At Iwanami Hall, an art house cinema hall in Tokyo this film by René Feret was seen by 35,000 Japanese viewers ! ! ! !

Rue du retrait (2001) directed by René Féret

Rue du retrait is a film which is quite unique to René Féret for various reasons.Firstly,it is a film which he shot in his own area,near his own house.Rue de retrait is the name of the street in 20th arrondissement in Paris where Mr.Féret stays.So in a way the location afforded a lot of familiarity in terms of location to the cinéaste. Secondly,the making of this film will always remain a miracle of sorts for René Féret as no big production house was willing to finance such a brave,absolutely uncommon film in France.So this film was finally made due to René Féret's personal intervention and highly individual efforts. Its visual style was applauded by a great French filmmaker named Bertrand Tavernier who has long been one of René Féret's admirers.For this film René Féret decided to use DV mode as it offered him a lot of creative freedom to adapt a difficult and touchy topic involving sad life of an old lady who was excluded from society.Rue de retrait is a must for all those viewers who wish to enter old people's lives and their eccentric world.

Bad,boring and senseless film from Tavernier.

L'Appât (1995) directed by Bertrand Tavernier Bertrand Tavernier is a great but underrated master of French cinema. Most of his films are in the vein of family drama in which he has expressed his not so soft views about French society.He has adapted some successful books for cinema too.As far as L'Appat(The Bait) is concerned,it is based on some of his interactions with the French youth who expressed their views.According to them they would like to be rich as quick as possible just like in America.This is exactly what is shown in his film.However in L'Appat the magic of social realism fails to work at all.The acting is dull and the story is weak.All the actors have given very lackluster performances. Everything looks staged whether it is the senseless violence or dramatic sequences. Watching this film I always wonder what went wrong and I am yet to arrive at a satisfactory answer.It is a curious thing that this poor film won the Golden bear award at Berlin Film Festival.