Polish Autofiction Lionel (Lionel Baier) and his boyfriend Serge (Stéphane Rentznik), whom he leaves to find his Polish roots. Comme des Voleurs (à l’Est) is young Swiss director Lionel Baier’s second film. His first, Garçon Stupide (2004), although uneven, showed … Read More
Men with andWithout Women Sylvain gets a respite from his lonely life while frolicking with two visiting Parisians. French cinema tends to be overpopulated with dreadful movies set at the seaside in which improbably ugly men pursue and conquer improbably … Read More
The Longest 40-Minute Film Ever The lipstick smear: how to tell a woman is losing it in a French film. Always on the lookout for films that do not quite fit the mold, I recently saw the 40-minute Ce qu’Il … Read More
A Modern Fairytale Lacking in Adventure Jean-Pierre Bacri and Agnès Jaoui in “Au Bout du Conte.” Ever since being blown away by the warmth, humor and humanity of Le Goût des Autres (2000), I must admit to approaching each new … Read More
Extreme Tragedy MeetsEveryday Tragedy Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts), takes Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard) for her liberating first swim since her accident. Photo: Roger Arpajou Why Not Productions Jacques Audiard’s reputation as one of France’s most original, hard-hitting movie directors is sure to … Read More
Time for Precocious Talent to Grow Up and Knuckle Down Melvil Poupaud as Laurence. Photo © Shayne Laverdière When reviewing director Xavier Dolan’s last film, Les Amours Imaginaires, I wrote that his best was yet to come, just as long … Read More
Risky Game of Seduction in Ozon’s Best Film Yet Left to right: Fabrice Luchini, Emmanuelle Seigner and Ernst Umhauer Dans la Maison (In the House), prolific filmmaker François Ozon’s latest offering, may well be his most accomplished movie to date. Combining … Read More
Great Idea for a Film Veers off Course Fabrice Luchini, playing actor Serge Tanneur, wears his Alceste costume to a party. It is easy to imagine actor Fabrice Luchini and director Philippe Le Guay sitting down to hatch a brilliant idea … Read More
On the right: real-life Amélie Nothomb. On the left: book-jacket Amélie Nothomb. Certain aspects of novelist Amélie Nothomb’s work are utterly predictable: for example, every fall a new novel (usually around 150 pages long) appears without fail, with a portrait … Read More
Paris Update Art Notes BURNT BAR BLUES A Nana Mouskouri album cover amid the debris. A much-loved institution in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, the corner bar Chez Sylvain, went up in flames last week. Although Sylvain himself got out safely, his … Read More
