Tag: Cinema of France
La Fracture | 2021 Cannes Film Festival Review
Conqueror Worms: Corsini Juggles Metaphors in Strangely Asymmetrical Social Issue Film
Director Catherine Corsini metastasizes an ensemble exercise for her eleventh feature, La Fracture, a...
Softie (Petite nature) | 2021 Cannes Film Festival Review
Sharp Shock to Your Soft Side: Theis Mines the Uncomfortable Realities of Sexuality
In the one-hundred-and-twenty-five years since the detrimental trials of Oscar Wilde and...
Tom Medina | 2021 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Man Without a Country: Gatlif Explores the Tribulations of Redemption in Oblique Character Study
French-Algerian director Tony Gatlif remains something of a European anomaly...
Roaring 20’s | 2021 Tribeca Film Festival Review
Walking & Talking: Vogler Captures the Bustling & Bebopping of Distinctive Parisian Summer
Decades from now, the cinematic impact of projects conceived of and filmed...
Spring Blossom (Seize printemps) | Review
The Flower of Her Secret: Lindon Conquers a Crush in Directorial Debut
Exemplifying the sincere transitional period Britney Spears famously moaned about when she sang...
Slalom | Review
Slippery Slopes: Favier Blends Coming-of-Age and Sexual Assault Narrative in Chilly Debut
There’s an immediate discomfort apparent in the opening act of Charlène Favier’s debut...
The Salt of Tears | Review
Love Means Never Having to Say: Garrel Continues Exploration of Love and Lust
“Love ain’t nothin’ but sex misspelled,” Harlon Ellison astutely wrote, for too...
Albatros (Drift Away) | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Bye Bye Birdie: Beauvois Bears Burdens in Old-Fashioned Melodrama
The albatross, a large white seabird with a significant wingspan, has been a symbol of a...
Petite Maman | 2021 Berlin International Film Festival Review
Going Home Again: Sciamma Delivers a Slight, Eloquent Slice of Novel Sci-fi
Céline Sciamma has built a formidable filmography on tenuous stages of women’s developmental...
The Emotional Lives of … 8 Year-Olds!: Céline Sciamma Begins Filming “Petite Maman”
After portraits dealing on teenage sexuality (Water Lilies), gender identity (Tomboy), reinvention (Girlhood) and yearning (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Céline Sciamma will...
Sibyl | Review
Doctor Strange: Triet Gets Tricky with Autofiction Affair
Reuniting with Virginie Efira, the lead from her 2016 sophomore breakout Victoria (aka In Bed with Victoria),...
Video Interview: Maïmouna Doucouré – Cuties | 2020 Sundance Film Festival
With her award-winning short Maman(s), Maïmouna Doucouré masterfully details the traumas associated by living in a nonsecular upbringing. Mining from her own experiences and...
Cuties | Review
L’amener Sur: Doucouré’s Debut a Winning, Familiar Bildungsroman
French writer/director Maïmouna Doucouré strikes a mostly affable balance between familiar coming-of-age tropes and culturally specific intersections...
The Bare Necessity | Review
I Think I Love You: Le Duc Looks for Love in Absurdist Comedy
“Is the life you’re living truly yours?” asks a whispery Fanny Ardant...
Criterion Collection: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) | Blu-ray Review
In a world concerned with rigid dichotomies, there remains a roughhewn juxtaposition of the male gaze and the female gaze. Taking into consideration the...
Love Affair(s) | Cannes 2020 Label Review
The Most Important Thing is to Love: Mouret’s Loquacious Ode to Capricious Romance(s)
With narratives often constructed on the gossamer threads of human interactions, it’s...
The Truth | Review
I Remember Mama: Kore-eda Anoints Deneuve as a Diva in Pleasurable Drama
A subtle exercise in the limited reality of both perspective and memory, auteur...
On a Magical Night | Review
A Room with a Screw: Honoré Waxes Playful on Marital Discord
The flexibility (or lack thereof) of fidelity in heteronormative relationships is at the center...
Deerskin | Review
Full Leather Jacket: Dupieux’s Cinema Bizarre Continues with Killer Style
Quentin Dupieux, France’s purveyor or loopy absurdism, returns with Deerskin, headlined by high-profilers Jean...
Caught in a Bad Romance: Clouzot’s Dire Love Story Resurrected “Manon” | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Academy resurrects an early notable work from the filmography of Henri-Georges Clouzot with his 1949 Manon, which won the Golden Lion at the...
Three on a Match: Chabrol Breaks Commandments with “The Third Lover” | Blu-ray Review
A prominent member of the French New Wave, often credited as the French Hitchcock, director Claude Chabrol’s first few features were internationally renowned, seminal...
Crime and Punishment: Sautet’s Enthralling Policier an Obscure Neo-Noir “Max and the Junkmen” | Blu-ray Review
An unsung genre masterpiece from Claude Sautet, 1971’s Max and the Junkmen comes to Blu-ray for the first time courtesy of Kino Lorber. Featuring...
Her Love is Real, But She is Not: Gainsbourg Plays with Gender Norms in “Je t’aime moi non plus” (1976) Blu-ray Review
An obscure oddity from the late 70s, to be sure, is French pop artist Serge Gainsbourg’s 1976 directorial debut, Je t’aime moi non plus...
Lost in Translation: Lapid Languishes in Enigmatic, Complex Study on Cultural Identities with “Synonyms” | Blu-ray Review
Winning the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival, Nadav Lapid’s third film Synonyms was one of the best theatrical releases of...
