ARTE Distribution

An iconic film, on a legendary 80’s sport show. William Klein was given total and exclusive access to the French Open. Miles of filmstock, unique footage, a thousand and one details, and many quirky anecdotes. The tennis carnival from inside, as never seen before.

For two weeks, life in Paris and the whole of France is dominated by this amazing sports event where great champions are on the court wherever you look and as many as 50 matches are fought out each day. William Klein and three camera crews were given total access to The French. From men and women's locker-rooms to massage tables, reception rooms to television studios, players' signing-in desk to turnstiles, stands, umpire's chairs, entrance gates and the VIP village, the cameras were given, for the first and last time, absolutely free rein. Miles of filmstock, unique footage, a thousand and one details, and many quirky anecdotes. For over two hours, the film shows the tennis carnival as you have never seen it before. A circus with its cast of crazies, cranks, snobs, groupies, gurus, magicians, hustlers, heroes, clowns, sponsors, supermen and superwomen. And dollars, fistfuls of dollars, glory, fear and passion.

Shot in black and white with a hand-held camera, this is the most precious, balanced and disturbing account we have of the spirit of May 68.

A documentary about May 1968. At the request of students studying at the Sorbonne, William Klein filmed events in the Latin Quarter of Paris. This footage was intended to be used as part of an umbrella film about May 1968 which, due to multiple dissensions, could never be completed at the time. The film is given over to the people, students, militants, union activists, those who in daily life barely have any contact with each other who can suddenly express themselves. We listen to workers, housewives, waiters, store owners, immigrants, school-children, pensioners, dissatisfied yuppies, repentent bosses, angry young men and women of every type and political tendency, whose passionate discussions ebb and flow across the city. Good intentions, rumors, revelations, wild dreams and speeches, incisive and far-fetched analyses, dramatic turns of events, plots, confessions, crises of conscience, good and bad trips and psychodramas. Talking and talking into delirium.

Polly Maggoo is the pseudo-portrait of a super model. Thirty years ahead of its time, it satirizes TV's top model feeding frenzy, the world of fashion and brainwashing in general... The eye of William Klein in the fashion world made it an iconic movie.
 

There's no movie like Polly Magoo, before or since. It abounds with visual inventions and right-on perceptions. Thirty years ahead of its time, it satirizes TV's top model feeding frenzy, the world of fashion and brainwashing in general. The film's caustic dialogue and wicked humor strike home unerringly. With terrible, and terribly funny, far-sightedness Klein had foreseen the diarrhea of media bullshit.The film's designer justifies dressing women in aluminium with a tirade of pretentious creator-speak. "You are a galvanizer and I am galvanized" yelps fashion-victim Violette Leduc, as pundits launch into vapid psycho-historical explanations. William Klein excels in the parody of all things-media: television commentators, phony interviews, useless scoops, the True Confessions of a Ruritarian Prince, the concoction of a fairy tale romance - even the vox-pops that foreshadow the spontaneous debates of May '68. He takes delight in the slaughter of his targets while keeping the poetry of the images and design ever present.

Jean Vigo Prize 1967

This film shows not only the fashion sporadically played in Klein's production, but also the shifts in taste that have by turns cast him in the spotlight or relegated him to the wings.

This kaleidoscopic film-collage dealing with Klein's work relating to fashion and costume creation (with his wife Jeanne) mixes excerpts from Klein's feature films with imagery from his reportage and fashion photography, his TV commercials, his books, his paintings and even includes rare footage he shot backstage of Yves Saint-Laurent's very first runaway show. Given the current revival of attention to nearly all aspects of his career, Klein's now classic work remains very much in fashion.

The Minister of the Future selects a model couple and sets them up in an experimental apartment in the heart of New City, which is still under construction.

Electronic happiness, a massive hoax. What will life be like in France in the year 2000? How easy will it be to manipulate and program people? To find out, the Minister of the Future selects a model couple, Jean-Michel and Claudine (André Dussollier and Anémone) and sets them up in an experimental apartment in the heart of New City, which is still under construction. Taken in hand on arrival by two psycho-sociologists (Zouc and Jacques Boudet), the two guinea pigs' lives are dictated by a demented program. Every moment of their existence is dissected, their words, dreams, way of eating, being bored and making love. At the beginning, the experiment is a game. The couple's adventures are shown on TV with the whole country watching live. But gradually, in their closed world, things begin to go sour. What are all these tests for? What exactly are all these technicians after? The plot twists and turns down to the final send-up, a joyous explosion of slapstick. The experiment is a horrible flop like so many glorious initiatives of our schizo society.

"It is incisive, never cursory, always subtle. The film makes you laugh from beginning to end, sometimes so hard you cry." (Alain Rémond - Télérama)

Mister Freedom, an American righter of wrongs, a sort of spceage Rambo, arrives to solve France's problems and free the country from the Yellow Peril and the Red Menace.

After a series of cockeyed adventures, fighting Red China Man (a gigantic balloon), Moujik Man (Philippe Noiret) and Marie-Madeleine (Delphine Seyrig), he succeeds only in wreaking havoc and destruction, just as he did in Vietnam. The style of the film is a no holds barred satire on the great events that shape our times. The sets and costumes are inspired by hardcore comic-books. The plot contains crazy violence, twists and turns, primeval politics, suspense, sex and slapstick. Audiences feel like they are at the circus until they realize they are watching the news. 
 
"Mister Freedom is the Ubu of our times, a thundering, allegorical farce that succeeds in recreating for the cinema a trip from which the film draws its inspiration. William Klein's relentlessly inventive, burlesque extravaganza is an invigorating and refreshing breath of fresh air." (Michel Capdenac - Les Lettres Françaises)

In Saint-Luc, the highest village of Europe, Jean does not manage to admit the death of his mother. Jean is persuaded that his mother-in-law is cruel, the children get to hate her.

His father, Pierre Amsler, dreams with getting remarried: he wishes to marry Jeanne Dubois, widow herself and mother of small Arlette. Jean is persuaded that his mother-in-law is cruel, the children get to hate her.

Starring Victor Vina, Jean Forest, Pierrette Houyez, Rachel Devirys
Original Music by Antonio Coppola interpreted by the Octuor de France
Restored version
Released en DVD by ARTE Video
Bonus :
- Documentary about the Music
- Presentation of the movie by Serge Bromberg