Cinema and Culture

Ever since the train filmed by the Lumières brothers at the end of the 19^th century entered the station at La Ciotat, the projection of images on a white screen in a theatre has played a vital part in the development of French culture. The early films followed mainly the pattern set by the leading American big houses (Fox, Warner Brothers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, etc). In the 1950s and 1960s, “La Nouvelle Vague (The New Wave) saw young and ferociously independent directors giving a new impetus to French cinema:  Truffaut, Goddard, Lelouche, Sautet and Melville et al made films d’auteurs (written and directed by the same person) which have remained popular with the public to this day.  When I began showing films to students of the art, I decided to select movies which best represented the output of films post New Wave.   Over a period of ten years, I offered between 8 and 10 films which exemplified the wide variety of subjects attempted by film makers: from heavily laden War films to Light Comedy.  Basically, a sample of what was available to the public in France on a weekly basis. Not all the directors are French:  there are Belgian, Algerian, Chadian, Canadian and even an Iranian réalisateur amongst the people who have made the selected films. At one of the discussions which followed the visualisation of a picture, one of the attendees expressed the view that “as usual nothing happened “in the film.  Implying that very little Hollywood action had taken place.  He was right, and although some movies will have swashbuckling or gunbattles, on the whole French cinema is more concerned with the internal life and the relationships of its characters than any kind of really violent action. 

What follows is not the 100 best French films of the last 100 years.  It is the list of films chosen by myself to entice people to watch pictures with a different perspective on a subject. The descriptive for each film includes the titles of the movies in both French and English, the year it first came out, the name of the director, a short narrative, a link to the trailer, an even shorter opinion, and a mark out of 10.  The last two are entirely subjective and do not rely on a vast number of cinema goers.  All films are available with subtitles via DVD or streaming.  Alternatively, some television channels in the UK and Europe have programmed some of these movies. Finally, I would like to thank Joëlle and Dominique Gilles for their input in making the original selection. 

I hope you enjoy some of the features on offer.

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The “grand illusion” of Jean Renoir’s great film referred originally to the British author Norman Angell’s belief that the supposed financial advantage of war is a falsehood. For Renoir this illusion evolves into something more complex and various, and so does its tragic and ironic grandeur. The idea that wars can be fought according to gentlemanly rules is an illusion – like the belief that the 1914-1918 conflict was the war to end all wars. Eric Von Stroheim is Captain Von Rauffenstein, a German PoW camp commander in the first world war, ramrod-straight in a uniform with white gloves that conceal horrendous burns from when he was shot down in combat. He pursues an elaborately civilised policy of martial respect for his distinguished prisoner Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay). But he’s disdainful of Boeldieu’s more plebeian comrades Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) – petty antisemitism is never far away – and the boisterous Maréchal, played with luminous masculinity by Jean Gabin. A vividly humanist, anti-war classic.

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Renoir’s film was shot at a time when Hitler’s militarism and his intentions had become obvious.  Two years later, the world would be once again engulfed in a deadly conflict.  Did we lose our illusions about the benefits of wars as a result of the atrocities of the First and Second WW?  Not one bit; ask the people of Korea, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Tchad, Mali, The DRC, Afghanistan, Ukraine to name but a few.

Mark 9/10

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It is June 1940, during the Battle of France. After five-year-old Paulette’s parents and pet dog die in a German air attack on a column of refugees fleeing Paris, the traumatized child meets 10-year-old Michel Dollé whose peasant family takes her in. She quickly becomes attached to Michel. The two attempt to cope with the death and destruction that surrounds them by secretly building a small cemetery among the ruins of an abandoned watermill, where they bury her dog and start to bury other animals, marking their graves with crosses stolen from a local graveyard, including one belonging to Michel’s brother. Michel’s father first suspects that Michel’s brother’s cross was stolen from the graveyard by his neighbour. Eventually, the father finds out that Michel has stolen the cross.

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The acting by both Georges Poujouly and Brigitte Fossey is outstanding.  One wonders how many takes it must have taken René Clement to get the scenes to such perfection.  Is the film dated as some would argue? Yes, in the sense that, nowadays, the action would be less sanitised than it is in the film.  And no when it is remembered that this was made only half a dozen years after the end of World War II.  The music is haunting, and the photography is so well done that you can almost smell the people and the land.  A masterpiece.

Mark 9/10

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On a summer day in 1942, a damaged RAF bomber strays over Paris and is shot down by German flak. After planning to reconvene in the Turkish baths at the Grand Mosque of Paris, the crew parachutes out, but only three evade capture. Sir Reginald lands in the Vincennes Zoo and, given civilian clothes by a friendly zookeeper, heads for the baths. Peter Cunningham lands on the platform of a house painter, Augustin Bouvet, from where they escape the Germans and are hidden by a puppet show operator, Juliette; Augustin goes to the baths on Cunningham’s behalf. Alan MacIntosh lands on the Opéra Garnier, where he is reluctantly assisted by the chief conductor, Stanislas Lefort, who goes to the baths for him. All the while, the German military under Major Achbach furiously pursues the three and their helpers.

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In 1966, Bourvil and Louis de Funès were the actors who brought the crowds into the cinemas.  And La Grande Vadrouille did bring bums on seats into the movie theaters of the Hexagone.  The slapstick scenario is there to make us forget for a moment that the circumstances under which the French lived at that time were dire.  As for the comedy, well it is all a question of taste.  It is very much like the “Carry on..” comedies of the same era.  Some will watch them all with relish.  Others …..

Mark 7/10

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Aging court composer Marin Marais (Gérard Depardieu) recalls his former master and unequalled viol player, the Jansenist, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. After the death of his wife, Sainte-Colombe buries himself in his music, bringing up his two daughters on his own, teaching them to be musicians, and playing in a consort with them for local noble audiences. His reputation reaches the court of Louis XIV, and the king sends an envoy, Caignet, to request him to play at court. Sainte-Colombe curtly dismisses the envoy, as well as the Abbé Mathieu. Offended, the King ensures that very few attend concerts by Sainte-Colombe and his daughters. Sainte-Colombe shuts himself away in a cabin in his garden in order to perfect the art of viol playing, and to indulge in visions of his dead wife.Some years later, 17-year-old Marin Marais visits Sainte-Colombe, seeking to learn from the master. After a short time, Sainte-Colombe sees no musical merit in the young man and sends him away, refusing to teach him. Madeleine, the elder daughter, is saddened as she has fallen in love with Marais. She teaches him what her father has taught her and allows him to listen in secret to her father playing. During this time, Marais is hired to be a court musician.

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ven if one is not a fan of Depardieu as a person, his acting cannot often be faulted. As a mature Marin Marais, he is sensational.  This a film about music and by and about someone who also loves music.  But the film is also about the relationships between humans, nature, and music.  A must!  Outstanding cinema!

Mark 8.5/10

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In 1700 in Nevers, France, a skilled swordsman named Lagardère (Daniel Auteuil) challenges Duke Philippe de Nevers (Vincent Pérez) to a friendly duel in order to learn his secret lethal maneuver known as the “Nevers Attack”. Nevers agrees and quickly dispatches the upstart whom he soon befriends. Nevers learns that he has a “son” by Blanche de Caylus—a fact previously concealed by his cousin and would-be heir, the wicked Comte de Gonzague (Fabrice Luchini). That night, Nevers escapes an assassination attempt by Gonzague’s men.

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It had to be done!  My early childhood was about the famous “Botte de Nevers” and the “Si tu ne viens pas à Lagardère, Lagardère ira à toi” of the book and the film.  This newer version is better than the others in my humble opinion.  Watch it and smile.

Mark 6.5/10 

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Old and decrepit Krank (Daniel Emilfork) has lost his capacity for dreaming and is attempting to fight death by stealing the dreams of children. Krank’s cadre of cloned henchmen (Dominique Pinon) snatch 5-year-old Denree (Joseph Lucien) to subject him to the horrific dream-retrieval process. The boy’s father, One (Ron Perlman), the hulking strongman of a traveling circus, and his precocious 9-year-old friend, Miette (Judith Vittet), join forces to defeat Krank’s minions and save Denree

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It took Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro four years to put together this project which came soon after their first success of “Delicatessen”.  It takes a while for the viewer to accept the premise on which the film is based:  Some people are alive to rob children of their dreams.  Literally.  Once this is assumed the rest flows smoothly.  It is most definitely worth a viewing.

Mark 8/10

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Francis Bergeade, owner of a toilet seats and brushes factory in Dole, has just turned 65 and his life is a misery. Tax services are harassing him, his snobby wife Nicole despises him, and his daughter wants an expensive wedding. Francis knows only moments of relief while lunching and dining in fancy restaurants with his best friend, car dealer Gérard. Stress becomes overwhelming and he suffers an attack from a blocked nerve.

During his convalescence, his family watch a reality television show about long-lost relationships and disappearances called Où es-tu? (Where are you?) featuring Spanish-born Dolorès Thivart and her daughters “Zig” and “Puce”, producers of foie gras from Condom, who seek their husband and father, Michel, who vanished 27 years ago. Michel Thivart happens to be Francis’s exact lookalike…

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This is fun.  A Vaudeville of the first order.  The script is well written, witty and leads to laughter.  The actors make it even more real; Michel Serrault and Eddy Mitchell are excellent as the two leading friends.  All in all; an superb piece of cinema. If you are in need of something to lighten the mood, this is what you need.  Without any doubts.   Enjoy!

Mark7/10

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It’s night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So, she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform and in the process win a big fortune through gambling. Although both of them continue a platonic relationship, the sex-starved girl attempts to sleep with handsome guys she encounters throughout the journey. Finally, Adele falls in love with a newlywed groom and both of them elope to Greece, while Gabor is stuck in Turkey. Then Adele is dumped by the groom. Only by now both Gabor and Adele realize that luck isn’t with them unless they get together again. But both of them are so broke that they can’t even feed themselves, let alone get back to Paris and reunite

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This could be a film about the reasons behind the decisions leading to suicide.  The emptiness of one’s life, the meaninglessness of everyday routine, the frustrations of not being listened to and/or understood.  Or it could be a film about self-discovery?  Vanessa Paradis as the lost soul and Daniel Auteuil as the knife thrower are an unlikely but perfect combination.  The black and white images are perfect as support to the plot.  The opening scene during which Paradis describes her life is especially moving.

Mark7.5/10

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A chronicle of a group of friends in rural France between the wars. Garris and Riton live in the marshlands along the banks of the Loire River. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of life in the trenches during World War I. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics. Meanwhile, Garris is overwhelmed by an unspoken love for a housemaid in the town, Marie.

