Tag: French Cinema

Les Amandiers (Forever Young) | 2022 Cannes Film Festival Review

Mixed Nuts: Tedeschi Returns to Acting School in Charming, Vigorous Homage For her fifth narrative feature, the indefatigable Valeria Bruni Tedeschi conjures a nostalgic reunion...

Don Juan | 2022 Cannes Film Festival Review

A Woman is a Woman: Bozon Invokes the Eternal Seducer in Eccentric Musical Much like Casanova, the name Don Juan has become a euphemism for...

Nos Cérémonies (Summer Scars) | 2022 Cannes Film Festival Review

Summertime Sadness: Reith Explores Brotherly Love with Ominous Magical Realism It’s a formulation as old as storytelling, two men whose love for one another is...

Frère et soeur (Brother and Sister) | 2022 Cannes Film Festival Review

I’m Not One of Your Fans: Desplechin Delivers Camp Classic with Failed Melodrama No one depicted in Frère et soeur (Brother and Sister), the latest...

Goutte d’Or (Son of Ramses) | 2022 Cannes Film Festival Review

Sun of a Gun: Cogitore Returns with Cryptic Drama on Violence, Exploitation France’s Clément Cogitore is clearly a fan of the mysterious and inexplicable sinews...

Guilt Complex: Léa Drucker Toplines Catherine Breillat’s “L’été dernier”

Finally it will be Léa Drucker in the driver's seat (and not the originally attached Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) in Catherine Breillat's now titled L'été...

Lux Æterna | Review

Devil’s Familiars: Noé Stirs a Witches’ Brew in Latest Provocation For those familiar with cult auteur Gaspar Noé, one either has a taste for his...

Depp in Court: Maïwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry” Courts Louis Garrel, Pierre Richard & Noémie Lvovsky

Johnny Depp might have missed out on a nice Disney payday, but he'll soon be holding court with the likes of Louis Garrel, Pierre...

Anaïs in Love | Review

She’s Pure as New York Snow: Bourgeois-Tacquet Charms in Effortless, Effective Comedy With her unexpectedly charming debut, Anaïs in Love, director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet presents the...

I Love America | Review

I Never Sang for My Mother: Azuelos Mines Own Experiences for Dynamic Melodrama Presenting a narrative partially autobiographical in nature with her latest film, I...

Black Box | Review

Guilt By Aviation: Gozlan Delivers Intrigue with Paranoia Tinged Tech Thriller Director Yann Gozlan returns to the realm of social pariahs in his fourth...

Intergalactic: Lily-Rose Depp & Anamaria Vartolomei Become Airborne in Dumont’s “L’Empire”

There was some speculation at the beginning of the year Fabrice Luchini, Lily-Rose Depp, Adèle Haenel and Virginie Efira were looking to board the...

Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades) | Review

Same Old Song & Angst: Audiard Misfires with Millennial Love Tugs Jacques Audiard turns to youth culture amour fou with his latest feature, Paris, 13th...

Aline | Review

The Face of Another: Lemercier Normalizes Weird Choices in Bizarre Biopic Like something novel born out of a 30 Rock satire (remember the unauthorized Janis...

The Rose Maker (La fine fleur) | Review

In the Name of the Rose: Frot Elevates Formulaic Melodrama from Pinaud “What is life without beauty?,” inquires antiquated rosarian Eve Vernet in Pierre Pinaud’s...

Gagarine | Review

Favorites of the Moon: Liatard and Trouilh Stargaze Through the Rubble of Resistance Yuri (Alseni Bathily) seems to be the glue holding his community together...

Passenger’s Seat: Happening’s Anamaria Vartolomei Cast as “Maria” Schneider

Winner of the Cesar award for best Female Newcomer this past Friday for her perf in Audrey Diwan's Golden Lion winning L’Événement (Happening), actress...

Blame it on the Rain: Guillaume Canet & Laetitia Dosch to Get Soaked for Just Philippot’s “Eau-forte”

Launching his feature filmmaking career with one of the buzz titles of the canceled 2020 Cannes edition (the Cannes Critics' Week did highlight five...

My Best Part (Garçon chiffon) | Review

Green Eyes, They’re Crying: Maury Mines Sorrow in Tragicomic Debut Actor Nicolas Maury crafts his own starring vehicle in My Best Part (Garçon chiffon) as...

