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François Truffaut is back with another Hitchcock-influenced adaptation of a Cornell Woolrich murder thriller, with stars Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Belmondo as lovers – criminals – fugitives, and partly filmed in a remote French island in the Indian Ocean. It’s a tale of a mail-order bride, larcenous deception, and irrational amor fou run amuck. The things we do for love sometimes obey no logic. Also starring Michel Bouquet.

Mississippi Mermaid

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 110 min. / La Sirène du Mississippi / Street Date February 14, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Bouquet, Nelly Borgeaud.

Cinematography: Denys Clerval

Production Designer: Claude Pignot

Deneuve dresses: Yves Saint-Laurent

Film Editor: Agnès Guillemot

Original Music: Antoine Duhamel

Screenplay by François Truffaut based upon the novel Waltz into Darkness by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich)

Produced by Marcel Berbert

Directed by François Truffaut

François Truffaut was the least radical of the official New Wave directors.

The tough guys in Yves Boisset’s crime drama answer revenge with revenge, and Michel Bouquet’s rogue cop commits outrageous acts of lawlessness to nail his partner’s killer. The French censors were up at arms over Boisset’s slight to police honor, yet the subject isn’t corruption — everything is ‘honor and decency.’ A fine gallery of Gallic thugs fills out the cast; both they and the attitude toward law and order are a step beyond Jean-Pierre Melville, but not an improvement. With standout work from Michel Constantin, Théo Sarapo, Henri Garcin and Bernard Fresson.

The Cop aka Un condé

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date September 6, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Michel Bouquet, Françoise Fabian, Gianni Garko, Michel Constantin, Théo Sarapo, Henri Garcin, Anne Carrère, Bernard Fresson, Pierre Massimi, Roger Lumont.

Cinematography: Jean-Marc Ripert

Film Editor: Albert Jurgenson, Vincenzo Tomassi

Original Music:...

Paris — A True Renaissance Man of French cinema, director, historian and film preservationist Bertrand Tavernier can now claim another title – maestro.

For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.

To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.

The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.

What are the roots of this project?

This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...

Death Watch director Bertrand Tavernier on Harry Dean Stanton: "He also had social graces and immediately knew how to talk, to Romy Schneider who immediately liked him."

Bertrand Tavernier's Death Watch (La Mort En Direct), based on the novel by David Compton with original music by Antoine Duhamel (Fernando Trueba's favourite composer), shot by Pierre-William Glenn in Scotland, stars Romy Schneider and Harvey Keitel with Max von Sydow and Harry Dean Stanton. The My Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage à Travers Le Cinéma Français) director shared his memory of the time he spent with Harry Dean, talking about John Huston (Stanton fresh off filming Huston's Wise Blood with Brad Dourif and Amy Wright), Romy Schneider's reaction to the man with "social graces", and Jack Nicholson's admiration for the great talent that Harry Dean Stanton possessed.

Harry Dean Stanton in his last starring role in John Carroll Lynch...

In 1962, two filmmakers met in a room at Universal Studios to discuss (what else?) cinema. Those directors were François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock. (Providing assistance was French-language translator Helen Scott.) Together, they talked for over 50 hours, poring over every film the old master ever made. In 1967, Truffaut published what has universally come to be known as an essential text, titled Hitchcock/Truffaut, which contains rich and detailed transcripts of the extraordinary conversation.

Filmmaker Kent Jones‘ documentary about this historic meeting of the minds is now out, which inspired The Film Stage to look back at some of the forgotten, overlooked, and underrated films from these two beloved directors. The following ten titles contain all of the nuance, mystery and joy that we’ve come to expect from Hitchcock and Truffaut, with many overlapping themes and stylistic sensibilities.

Please enjoy the list, and don’t forget to suggest your own favorites in the comments.

Welcome to the first Notebook Soundtrack Mix—Hyper Sleep! A word about the mix: There's no thematic thread through this collection, it's a variety of intriguing music. In making soundtrack mixes, I'm drawn to the subjective qualities of association and meaning that arise from experiencing the musical narratives that result from transitions and combinations of tracks in succession. Though there are several favorite films, Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill, for one, individual pieces are chosen simply for the music. I haven't seen some of the films. Robert Drasnin, Vladimir Cosma and Antoine Duhamel are represented with curious French T.V. work, rather than with some of their more well known output (The Kremlin Letter, Diva and Pierrot le fou, respectively.) Maybe this is the first of a series…I have several ideas for themed mixes, but wanted to start this way, including work that reflects jazz, classical, experimental and pop influences.