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Another film about the France Profonde from the pen of Sebastien Japrisot.  This time in the Sologne region just south of Orleans.  Becker’s story is straight forward and is heartwarming at the same time as being a warning as to the effect the horrors of war have on the life of the average person.  Becker’s cinematography is just what is needed to enhance this excellent film. Second warning:  this film “contains” former footballer Eric Cantona as an actor.

Mark 6.5/10

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In 1849, in the Archipelago of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, the drunken Ariel Neel Auguste and his partner Louis Ollivier kill for a futile motive (to see if he is fat or just big) Coupard the captain of a fishing boat. Nell, who stabbed the victim, is sentenced to die by guillotine while Louis is sentenced to years of hard labour. During the transportation to the prison under the custody of Captain Jean, there is an accident and Louis dies. While spending his days in the cell waiting for the guillotine and the executioner to arrive from Martinique, Neel is invited by the captain’s wife Mrs. Pauline to help her in her garden and becomes her protégé. Later through a process of rehabilitation, he becomes very popular on the island. When he saves the Café du Nord and her owner from sinking in the sea, his popularity increases and nobody but the governor and the politicians on the council wants his death. However, soon enough he is informed that the ship Marie Galante has just left Martinique bringing a guillotine. Now the Governor and politicians need to find an executioner in the population to carry out the sentence.

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Whichever way you look at this film, it is grim.  The islands are not exactly a paradise, the story line does not have many happy moments and the acting is underplayed.   But this film grips you.  The absurdity of it all, the relentless inevitability of the process, and the outstanding ending makes this another excellent movie by Patrice Leconte.  Juliette Binoche is excellent as the wife of the head of the garrison.  Not be watched if the evening is bleak outside. 

Mark 7.5/10

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Amélie is a story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her father’s mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real-life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. She later on becomes a young woman and moves to the central part of Paris as a waitress. After finding a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, she decides to return it to him. After seeing his reaction and his newfound perspective – she decides to devote her life to the people around her. Such as, her father who is obsessed with his garden-gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a man who stalks his ex-girlfriends, the “ghost,” a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose bones are as brittle as glass. But after consuming herself with these escapades – she finds out that she is disregarding her own life and damaging her quest for love. Amélie then discovers she must become more aggressive and take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love she has always dreamed of.

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If you have never watched Amelie, then you have missed something, and that needs to be remedied immediately.  If you have watched it a long time ago, view it again, it is worth it.  Amelie is 21 now.  She has come of age but has not grown old.  She is still fresh as a daisy in a spring meadow.  Jean-Pierre Jeunet at his best. And Audrey Tautou at her most impish.  Brilliant!

Mark 8.5/10

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Sandrine Dumez (Mathilde Seigner) lives in Paris where she slaves away at teaching computer science to students in tune with the age. She is attractive, successful, popular…and unhappy. She longs to fulfill the dreams of her childhood and become a farmer. Much against her doting mother’s advice she enrolls in a school for agriculture and eventually graduates as one of the top students, winning the ability to buy a farm in the Rhone Alpes region.  The catch is that the present owner (Michel Serrault) wants to stay on the farm. 

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Life on a farm in the hills or in the mountains is hard, especially if you are an outsider.  And to top it all, Sandrine hails from Paris, the bottomless Gomorrah of France according to the locals.  Sandrine will not succeed without the help of the owner of the farm.  He, in turns, needs her to combat the loneliness which is present in his daily life.  Seigner and Serrault are more than excellent in this first film by Christian Carion.

Mark 7.5/10

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Carrying a duffel bag, Milan, a mysterious, stone-faced stranger, gets off a train and sets foot on a small village in the French province. As the man enters a pharmacy, he has a chance encounter with the grizzled retired professor of French literature, Manesquier, and as one thing leads to another, they strike up an unexpected friendship. And, despite their differences, Manesquier, and his polar opposite, Milan, realise how much they want to be in each other’s shoes. One wants to be an adventurer, while the other dreams of settling down. In the following three short days, they will both have to make up their minds

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The decision to place Johnny Hallyday opposite Jean Rochefort in this film was a gamble on the part of Patrice Leconte.  After all Rochefort was one of the grandees of French cinema and Hallyday did not have the same status or experience as an actor.  Remarkably, it works.  Rochefort is his usual accomplished self and Hallyday broods in the background.  There are no winners or losers in the end, just two actors at their best.

Mark7.5/10

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Five desperate French soldiers during The Battle of the Somme shoot themselves, either by accident or with purpose, in order to be invalided back home. Having been “caught” a court-martial convenes and determines punishment to be banishment to No Man’s Land with the objective of having the Germans finish them off. In the process of telling this tale each man’s life is briefly explored along with their next of kin as Mathilde, fiancée to one of the men, tries to determine the circumstances of her lover’s death. This task is not made any easier for her due to a bout with polio as a child. Along the way she discovers the heights and depths of the human soul.

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Of all the films made by Jeunet this is undoubtedly the most commercial and commercially successful second only to Amelie; the shots look like an advert for Coco Chanel, the colours are all verging on gold and red and the characters are all “normal”:  A first for Jeunet. Yet it is a very endearing movie:  it appeals to the heart and has been a favourite amongst students of the French Culture in many countries. Long may that continue as it is most definitely a worthwhile watch.

Mark 8.5/10

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In the ‘extras’ on the DVD release, the director relates that, children playing unsupervised in nature (the forest, the pond) is a ‘freeing’ setting for them, an ‘uncontrolled’ environment to explore. Water is very important, as it is a highly visible medium in its many forms (including within or from underneath a surface), and it is necessary, sensual, and enjoyable, but also dangerous (the drowning), and evokes many emotions. Flowing water can also symbolize the passage of time. The dynamic of children relating to adults, not understating them or their actions, while seeing them as role models, is another dichotomy the director wanted to emphasize. Ambiguity and a ‘dream-like’ quality are also important elements of the film. She states they digitally enhanced or ‘tweaked’ colors in the film to ‘non-realistic’ tones, to achieve mood and lighting effect, particularly day for night shots. The director says she is not interested in explaining meaning: “… what I like in cinema is being lost. I like films I don’t completely understand, so they stay with me longer after they’re over,” and “I believe everyone can find their own stories within the film.”

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It is a film about childhood and its many facets.   The girls come and go as they would in any other school, but the difference is in the structure in which they evolve.  Every scene encompasses, reality, internal dialogues of the children as well as dreams.  Once this is accepted, the film becomes rather magic… A worthwhile experience.

Mark 7.5/10

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Fifty years old and divorced, Jean-Claude Delsart is an emotionally withdrawn bailiff who has taken over the family business from his father. He pays a weekly visit to the care home where this cantankerous father now lives, but they are uncomfortable occasions where the father takes pains to hide any sign of affection towards him. Jean-Claude has in turn compelled his own son Jean-Yves to join him in the business; the son is more interested in raising houseplants but does not have the courage to tell his father that he hates the work of bailiff. When a heart murmur obliges Jean-Claude to take exercise, he opts for tango lessons in the studio opposite his office. There Françoise Rubion recognises in him the older son of her former nanny and chooses him as her dance partner

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This is a film about repressed emotions and the damage this can cause in any kind of relationship.  The tango is incidental but always a welcome addition to any kind of movie.  Once again, there is very little action as understood by the producers in LALA Land, but the undercurrents and the acting make this excellent entertainment.

Mark 7.5/10

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In 1980 the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognized as genuine Jews. In turn they are secretly carried to Israel. The day before the transport the son of a Jewish mother dies. In his place and with his name (Schlomo) she takes a Christian 9-year-old boy. Upon arrival in Israel this second mother dies. Schlomo is adopted by a good family but remains depressed until he secretly sends a letter to his real mother. From the beginning he experiences racist difficulties. In his teen years, he and Sarah fall in love. Her father is an extreme racist. Schlomo tries to gain “real Jewishness” by winning a competition in Bible interpretation. However, this does not any changes in Sarah’s father’s attitude. Disappointed, he goes to the police and reports himself as not being a Jew. But the police officer just gives him a scolding. “The newspapers are full of that stuff, the Falashas are no Jews. Now they begin to believe it themselves.” His adoptive parents send him to France to study medicine. When he afterwards marries Sarah, she loses her family and her status as a “white Jew”. But he dares not tell her the truth until she becomes pregnant. She leaves him, but only because he had not trusted that she would love him as much anyway. His adoptive mother reconciles them. Sarah’s first line when she returns: “Unbelievable what three mothers would do for you.” But she makes a condition for returning: Schlomo must meet his real mother again. As a doctor he takes a job in the Ethiopian fugitive camp where she is still alive.

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This is not a detached intellectual discourse about what it is to be of a certain creed, race or religion.  It is a film about the practicalities of living in a society which does not, on the whole, accept you for what you have been deemed to be.  Through no fault of your own.  The boy is given to deal with a pile of problems which have nothing to do with him.  It is either swim or sink.  In his case probably die of starvation in some camp in Africa if he does not swim.

Mark 7.5/10

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A freeze frame shows Andre (Jamel Debbouze), who describes himself via a voice over, stating that he lives in America though is currently in Paris. Andre concludes that he is a good guy, though laments that he is lying all the time, including to himself. When the frame unfreezes, Andre is slapped to the ground, and three thugs demand he pay back the money he owes. In the next scene, Andre is shown being held over the railing of the Eiffel Tower by a bodyguard of Franck (Gilbert Melki), who also demands Andre repay him owed money. Desperate, Andre pleads his case to both the American embassy and a Paris police station, though neither is able to help him.Andre decides to kill himself by jumping off a bridge into the Seine, but first he notices a beautiful young woman (Rie Rasmussen) who is also standing over the railing. The woman jumps off the bridge, and Andre jumps in after her, dragging her to safety. The woman states her name is Angela, and that she jumped because she had the same problems as Andre. In order to thank him for saving her, Angela pledges her life to Andre, stating she will do everything she can to help him.

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Typical Luc Besson film who went on to make the next few films in LaLa Land.  Quirky, demanding, but never boring.  Even if at times you wonder where it could go next.  It is in black, greys and white but it is far from being colourless. Jamil Debbouze is well suited in his role of loser.  Whilst Rie Ramundssen more than dominates the screen.  A worthwhile effort.

