Dark, enigmatic, elusive, writer-director Claude Chabrol’s Betty, from Georges Simenon, keeps dipping into Betty’s past because her present is so incapable of yielding up anything about her. The film’s mosaic of time even includes repetitions of the key moment of her life, when Betty signs away all rights to her two children after being caught […]
Daily Archives: August 7, 2008
Conjoining portrayals of both rural and urban poverty, Bimal Roy’s Two Acres of Land revolves around Shambhu Maheto, a West Bengal farmer whose refusal to sign away his bit of land frustrates the attempt of the local zamindar to have a factory built that will energize the area with progress, providing jobs, running water, electricity. […]
L’argent de poche (literally, Pocket Money) is François Truffaut’s attempt at “a Chabrol,” but without adultery or murder. Working from his and Suzanne Schiffman’s episodic script, Truffaut has brought his crew into a provincial town, in this case, Thiers, and mixed professional actors, mostly adults, and nonprofessionals, mostly the town’s own kids. It is an […]
Dennis Grunes 