Marie Antoinette (1938) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch

  Marie Antoinette (1938) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch  American Film, Drama, History Venice Film Festival, 1938- Winner: Best Actress Academy Awards, 1939- 4 nominations including: Best Actress in a Leading Role When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer poured an astronomical budget into bringing the doomed French queen to the silver screen in nineteen thirty-eight, Hollywood was not merely making a movie; it was constructing an entire vanished world. Directed primarily by W. S. Van Dyke, Marie Antoinette stands today as one of the ultimate monuments to the golden age of American cinema, a sprawling historical epic that blends lavish romance with the looming terror of the French Revolution.  More on Wikipedia or Mubi  Cinematic Splendor and Tragedy in Hollywood's 1938 Marie Antoinette  At the heart of the production is Norma Shearer, reigning royalty of the studio lot and widow of legendary producer Irving Thalberg, who had passionately championed the pr...

Watch Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952)

Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952)
French Film, Italian Film, Crime, Drama
English title: We Are All Murderers
Italian title: Siamo tutti assassini

Winner: Special Jury Prize

We Are All Murderers (French: Nous sommes tous des assassins, Italian: Siamo tutti assassini) is a 1952 French-Italian crime drama film written and directed by André Cayatte and starring Marcel Mouloudji, Raymond Pellegrin and Claude Laydu. It was shot at the Boulogne Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jacques Colombier. It tells the story of René, a young man from the slums, trained by the French Resistance in World War II to kill Germans. He continues to kill long after the war has ended, as it is all he knows. It was entered into the 1952 Cannes Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. 

Rene is not a bright guy. He was taught to kill by the Resistance. But the WW2 is over and he keeps on killing. He is condemned to death. In jail, expecting the presidential pardon, he mets other condemned men. An anti-capital punishment drama, written and directed by a former lawyer. 

Paris under the German occupation, the slums are all around in the light city, poverty, starvation, prostitution, children without school, alcoholism, beggars and the French resistance struggling against the invaders, crimes are committed by both sides, a young illiterate french was request to do some specifics little services, killing, when the French was finally free by allies, he kills an informer, sentenced by death on the guillotine, in the prison he meets several murderers in same context, hopeful by presidential pardon all them expecting to the final hour, Cayette made a powerful criticism over death penalty, try to explain how these criminals were compelled to do such atrocities, letting us think about it, in my teenage years l'was favorable on death sentence, but after some years l' did change my mind, no man is allowed to kill anyone, in fact if he does it in fact he stays in same position of the killer, this picture ratifies my latest posture, Cayette's masterpiece. More on Wikipedia or Mubi 

Cannes Film Festival, 1952- Special Jury Prize
BAFTA Awards, 1954- 2 nominations including: Best Film from any Source

Full film (English subtitles)

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