Mark 7/10

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In the opening moments of Don’t Worry, I’m Fine (Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas), Philippe Lioret expertly captures the quiet and gradually festering unease in the family, as Lili grows more anxious and angry at her parents, especially her father (brilliant performance by Kad Merad), for their lack of concern for their son’s unplanned departure, and his whereabouts. Fueled by her anxiety and concern for her twin-brother Loïc, Lili slips into a depression and has to be admitted to a hospital for physical and psychiatric treatment after collapsing in her classroom due to weakness as she had stopped eating for days. In-spite of these dramatic moments and drastic turn of events, the movie’s plot elements never come across as forced or labored. Lili gradually recovers after receiving a postcard from Loïc, the first of many from places across France.

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It is Melanie Laurent’s debut as the lead actor in a full-length feature.  And the actor does not disappoint.   She and Kad Merad as her father are like a toreador and his adversary in full fight.  Subtle, always verging on violence without getting there, but never likely to give in.  It is not very often that French cinema will produce two excellent thrillers in the same year. It happened in 2006, let’s make the most of it and watch them.(See Ne Le Dis à Personne, below)

Mark 7.5/10

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The film tracks the sexual awakenings of three 15-year-old female friends in a middle-class suburb of Paris over the course of a single summer. Finding privacy in the solitude of the swimming pool locker room, blossoming teens Marie (Pauline Acquart), Anne (Louise Blachère) and Floriane (Adèle Haenel) come to learn the true meaning of arousal and the power of sexual attraction .

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This is Celine Sciamma’s first full-length feature film.  The way she approaches her subject is far more sensitive and far less invasive than other similar films made at a later date by other directors.  Sciamma explores her subject as if she knew what it feels like to be like that.  Her later movies showed the same passion and the same sensitivity.  An excellent star to what is a glittering career from the director and her favourite actor.

Mark 8/10

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Jessica, raised by her grandmother in provincial France, comes to Paris and gets a job at a bar across from a performance complex where a play, a concert, and an art auction will occur during the same evening. It’s a world in flux: the play’s star wants off a popular TV soap which has made her rich, and she covets the lead in a film about de Beauvoir and Sartre mythical relationship; the pianist hates the concert circuit, but his wife who is his manager may leave him if he quits; a self-made widower with a girlfriend less than half his age is selling his collection of modern art – his son, a professor, objects to his father’s love life. The stage manager at the complex is resigning after 30 years. Jessica finds herself in the middle of this whirlwind by accident.

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Daniele Thompson, daughter of Gerard Oury, has for the last four or five decades been one of the mainstays of French cinema as either a script writer or as director. Her offering this time is a Romantic Comedy full of excellent actors who do their very best to make us feel good.  The list of attendees is an exceptional one starting with Cecile de France, Claude Brasseur and Albert Dupontel.  The plot is a well-used one but with a new twist.  A lovely film which will make you feel good.  Important nowadays in these difficult times.

Mark 7/10

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Eight years since the apparent murder of his wife Margot by a serial killer, Dr. Alexandre Beck has slowly been putting his life back together. However, Alex finds himself implicated in a double homicide – even though he knows nothing of the crimes. The same day, Alex receives an email that appears to be from Margot, which includes a link to surveillance footage that shows his late wife looking alive and well; the message warns Alex that they are both being watched. As Alex struggles to stay one step ahead of the law, henchmen intimidate Alex’s acquaintances into telling them whatever they might know about him, eventually killing a friend named Charlotte.

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Guillaume Canet, the director, was fortunate enough to have Luc Besson and Alain Atal as producers.  The suspense is handled with very few fault lines, the chase across the Périphérique in Paris is well orchestrated and the finale not too soapy.  Overall, a good thriller.

Mark 7.5/10

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The film opens with Édith Piaf as a small child in 1918. Her mother stands across the alley singing, busking for change. Édith’s mother writes to her child’s father, an acrobat, who is fighting in the trenches of World War I battlefields, informing him that she is leaving Édith with her mother so she can pursue the life of the artist. Her father returns to Paris and scoops up a sick Édith, then in turn leaves the child with his own mother, who is a madam of a brothel in Normandy. Now living as a child in a brothel, surrounded by the often brutal and demeaning business of prostitution, Édith is taken under the wing of the women there, especially Titine, a young, troubled redhead who becomes emotionally attached to the little girl. Titine sings to, plays with, and tenderly cares for Édith through travails including an episode of keratitis-induced blindness…

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Whether you are a fan of the songs of Piaf or not is largely irrelevant in relation to this biography of the artist.  Everything in her life was stacked up against her succeeding.  Yet she did.  It took its toll on her and destroyed her in the end.  Still, her songs linger. Try and not sing in your head “Je ne regrette rien” now that you have read it.  Marion Cotillard as Piaf is sensational.  This biopic is one of the best and deserves all the praise it accumulated over the years.

Mark 9/10

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Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds. Back in the village, accompanied by Claire, a young woman he loves but who hesitates to commit herself, he does the job half-satisfactorily. Too blunt, not in harmony with the locals, he offends them more than he serves them. Fortunately, Claire, who has more business acumen, helps him to improve his skills. On the other hand, the relationships are tense with his brother François and even worse with his father, who despises him. So, when the latter is back in the village, the situation deteriorates…

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For many people, life in the Alpes de Haute Provence in the south of France would be a dream come true.  At least at the beginning…Then, the routine kicks in. For someone who has experienced living in the city, adapting to the pace and the habits of the countryside and its people is something which takes time and dedication. After quite a number of mishaps, Antoine might eventually learn to cope…Beautiful cinematography.

Mark 7/10

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An artist returns from Paris to his childhood home in rural France. The painter notices that the house’s once-impressive vegetable garden has fallen into neglect, and he advertises for a gardener to put it back into shape. The gardener who responds is a former schoolmate. The painter discovers the bucolic side of life and its beauty. Over the next several months, the two different men become friends through long conversations. Through the eyes of each other, they experience the world in a new light.

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The relationship between the painter (Du Pinceau) and the gardener (Du Jardin) is at the center of this excellent film.  There is no murder, no heist and certainly no violence.  But it is the kind of film which makes you feel a lot better about yourself when you have watched it. The scene about the holiday in Nice still makes me giggle. Daniel Auteuil and Jean Pierre Darroussin are at their best.  One of my favourite French films of the era.

Mark 8/10

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In 1914, Wilhelm Uhde, a famous German art collector, rents an apartment in the town of Senlis, forty kilometers away from Paris, in order to write and to take a rest from the hectic life he has been living in the capital. The cleaning lady is a rather rough-and-ready forty-year-old woman who is the laughing-stock of the town. One day, Wilhelm who has been invited by his landlady, notices a small painting lying about in her living room. He is stunned to learn that the artist is no other than Séraphine, the cleaning lady.

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Until the film came out, the name Séraphine Louis would have meant very little to the average French person.  Even to the amateur art aficionado it would not have had much resonance.  It is a wonder that Seraphine Louis ever managed to produce any canvasses.  After all she was poorer than the poor, uneducated, and confined to the anonymity of her low place in society.  That she managed to produce some art is a miracle.  Literally.  The other miracle is Yolande Moreau who plays Séraphine.  She is outstanding.  A must.

Mark 8.5/10

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Remi Bézançon’s intimate drama examines the fractures and foibles of an ordinary bourgeois French family over the last 12 years of the 20th century.  The three Duval siblings each go their own way, eldest boy Albert (Pio Marmai) seeking independence from the parental nest, middle child Raphael (Marc-André Grondin) a stay-at-home wannabe rocker, and daughter Fleur (Déborah Francois) a spitfire with a nose for trouble. Yet the kids tend to be annoying. The real centre of the picture are the parents – Jacques Gamblin as a dutiful, hard-working cabbie who’s been under his own father’s thumb, and Zabou Brietman as his loyal and lovely wife, keeping the family going as she tries to suppress her fear of growing old. Bézançon handles the passage of time and the shifts of perspective quite adroitly and creates a real sense of the characters as a family unit. His use of music is also inspired – Blossom Dearie singing “I Walk a Little Faster” deserves an extra star

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The title is unfortunate, it has to be conceded.  However, this is an excellent film about the life of a lower middle-class family in the suburbs of a big city in France.  It is in turn joyful, cringing, annoying, heart-warming, sad, beautiful, and desperate.  Little happens and everything under the sun takes place.  French cinema at its best. A wonderful surprise. We all loved it.

Mark 8/10

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Phillippe Abrams is the manager of the French post office (La Poste) branch in Salon-de-Provence in southern France. He is married to Julie, whose negative character makes his life miserable. Philippe does everything to get a job at an office on the Mediterranean coast to make her happy. As this desirable position will only be granted to a disabled person, Abrams pretends that he is bound to a wheelchair – and is found out by the management. As punishment, he is banished for two years to Bergues, a town in northern France. Northern France – and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in particular – is considered “the sticks” – a cold and rainy place inhabited by unsophisticated ch’tis who speak a strange dialect (called “ch’ti” in local parlance, and “cheutimi” in the South). He has to spend his first night at the home of Antoine, a member of his staff. Philippe initially dislikes Antoine for his obnoxious behaviour and because he thinks Antoine is gay (due to seeing pictures of him crossdressing), but later discovers that he secretly has a crush on Annabelle, one of the workers at the post office. Antoine and Philippe subsequently become best friends.

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Before The Untouchables, Bienvenue was the greatest box office success of all times in the country.   And it is easy to understand why:   playing on the differences between the North and the South of France (often exaggerated in this case) was bound to be something that the public would relish.  The film is very funny even if one is not entirely conversant with the references to the language or the cultural gap which exit between the Nord et le Sud of the country.  Very enjoyable.

Mark 8/10

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Pierre, a professional dancer, suffers from a serious heart disease. While he is waiting for a transplant which may (or may not) save his life, he has nothing better to do than look at the people around him, from the balcony of his Paris apartment. When Elise, his sister with three kids and no husband, moves into his place to care for him, Pierre does not change his new habits. And instead of dancing himself, it is Paris and the Parisians who dance before his eyes.

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The list of actors involved in this delightful little piece reads like the Who’s Who of modern French acting. From Juliette Binoche to François Cluzet via Melanie Laurent and Fabrice Luchini.  Romain Duris as the central character does not have to do very much but observe life.  Isn’t it what everyone does in Paris?  Sit at the terrace of a café and watch life go by.  Enjoy!

