La Sapienza

This 2014 French film by Eugene Green is a marvel. The story is simple: a famous architect is disgusted with his client's demands, and goes with his wife, a psychologist, on holiday to reconsider.

He meets with a prospective student with whom he visits some fabulous baroque architecture in Rome.

In addition, the architect's wife meets & cures the student's sister.

The setting is Rome, with some of the famous works of  Borromini and Bermini, and the shore of Lake Maggiore.

As always with films by  Eugene Green, the sound track is exquisite. One of the best films of 2014. Strongly recommended.

☆☆☆☆☆

Toutes les nuits

Toutes les nuits is a French film made by Eugène Green in 2001. If you enjoy films by Éric Rohmer, as I do, you will love this one.  Eugène Green was born in the USA but chose to become (thoroughly) French when he was 28. In my view, he is an excellent successor to Rohmer who died in 2010. In the film, as in others, he puts in a small cameo appearance as a café owner, see below.

Eugene Green

The film tells the rich story about the coming of age of two childhood friends, Henri and Jules. Henri has a well-off bourgeois family and goes off to study in Paris while Jules stays behind in the village.

Jules and Henri

They keep in touch by post and their lives touch occasionally. The story starts in 1967 and covers most of the 1970's. The scenes relating to the 1968 revolt are particularly amusing, and the 'revolution' is made fun of.  For example, in Jule's village, there are less than 5 students in a manifestation that is broken up by a posse of 2 CRS.

The prologue mentions that the film is based on  the book L'éducation sentimentale by Gustave Flaubert.

A beautiful film that I will definitely will want to watch again.

☆☆☆☆☆

PS An interesting take on Green's baroque films can be found in this article.

Pranzo di ferragosto

Possibly the best comedy I have seen this year. The English title is the literal translation of the original: Mid August Lunch. Not sure why "lunch" is there but "ferragosto" refers to an ancient festival around thet 15th of August when all self-respecting Romans have fled the heat of the city.

Except those that cannot afford to go, such as the protagonist, the middle aged Gianni, who lives with his ancient (93) mother in an apartment for which they are behind with the rent. A friend is prepared to help them out on the condition that they take in his elderly mother as a lodiger, while the friend is away on amorous business. As a result of some other events, Gianni ends up as the host of four old women.

Not all of them are well-behaved and they cause him a lot of problems. E.g. he has a hard time fighting off the advances of one of them. Admirably, he never looses his temper and I really appreciated how he was able to pamper all of his guests, not in the least with his fantastic cooking.

This was one of those movies that I fondly remember long after I have seen them: ☆☆☆☆☆