On behalf of all team members, the Association The Next Meeting Dear readers of Mag – Movie and GameHappy New Year 2026! And to start this one on the wheel caps, Etienne answers present with her podcast Mag.7 to share with you the selection of Mary. The team's passion takes advantage of the microphone to share its cinematic universe, recalling that 7th art is synonymous with diversity and richness.
It was the next session!
Mag.7 is a podcast, produced and distributed by the association blésoise The Next Meeting. The principle is simple: in collaboration with libraries of Agglopolys In the town of Blois, the host Étienne invites people to walk through the music-cinema service and video games of the places and to choose DVDs there. More specifically, seven films, series, documentaries or concerts – seven corresponding to the borrowing capacity proposed by the library – then evoke their selection to the microphone. A monthly program based on the sharing and passion of the 7th art, and seeking to highlight the quality and quantity of films available in public libraries, all accessible for modest amounts, if not totally free in some communities.
Diversity and wealth are the key words of this episode
After Aurélie, it's the turn of another Passionate The Next Meeting to go to the microphone of our dear Etienne: Marie. And as much as saying that she made a bursting entry into the team, affirming her strong tastes. While the other members have so far demonstrated their inclinations for genre cinema, Marie assumes her preference for French and heritage films. But, whatever, this difference is wonderful in the association, which advocates sharing and diversity. What would be discussions if we all watched similar feature films? If we constantly evoke the same themes over time? Mary brings this richness and passion that make cinema an art in its own right. And having it among us makes our exchanges much more exciting than they already are!
This was more than a matter of time before Stephen invited him to survey the DVD/Blu-ray rays of the libraries of Agglopolys de Blois. Between Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy, along with Claude Lellouch and Christophe Honoré, Marie offers us a dive into his film world. So take full advantage of this journey and (re)discover works that deserve to be remembered!
The Umbrellas of Cherboug (1964)
Nationality : France – Gender : Musical comedy Director : Jacques Demy – Distribution : Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Mireille Perrey, Marc Michel...
DVD Edition France | ARTE editions | 22 September 2010 - Blu-ray Edition France | ARTE editions | 20 November 2013 - Dissemination platforms: Mubi, LaCinetek, Capuseen, PremiereMax, FILMO, Cabal VOD, ARTE Boutique, VIVA and Orange
The pitch Mrs Emery and her daughter Geneviève run an umbrella shop. Against her mother's opinion, the young woman lives in love with Guy, a garage operator. But he left for the Algerian war, with the promise that they would end up after war. In debt, they will meet Roland, a rich jeweler.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Alexandra): Entirely composed of sung dialogues ("singed" mode), this romantic melodrama contrasts with the melancholic side of the historical context. Indeed, he is one of the few French films to tackle the war in Algeria. Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964, the director fully exploits the colourful decorations to be in opposition to the cruelty that Geneviève and Guy suffer, torn from their youth and innocence.
Catherine Deneuve is amazing and touching. What is certain is that the scene at the Cherbourg train station dock is heartbreaking. I'm not gonna forget it soon. For my part, I'm glad I saw another film from the director. Because I've seen The Ladies of Rochefort countless times since my childhood. A classic to see absolutely, sweet-sweet, about lost loves.
The Beloved (2011)
Nationality : France – Gender : Drama, Romance and Music – Director : Christophe Honoré – Distribution : Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel, Miloš Forman…
DVD Edition France | France.TV Distribution | 12 September 2016 – Blu-ray Edition France | France.TV Distribution | 12 September 2016 – Dissemination platforms: University
The pitch : From the Paris of the sixties to London of the 2000s, Madeleine and her daughter Vera go and come around the men they love. But not all times allow love to live lightly. How can we resist the time that passes and attacks our deepest feelings?... In The BelovedCatherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni, mother and daughter in real life, interpret this maternal relationship on screen for the second time.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): The Beloved by Christophe Honoré proposes a sentimental chronicle, spanning decades and generations, with the intention of grasping the impulses, ruptures and chance of life. Centrated mainly from the point of view of her female characters, we first follow Madeleine's life, with her choices of life assumed. Then a little later Vera, her daughter, who struggles to find her place, without questioning her mother's choices. Although the film includes male characters, it is essentially Madeleine and Vera that we follow, men being encounters in their lives. They are destined to be nothing but passing by or on the contrary lightning strokes of an existence, like a first love that would never go away.
The film assumes a sleek, almost contemplative setting, which favours the observation of intimate passages. This choice can give an impression of distance, simply looking at lives that flow. Like these passages walk along the streets, which resemble the daily life of Mr. and Mrs. The musical aspect, central in the proposal, can leave skeptical: the songs, which have a linear style in their interpretation, do not mark with their melody. But the word side is a real support that supports the events that take place, and deepens the feelings that are not necessarily expressed. Despite a solid distribution and a sincere interpretation, the film leaves an uneven overall impression, seductive in its intentions, but limited in their realization.
Agnes Varda - The integral (2019)
Nationality : Italy – France – Gender : Drama – Director : Agnes Varda – Distribution : Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, Dorothée Blank, Michel Legrand...