Mark 7.5/10

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Marthe (Isabelle Huppert) and Michel (Olivier Gourmet) live with their three children in a house next to an uncompleted highway. They use the deserted road as a recreation area. For example, they put an inflatable swimming pool on it and the son, and his friends use the highway to ride their bicycles. As it has been ten years since the highway was abandoned, they believe that it will not be completed. One day, without warning, construction workers begin to upgrade the road and the highway opens to traffic. Despite noise from passing traffic, the family remains in the house. Previously, the father would simply walk across the highway in order to access his car to get to work. This becomes harder as the highway becomes busier. He and his children eventually have to use a tunnel in order to access the outside world.

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When I first read about the film, I quietly discarded it.  Once I watched it, I could not help but include it in one of the programmes for screening.  And it is most certainly worth it.  It is about what modern life makes us accept in terms of living conditions.  For a short while I lived by a busy railway line.  Sleep was nearly impossible even though people said you would get used to it.  And there are thousands of people living near motorways, railway lines or airports.  It even goes deeper than that…  Watch it.  It is a very good movie.

Mark 7.5/10

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Antoine Méliot is 40 years old and has everything he needs to be happy: a beautiful wife, two adorable children, friends he can count on, a job that he seemed to enjoy, a pretty house in the Yvelines and money. But one day, during a dinner party, and to the bewilderment to all, he decides to ruin everything

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Dialogue avec Mon Jardiner enabled Jean Becker to take a few risks with his next film.  Love Me No More poses a few existential questions which, in the end, have no obvious or right solutions.  Albert Dupontel is excellent in the main role and leaves us first of all baffled then emotionally drained by the end of the film.

Mark 7/10

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Avid movie-watcher and video store clerk Bazil has had his life all but ruined by weapons of war. His father was killed by a landmine in Morocco and one fateful night a stray bullet from a nearby shootout embeds itself in his skull, leaving him on the verge of instantaneous death. Losing his job and his home, Bazil wanders the streets until he meets Slammer, a pardoned convict who introduces him to a band of eccentric junkyard dealers including Calculator, a math expert and statistician, Buster, a record-holder in human cannonball feats, Tiny Pete, an artistic craftsman of automatons, and Elastic Girl, a sassy contortionist. When chance reveals to Bazil the two weapons manufacturers responsible for building the instruments of his destruction, he constructs a complex scheme for revenge that his newfound family is all too happy to help set in motion.

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Jeunet is back to his normal self:   The characters are beyond the expected, the plot improbable and the outcome most unlikely.  But the film is fun, the actors at the top of their game and the director full of mischief.  Not to be missed under any circumstance.  The last but one of Jeunet’s successes in film.  The next one was a flop. Quel dommage!

Mark 8.5/10

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A Prophet is unfailingly brilliant in detailing the prison world. Audiard’s team creates a harshly vivid jail environment which is actually a set, although you would easily believe it was real, with its dirty blank walls and comfortless spaces. You can almost sniff the smell of urine and of despair. Audiard’s film is a culturally provocative statement, given France’s anxiety about the visible signs of Islamic identity. And by making its anti-hero a whip-smart Arab criminal on the make, who plays Muslims against mafiosi, A Prophet offers as much of a barb to Islamic as to European sensibilities. The film further suggests that there’s no real law in France, just a reign of universal corruption in which the man who uses his wits may emerge looking purer than his peers – may come, indeed, to be taken as a prophet.  A prophecy which turned out to a harsh reality for a former president.

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Audiard’s film is not the easiest to watch.  However, it is a must if one is to understand the conditions in which a subclass of society lives in the country of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.

Mark 8.5/10

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After losing their family home in Algeria, three brothers and their mother are scattered across the globe. Messaoud joins the French army fighting in Indochina; Abdelkader becomes a leader of the Algerian independence movement in France and Saïd moves to Paris to make his fortune in the shady clubs and boxing halls of Pigalle. Gradually, their interconnecting destinies reunite them in the French capital, where freedom is a battle to be fought and hopefully won.

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The years of the Fourth Republic (1945-1959) were not the most glorious in terms of Colonialism.  France had been freed from German Occupation but could not understand why countries which had been under its sway in the Colonies wanted the same thing. The recent long article in the New York Times about the relationship between Haiti and France clearly shows that the problem still exists.  This film is a must for those who wish to comprehend the mind of the colonialist and of those under its rule.

Mark 8/10

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On leaving a Paris nightclub late at night, Ludo (Jean Dujardin) rides away on his scooter and is broadsided by a speeding truck that ran a red light. Lying between life and death in the hospital, Ludo is visited by his band of long-time friends, who decide that the gruesome crash should not prevent them from embarking on their summer holidays.

Prior to the trip, another major problem arises when one of the friends, osteopath Vincent (Benoît Magimel), confesses his attraction to restaurateur Max (François Cluzet). Both are married, and Max clearly is not interested, so when they arrive later with their families at his seaside cottage, tension is high. The group’s stress level is further increased by pot-smoking rebel Marie (Marion Cotillard), lovesick actor Eric (Gilles Lellouche) and the even more lovesick Antoine (Laurent Lafitte), all of whom are suffering from failed or failing relationships.

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At first glance the plot seems more likely to fall into the Vaudeville than the comedy/drama to which it belongs.  Guillaume Canet does a good job writing and directing and is ably help by a scintillating cast which includes Marion Cotillard, Gilles Lellouche and Francois Cluzet amongst others.  Alain Attal is the producer.  Very entertaining.

Mark 7.5/10

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A mother’s last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to the Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults’ voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars, and enduring love.

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This is, in my opinion, the most powerful film I have shown to my attendees.  It is a hard film, and it is about us, human beings, at our best and our worst.  It is also extremely relevant with wars happening in ever increasing numbers.  The directing is sensational, the acting first class, and the scenario and the cinematography are outstanding.  This film- it takes place in Lebanon but could be in Ukraine or any other place- is as antiwar as can be and shows what intolerance does to people. If you don’t watch any other film I have put forward, please, watch this one.

Mark 10/10 (I have never given a ten before)

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Present-day Chad. Adam, fifty-five, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N’Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the “war effort”, giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son…

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By extension this film is about Africa today.  The former colonialists are being replaced by the new money coming from the Far East.  Neither is good for the continent which, once more, has become the playground of armies, dictators, mercenaries, all of them sponsored by outsiders.  We should all scream with the dad of the film…And apologize profusely to him!

Mark 9/10

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Bilal is 17 years old, a Kurdish boy from Iraq. He sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe. He wants to get to England to see his love who lives there. Bilal finally reaches Calais, but how do you cover 32 kilometers of the English Channel when you can’t swim? The boy soon discovers that his trip won’t be as easy as he imagined… The community of struggling illegal aliens in Calais is captured with authenticity, from the point of view of people who arrived there knowing nothing about France. This immigrant drama, with wonderful performances by the actors, is a strong story which uses documentary austerity and minimalist style to create a great emotional impact.

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The film came out at a time when the situation of the camps in Calais was hot news.  It did not go down very well with a certain section of the political spectrum in France where immigration is often associated with gangsterism.  The film tries to give the viewer a different perspective.  Most of those who are on the move have a reason, be it poverty, war, starvation or fleeing a political system which is oppressive. Where the solution lies, is another problem.  One which is nearly unsurmountable when numbers are considered.  It does not mean that it should be ignored. Vincent Lindon as the almost silent protagonist is, as usual, outstanding.

Mark 8.5/10

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In 1996, in Algeria, eight French monks of The Monastery Notre-Dame de l’Atlas of Tibhirine in Algeria have a simple life serving the poor community which lives in the shadow of the monastery. During the Algerian Civil War, they are threatened by terrorists, but they decide to stay in the country and not return to France despite the possible dire consequences this may entail.

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There is no violence to speak of during the film, but the tension created by the actors under the direction of Xavier Beauvois makes it a film which must not be missed.  It cannot but remain in the mind of the viewer for a long time. Yet it is not a film about religions as the title may imply (which the English translators have got wrong as this is not a film about Gods but about Men).  Another one of those French movies where nothing happens, and everything is said in undertones.  Absolutely Brilliant!

Mark 9.5/10

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Slow your pace and pause for breath and there’s a world of pleasure to be had from this unhurried small-town tragedy. Stéphane Brizé’s film charts the stuttering love affair between a lonesome schoolteacher and a married builder, all the way from the dusty side-streets to the station where they must either board the train or say goodbye. The performances from Sandrine Kiberlain and Vincent Lindon are extraordinary: quiet neutron bombs of emotion that leave the lovers in ruins and the town unmarked.

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This is what life and love must be in the France Profonde.  Like a slow pressure cooker which is boiling underneath but rarely allowed to let the steam out in public.  Vincent Lindon is perfect as the confused builder who rediscovers what stirrings of love feel like.  Sandrine Kiberlain is the perfect match in terms of repressed feelings. We know what the ending is going to be, but are we permitted to wish it were different?

Mark 8/10

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The daily grind for the cops of the Police Department’s Juvenile Protection Unit: taking in child molesters, busting underage pickpockets, and chewing over relationship issues at lunch; interrogating abusive parents, taking statements from children, confronting the excesses of teen sexuality, enjoying solidarity with colleagues, and laughing uncontrollably at the most unthinkable moments. Knowing the worst exists and living with it. How do these cops balance their private lives and the reality they confront every working day? Fred, the group’s hypersensitive wild card, will have difficulty facing the scrutiny of Melissa, a photographer on a Ministry of the Interior assignment to document the unit.

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The film is the story of the script but also more than that.  And Maiewenn, in her quiet no nonsense way, digs deep inside the worst of our societies; the stories that most of us ignore because they are too awful to even consider as possibilities.  The result is an outstanding film which verges on the documentary but in the middle of it is the heart of the film, unbelievably in the guise of the least expected character, the one played by the usually irascible Joey Starr. Not to be missed!

Mark 9/10  

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Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant to Canada, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir’s painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere’s play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humour, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death.

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At the time of writing, another shooting has taken place in a school in the USA.  Small children and their teachers have been the victims or the witnesses of the tragedy and will have to cope with the consequences of such acts of madness. The children in the film experience a similar trauma and the friendly but firm guidance offered by their new teacher is at first rejected, until Monsieur Lazhar wins them round, only for him to be confronted by his own past.

