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Videos &
DVDs
Chocolat
DVD starring Juliette Binoche
Category: easy viewing
Adapted from Joanne Harris’ novel, this charming
film tells of Vianne Rocher and her daughter who arrive at a small
village where she opens a luxuriant chocolate shop full of temptations.
The shop is opposite the church and it is Lent.
The story tells of the village people, their secrets and troubles,
their loves and desires. Filmed at the medieval village of Flavigny-sur-Ozerain,
this is delightful viewing.
www.amazon.co.uk |
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Colette
Edition Fourreau 2 DVD
Category: artistic
In April 2004 Nadine Trintignant made a two part film,
shown on French television, of the early life of the writer Colette. Beautifully
filmed and starring Maria Trintignant, it covers Colette’s childhood
in Burgundy, her marriage to Willy, the years on the stage and her eventual
happiness.
In French but easy to understand and worth seeing for
the cinematography even if you can’t catch all the dialogue.
www.amazon.co.uk
Asterix
DVD
Category: cartoons
Based on Vercingétorix and the battles between
the Gauls and Romans at Alésia, the adventures continue with
the latest addition launched August 2005, Asterix & Obelix -
Mission Cleopatra.
One of the most popular titles is Asterix and Obelix
Take on Caesar. |
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Cyrano de Bergerac
1990 video starring Gerard Depardieu
Category: swashbuckling fun
This lavish production won numerous awards. Gerard Depardieu
excels as Cyrano, the long nosed, swashbuckling romantic, who vies for
the lovely Roxane against the handsome Christian.
Set in 17th century Paris with the ending filmed at the
Abbaye de Fontenay, it is a stunning film to watch.
In French with superb subtitles.
www.amazon.co.uk
Mondovino
First thrust into the limelight at the Cannes Film
Festival in 2004
Jonathan Nossiter’s film Mondovino presents an enlightening
look
at the world wide wine industry today.
The cast is made up of real life people, the great
and the good of the wine world who in a series of intercut interviews
give us their views. There is the smooth Michel Rolland, the international
wine consultant, responsible for ’finessing’ wines in
his laboratory. There is the charming Hubert de Montille and his
family, illustrating the approach of the different generations in
Burgundy. Then there is the phenomenon of Robert Parker the wine
critic. And central to the whole theme is the huge corporation Mondavi,
presented as ‘the deadly spider at the centre of the wine
industry’s increasingly global web.’ They tried to buy
land in Languedoc, and when this failed they succeeded in Italy
instead.
To anyone interested in wine, the content is fascinating.
Nossiter’s approach shows many amusing and apparently unguarded
moments, lightened by the witty inclusion of the owners’ dogs. |
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