Tag: paralysis

De Gaulle
Part 2
Liberté
(La Bataille de Gaulle
J’écris ton Nom)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date September 18 2026
No Comments on De Gaulle
Part 2
Liberté
(La Bataille de Gaulle
J’écris ton Nom)

De Gaulle: Part 2 – Liberté

(La Bataille de Gaulle: J’écris ton Nom)

Director – Antonin Baudry – 2025 – France – Cert. 15 – 160m

*****

Second part of a two-part movie continues the story of De Gaulle up to and including the Liberation of Paris in 1944 – out in UK cinemas on out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 18th

Somewhat surprisingly, the second part of Baudry’s epic doesn’t begin where its predecessor left off, but instead jumps forward to 1943. with exiled French General De Gaulle (Simon Abkarian) in London both sticking to his guns and an increasingly isolated figure on the international stage. Polish plumber turned assistant Blazej (Karim Leklou) carries on offering him encouragement.

Still, De Gaulle continues to inspire the Free French forces in North Africa, with General LeClerc (Nils Schneider) taking on a German tank division at Ksar Ghilane with only infantry and the odd anti-tank gun. Impossible odds, but as with the first part’s Bir Hakeim siege story, the Free French’s selfless actions, vowing never to surrender and fight ‘til the last man, help the Allied war effort a great deal.

In Lyon, France and separated from her boyfriend, Livia (Anamaria Vartolomei) works for the Resistance, who face a major political challenge: to unite the various different groups that want to stand against the Vichy government and the Nazis, but don’t necessarily share the same aims in terms of any post-war settlement.… Read the rest

Tags 1940s, 1943, 1944, Allied, Allies, Anamaria Vartolomei, anti-tank gun, Antonin Baudry, barricade, battle, British, Campbell Scott, Churchill, D-Day, D-Day landings, De Gaulle: Liberté, desert, desert warfare, everywoman character, exiled, faction, forces, France, Free French, French Resistance, fuel shortages, General LeClerc, Germany, Gestapo, health condition, history, Impossible odds, infantry, insurgent, Karim Leklou, Ksar Ghilane, Liberation of Paris 1944, London, Lyon, modern history, Nazis, never surrender, Nils Schneide, North Africa, paralysis, PM, Polish, President Roosevelt, prime minister, radio operator, resistance, Simon Abkarian, Simon Russell-Beale, statesman, tank division, The National Council of the Resistance, two-parter, united front, Vichy, war, war movie, weather

Features Live Action Movies

Breaking The Waves

Director – Lars von Trier – 1996 – Denmark, Sweden, France, Norway, Finland, Italy, Germany, US – Cert. 18 – 160m

*****

NSFW.

A mentally vulnerable, young woman in an austere Scots religious community marries an outsider only for her husband to be severely injured working on an oil rig – out in a 4K restoration in UK cinemas on Friday, Aug 4th

Divided into a series of chapter headings in which locked off camera shots are accompanied by popular 1970s rock songs which cut off or fade out before they reach their end, like much of von Trier’s work this is not a film for the faint-hearted.

Young woman Bess McNeill (Emily Watson) is questioned by the priest (Jonathan Hackett) of the local, austere Calvinist community before its elders as to her understanding of matrimony and warned against entering into that institution with an outsider. Nevertheless, she proceeds to marry non-religious oil rig worker Jan Nyman (Stellan Skarsgård). Their relationship is extremely carnal and she is deliriously happy until the time comes, as it must, for Jan to return to work on the rig. She finds his absence almost unbearable.

Then disaster strikes, with Jan seriously injured in a rig accident whilst trying to help an injured fellow worker.… Read the rest

Tags absence, Adrian Rawlins, austere, bedridden, blow to the head, boat, bully, Calvinism, Calvinist, carnal, Christianity, church, community, Denmark, dialogue, disaster, elders, Emily Watson, erotic, erotic fantasy, erotic narrative, eroticism, Finland, France, Germany, God, health, hospital, industrial accident, injury, Italy, Jonathan Hackett, Katrin Cartlidge, kirk, Lars von Trier, marriage, matrimony, mental illness, mental instability, non-religious, Norway, nurse, oil rig, outsider, paralysis, pray, prayers, priest, prostitute, pub, reception, recovery, relationship, religious community, religious elders, Robby Müller, sailor, Scotland, spiritual, Stellan Skarsgard, suffering, Sweden, trauma, Udo Kier, US, wedding, wedding reception, whore, worker

Features Live Action Movies

Swan Song

Director – Todd Stephens – 2021 – US – Cert. – 105m

***1/2

Tasked with creating an open casket hairdo for his deceased, former best client, a hairdresser worn down by care home institutionalism escapes to reinvent himself – out in cinemas on Friday, June 10th

A glamourous star on a stage playing to an audience of empty chairs, Pat Pitsenbarger (Udo Kier) wakes up to the boring reality that he’s living on social security checks and wearing an old T-shirt and sweat pants in a care home in his small town of Sandusky, Ohio.

Still, he takes his pleasures where he can find them: stealing napkins from the dining room and obsessively folding them into squares a quarter of their original size, smoking ladies’ More brand cigars. The latter he lights two at once after turning the wheelchair of Gertie (Annie Kitral) – left out in the corridor – to face the window before giving her the second cigar, something in which she clearly takes pleasure despite near total paralysis.

Otherwise, though, he battles with his nurse Shaundell (Roshon Thomas) over adjusting his armchair cushion and, worse, smoking, a pleasure she forbids. He swallows a cigar to conceal the activity; she finds out and confiscates his stash.… Read the rest