Mark 7.5/10

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Nathalie (Audrey Tautou), a young attractive woman is in love with a young attractive man, François. He proposes and they marry (portrayed in something resembling a ‘dream’ sequence), honeymoon, and are immediately pressured by family to have children. Nathalie takes a new job, hired partially because her new boss is sexually interested in her. One day, François goes out to jog and is killed in a traffic accident. Nathalie is devastated. After wallowing in pity from the tragedy for several days, she collects most of François’ stuff (reminders of him) in their apartment and throws it in the bin. Her friends and family are very concerned about her. She eventually returns to work. Time passes. On the job for three years and focusing solely on her work, she has gone without any other romantic relationships. One day at work, Markus (François Damiens), a more junior employee, enters her office to discuss a case, and she, in a trance-like state, just walks up to him and passionately kisses him

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At first glance, the plot is not very enticing.  It has been done before and has become a bit of an old nag.  But it is in the relationship between the two main characters that the interest of the film lies.  And the actors chosen to carry the script are perfect in their roles.  The title somehow gives it away.  It is all about delicacy.  And Francois Damiens as the balding forty something bachelor is perfect in his delicate and sensitive approach to a wanting to be strong, but really fragile, Audrey Tautou.

Mark 7.5/10

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A family moves into a new suburb of the town, and a 10-year-old born Laure deliberately introduces itself as a boy named Mickäel to the other children. It is heavily implied that Mickäel is a closeted transgender boy. This film follows his experiences with his newfound friends, his potential love interest, Lisa, his younger sister and his parents. It focuses in on the significance of gender identity in social interaction from an early age, the difficulties of being transgender and young, and how Mickäel navigates these in the background of childhood play and love.

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Very much a topic of conversation and of questioning for those who are involved in this kind of event (parents, teachers, friends, family). How do we go about helping and supporting a child facing such a difficulty?  Sciamma is showing us some of the possibilities and some of the problems which may arise.  As usual, she does this with subtlety and kindness.  This is not about being “woke”.  It is about people….

Mark 8/10

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Filmed with a handheld immediacy that recalls Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet (see above), and equally revealing of how a person can be transformed by life behind bars, Guilty is nonetheless an entirely different beast: In this gripping depiction of the travails of Alain Marecaux (Philippe Torreton), a family man who finds himself caught in a quagmire of false testimonies and legal blunders, there is little redemption at the end of a four-year tunnel that begins when he and his wife, Noemie Lvovski, are arrested for allegedly molesting children in the nearby town of Outreau.

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This is the story of an innocent man who is sent to prison because the investigating magistrate is an ambitious man who is never in doubt as to what the truth is. The family we watched that magistrate destroy was not the only one he destroyed in real life, unfortunately.  And even when he was proved to be wrong, he was only moved to a different city and not dismissed from his job.  An excellent film about the many failings of the French judicial system. Philippe Torreton as the main character is outstanding.

Mark 7.5/10

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The film cuts between two seemingly unrelated stories. One, set in present-day Montreal, focuses on Antoine, a successful club DJ torn between his new girlfriend Rose and his still-complicated relationship with his childhood friend and ex-wife Carole; the other, set in 1960s Paris, features Jacqueline, the fiercely protective single mother of Laurent, a child with Down syndrome who has a crush on Véronique, a friend and companion who also has Down syndrome. The film builds toward the revelation of how the two stories are linked: after Jacqueline, Laurent, and Véronique are killed in a car accident, Carole, Antoine, and Rose are their subsequent reincarnations.

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Do not be put off by the synopsis of the plot.  The important thing is the relationship between the two Down syndrome children and their parents. Jean Marc Vallée must have worked hard with them to produce such believable acting.  This is enhanced by the ease with which Vanessa Paradis fits in as the mother of one of them.   The 1960s and before must have been a desperate time for Down syndrome children who were born at that time.   It is a worthwhile film to spend time with.  It shows the hard reality of the times.  And the photography is stunning.

Mark 7/10

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Paris, occupied France, 1942. Younes, an uneducated Algerian immigrant, ekes out a very modest living on the black market. When the police catch him, they set him free provided he infiltrates the Paris Mosque and spies on the rector. Si Kaddour Ben Ghabrit is indeed suspected not only of providing false papers to Jews but of harboring some of them as well. Once within the precincts of the Mosque, Younes proves a poor secret agent, which displeases the police inspector in charge of him. In fact, at the mosque, Younes becomes every day more alert to the great tragedy in progress because of the Nazis. He also develops a deep friendship with a singer named Salim Halali. To his amazement, he discovers that Salim is both Jewish and homosexual…

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There are so many layers to this film.  The collaboration of the French authorities in the arrest and deportation of Jews.  The fact that Jews are being helped by Moslems in their place of worship.  The friendly relationship between a young Arab and a gay Jew.  The racism of the police towards all that is not white and French.  You pick and choose.  The sad irony is that the film is called Hommes Libres and the young Arab, and his Jewish colleague will have to fight for their freedom from colonial powers which are themselves fighting for freedom from occupation.  Plus ça change….

Mark 7.5/10

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In Paris, the aristocratic and intellectual Philippe is a quadriplegic millionaire who is interviewing candidates for the position of carer, with his red-haired secretary Magalie. Out of the blue, Driss cuts the line of candidates and brings a document from the Social Security and asks Phillipe to sign it to prove that he is seeking a job position so he can receive his unemployment benefit. Philippe challenges Driss, offering him a trial period of one month to gain experience helping him. Then Driss can decide whether he would like to stay with him or not. Driss accepts the challenge and moves to the mansion, changing the boring life of Phillipe and his employees.

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And the rest is history.  It is a heartwarming film.  It makes you feel better.  It is said that it is also the film that changed attitudes towards people who are not as mobile as the rest of us.  If this is so, excellent.   Life must be difficult enough for people with physical problems without the rest of us making it even more problematic.  Omar Sy and Francois Cluzet are outstanding.  That’s not a surprise really.  A must if you have never watched it before and if you have watch again just for the car ride.

Mark 9/10

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Marcel Marx, a former author and a well-known Bohemian, has retreated into a voluntary exile in the port city of Le Havre, where he feels he has reached a closer rapport with the people serving them in the occupation of the honourable, but not too profitable, of a shoe-shiner. He has buried his dreams of a literary breakthrough and lives happily within the triangle of his favourite bar, his work, and his wife Arletty, when fate suddenly throws in his path an underage immigrant refugee from the darkest Africa.
As Arletty at the same time gets seriously ill and is bedridden, Marcel once more has to rise against the cold wall of human indifference with his only weapon of innate optimism and the unwavering solidarity of the people of his quartier, but against him stands the whole blind machinery of the state organs of repression.

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This is a great film.  Intelligent, full of heart, generosity, and invention.  A must.  I must admit that accepting Darroussin as the policeman is a little bit of a struggle at first as he is normally cast on the opposite side but hey… That is what being an actor is about.  Do not hesitate, brilliant in all aspects.

Mark 8.5/10

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Paris, in the early 1960s. Jean-Louis Joubert is a serious but uptight stockbroker, married to Suzanne, a starchy class-conscious woman and father of two arrogant teenage boys, currently at a boarding school. The affluent man lives a steady yet boring life. At least until, due to fortuitous circumstances, Maria, the charming new maid at the service of Jean-Louis’ family, makes him discover the servants’ quarter on the sixth floor of the luxury building he owns and lives in. There live a crowd of lively Spanish maids who will help Jean-Louis to open to a new culture and a new approach of life. In their company – and more precisely in the company of beautiful Maria – Jean-Louis will gradually become another man, a better man.

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First and foremost a comedy about the lives of those who have and those who haven’t. It is also a lighthearted film with a social message.  The women living on the sixth floor, in appalling conditions, are the equivalent of the thousands of foreign manual workers France recruited at that time to rebuild itself after the war. An excellent movie, entertaining and fun, with first class acting.

Mark 7.5/10

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At a French shipyard, a trade unionist named Michel deliberately arranges to have himself on the dockworkers’ randomly chosen downsizing list to spare another of his fellow workers. While he has his severance package and his friends and family’s generosity to ease this sacrifice, this also gets his home invaded and robbed along with his wife and friends. Through pure luck, Michel finds out the identity of one of his assailants, a young worker who was on the same downsizing list himself and gets him arrested. However, both Michel and his wife find that their vindictive satisfaction is soured by their realization of their assailant’s motives and the larger consequences of their revenge. Struggling with their conscience, the couple finds themselves independently trying to live up to their ideals for a greater sense of justice.

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A film about a working-class family and its dilemmas.  Either go along with the bourgeois view of justice or try and rectify a wrong once it has been discovered that this wrong was the consequence of another wrong.  Darroussin and co are excellent as families of shipyard workers in the south of France.  Sometimes as the saying goes:  you can’t do right for wrong.  Or can you…?

Mark 7.5/10

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Cyril, a 12-year-old in a Liege children’s home, tries calling his father, who said he would only be there for a month. The staff tells him his father never answers and to go to play. Cyril refuses and, when the phone is disconnected, bites a carer then attempts unsuccessfully to abscond. Soon after, Cyril absconds successfully looking for his father.

To get into his father’s building, he tells the clinic he is injured. He goes to his father’s apartment and knocks until a neighbour tells him it is empty. When caretakers find him, Cyril flees to the clinic and grabs a waiting woman. She says she doesn’t mind, only don’t squeeze so tight. The caretakers take Cyril to the empty apartment, showing his father has abandoned him

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One of my daughters works in a school where there are a fair number of problems  with children but also with parents.  Some of the stories she tells us are heart-wrenching.  This tale is about abandonment and its consequences.  Once again, the film makers (who are not French but Belgian by the way) have found a child actor of the highest quality.  Alongside Cecile de France, they make an excellent duo.

Mark 8/10

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Spring, 1958. 21-year-old Rose Pamphyle lives with her grouchy widower father who runs the village store. Engaged to the son of the local mechanic, she seems destined for the quiet, drudgery-filled life of a housewife. But that’s not the life Rose longs for. When she travels to Lisieux in Normandy, where charismatic insurance agency boss Louis Echard is advertising for a secretary, the ensuing interview is a disaster. But Rose reveals a special gift – she can type at extraordinary speed. Unwittingly, the young woman awakens the dormant sports fan in Louis. If she wants the job, she’ll have to compete in a speed typing competition. Whatever sacrifices Rose must make to reach the top, Louis declares himself her trainer. He’ll turn her into the fastest girl not only in the country, but in the world! But a love of sport doesn’t always mix well with love itself.

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This a very good non-sensical comedy which will make you smile from beginning to end.  This film could have been made in the fifties as it was exactly the genre that was so popular the time.  Excellent relaxation after a stressful day at the office.  It is hard to believe that such competitions were taking place.  Mind you, kid spelling words as quickly as possible…  To a certain extent, Alain Attal at the helm helps to explain its popularity.

