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French Classic Films
Paris Qui Dort (The Crazy Ray)
(1924, 36 minutes, silent, black & white, 16 mm)
Directed by Réne Clair
Starring:
Martinelli, Henri Rollan, Albert Préjean
Réne Clair's first film, which set the tone for his subsequent career, is a fantastic comedy about a group of people wandering through a Paris which has been immobilized by a mad scientist with his ray gun.
Zero de Conduite (Zero for Conduct)
(1933, 44 minutes, black & white, 16 mm)
Directed by Jean Vigo
Starring:
Jean Dasté, Robert Le Flon, Louis Lefebre
Students in a French boarding school rebel against the tyranical headmaster and the strict regiment. A clear forerunner of Lindsay Anderson's IF, this exhilaratingly anarchistic film was banned from public exhibition until 1945.
Une Partie de Campagne (A Day int he Country)
(1936, 40 minutes, black & white, 16 mm)
Directed by Jean Renoir
Starring:
Sylvia Bataille, Georges Sait-Saens, Jacques Borel
At a picnic along a river, a Parisian mother and daughter find romance while the menfolk try to fish. Nature plays a starring role in the cinematic tone poem based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant.
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