Heidi Ellison
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
J’Attends Quelqu’un
Nice Slice of Life Sabine (Florence Loiret), on the outside looking in. Photo: © Patrick Glaize. J’Attends Quelqu’un, a sweet little film written and directed by Jérôme Bonnell, proves that the classic prescription for good writing – show, don’t tell … Read More
Angel
Nice Slice of Life Angel (Romola Garai), accompanied by her publisher (Sam Neill) gazes longingly at Paradise House. It takes moxie to make an old-fashioned moralistic film about the consequences of hubris, but Francois Ozon has managed to pull it … Read More
L’Homme qui Rêvait d’un Enfant
Big Baby Alfred (Artus de Penguern), on the left, meets his adopted “child,” Jules K. (Darry Cowl). L’Homme qui Rêvait d’un Enfant is a weird fairytale with plenty of charm, fine performances, visual appeal and a great score, but it … Read More
Entre Adultes
Chain of Lovers The afterglow doesn’t last long. Here’s a film that does what the French do best onscreen: talk – about love and sex and relationships. And it does it simply and cleverly, with great charm. The film, inspired … Read More
Nue Propriété
Home Wars Twins Thierry (Jérémie Renier) and François (Yannick Renier) play a video game. The presence of Isabelle Huppert, revered in France as a great actress, gives Nue Propriété, by young Belgian director Joachim Lafosse, major credentials as a serious … Read More
Pars Vite et Reviens Tard
A Plague of Symbols One of the film’s several chase scenes. Pars Vite et Reviens Tard is a rarity: a film made in Paris that doesn’t make the city look like a picture postcard. Although it features many handsome views … Read More
Le Dernier des Fous
(No) Fun on the Farm Litte Martin (Julien Cochelin) in a foreshadowing scene. Called the “first great film of the year 2007” by the magazine Les Inrockuptibles (whose critics are among the hardest-to-please in the French press), Laurent Achard’s Le … Read More
Cœurs
A Long, Snowy Ride to Nowhere Dan (Lambert Wilson) and Gaëlle (Isabelle Carré) meet through an Internet dating site. Alain Resnais’ new film, Cœurs, based on Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s play Private Fears in Public Places, is a big, baggy mess: … Read More