Written by Jean-Claude Carrière
14 Episodes
Few screenwriters have left such an indelible mark on art-house cinema as Jean-Claude Carrière (1931–2021). In an extraordinarily prolific career spanning six decades, Carrière left his formally inventive, thematically subversive signature on many of the most philosophically piquant films to emerge from Europe. Getting his start in close collaboration with the French comedian and filmmaker Pierre Etaix, Carrière soon found another steadfast artistic partner in Luis Buñuel (“I did a calculation once and worked out that the two of us had eaten together more than two thousand times,” Carrière once observed, “which is more than many couples have done”). He went on to become an in-demand writer for auteurs such as Jean-Luc Godard, Volker Schlöndorff, Andrzej Wajda, and Louis Malle, often drawing on his experience as a literary author to bring ambitious adaptations to the screen. From the brilliant satire of LE GRAND AMOUR to the dream logic of THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY and the visionary surrealism of THE TIN DRUM, Carrière’s unmistakable sensibility and dazzling intelligence illuminate his extraordinary body of work.
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13:50Episode 2Happy Anniversary
Episode 2
Directed by Pierre Etaix and Jean-Claude Carrière • 1962 • France
A young woman waits and waits for her delayed husband to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
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1:24:30Episode 3The Suitor
Episode 3
Directed by Pierre Etaix • 1963 • France
Pierre Etaix’s first feature introduces the droll humor and oddball charm of its unique writer-director-star. As a tribute to Buster Keaton, Etaix fashioned this lovable story of a privileged yet sheltered young man (played by Etaix himself, in a nearly s...
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Yoyo
Episode 4
Directed by Pierre Etaix • 1965 • France
This elaborately conceived and brilliantly mounted comedy is Pierre Etaix’s most beloved movie, as well as his personal favorite. Beginning as a clever homage to silent film, complete with intertitles, YOYO blossoms into a poignant family saga (in which E...
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1:07:59Episode 5As Long as You’ve Got Your Health
Episode 5
Directed by Pierre Etaix • 1966 • France
In this endlessly diverting compendium of four short films, Pierre Etaix regards the 1960s from his askew but astute perspective. Each part is as technically impressive as it is riotous: a man attempts to read a novel about vampires beside his sleeping wi...
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1:40:11Episode 6Belle de jour
Episode 6
Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1967 • France
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel PiccoliCatherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her afternoon hours working in a b...
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1:27:22Episode 7Le grand amour
Episode 7
Directed by Pierre Etaix • 1969 • France
Despite having a loving and patient wife at home, a good-natured suit-and-tie man, played by writer-director Pierre Etaix, finds himself hopelessly attracted to his gorgeous new secretary in this gently satirical tale of temptation. From this simple, stan...
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1:41:53Episode 8The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Episode 8
Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1972 • France
Starring Fernando Rey, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul FrankeurIn Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and ima...
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1:44:19Episode 9The Phantom of Liberty
Episode 9
Directed by Luis Buñuel • 1974 • France
Starring Michel Piccoli, Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica VittiBourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel’s surrealist gem THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals ...
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2:43:30Episode 10The Tin Drum
Episode 10
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1979 • Germany
Starring David Bennent, Mario Adorf, Angela WinklerOskar is born in Germany in 1924 with an advanced intellect. Repulsed by the hypocrisy of adults and the irresponsibility of society, he refuses to grow older after his third birthday. While the c...
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1:28:16Episode 11Every Man for Himself
Episode 11
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard • 1980 • France
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie BayeAfter a decade in the wilds of avant-garde and early video experimentation, Jean-Luc Godard returned to commercial cinema with this star-driven work of social commentary, while remaining defiant...
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Danton
Episode 12
Directed by Andrzej Wajda • 1983 • France
Gérard Depardieu and Wojciech Pszoniak star in Andrzej Wajda's powerful, intimate depiction of the ideological clash between the earthy, man-of-the-people Georges Danton and icy Jacobin extremist Maximilien Robespierre, both key figures of the French Rev...
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1:51:37Episode 13Swann in Love
Episode 13
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff • 1984 • France
Starring Jeremy Irons, Ornella Muti, Alain DelonVolker Schlöndorff’s sumptuous adaptation of the first volume of Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” stars Jeremy Irons as the appropriately named Charles Swann, a beautiful bachelor, majestic in...