DVD Edition France | Art editions | 6 November 2019 – Dissemination platforms: Ciné, LaCinetek, Filmo, Mubi, Canal VOD, Orange, Pathé Home
The pitch : Cleo, beautiful and singer, awaits the results of a medical analysis. From superstition to fear, from the Rue de Rivoli to the Café de Dome, from coquetry to anxiety, from her home to the Parc Montsouris, Cleo lives 90 special minutes. His lover, his musician, a friend and then a soldier open his eyes to the world.
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): In this set of 30 DVDs, I chose to watch Cleo from 5 to 7. We follow Cléo Victoire, a singer who became capricious by the attention she is being given and her beauty, during an alarming part of life where she awaits the result of a medical examination. It is a film shot in Paris, in real time, where we are in the company of Cleo, sometimes in his thoughts, often witness his worries and moments of loneliness despite the presence of his entourage. Cleo, who until then only looks at herself, will start looking at others to deceive her expectation... And it is through the use of superb close-ups on Parisians that the transition takes place, as well as through the shootings on the fly of the Parisian streets and its inhabitants. The search for the participation of the different plans in the narration is perpetually present, as this scene in a café where Cleo disinterests his friend's monologue, to interest the couple sitting next to her. Many examples are present in this film, witness to the search by Agnes Varda to use all the possibilities that the camera allows him to express.
Cleo from 5 to 7 was presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival, it contributes to the launch of his career by the praiseful feedback he receives. Agnès Varda is a director of reality, focusing her films and short films on moments of life, events that have gone through yours or those of her loved ones. Cleo from 5 to 7 is a perfect example of the themes of his filmography. A multi-talented artist who began her career as a photographer, partly self-taught in cinema, she was also committed to defending women's rights, especially for greater equity in the film world.
A Summer Chronicle (2011)
Nationality : France – Gender : Documentary – Director : Jean Rouch, Edgar Morin
DVD editing: France | Art editions | 03 July 2012 - Dissemination platforms: MUBI, La Cinetek, UniversCine, ARTE FRANCE and Tënk
The pitch : Paris, summer 1960, Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch interview Parisians on how they deal with life. First question: Are you happy? The topics covered are varied: love, work, leisure, culture, racism etc. The film is also a question about documentary cinema: cinema-truth and cinema-mensonge. What character do we play in front of a camera and in life?
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Aurélie): Summer chronicle is a documentary film directed by a filmmaker, Jean Rouch, alongside the sociologist Edgar Morin. It takes the form of micro-trotters or conversations between several people, in a room and in the presence of a camera. Indeed, the first thing that strikes when viewing the documentary is its sociological side, where the people interviewed have to answer questions that seem simple: are you happy/unhappy, how you live, are you satisfied with your life, love, racism, etc. By these testimonies one obtains a state of France in 1960, seen by different classes or origins. But for many, the answers are general, see banal, and the questions asked in 1960 would get the same answers in our time (with a different news, of course!). Only a few offer more personal, more intimate answers.
The other side of the documentary comes to ask itself the question of cinema: cinema-truth or cinema-merge? Opinions diverge, those who participated in the testimonies become judges of what they viewed. Generalities become uninterested, see falsehood. More intimate responses become voyeurism. It would have been interesting to have a documentary in two equal parts, and to balance the more sociological/state side of France of 1960, with the cinemaphile side and the questioning on the role and impact of the camera.
Itinerary of a spoiled child (1988)
Nationality : France, West Germany – Gender : Drama, Adventure – Director : Claude Lelouch – Distribution : Jean-Paul Belmondo, Richard Anconina, Jean-Philippe Chartrier, Daniel Gélin, Marie Sophie L.
DVD Edition France | Metropolitan Film & Video | 02 December 2021 - Blu-ray Edition France | Metropolitan Film & Video | 15 January 2024 - Dissemination platforms : UniversCiné, FILMO, Cinemasalademande, Pathé Home, VIVA, PremiereMax, Orange and Canal VOD
The pitch : A fifty-year-old, tired of his responsibilities and son, decides overnight to leave everything. Making him believe in his death, he disappears in Africa, in order to start a new life but his past will catch him up, in the person of a former employee of his company...
Illusions Lost (2021)
Nationality : France – Gender : Drama, Romance and History – Director : Xavier Giannoli – Distribution : Benjamin Voisin, Cécile de France, Vincent Lacoste, Xavier Dolan, Salome Dewaels...
DVD Edition France | Gaumont | 30 March 2022 - Blu-ray Edition France | Gaumont | 30 March 2022 - Dissemination platform: VIVA, PremiereMax, Pathé Home, Canal VOD, Orange and FILMO
The pitch : The head filled with ambition and dreams, a young poet left his home province to go to 19th-century Paris. But delivered to himself, he will discover the world of the press and, above all, a world dedicated to the law of profit and false-likers...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sebastian): Let me speak in my personal capacity to give you my opinion on Illusions Lost. As a spectator, we have all our favorite genres and films and, a contrario, our a priori and apprehensions. For my part, it is the works whose historical setting places us between the 17th and the end of the 19th century that hold me back. This long period rhymes with royalty or bourgeoisie, and therefore with beautiful costumes and social status. But it is above all a time which, in my opinion, is often approached in a very theatrical way. This goes hand in hand with the desire to show the powerful under their hypocritical and sometimes ridiculous airs, to accentuate the satirical aspect of the intrigues. But he is detaching from it something forced, artificial, which I hardly like in such propositions. You will understand: I'm not fond of it, and Illusions Lost has long been one of those films that I avoid by mere apprehension. But in view of the excellent returns received on his release, not to mention his razzia to the Caesars of 2022, my curiosity took over and I started to view... to discover one of my favorite 2021 films!
