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Nothing ‘Mellow’ About this Drama (When You Read This Letter)

After piquing my interest last year when it screened at the TCM Classic Film Festival, I decided to give When You Read This Letter (Quand tu liras cette lettre in French) a try during its 4K restoration tour of the country.

Released in 1953, When You Read This Letter is a French-Italian co-production directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Philippe Lemaire, Juliette Gréco and Yvonne Sanson.

If I were to describe the genre, I would safely put in the realm of a drama or melodrama, although I have seen it also described as a noir.

To that, I say …

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On Location at the Palace of Versailles

Close-up of Chandelier in Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles © iluvcinema.com

Oh, l’ironie!

At the time I was scheduling this blog post, I had not known that a couple of weeks later I would have the opportunity to see  Les Adieux á la Reine or Farewell, My Queen at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (please look out for review later this week).

To get iluvcinema.com’s ‘French’ week started (you should detect a pattern with the posts), let’s take a look at another entry in my travelogue – the magnificent Palace of Versailles just outside of Paris.

As I learned yesterday during the Q&A session following the film, this landmark is the most expensive place to shoot in France and you can only shoot on Mondays (the only day that it is closed to the public).

I guess this bit of information means that the following films faves of mine are in quite exclusive company:

Shoes at the Versailles Gift Shop © iluvcinema.com

And before anyone asks about Sofia Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette, NO, I have not seen it.

Let me know what you thought of this film, or any film that I might have missed, in the comments field below.

Que plus tard …

* forgive the poor French, I studied Spanish in school (thus, the translations are courtesy of Google Translate).

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8 Femmes (8 Women); France 2002 (Dir. F. Ozon)

Enjoy the long trailer below:

[Advisory: Near the end there is a subtitled bit of “strong” language].

8 Femmes was on Starz Comedy last night. I first saw this film several years ago. Although not a major purveyor of French cinema, I have been known to dabble a little in it. I approached this film with some curiosity as it is a musically-inclined film with a murder mystery at the center of it. The major selling from what I can only amateurly gather is that the “huit femmes” in the film are all very famous French actresses. I would say my knowledge of the majority of them is pretty okay (Ledoyen, Deneuve, Huppert, Darrieux, Sangier, Beart) if not limited to a handful of both French and English language films, but as a film fan I would not say my knowledge is neither extensive nor encyclopedic.

In a modern sensibility, this film can be seen equivalent to the soon to be released Nine, which features a dizzying amount of A-list talent.

Back to 8 Femmes – it did not disappoint. It was a fun musical comedy that was dramatic when it needed to be. I recommend anyone who likes musicals, and murder mysteries in the style of Clue take a gander at this film. It has an interesting (in a pleasing way) ending that is sure not to disappoint.

One year later, Ozon directed another French film that I liked that also was a  mystery at the heart of it, Swimming Pool. This film also feature Ms. Sangier in a lead role.

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