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
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
(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
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
Distant Love The duchess (Jeanne Balibar) pushes away the importunate general. Jacques Rivette’s Ne Touchez pas la Hache (Don’t Touch the Axe), an adaptation of Balzac’s novel La Duchesse de Langeais, is an object lesson in how to take a … Read More
Behind Closed Doors Bertrand (Vincent Lindon) gets some much-needed household help from his sister (director Anne Le Ny). The talented actress Anne Le Ny has made a promising start with Ceux qui Restent (Those Who Remain), her first film as … Read More
Personal History Lesson Marjane visits her uncle, a political prisoner. Persepolis, the animated film version of Marjane Satrapi’s two-volume autobiographical comic book of the same name, brings the recent history of Iran to life by showing its effects on one … Read More
Facile Rider The cops seem to be brutalizing this man in this scene from American Vertigo, but since the film offers no commentary, we don’t know what is really happening. One fine day, French pop philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (commonly known … Read More
Sartorial Insanity Anna takes an incriminating photo of her stalkee. If being badly dressed is a sign of insanity in Paris, then it should have been clear to everyone right from the start that something was seriously wrong with Anna … Read More
The Death of Desire Séverine and Husson recall transgressions of yesteryear. “He’s an odd bird,” a waiter says of the main character at the end of this film, and the same might be said of Belle Toujours, a famous Portuguese … Read More
