Heidi Ellison
L’Enfant
Conscience-Impaired Youth Jérémie Renier plays the feckless Bruno. It’s difficult to understand why L’Enfant (The Child), written and directed by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, won them a second Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year – it’s … Read More
Ma Vie en l’Air
Fear of Flying Marion Cotillard and Vincent Elbaz in Ma Vie en l’Air. Photo: © Alain Fillit Ma Vie en l’Air, the first feature film directed by Rémi Bezançon, gets off to a promising, quick-paced start, with a bitterweet Amélie-style … Read More
Zim and Co.
Suburban Trials of Fire Adrien Jolivet as Zim, in trouble with the law again. In France, the banlieue (suburbs) – less a haven for middle-class families than the equivalent of the American ghetto – seems to have become the subject … Read More
Voisins, Voisines
Neighborly Love Frédéric Diefenthal plays Paco, an ex-con. Although Voisins, Voisines, a new film directed by Malik Chibane, got good reviews when it opened in late July, it seems to be going more or less unnoticed by French movie-goers; only … Read More
La Moustache
Who’s Crazy Now? Emmanuelle Devos contemplates Vincent Lindon’s controversial lip brush in in La Moustache. The much-anticipated film La Moustache is now playing on French screens. Based on the novel by Emmanuel Carrère, with a scenario by Emmanuel Carrère (and … Read More
Imposture
Literary Reflections Who is the captor and who is the captive? Photo: Alain Potignon © 2005 EuropaCorp, TF1Films Production, Studio Lavabo Patrick Bouchitey directed, wrote (with Jackie Berroyer) and stars in Imposture, a new film about a French literature professor … Read More
Lemming
Alien Eyes Above: Zombie-like Charlotte Rampling catches the model couple kissing in the kitchen. Below: Charlotte Gainsbourg gets a shock. Photos: © Philippe Quaisse After all the hype at the current Cannes Film Festival and the success of Dominik Moll’s … Read More
Le Promeneur du Champ-de-Mars
Mitterrand’s Final Days Michel Bouquet and Jalil Lespert in Le Promeneur du Champ-de-Mars. Photo © FILM OBLIGE Eric Moulin The hot topic in France this past week has been the new film on the last days of former Socialist President … Read More
Les Choristes
Muddy Waters Jan. 25, 2004: The French film The Chorus (Les Choristes) has been chosen as a nominee for the Academy Awards’ Foreign Language Film category. The film, by first-time director Christophe Barratier, is a hard-to-believe heart-tugger that just manages … Read More
Quand J’étais Chanteur
Sentimental Song Depardieu is thoroughly convincing as a mildly successful dance hall singer. Gérard Depardieu, that workhorse of French cinema (and bull of a man), puts in yet another fine performance in Quand J’étais Chanteur, the story of Alain Moreau, … Read More