Illusions Lost is a feature film that has understood what Honoré de Balzac is. Rather than wanting to show off his beautiful ornaments (decors, costumes, celebrities...) and show off a budget that we guess, the title is primarily interested in the pen and message of the writer. With this new film, director Xavier Gianolli manages to transcribe all the ridicule, all the acidity of Balzac. By appropriating his writing, the filmmaker delivers a feature film of a playful malice, typing both society and the media. Moreover, the latter take it for their rank, on several levels: criticism dictated by financial interests, manipulation of public opinion, creation subject to the laws of the market, success dependent on advertising and networks... And even if it targets the 19th century press, Illusions Lost And his words resonate on our time. Replace the newspaper with any other contemporary media (television, internet, social networks, etc.) and you will see that the topics covered remain current. This is clearly the strength of the title, besides the natural play of its actors and the effectiveness of its writing.
We all have the right to have prejudices about a work, if only through affinity. But sometimes we have to be open-minded to legitimize our remarks. And by making this effort, in addition to broadening its horizons, we may even fall on works that mark us to the point of wanting to defend them. That's what happened to me with Illusions Lost And I had to share this experience with you.
La Ferme des Bertrand (2024)
Nationality : France – Gender : Documentary – Director : Gilles Perret
DVD Edition France | Day2 | 04 June 2024 - Dissemination platforms : Ciné, FILMO, Pathé Home, Canal VOD, ARTE Boutique, Cinémutins, VIVA and PremiereMax
The pitch: The life and evolution of a farm in Haute-Savoie, over 50 years of existence...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Sebastian): In 1998, Gilles Perret directed his first film, Three brothers for a life... It is a documentary in which the filmmaker decides to follow three farmers in Haute-Savoie and to highlight the difficulties of this profession. Twenty-five years later, the documentary artist decided to put his camera on the same dairy farm and to reveal its evolution. Because in such a time, technology and techniques have changed, and the farm is now managed by the next generation. Picking images of Three brothers for a life...Gilles Perret had fun comparing the lives of these farmers over the decades, from the 1970s to 2020 through the dawn of 2000. A process that turns out to be quite classical in form, but in which La Ferme des Bertrand draws all its critical and thematic strength.
By juxtaposing the eras in this way, the feature film becomes a true family fresco that speaks volumes about what it means to be a farmer. Gilles Perret refers to a universe in perpetual evolution, but which, paradoxically, never manages to change. Indeed, the actors in this environment must constantly adapt to various factors (technical, economic, political, climatic, historical, real estate, geographical, tourist...) without their living conditions being improved. This applies not only to their work but also to their social and family existence. All these themes, the feature film rightly addresses them by capturing a look, a speech. And just for what he shows, for what he points at, La Ferme des Bertrand is a documentary that has to be seen. If only to honor these men and women who are constantly fighting to survive, while their job is to contribute to our daily lives.
Kill Charley Varrick! (1973)
Title V : Charley Varrick – Nationality : United States – Gender : Crime, Thriller, Drama and Action – Director : Don Siegel – Distribution : Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Felicia Farr, Andrew Robinson, Sheree North...
DVD Edition France | Wild Side Video | 28 June 2017 - Blu-ray Edition France | Wild Side Video | 28 June 2017 - Dissemination platforms : Canal VOD, UniverseCine and Orange
The pitch: A man robs a bank with his wife and acolyte. But he understands very quickly that the stolen money belongs to the mafia, who throws a killer after him...
Opinion of The Next Meeting (Etienne): Kill Charley Varrick! is a little jewel a little forgotten from the 70s. Directed by Don Siegel, director, among others, of Invasion of the Desecrators of Burial and Inspector HarryThis film tells us the story of Charley Varrick, a civil craftsman and burglar at his lost times. His last hold-up went wrong and here he is pursued by the police. Unanticipated detail on the program: Charley's bank victim was the mafia's, and our friendly plumber snatched them a good big snot. The Casa Nostra killers are also going to go after our hero, who will have to use a thousand tricks to save his skin.
This dry and nervous film, with a very clever screenplay, features Walter Matthau, who gives a hearty joy in roundness, malice and bonhomy. The '70s are well there with the extension cars, on endless highways in this post period Easy Rider where the road was still the American symbol of gaining freedom. We find ourselves with a dry, fat-free film, in the form of a race-suite, full of glaucos and slippers in deep America of the dinners, service stations and desert as far as we can see, all the rhythm of Lalo Schifrin. Why should we shove our pleasure?
The different podcasts of The Next Meeting are accessible at this address.
Subscribe
Connection
0 Remarks
oldest
