Thursday, May 01, 2008

PLEASE REMIND ME

what it was I liked about Gerard Depardieu? I saw him in the film Nathalie the other night and he seemed to walk through the part. (A very strange movie if you've never seen it). I always thought Depardieu might lose something in translation but what film should I go to to be reminded of his greatness? He's made about a hundred films so maybe someone can come up with one.

If anyone other than the people I have been in touch with plans to post a book recommendation tomorrow, please advise.
Many names have been used to describe the project so I am going to go with Friday's Forgotten Books. And if anyone wants to do one next week, let me know. Or any week. I'll be happy to put a link to your blog.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jean de Florette, Le Comte de Monte Cristo, Vatel, Cyrano de Bergerac are four I'd recommend. I don't know of anything in English that's worth your trouble. He had a bit in the Vie en Rose film, but it was too small a part for him to do any real acting I think.

He had announced that he was retiring from acting to pursue his cooking hobby, but I don't know if he was joking.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I saw Cyano but only the second part of Jean de Florette (Manon of the Spring). The cooking, I believe.

Todd Mason said...

Yes, he does look like a man who enjoys good food. A Lot.

He and his costar Adjani were able to incompletely defeat the script in CAMILLE CLAUDEL, too.

pattinase (abbott) said...

He can be so lumbering. Maybe Rodin was lumbering...

Graham Powell said...

How about LA DERNIER METRO? It wasn't a great film but he was really good in it.

Graham Powell said...

Wait! Got a good one - A PURE FORMALITY.

Also, I don't think he's retired - IMDB.com lists him in about 10 films in pre- or post-production.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Never heard of either one. I'm off to Netflix. Thanks.

angie said...

BETTY BLUE!!! It's subtitled, but totally worth watching. My god, I loved that movie...

pattinase (abbott) said...

Okay, Angie. Neither of GP's suggestions were on netflix. Let me try this one.

Keith Raffel said...

You must be thrilled!

pattinase (abbott) said...

I am thrilled, Keith. Thanks. Patti

angie said...

Oh, crap. Betty Blue is a great movie, but no G. D. My bad!

I got it mixed up, 'cause I saw it at almost the same time as THE LAST METRO (Le Dernier métro) maybe 15 years ago. Last Metro was really good - Truffaut directed & Catherine Deneuve co-starred. (Graham rec'd it, and it's available from Netflix under the English title).

Graham Powell said...

Yeah, the English title is THE LAST METRO.

He was also in an adaptation of the David Goodis novel THE MOON IN THE GUTTER (the French title is a direct translation, LA LUNE something or other). I only saw the last half and hadn't heard of Goodis at the time, and I thought it was boring.

pattinase (abbott) said...

As much as I like foreign films (saw one tonight) I find it hard to evaluate the acting in them. So I'm going to chalk it up to my failing.