À propos de Joan (About Joan) | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review

Ladies They Talk About: Larivière Utilizes Huppert in Shaky Melodrama on Loss & Love For his sophomore film À propos de Joan (About Joan),  Laurent...

Incredible But True | 2022 Berlin International Film Festival Review

Beauty Secrets: Dupieux Latest a Strangely Tragic Fable on Human Foibles The films of Quentin Dupieux, a prolific Belgian director who has spent most of...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #25. Bertrand Bonello’s La bête

La bête As we explored earlier on our countdown, Bertrand Bonello segued to micro-budget Coma while awaiting the greenlight for his ambitious triple era pronged...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #27. Rebecca Zlotowski’s Les enfants des autres

Les enfants des autres (Other People’s Children) Directly after premiering her fourth feature film Une fille facile (An Easy Girl) in the Directors' Fortnight section,...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #36. Quentin Dupieux’s Fumer fait tousser

Fumer fait tousser Especially comforting in these awkward pandemic days of 2022, we'll be receiving not one, but two servings of chicken soup for the...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #40. Léonor Serraille’s Un petit frère

Un petit frère Catapulted onto the film scene when her feature debut film Jeune Femme (aka Montparnasse Bienvenüe) was first selected for the Un Certain...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #54. Romain Gavras’ Athena (Fka Moussa)

Athena Look for a title change to occur on Romain Gavras' third feature film project which is passing as RG03 and Moussa -- a term...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #58. Guillaume Nicloux’s La Tour d’Assitan

La Tour d’Assitan (Lockdown Tower) Upon getting a whiff of this project one can't help but feel that Gareth Evans' The Raid created a new...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #59. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s Les Amandiers

Les Amandiers There'll definitely be some autobiographical elements in Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's fifth feature film as a filmmaker and it might be the formative years...

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #84. Cédric Jimenez’s Novembre

Novembre Perhaps France's answer to Antoine Fuqua, Cédric Jimenez has padded his decade long filmography working mostly with gritty texts that either get in tight...

Vincent Lacoste & Juliette Binoche to Get Schooled in Christophe Honoré’s “Le Lycéen” (Winter Boy)

'Tis the season to be jolly for Christophe Honoré as he is set to begin lensing Le Lycéen next week with a trio comprised...

France | Review

France de France: Dumont Soars with Offbeat Melodrama on Media & Misogyny Few and far between are odd cinematic delights so deliberately off-center and...

Benedetta | Review

Blaspheme, Queen: Verhoeven Turns to Nunsploitation in Erotic Melodrama Occupying a dazzling intersection of exploitation and queer historical recuperation is the long-awaited Benedetta from Dutch...

Only the Animals | Review

Catfish People: Moll Returns to the Ripple Effects of Identity Issues In the early 2000s, German born Dominik Moll was a fast-rising director of contemporary...

Bergman Island | Review

The Passion of Mia: Hansen-Love Makes Her Own Place at the Table For her complex and absorbing seventh feature, Bergman Island, Mia Hansen-Løve returns to...

Piece of the Puzzle: Alice Winocour Books Virginie Efira for “Revoir Paris”

Augustine, Maryland and Proxima filmmaker Alice Winocour is set to begin production on her fourth feature film with production beginning this month and lasting...

Titane | Review

Car Crash Set: Ducournau Crafts a Cult Classic with Grotesque Odyssey of Dysfunction In J.G. Ballard’s seminal 1973 cult novel Crash, infamously adapted in 1996...

Promises | 2021 Venice Film Festival Review

Broken is the Golden Bowl: Kruithof Rips at the Red Tape in Character Driven Political Drama It’s not so much politics as usual in Les...

Mama Weed | Review

Selective Affinities: High-Fives for Huppert & Hannelore Cayre in Vivacious French Neo-noir Often described as cold, icy, impassive, and inscrutable, the performances of Isabelle Huppert,...

Annette | Review

Henry Fool: Music & Misogyny Explored in Glossy Return of Carax Like nearly all of Leos Carax’s films over the past thirty years (of which...

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),...

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Hot Milk | Review

The Eternal Daughter: Lenkiewicz Ladles the Milk of Sorrows Screenwriter...

Interview: Ariane Labed – September Says

A pivotal figure in the Greek Weird Wave, Ariane...

Interview: Jessica Palud – Being Maria

In 2018, political journalist and writer Vanessa Schneider released...