Mark 7.5/10

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Despite his fame, Taillandier has suddenly stopped painting. Deeply depressed, the sixty-year-old decides to take off and leave everything behind. He has no clear goal and explains nothing to his wife or his close friends. During his travels, he has a strange encounter with Marylou, a wild teenager on the run who feels rejected by her mother. The lost girl and the old man at the end of his tether will travel together for a while. Until his anger is spent, and he accepts that he has responsibilities

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Facing old age and a sudden loss of motivation and inspiration as well as usefulness is a problem which is not uncommon.  Jean Becker shows us one way people respond to this stressful situation.  The anger and frustration felt by the lead character is deep and he is fortunate to be able to channel his energies in an unexpected direction to re-stabilize his life.  A well observed piece of cinema.

Mark 7/10

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Portrait of the final days of impressionist painter Pierre-August Renoir, and of the growing affair between his son (future film director Jean) and a headstrong model. Beautiful looking, as befits the subject—with her glowing copper hair, Christa Theret looks like a painter’s vision which has stepped off a canvas.

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Gilles Bourdos tries very hard to conjure up images which are in accord with Renoir’s style as a painter.  This is the last year of his life which Renoir spent in his house in the South of France.  Michel Bouquet as Renoir is exactly what we expect him to be.  A myth.  The cinematography is lustrous, the actors are beautiful, the action is slow.  What more do we want?!

Mark 6.5/10

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Georges and Anne are a couple of retired music teachers enjoying life in their eighties. However, Anne suddenly has a stroke at breakfast and their lives are never the same. That incident begins Anne’s harrowingly steep physical and mental decline as Georges attempts to care for her at home as she wishes. Even as the fruits of their lives and career remain bright, the couple’s hopes for some dignity prove a dispiriting struggle even as their daughter enters the conflict. In the end, George, with his love fighting against his own weariness and diminished future on top of Anne’s, is driven to make some critical decisions for them both

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This not an easy film to watch, especially if you are of a certain age, as it comes in the same category as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers.  Our societies work hard to lengthen our lives, and we are medicalized to continue breathing past the century.  However, is it at the expense of our dignity?  In many ways this film answers that question. A tour de force for the leading actors and the director.

Mark 8.5/10

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In this case the pretty young women are two sisters living in Lyon, one adopted, the other a single mother with a delightful little son, both close to their tough handsome mother. The adopted girl, Marine, manages a bookshop specialising in Anglo-Saxon literature. The first time she appears, she and her boyfriend, Alex, a restaurant critic, re-enact a French version of the bookshop encounter between Bogart and Dorothy Malone from the film version of The Big Sleep, which rather sets the general tone. The single mother, Lisa (played by Laurent herself), writes sad folk songs and works in a music shop.  It’s a wispy, tasteful, mildly touching, very French affair.

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A successful debut for Melanie Laurent has director of a full-length feature.  She strikes that difficult balancing act between the plausible and the impossible in an everyday, straight forward family drama with plenty of heart.  It is worth a watch.  It must be hoped that Ms Laurent continues to direct films as she appears to be as talented behind the camera as she is in front of it.

Mark 7/10

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Jacques Audiard is fast becoming the world’s favourite French director. His new film, Rust and Bone, benefits from the star power of its leading lady, Marion Cotillard, so it could be his biggest hit yet. Before we see her, though, we’re introduced to Matthias Schoenaerts, a brawny, bearded, unemployed ex-boxer who takes his five-year-old son from Belgium to the Cote d’Azur, where he moves in with a sister he hasn’t seen in years. After he gets a job as a nightclub bouncer, he meets Cotillard, a killer-whale trainer in a marine park. She seems to be several miles out of his league. But when she loses her lower legs in a grisly accident, his straight-talking, unpitying support is what she needs.

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The acting by the leading performers is out of this world:  Schoenaerts behaves as if he had always been a bare-knuckle fighter, and Cotillard’s fierce determination feels like she really has lost her lower limbs. The film might lose a little of its momentum towards the end, but it is still a very good two hours of entertainment.

Mark 8/10

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Suzanne (Sara Forestier) grows up in a close-knit family – just her, her sister, Maria (Adele Haenel) and widowed father, Nicolas (Francois Damiens). When Maria moves away for her studies, Suzanne, craving companionship, decides to go through with her unplanned pregnancy and becomes une fille-mère.   The family adjusts and her baby boy Charlie is brought up in a loving, albeit unconventional, home. Then, a chance meeting with dodgy Julien (Paul Hamy) changes Suzanne’s life forever as she is steered out of control by reckless love. Consequently, the lives of her loved ones are irrevocably altered: Suzanne disappears, spends five years in prison, starts a new life, and ultimately faces her demons

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It is difficult not to go overboard with praising the work of Katell Quillévéré.  Suzanne is a great film with actors who are given the chance to be at their best by a director who supports them and believes in what she is doing.  Absolutely brilliant.  Not to be missed.

Mark 9.5/10

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Ariane Felder, a judge in her forties a little stuck, single, is totally reluctant to date men. On New Year’s Eve 2012, strongly encouraged by her colleagues, she drinks more than enough and loses complete control of behaviour with dire consequences. Six months later, Ariane discovers that she is pregnant but is far from certain as to who the father is. She first thinks that it is a judge De Bernard, an enterprising colleague who would like to go out with her but who is a complete nerd. However, she conducts an investigation and discovers that the father of her child is the famous Robert Nolan, alias “Bob Nolan”, lover of prostitutes and burglar with multiple repeat offences, suspected of having cut off the limbs of an old man during a burglary.

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This is the most “loufoque” film of the decade.  “Loufoque” implies far fetched, funny and mad.  And it is.  At the same time, it is hilarious.  The unexpected behaviour of the very strait-laced barrister, played by the usually far more dramatic Sandrine Kiberlain leaves you with not choice but to laugh out loud. Dupontel, equally implausible as the burglar, gives one of his best performances.  This is strait out of a comic.  Not to be missed.  You will not regret having watched it.

Mark 8.5/10

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Coming back to complete the divorce procedure, Ahmad an Iranian man, arrives in Paris after four years to meet his ex-wife and her daughters from her previous marriage. He notices his ex is in a relationship with an Arab named Samir who also has a son, and his wife is in a coma. The relationship of the older daughter and her mother is in deterioration because the daughter thinks her mother is the cause of Samir’s wife comatose state. The affairs get more complicated when the older daughter discloses something heinous, she has done.

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This French/Italian/Iranian production is not light entertainment.  The plot is a little complicated but very much plausible, the setting is on the dark side, and the story can only lead to tragedy.  Yet this is a film about various forms of relationships, man/woman, parent/child, Iranian/Arab, Moslem/Non-Moslem.  An excellent film which received much praise when it came out.  Deservedly so.

Mark 8/10

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Baptiste is a solitary type. A teacher in southern France, he never stays more than three weeks in the same job. One Friday, he finds himself in charge of Mathias, one of his pupils, who hasn’t been picked up after school. Mathias takes the boy to his mother, Sandra. She’s a beautiful woman who has led a bit of a wild life and who now works on a beach near Montpellier. Within a day, the trio have formed a bond, like the beginnings of a family for these three people who don’t have one. But the magic doesn’t last. Sandra owes money and if she doesn’t pay up something dire could happen. She must hit the road, flee once again. To help Sandra, Baptiste must take a look back at the origins of his own life, at the most painful and secret parts of himself.

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This is a film about drifters.  The invisible people who go from little job to little job and who remain in the shadow of society.  Even in the beautiful setting of a Mediterranean beach, their fate is grim.  Furthermore, they are subjected to immense pressures which very often , they cannot resist. As ususal, Louise Bourgoin is excellent as the single mother who faces misfortune.  Another unsettling film by Nicole Garcia.

Mark 7.5/10

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Antoine is a lawyer living in New York. On his way back to France for the final round of a job interview, Antoine finds himself sitting right next to his ex-girlfriend Julie. With a seven-hour flight ahead of them, they are going to have to speak to each other.

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Occasionally, there has to be a Romcom to lighten up the load.  Something that has a sufficiently good script, adequate direction and first class acting to enable you to say at the end that the film was fun but that the following day you will not be dreaming about it.  If you feel at all under the weather, just watch it and let go.  Enjoy!

Mark 6/10

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A once great actor, Serge Tanneur (Fabrice Luchini), has retired from the limelight. Too much pressure meant that one day, he simply decided he would act no more. For the past three years, he has lived in solitude on the Île de Ré, spending his time cycling through the windswept landscape. Fellow actor Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson), whose career is flying high, is planning a production of Molière’s play The Misanthrope and wants to offer Serge the role of Filinte. Gauthier is convinced he will accept, since Serge himself has become a misanthrope, withdrawn from society and raging against the world. It would be wonderful to see him return in that part. But Serge plays hard to get, first of all as he wants to play the title role. Instead of committing, he suggests they rehearse together for the week. Things look to be going well, especially when a mysterious Italian divorcee (Maya Sansa) brings a romantic spark into his life. With the play’s producer, Gauthier’s agent and his lover all arriving on the island at the weekend, the pressure is on Serge to make up his mind. Is he merely toying with Gauthier, or does he really intend to take to the stage once more?

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A play within a film.  Playing Le Misanthrope whilst being one can only lead to a double whammy of comedy. Lambert Wilson and Fabrice Luchini are at their best in this great farce.  It has everything that Moliere would have envisaged, puns, obsessive behaviour (monomania) and slapstick.  Enjoy!

Mark 7.5/10

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Adèle is an introverted 15-year-old high-school student. She passes an older woman with short blue hair in the streets one day and is instantly attracted. She sleeps with Thomas, a boy from school, but is ultimately dissatisfied and ends their relationship. After having vivid fantasies about the blue-haired woman while masturbating and kissing Béatrice, one of her female friends, Adèle becomes troubled about her sexual identity. Béatrice says she doesn’t want to proceed further and tells Adèle to forget the kiss.Adèle’s best friend, the openly gay Valentin, takes her to a gay dance bar. Adèle later leaves and enters a lesbian bar, where some women flirt with her. The blue-haired woman, art student Emma, is there and intervenes, claiming Adèle is her cousin. Emma and Adèle become friends. After Emma shows up at the school, Adèle’s friends suspect her of being a lesbian and ostracise her.

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When the film first came out after the Cannes Festival, it was hailed as a film that broke the barriers for the LGBTQ+ Movement.  And it did.   However, rumours started to emerge that during the filming, the director had made the girls repeat the same sexual episodes, over and over.  The girls themselves hinted at such happenings.  Exploitation on his part?  It is a modern Rite of Passage story, but I feel that a film like Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire does a much better job as a movie about women by a woman.

