Scene from La Belle Noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker)
“The Invaders: The Complete Series”
Long before “The X-Files,” the 1967-’68 series “The Invaders” warned of alien conspiracies. Out now on a 12-DVD set, it features the adventures of protagonist David Vincent, an architect who witnesses a UFO landing on his way home late one night. Rather than keep the sighting to himself, he goes to the police and when the skeptical cops refuse to believe him, he continues to poke around and raise a stink. The aliens—who look almost human—are annoyed. They want Vincent dead.
“The Invaders” was filmed in color and the directors used color and sound as effective low-budget special effects. With no wasted moments, the show maintained forward motion and tension within its terse framework. Since the aliens could be anywhere and everyone, and since some humans have thrown in with them, Vincent is forever on his guard as he tries to thwart them. Paranoia is the reigning emotion.
La Belle Noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker)
It’s unfashionable nowadays to speak of an artist and his muse, but that’s the theme of the 1991 film La Belle Noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker). Director Jacques Rivette adapted an Honoré de Balzac story and filmed it in gorgeous European art-house style with splendid settings and smart conversation. Noiseuse is about the fumbling process of art and inspiration but also about love curdled into need and successful marriage as an armistice between sides.
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The Two of Us
Claude Berri became known for ’80s art-house hit Manon of the Spring, but emerged out of the French New Wave. One of his greatest early films, The Two of Us (1967), has a bit of New Wave irony with a lot more humanity. Berri’s story of a Jewish boy hiding in occupied France is emotionally authentic, and his sympathy encompasses the grumpy bigot who takes him in and even the plight of animals in wartime.
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