THE CLAIRE DENIS COLLECTION (15) £29.99
Collection of four films directed by Claire Denis. In ‘White Material’ (2009), when coffee plantation owner Henri Vial (Michel Subor), his son Andre (Christopher Lambert) and his ex-wife Marie (Isabelle Huppert) find themselves caught up in the turmoil of a rapidly disintegrating political situation, they refuse to acknowledge the danger of the social unrest that has now reached boiling point in their adopted homeland. Joining forces with a black rebel army hero who is also embroiled in the tumult, the Vials fight to survive as their world rapidly crumbles around them.
In ‘Beau Travail’ (1999), Sergeant-Major Galoup (Denis Lavant) is growing increasingly jealous of the popular new recruit Sentain (Grégoire Colin) and decides to bring about his downfall. Eventually, when the platoon have left on a series of exercises, Galoup manages to provoke Sentain into a direct confrontation and the two of them come face-to-face for the last time in an incredible sequence set against a harsh, rocky coastal landscape. In ‘Nénette et Boni’ (1996), Boni (Colin) has enough trouble containing his erotic fixation with the local baker’s wife, but when his estranged younger sister, Nénette (Alice Houri), arrives on his doorstep claiming she’s pregnant, a whole host of new problems come to the fore.
As the two struggle to adjust to their new situation, they begin to understand each other as well as the new responsibility which awaits them in the future. In ‘Chocolat’ (1988), a young French woman returns to the remote bush region of the Cameroons where she grew up. Her journey inspires recollections of the colonial lifestyle, the servant she befriended and a particularly unsettling incident when a plane crashed nearby and the house was invaded by passengers and crew.
DVD available at – http://www.worldonlinecinema.com/Home/french-dvds
L’ENFANT D’EN HAUT/SISTER (15) 2012 FRANCE MEIER, URSULA £15.99
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