi exceptionnel (Wide Load), a comedy which reunites him with Gerard Depardieu, who headlined some of the director’s most memorable early works, such as the exceptional Going Places in 1974, 1978’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1979’s Buffet Froid, 1986’s Menage, 1989’s Too Beautiful for You, and 2005’s How Much Do You Love Me? Depardieu is joined by his old co-star Christian Clavier in the project, produced by Olivier Delbosc of Curiosa Films, Clavier’s company Ouille Productions, Belgium’s Versus Productions, with co-production from Orange Studio.…...

Majid (Mehdi Dahmane) and Salim (Sidi Mejai), the characters who occupy the head-spinningly raunchy center of “Sextape” — along with their girlfriends, Rim (Inas Chanti) and Yasmina (Souad Arsane), who are sisters — have the distinction of being two of the most flippantly insensitive young male dicks ever seen in the movies. They’re over-the-top, without scruples or shame; whatever happens, they don’t give a f—k. Yet the joke is that there’s nothing too remarkable about them. As the film presents it, they’re cads of their generation, bros who grew up on hardcore amateur video and the brotherhood of frat-house misogyny (a value system so widespread that it no longer requires spending time in an actual frat house), where girls are treated like fleshbot mannequins.

Half the conversation in “Sextape” is about blowjobs — how to get them, who’s going to give them — and it’s funny, for a while,...

Get out your handkerchiefs, director Joseph Mankiewicz’ 1947 fantasy has been known to inspire tears in even the hardest-hearted moviegoer. This ectoplasmic romance between Gene Tierney (as the most beautiful spinster ever to don a shawl and wire-rim glasses) and Rex Harrison as the sea-faring ghost who loves her is a match not made in heaven but certainly headed there. Bernard Herrmann’s wistful score is the finishing touch on one of the greatest date-night movies ever.

The folks behind the St. Louis Black Film Festival Presents a Classic Black Film Double Feature for Black History Month at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar in St. Louis’ Loop) each Thursday in February. Last year the St. Louis Black Film Festival presented a series of new films by black filmmakers, but this year are going back into the vaults and digging out some vintage cinema for audiences with an interest in black history to enjoy on the big screen.

The offerings for this Thursday, February 16th are Imitation Of Life (1959), at 5pm and Cooley High at 7pm.

Get out your handkerchiefs for Imitation Of Life (1959), the second filming of the Fannie Hurst book previously filmed in 1934. It’s a gloss-heavy production which takes actress Lana Turner from penniless single mom to lavishly-coiffed and gowned movie star. Sandra Dee plays her bitter, neglected daughter and John Gavin is Lana’s eternal best friend.

The 15th City of Lights, City of Angels, a festival with both a handy acronym, Col•Coa, and a winning subtitle, "A Week of French Film Premieres in Hollywood," has opened with Philippe Le Guay's Service Entrance and closes on Sunday with Dany Boon's Nothing to Declare. In all, 34 features and 26 shorts will be screened, and we're teaming up with the festival to present five of those shorts for free. All five have been made by students of La fémis in Paris (whose alumni, by the way, include Laurent Cantet, Costa-Gavras, Claire Denis, Louis Malle, Arnaud Desplechin, Claude Miller, François Ozon and Alain Resnais). You can view our offering here.

In Brice Pancot's À cor et à cir (image above), a woman who's just turned her car over is discovered by a man and his son; see the teaser here. In Marion Desseigne-Ravel's Uniform (Les Murs...

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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

The third installment of the popular bloodsucking series kicks off with some explosive developments. Chaste Edward (dreamy Robert Pattinson) finally proposes to Bella (lip-biting Kristen Stewart). It looks like the toothsome teens are set to begin a life of undead bliss together, but the flame-haired Victoria still has a wooden stake to grind. She assembles an army of vampires to guarantee Bella sulks her last sulk. Reinforcements are called in, meaning Edward must team up with lovesick hairball Jacob (a Herculean Taylor Lautner). The film never rises above the artistic level of an episode of Seventh Heaven and the dialogue would shame a greeting card, but the three leads do their best to invest the material with a necessary heartbeat. When Bella asserts her right not to choose between her ying-yang twins, Twilight shows its real strength.

After a three year romance, the costars and lovers call it quits according to a rep for their hit show!

Get out your handkerchiefs Upper East Siders, Gossip Girl costars and young Hollywood royalty Blake Lively and Penn Badgley have called it quits! Us Weekly reports that the pair split in mid-September though a rep for their show is just now releasing the news. The couple had been together for three years.

Sources say despite the split the pair are still friends and get along amicably on the set of their CW show. “They’re professionals. They’re still good friends and hang out on the set.”

Blake and Penn chose to keep the news of their breakup to themselves initially, likely as she was promoting The Town and he his new film Easy A. There have been recent musings that Blake was spending time with actor Ryan Gosling, and...

People are always asking me if I ever get tired of going to the movies. The honest answer is: No, I never get tired of going. But I do get tired of second-tier mediocre Hollywood product, and when you’ve consumed enough of it to wear you out, there’s only one thing that can trump that malaise: stumbling onto a movie that’s fresh, smashing, and original, the kind of picture that reminds you of why you fell in love with movies in the first place. Twenty years ago this week, in the middle of July 1990, was I ever...