What French movie is playing in this short?

November 2, 2014 12:20 PM

Which French (presumably New Wave) movie is playing here?

This is driving me bananas.

posted by herrdoktor to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

I think it might be Breathless. It sounds really really familiar and a lot like that movie.

I have to go do some crap right now, so I'll just put that out there before I come back and try to confirm in case anyone else wants to try.
posted by ernielundquist at 1:06 PM on November 2, 2014

Oh, wait.

OK. I just watched the full short, and the short is a direct homage to Breathless, so that means you've probably ruled out Breathless as the movie already?
posted by ernielundquist at 1:57 PM on November 2, 2014

Best answer: It's not a New Wave movie; I'm pretty sure the actors don't speak French natively. Definitely not Breathless, and I'd bet it's just something the filmmakers threw together to suggest a New Wave movie.
posted by languagehat at 2:07 PM on November 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Thank you SO much for posting this: I saw this short at the cinema years ago and thought it was brilliant, but I lost track of the title.

"Tristan? It's mum."

Languagehat is right, the voices speaking in that 'film' are no more French than Belmondo. (Ahem. Than Tristan.) The film isn't real, but it's a pretty good joke.
posted by lapsangsouchong at 5:31 PM on November 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers! I'm well familiar with Breathless, and knew it wasn't the movie in the short, but didn't even think about the idea that it could just be a fake film.

You've put my mind, which had been going nuts periodically for years, at ease. Thank you!

Incidentally, you can purchase it as part of collection of shorts here. It's a pretty great collection of shorts, and if you look in the product description, you'll see some familiar names!
I have no ties to the collection or the short of any sort. I'm just a fan!
posted by herrdoktor at 6:18 PM on November 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

The actor throwing the punch is the guy off the BT advert, so I would think this is British and quite modern.
posted by biffa at 12:01 AM on November 3, 2014

Oh I see, being a bit slow there, the rest makes it clear he's British. The thing as a whole looks like a precursor to the BBC comedy show "My Life in Film", same lead and director. I'm not having any luck tracking down the clips though.
posted by biffa at 1:36 AM on November 3, 2014

Best answer: Have to chime in here that it's just a really good pastiche -- like most of the short. The dialogue sounds right but merely evokes the New Wave. There's no credit for anything transcluded -- meanwhile he thanks everyone and his cousin for helping make this on likely no budget -- and the imdb entry shows no movie connections other than the collections in which it's included, so the dialogue, like everything else, is fictional. Brilliant fun, though.
posted by dhartung at 4:50 PM on November 3, 2014