Who CARES???

re la haine: REALLY? not violent? that's not the rape one w/ vincent cassel?

No that's Irreversible and whilst that film is worth watching for its style and use of camera, as well as excellent performances from its trio of stars, I find the rape scene exploitative and question the director's intention. So if a rape scene would put you off I wouldn't recommend Irreversible.

a film titled Hate is not violent? if so, plse tell me why you're glad you saw it; i'd like to learn.

It's more about the feeling of hate and exploring the origins of it by showing the underclass who live in Paris's suburbs. The context is riots in Paris but we don't see them and the little violence there is, is not in anyway explicit. It's a superb tragi-comedy and social commentary again with 3 central performances.

and the same w/ piano tchr.

The Piano Teacher is emotionally disturbing/distressing because the central character, Erika played by Huppert, is a damaged personality in a psychiatric sense. She has an ill-fated relationship with a pupil, played by Magimel, and ends up unravelling. As I said there is self-harm and one scene of sexual violence but Haneke, the director, always avoids showing anything explicit because he is so anti-gratuity in film.

are you in london where you get to see alot of french films?i'm in boston and we do get some fr films here, and have a great 20 film annual fr film festival at the boston musm of fine arts.

I am in London but don't take advantage enough to see films at the cinema though I've joined an art house cinema for the year to galvanise me into going more often. Your French festival sounds good. I imagine that the French institute in London offers something similar to your Boston FF as would the BFI every so often.

Of your list the only actors I've seen are Depardieu (of course!), Autueil (like very much), Noiret (like him too) and Cassel (love him, but not as much as Magimel and Read My Lips is my fav performance of his). I think you perhaps like French films more than me :D I really appreciate the intellectualism and intelligence of the dialogue in French films plus actors allowed to embody and portray their roles without being didactic. I recommend The Girl Cut in Two then from the Magimel films I've seen as it's very French in terms of manners and society.

Are Vincent Lindon and Melvil Poupaud your favourites? Which films of theirs would you recommend?

A brilliant French film I watched more recently was Lady Chatterley (2006, I think); an adaptation of DH Lawrence's novel. This film really captured the sensibility of Lawrence and he would have been thrilled by how much the director, screen writer and actors brought his novel alive. Playing the gamekeeper was a relative unknown actor called Jean-Louis Coullo'ch and he was superb, as well as strangely attractive.

my vessel is magnificent and large and huge-ish

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