Criterion Collection: Betty Blue (1986) | Blu-ray Video Review
It’s time to take another look at the famed Cinema du Look auteurs of 1980s and 1990s French cinema, and what better way to...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #126. L’Etreinte – Ludovic Bergery
L'Etreinte
Initially announced in 2013, actor Ludovic Bergery (who has starred in films by Benoît Jacquot and Mia Hansen-Løve) finally broke bread with his directorial...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #131. De nos frères blessés – Hélier Cisterne
De nos frères blessés
Seven years after his lauded 2013 debut Vandal, Hélier Cisterne (an actor we caught in John Shank's Last Winter) returns with...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #132. Filles de joie – Frédéric Fonteyne
Filles de joie
French director Frédéric Fonteyne breaks an eight-year hiatus with his fifth feature Filles de joie aka Working Girls (initially titled The Border)...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #145. Vaurien – Peter Dourountzis
Vaurien
French director Peter Dourountzis will make his directorial debut with the thriller Vaurien, produced by Sebastien Haguenauer. The project is headlined by Pierre Deladonchamps...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #146. Jumbo – Zoé Wittock
Jumbo
Belgian born Zoé Wittock promises to be a breakout director in 2020 with her debut Jumbo, (which the Sundance folks describe a "world of...
Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #147. Sous le ciel d’Alice – Chloé Mazlo
Sous le ciel d'Alice
For her directorial debut, celebrated short film director Chloé Mazlo will have Sous le ciel d’Alice (translated as Under Alice’s Sky) on...
There’s No Love Like Easy Love in Garrel’s Intriguing Farce “A Faithful Man” | Blu-ray Review
Louis Garrel’s sophomore film, A Faithful Man, which was co-written by the esteemed scribe Jean-Claude Carriere, premiered at TIFF in 2018 prior to competing...
Interview: Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Cannes 2019 marked an important step in the career of Céline Sciamma, who took home a Best Screenplay Award from her impressive premiere in...
Portrait of a Lady on Fire | Review
Paint it Bright: Sciamma Dazzles with Career-Best, Ardent Period Drama
You only need a few seconds to fall in line with Céline Sciamma’s commanding directorial...
Love is Like Woe: Duvivier Crashes into Romance in Final Film Diabolically Yours (1967) | Blu-ray Review
Kino Lorber resurrects Diabolically Yours, the final film from French auteur Julien Duvivier, arguably the most neglected member of the “Big Five” of classic...
Synonyms | Review
Lost in Translation: Lapid Languishes in Enigmatic, Complex Study on Cultural Identities
The rejection of self and the adoption of persona are prominent themes pouring...
Whoa, Nelly: Sautet’s Final Neglected Classic “Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud” (1995) | Blu-ray Review
Claude Sautet took home a Best Director Cesar and lead Michel Serrault nabbed Best Actor for their work on the subtle melodrama Nelly and...
Olivia (1951) | Review
Teacher Pets: Audry’s Lesbian Melodrama Reclaims the Spotlight in New Restoration
Returning to dispel the historical erasure of queer representation in cinema is Olivia, a...
A Good Thief is Hard to Find in Decoin’s Razzia sur la chnouf (1955) | Blu-ray Review
A classic from the underrated filmography of Henri Decoin, 1955’s Razzia sur la chnouf (Raid on Drugs) is based on a novel by Auguste...
Gabin Goes Gold in Becker’s Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954) | Blu-ray Review
As part of Kino Lorber’s resurrection of Jean Gabin classics once owned by Criterion, on top of bringing Port of Shadows to Blu-ray, the...
Carne Spins Fatal Attractions in Port of Shadows (1938) | Blu-ray Review
Kino Lorber pilfers another title from Criterion Collection with the re-release of Port of Shadows on Blu-ray. A seminal French film noir, the film’s...
Coincoin and the Extra-Humans | Review
E.T. Clone Home: Dumont Gets Delirious in Sci-Fi Themed Series Sequel
Ever the nonconformist, French auteur Bruno Dumont seems to be in the midst of...
A Faithful Man | Review
He’s an Easy Lover: Garrel Leans on Influences with Fitful Love Triangle(s)
Actor cum director Louis Garrel returns to a fussy triptych with his sophomore...
The Return of Martin Guerre (1982) | Review
No Man of Her Own: Vigne’s Classic Medieval Identity Drama Resurrected
In the early 1980s, French director Daniel Vigne seemed poised to be one of...
Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Dancing…Yeah: Kechiche Spins Like a Record Round in Vacuous Sequel
The French-Tunisian director who won the 2013 Palme d’Or for Blue is the Warmest Color...
2019 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 6 – Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Shining bright like a diamond, Céline Sciamma makes her way into the comp for a first time with her fourth feature film. Portrait of a...
Heroes Don’t Die | 2019 Cannes Film Festival Review
Crimes of the Heart: Rapin Explores Mediums as Remembrance with Inquisitive Debut
The idea of reincarnation was once a virulent staple of American genre films,...
High Life | Review
An Outpost of Progress: Denis Gets Daring with Esoteric Sci-Fi
Of Claire Denis’ impressive English language debut High Life, perhaps a famous line from Alien...
Interview: Claire Burger – Real Love (C’est ça l’amour) | 2018 Marrakech Intl. Film Festival
She broke out big as part of a trio of filmmakers with the Camera d'Or winning Party Girl (a film that opened the Un...
Knife + Heart | Review
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key Light: Gonzalez’s Queer Giallo a Dicey Mélange
Love as an overwhelming, all-consuming fire...