Mark 7/10

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Chief Inspector Mattei and his team identify a gang of bank robbers In Paris. They keep the group under surveillance and when they rob a bank, they are ready to arrest the criminals. However, the sniper Vincent Kaminski surprises the detectives and the gang escapes. Soon Mattei and his team arrest Vincent who does not agree to snitch on his friends. When Vincent escapes from the prison, Mattei hunts him down in a cat and mouse game and learns what happened to his son who died when he was a soldier in Afghanistan.

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A fairly tense film with three excellent leading actors.  The plot is well devised and leads to uncertainty and a surprising ending.  It is not very often that French cinema produces a good thriller, and this film could be classified as falling into the category.  A definite possibility as entertainment for an evening.

Mark 6.5/10

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Colin has a very pleasant life: he is rich, he loves the food his cook makes (Nicolas), he loves his pianocktail (portmanteau of piano and cocktail, a word invented by Vian) and his friend Chick. One day while having lunch with Chick, Chick tells him that he met a girl named Alise with whom he has a common passion: the writer Jean-Sol Partre. Colin meets Chloe at a party Chick invited him to. They fall in love, marry, but Chloe becomes ill during their honeymoon. As time passes, Chloe’s condition deteriorates while the relationship between Chick and Alise turns sour. Frustrated with their own deteriorating relationships, Colin and Alise sleep with each other, although they both come to regret it shortly after

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Gondry has managed to convey the idiosyncratic way Boris Vian (the writer) sees the world. The mood of each scene is not only delivered by the actors but also by the predominant colour of the shots.  Vian said on a few occasions that he would not see his fortieth birthday.  He died at 39.  And this is one of the preoccupations of the film alongside the fact that his good friend, Jean-Paul Sartre, was having an affair with his wife.  (Question:  Who was not having an affair with Jean-Paul Sartre?  Answer:  Simone de Beauvoir).  This is an excellent film which requires more than one viewing and needs the spectator to let go of reality as we know it.

Mark 8/10

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The Béliers are ordinary people: Rodolphe and Gigi are married, have two children and run their farm for a living. Ordinary people? Well, almost… since three of them, Dad, Mum, and their son Quentin, are deaf. Which is not the case of the boy’s big sister, Paula. And not only can she speak but her music teacher scouts her beautiful voice as well. He offers her to sit for the entrance exam of the Maîtrise de Radio France, a vocal elite choir in Paris. Her parents, who rely on her as their ears and mouth in the outside world, take the news badly. Paula, who hates the idea of betraying her parents and her brother, goes through a painful dilemma…

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It is quite possible that even the production company had no idea as to the level of success the film would achieve.  Don’t get me wrong:  the basic idea is good, the actors excellent even if the story line peters out occasionally.  It must have struck a chord somewhere in the French psyche as we are not given to films with singing in them.  But the journey did not stop there either…. It was remade in the US and won the Oscar for best film.  Odder and odder.   Still on a cold night in winter it warms your cockles.  François Damiens and Karin Viard are their usual excellent selves.

Mark 7/10

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Samba migrated to France ten years ago from Senegal and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burn-out. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Samba’s willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together

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After the success of the Les Intouchables, the directors had to put together a project which would keep them in the limelight.  Samba is the result of this ploy.    The script is ok; a little predictable but it was difficult to see how they could repeat the success of their last film.  However, the cast is first class.  With Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg leading the charge.   Another feel-good film.   Fun to watch…

Mark 7.5/10

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Jean-Pierre Werner (Francois Cluzet) is a no-nonsense but not unkind country doctor whose routine is firmly established and whose role in the rural communities he looks after often extends beyond just checking his patients’ physical well-being. In the film’s opening scenes, he’s told he needs to stop working if he wants to get better because he needs to concentrate on his upcoming treatments (the disease is never quite specified). As a result, he takes on a locum who has just finished her training.

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The shortage of doctors in the countryside in France is such that small towns are now offering incentives which might seem unbelievable to the rest of us (free housing for a couple of years, financial incentives which are equal to a minimum salary on top of their normal fees…).  However, once it is understood what the expectations of the job (vocation?) are, it is easy to see why not many newly qualified doctors take up these positions in the countryside.  12 hours seven days a week is an impossible job to carry on for very long without significant consequences.  A serious consideration on the subject.

Mark 7/10

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Not far from the ancient Malian city of Timbuktu, proud cattle herder Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed aka Pino) lives peacefully in the dunes with his wife Satima (Toulou Kiki), his daughter Toya (Layla Walet Mohamed), and Issan (Mehdi Ag Mohamed), their twelve-year-old shepherd. In town, the people suffer, powerless, from the regime of terror imposed by the Jihadists determined to control their faith. Music, laughter, cigarettes, even soccer have been banned. The women have become shadows but resist with dignity. Every day, the new improvised courts issue tragic and absurd sentences. Kidane and his family are being spared the chaos that prevails in Timbuktu. But their destiny changes abruptly.

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It is difficult if you come from a westernized country, to appreciate how some people have to live if they re under the governance of extreme religious people who think that freedom of choice leads to evil.  A prime example of such views exists in some Middle Eastern countries where women are prevented from going to school or to work. The tragedy shown in the film, unfortunately is far too frequent nowadays.  Where is our humanity?

Mark 8/10

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 It is a movie that takes its own sweet time to show its hand or let the audience in on what it is centrally about. It grew on me. Adèle Haenel plays Madeleine, a bored and angry but callow college dropout in northern France who yearns to join the army; Arnaud (Kévin Azaïs) is a young carpenter who falls in love with her while building a garden shed for her parents. To the astonishment of his brother and business partner, Arnaud enrolls on Madeleine’s army bootcamp induction course, and the story progresses from there. Things just roll along in this film, and it is sometimes unclear where precisely they are supposed to be going; but the loose and unguided narrative style is seductive, and the performances are engaging. The eerie emptiness of the northern countryside, evacuated after a forest fire, is a little like that evoked by the philosopher and film director Bruno Dumont.

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Thomas Cailley takes us on a ride which is sometimes not easy.  However, it is in the end a very rewarding experience.  A young Adèle Haenel is the main focus of this movie, and she plays her character with the verve and the sharpness for which she has become renowned.  Patience is required but the incentives are good.

Mark 7/10

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If you have to go to court, you pray not to have to appear before Michel Racine, a man with a reputation as an awfully ruthless judge. Unfortunately for him, this is what happens to Martial Beclin, a man accused of kicking to death his baby daughter. And you can easily guess what his feelings are on the first day of his trial. But neither Martial nor Michel knows it yet: this time, things may turn out differently. Why? Because judge Racine stops being himself the moment he recognizes among the jurors Ditte, a woman doctor he has been secretly in love for a couple of years and who saved his life…

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Basically, this is an old fashion courtroom drama with a romance attached to it.  The real interest is in the way things are conducted in the courtroom.  The way the judge is more than a neutral participant trying to get to the truth.  No wonder that judges behave as if they are some kind of gods.  It is worrying that to get the man presiding over the event to open his mind to other possibilities, it takes an outsider with whom he is emotionally involved.   What about the other cases?   A definite watch.  Just for the courtroom action…

Mark 6.5/10

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In this non-standard road movie, Daniel (Ange Dargent) lives in Versailles with his two brothers, very depressive mother, and exasperated father; at school, he’s called “Microbe” because of his small stature. One of those kids who is always drawing, Daniel is introduced waking up an hour before his alarm goes off so he can eat breakfast by himself and then climb back into bed; he’s elected to be a loner as much as it’s been forced on him.  Daniel’s bond with Theo (Théophile Baquet), the new kid at school and a kind-hearted smart-ass, is almost instantaneous. Theo’s an effortlessly cool kid who’d probably be more popular if his family wasn’t so poor.

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Behind the apparently mad concept of this movie, there are serious issues.  And Michel Gondry loves to take us places that are to say the least unusual in order to make us think about these.  The two kids are fun, and the road trip is completely mad but … But and there is a big question: Is that all?   Answer:  No.

Mark 7.5/10

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After much argument and persistence on the part of the girl, an elderly curmudgeon lets out a room in his large apartment rent-free to a young student, under one condition: she must do everything she can to ruin his son’s marriage. The Student and Mr Henri is a moving and cheerful French comedy-drama based on Ivan Calbérac’s 2012 play of the same name.

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A very grumpy Claude Brasseur plays Monsieur Henri to perfection; to the extent that one could ask oneself if this was not a natural state for the actor.  The film follows fairly obvious lines, but the duo Brasseur/Néomie Schmidt is a delight to watch.  An excellent light-hearted and entertaining film.

Mark 7/10

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In the summer of 1982, 14-year-old Kalinka Bamberski died at her stepfather’s house in Germany, where she was staying for the holidays of her boarding school. When the case was closed by the German authorities without a real explanation as to how the teenager died, her French biological father, André Bamberski, became certain that her stepfather, a German doctor, was involved in her death. He spent the next 30 years fighting for the truth, pressuring both French and German authorities into investigating further.

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Vincent Garenq seems to have taken up the cause of those who are not getting any joy out of the judicial system in France.  If that is his intention, he has plenty of work to do for the rest of his career.  Daniel Auteuil is very good as the investigating father who is frustrated by the lack of urgency on both sides of the border between France and Germany.

Mark 6.5/10

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The film opens as 17-year-old Simon (Gabin Verdet) wakes in bed beside his girlfriend, Juliette (Galatea Bellugi). She opens her eyes to give him a sleepy smile before he disappears out the window into the darkness. He’s on his way to a surfing appointment with two mates. They drive a van along deserted roads and in the blue light of pre-dawn, they launch themselves into the wild ocean. The camera hovers at the waterline, sometimes submerged in whitewash before it catches a glimpse of the slick, wet-suited youths. We see Simon stooped on his board, riding through a tunnel of water, and then he’s floating in the depths, eyes open and looking up in wonder at indigo swirls, like dark clouds above him. It’s a scene that’s pure poetry, so full of life and nature and danger. It’s no spoiler to say that Simon’s life will be cut short very soon, and yet there’s no sense of overweening fate at work; just a universe filled with accident and mystery

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Suzanne (her previous film) was so good that it was nigh on impossible to expect something even better from Katell Quillévéré.  Yet, there it is.  Full of subtleties, love, and genuine emotions.  Never overplayed. Unmissable.   I cannot wait for what is coming next!

