| 2018 – 84′ – Film Noir / Thriller –
Written by Christian Carion
Directed by Christian Carion.
Starring Mélanie Laurent, Guillaume Canet, Olivier De Benoist, Antoine Hamel.
North American Premiere COLCOA French Film Festival
In French with English subtitles.
A Cohen Media Group release.|

Estranged from his family and now living abroad, dedicated geologist Julien receives a phone message from his ex-wife, Marie, announcing that their 7-year-old son has disappeared while on a camping trip in the woods. Wracked with guilt and desperate to find his son, Julien frantically plunges into that mission with a vengeance. Guillaume Canet gives the film a taut, seething edge, as Julien, and Melanie Laurent is moving as his grieving wife, Marie. Perhaps most compelling is the fact that director Christian Carion devised a plan whereby Canet improvised his scenes, in chronological order, not knowing what was in store for him at each narrative turn — a tactic that injects the thriller with enormous tension and suspense.

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The post MY SON appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 1982 / 2018 – 111′ –  Classic – Digitally Restored – Thriller / Film Noir  –
Written by Alain Corneau & George Perec.
Directed by Alain Corneau.
Starring  Patrick Dewaere, Myriam Boyer, Marie Trintignant, Bernard Blier, Jeanne Herviale, Andreas Katsulas.
Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival. 5 Cesar Awards Nominations including Best Actor and Best Screenplay.
In French with English subtitles.
A Film Movement Classics release.|

Trailer

Franck (Patrick Dewaere),  a door-to-door salesman married to Jeanne, is looking for a customer who owes money when he meets Mona, a seventeen-year-old who lives with her rich and hateful aunt. Franck’s wife leaves and his boss has him arrested for embezzlement. But Mona pays back the money and suggests he kill her aunt to get hold of her fortune…. SERIE NOIRE is Alain Corneau’s 1979 adaptation of Jim Thompson’s novel “A Hell of a Woman.”

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The post SERIE NOIRE appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 2014 – 111′ –  Thriller / Crime / Drama / Film Noir –
Co-written and directed by Cédric Anger.
Starring Guillaume Canet, Ana Girardot, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Patrick Azam.
Official Selection COLCOA French Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release.|

Trailer

Consider the case of Franck Neuhart, aka the “Oise Killer” – a monster that terrorizes a region north of Paris in 1978. He begins by running girls over with his car, young girls, the ones who excite him. He graduates to gunning down hitchhikers at random. He can’t be caught. He is everywhere and nowhere. He is cold, meticulous, brilliant. He is also a policeman. A model officer assigned to solve his own murders. Based on the real-life Alain Lamare, Franck is portrayed by Guillaume Canet in a performance memorable for its chilling understatement. Set in a grainy winter landscape, this matter-of-fact tale walks us through the daily life of Franck without any pretense to psychological insights, focusing instead on the suspense of the situation. The result is a maddeningly tense thriller with a masterful touch.

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The post NEXT TIME I’LL AIM FOR THE HEART appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 1957 – 100′ – Classic / Film Noir / Crime / Thriller –
Written by Auguste Le Breton.
Directed by Henri Decoin.
Starring Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Lino Ventura, Magali Noël, Paul Frankeur.
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release.|

Razzia Sur La Chnouf is based on a novel by the legendary writer Auguste Le Breton (RIFIFI BOB LE FLAMBEUR) with direction by Henri Decoin (ONE STEP OF ETERNITY) — After a spell in the U.S.A., master criminal Henri Ferré dit ‘Le Nantais’ (Jean Gabin, TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI) returns to Paris and is recruited by Paul Liski (Marcel Dalio, TO HAVE OR TO HAVE NOT), head of a major narcotics ring, to oversee and improve the efficiency of their distribution. Merchandise has been disappearing and unreliable dealers must be eliminated. For the latter, Henri is assigned two hitmen, Roger le Catalan (Lino Ventura, THE SICILIAN CLAN) and Bibi (Albert Rémy, THE TRAIN). Released as RAZZIA in the U.S., RAZZIA SUR LA CHNOUF thrillingly explores the criminal underworld of 1950s Paris.

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The post RAZZIA SUR LA CHNOUF appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 1963 – 105′ – Classic / Film Noir – Digitally restored 4K.
Written and Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Michel Piccoli, Jean Desailly.
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber Classic release.|

From Jean-Pierre Melville, the legendary director of BOB LE FLAMBEUR, LEON MORIN PRIEST, LE CERCLE ROUGE and UN FLIC. The backstabbing criminals in the shadowy underworld of Le Doulos have only one guiding principle: “Lie or die.” A stone-faced Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as enigmatic gangster Silien, who may or may not be responsible for squealing on Faugel (Serge Reggiani), just released from the slammer and already involved in what should have been a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisty, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust? Shot and edited with Melville’s trademark cool and featuring masterfully stylized dialogue and performances, LE DOULOS is one of the filmmaker’s most gripping crime dramas. Screenplay by Melville, adapted from the best-selling novel by Pierre Lesou (UN CONDE), with top-notch cinematography by Nicolas Hayer (LE CORBEAU). American filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese cited LE DOULOS  as their personal favorite and a large influence on RESERVOIR DOGS and THE IRISHMAN. 

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The post LE DOULOS appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.