Les Sièges de l'Alcazar

A humorous insider critique of 1950s Parisien cinephile scene by filmmaker, critic, and producer Luc Moullet who began writing for Cahiers du Cinéma at the age of 18 alongside figures like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. French filmmaker, critic, and producer Luc Moullet pokes fun at the now legendary feud between film journals Cahiers du Cinéma and Positif; a moment that he was at the heart of as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma, aged only 18 alongside figures like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. The subject of his featurette is Cahiers critic Guy Moscardo (Olivier Maltinti), who insists on sitting in the front row at his favourite cinema the Alcazar. As he is covering a retrospective of the obscure Italian filmmaker Vittorio Cottafavi, he begins to suspect that Jeanne (Jacqueline Moreau), a critic from the rival magazine Positif, is following him; not completely to his dissatisfaction. Funny yet also nostalgic, the film is an ode to those heady years of film criticism - ones that marked Luc Moullet's personal journey as a writer, filmmaker, and jokester. The wordplay of the title - sièges meaning both 'seats' but also 'sieges' - sums up Moullet's playful approach to the subject.