Mark 9.5/10

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Cézanne et Moi traces the parallel paths of the lives, careers and passionate friendship of post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne and novelist Emile Zola. The two boys grew up in Aix-en-Provence. Emile was fatherless and poor. Paul came from a wealthy family. As young men, dreaming of glory and beautiful women, they left the south to conquer the art scene in Paris. Soon Emile had it all, success, money, and the perfect wife, and embraced the very bourgeoisie he mocked in his books. Meanwhile, Cezanne rejected the Parisian scene to focus only on his work, ignored by his peers and the establishment.

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The stormy relationship between the painter and the novelist is well documented.    It started well but finished badly because they had travelled to diametrically opposite sides from where they had started and did not feel comfortable in either place. Zola had become the bourgeois he wanted to destroy in his first books.  Cezanne wanted his art to be perfect and non-commercial which meant poverty and loneliness.   The biopic does the job thanks mainly to the two Guillaume (Canet and Gallienne) acting their hearts out.   A worthwhile effort by all.

Mark 7/10

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As a romantic dreamer whose blurred reality expects love to mirror those romance novels, Gabrielle’s self-centeredness and failure to grasp reality results in a loveless marriage – and easily one of the most uncomfortable lovemaking scenes in the history of French cinema. Beyond that, severe kidney stones make it impossible for her to bear children. In hopes of “the cure”, she is sent for treatment to a spa in the Alps.

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Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle carries the film.  Garcia tries very hard to convey the physical and emotional frustrations felt by Gabrielle by placing the camera very close to the main character.   The novella from which the story line is taken left open the real meaning of the plot.  And so does the film.  A rather unsettling experience but one which demonstrates once more the skills of Marion Cotillard as an actor and of Nicole Garcia as a director.

Mark 6.5/10

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In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, Edouard Péricourt saves Albert Maillard’s life. The two men have nothing in common but the war. Lieutenant Pradelle, by ordering a senseless assault, destroys their lives while binding them as companions in misfortune. On the ruins of the carnage of WWI, condemned to live, the two attempt to survive. Thus, as Pradelle is about to make a fortune with the war victims’ corpses, Albert and Edouard mount a monumental scam with the bereaved families’ commemoration and with a nation’s hero worship and thus destroy Pradelle.

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The film is first of all a discourse on the stupidity of war and on the absurd behaviour of some the officers in command.  But it is also about the misplaced hero worshipping of those who have lost their lives for nothing (see WH Auden’s lines above).  It becomes obvious when one considers the number of soldiers who lost their lives unnecessarily during the 1914-18 conflict.  Dupontel does not pull any punches.  If the film seems at times cynical, this cynicism must have been felt by those who survived and who knew how absurd the whole affair was.

Mark 8/10

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As a Burgundy wine estate owner’s illness reaches terminal stage, Jean returns home after ten years wandering, soon attending the funeral, and facing the inheritance with his younger brother Jérémie, who is stifled by his wife Alicia’s parents Anselme and Chantal, and sister Juliette, who wants to modernize the wine making in her own style, keeping loyal cellar master Marcel on. Pondering options, given the heavy burden of the succession tax, like selling out at least part of the estate, Jean remains two harvests, rebuilding siblings’ bonds and re-calibrating his bitter childhood memories, until Jean’s Brazilian wife visits with their son to demand a decision whether he’ll return to their Australian estate.

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Typical Cedric Klapisch film.   You can feel the mud under your feet and smell the bouquet of the wine. Here is Terroir and France Profonde at their best.  The in-laws are especially well-observed: this is what family life can be if you let it take over your existence in the countryside.  Warm but stifling.  Before watching this film, it might be useful to go and get a bottle of Bourgogne Aligoté.

Mark 7/10

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Aurore is fifty years old, separated from her husband, Nanar, and with two grown up daughters. The restaurant where she works is under new management with an insufferable boss, and she is experiencing all the symptoms of the menopause. While pretending to view an apartment that her friend Marie-Noelle (known as Mano) is selling, she encounters an old flame and her former husband’s best friend, Christophe, with whom she reconnects.  Her eldest daughter, Marina, tells her that she is pregnant. Aurore at first is worried that Marina is making a similar mistake to her in having a baby so young, which upsets Marina. Aurore arranges for Marina to have her initial scans at the hospital where Christophe works in order to see him again, although this leads to a further argument and reconciliation. Christophe and Aurore meet for a few dates. Infuriated by the changes to the restaurant, Aurore quits her job as a waitress.

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This is a well observed comedy about women of a certain age and their difficulties.  Agnes Jaoui is clearly enjoying herself as the woman who has all the symptoms of the menopause whilst also being aware that she is in danger of becoming one of those people who are pushed aside because of their age.  However, Aurore’s got life….! Hallelujah!

Mark 8/10

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Claire is a midwife in a maternity hospital. She is humane and helpful and gives herself entirely to her patients. But despite that her life is not a bed of roses. Her hospital is about to close its doors and the devoted woman is determined not to work in the new modern hospital she regards as a “baby factory”. Her personal life is no triumph either: she is single but does not make friends easily. To make matters worse, her student son Simon is gradually leaving home, as he is developing a relationship with his new sweetheart Lucie. It is the moment that Béatrice, her dead father’s former mistress, chooses to resurface. The eccentric, spendthrift, sensual, amoral woman (Claire’s exact opposite in fact) is really the last kind of person she needs to mix with. But Béatrice soon informs her that she suffers from brain cancer, and she has nobody else to turn to. Torn between rejection and duty, what is Claire going to do?

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Two formidable actors at their best.  Catherine Frot is the seemingly meek and mild one who is going to be squashed by the formidable and nihilistic character played by Catherine Deneuve.  The latter annoys, exasperates, infuriates, and provokes both the character played by Frot but also the spectator into reacting sometimes violently. An excellent piece of drama.   Well scripted, full of life and heart.  A must watch.

Mark 8/10

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Paris 1930. Paul always had only one and the same horizon: the high walls of the orphanage, a severe building on the outskirts of Paris. Entrusted to a cheerful lady of the countryside, Celestine and her husband, Borel, the somewhat rigid gamekeeper of a vast estate in Sologne, the child of the cities, recalcitrant and stubborn, arrives in a mysterious and worrying world, that of a sovereign and wild region. The immense forest, the misty ponds, the moors and the fields, everything here belongs to the Count of the Comte de La Salle.  The Count tolerates poachers on the estate, but Borel is relentlessly hunting them down and hounding the most cunning and elusive of them, Totoche. In the heart of the fairytale Sologne, next to the poacher, a great nature lover, Paul will learn about life but also the forest and its secrets. An even heavier secret weighs on the estate because Paul did not come here by chance

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This is a chance to see one o the most underrated but most beautiful regions of France: La Sologne.  Apart from the novel “Le Grand Meaulnes “ of 1912, very little has been written or filmed in the Sologne.  School of Life is not as romantic as the book by Alain-Fournier, however, it offers glimpses of what life must have been at the time.  Francois Cluzet makes a decent poacher and Eric Elmosnino is a good gamekeeper, but the top prize goes to the camera which catches the beauty of the Sologne.

Mark 7/10 or 10/10 for photography

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The gender divide of this movie, and its whole point, are clearer in the original French title: Les Gardiennes, the female guardians, the women who worked the land in France during the First World War whilst their men were fighting at the front. This richly compassionate, fiercely acted and beautifully shot period drama is about the second conflict, the battle of wills on the home front, as its characters struggle to maintain a family farm in the Poitou/Sèvres region of western France.

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The trio of leading actresses of Isabelle Adjani, Laura Smet and Iris Bry give the performance of their lives.  The cinematography is superb, and the script enables the actors to show their talent.  Understated, compassionate yet strangely on edge, the film deserves all the praise it garnered at the time of its release. La France Profonde.

Mark 9/10

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François Ozon’s new film is sombre, restrained and painful – inhibited perhaps by its sense of moral seriousness and the legal difficulty of making a movie about a case that is ongoing: a Catholic child-abuse scandal in France. Bernard Preynat is a Lyon priest who has admitted molesting 70 boys over 30 years, following an online campaign by the now middle-aged abuse survivors. Preynat has been defrocked, though a criminal trial is pending – delayed partly, it is said, by the existence of this film about him and the issue of whether it prejudices his case. Two separate court judgements have ruled in Ozon’s favour. Quite apart from Preynat, there is the question of the cover-up; this year, his superior Cardinal Philippe Barbarin served a six-month suspended prison sentence for failing to report the abuse. The title of this film – Grâce à Dieu, or By the Grace of God – is taken from the staggering Freudian slip Barbarin, made during his 2016 press conference about the case. Talking about the statute of limitations, he remarked casually: “La majorité des faits, grâce à Dieu, sont prescrits.” (“The majority of cases, by the grace of God, are inadmissible.”) Charitably, we might suppose he was saluting God’s grace for not putting the abuse survivors through the additional trauma of appearing in the witness box. But it just seemed like a flash of arrogance: by the grace of God, the alleged abuse happened too long ago for the Church to be investigated.

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Ozon is one of the very few French film or documentary makers to have taken on the subject.  The Catholic Church is still a powerful institution in France, and one that knows how to defend itself.  Preynat is certainly one of the few abusers who have served the church and who have been named.  The hidden ones remain to be exposed for what they were.  France is very much behind the times in this respect.   Ozon’s film is a must even if at times it might seem cold and detached.

Mark 8/10

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In 18th-century France young painter Marianne, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day, the two women become closer as they share Héloïse’s last moments of freedom before the impending wedding.

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Sciamma continues her exploration of women’s lives.   Here, an artist and her model are on a voyage of discovery about themselves and their sexuality. It is obvious what the ending is going to be as it is based on France in the XVIII century, a mysogenic place to say the least.  The chances of the women being able to attempt life together is as remote as the island on which they are.    A powerful film with plenty of heart and sadness.

Mark 8.5/10

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When 43-year-old hairdresser Suze Trappet finds out that she’s seriously ill, she decides to go looking for a child she was forced to abandon when she was only 15. On her madcap bureaucratic quest, she crosses paths with JB, a 50-year-old man in the middle of a burnout, and Mr. Blin, a blind archivist prone to overenthusiasm. The unlikely trio set off on a hilarious and poignant helter-skelter journey across the city in search of Suze’s long-lost child.

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Once again Dupontel takes a sideways look at our present times.  The world of bureaucratic administration and its electronic machinery are under the spotlight.  And it does not come out smelling of roses. It seems as if Dupontel has taken over the mantle left by Jean-Pierre Jeunet in pushing the boundaries of comedy in French cinema.  One thing is certain it benefits the cinemagoer.

Mark 8/10

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