Patrick Mottard expresses his passion for the 7th art with a selection of the best films he has enjoyed watching throughout his career as a viewer and critic.
Here are the top 10 films in his ranking.
In this period of boredom and search for escape, everyone can find something they relate to… or not!
10 – SMOKING/NO SMOKING (Alain Resnais, 1993, France)
This 285-minute work (in two films) with its nine characters played by one actor and one actress, its twenty-five scenes, and its twelve different endings is an N.C.O.I. (non-conventional cinematic object).
The story presents a series of characters in a small village in Yorkshire who will offer us several versions of their lives. What could have been for Alain Resnais a simple exercise in virtuosity turns out to be a brilliant, fascinating, and amusing film but also a reflection on fate and the role of chance in our miserable little lives.
Beyond the director, this success is also due to the rigorous and imaginative work of screenwriters Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnes Jaoui. And what can be said of the immense performance of Pierre Arditi and Sabine Azema, who take us from the wacky to the sinister through the reasonable, keeping us thrilled for almost five hours?
