Director Jalil Lespert’s new biopic, Yves Saint Laurent, is fairly entertaining and well acted, especially by the two leads: Comédie Française actors Pierre Niney and Guillaume Gallienne as Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, respectively. It is not so much a … Read More
Roman Polanski’s latest film (in French), La Vénus à la Fourrure (Venus in Fur), takes place in a huis clos, as did his last feature, Carnage. Both are based on plays, the former by David Ives (who shares the writing … Read More
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, something of an outsider in the French film world, has had a number of successes in his career, including Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children (both co-directed with Marc Caro), but nothing he has done has won … Read More
In La Vie d’Adèle, Chapitres 1 et 2 (Blue Is the Warmest Color), director Abdellatif Kechiche lets the drama of a teenage girl’s first love – with another young woman – unfold full-scale, giving her the destiny and physical vibrancy … Read More
Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), French writer-director Arnaud Desplechin’s first foray into American territory, was shot on location in the Midwest, entirely in English, with a Considerable Hollywood Star – the charismatic Benicio del Toro – in the … Read More
Love, Sex and Prostitution, But Few Belly Laughs After a summer of dull offerings, the French movie industry has brought out the big guns for the rentrée (post-holiday period), and while none of the four new offerings reviewed below squarely … Read More
If director Alain Giraudie, winner of the best director gong in the “Un Certain Regard” section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has read the manual on how to create a gripping thriller in the year 2013, he must have … Read More
Bruno Dumont’s film Camille Claudel 1915 is one of those movies that critics call “challenging” and “difficult.” It’s one of those films that they give five stars to because they feel guilty about spending their days watching films, and an … Read More
Le Havre is a hybrid film in more ways than one. Made by a Finnish director in French and set in France, it is an old-fashioned fairytale about a very timely issue, illegal immigration. Director Aki Kaurismäki, known for his … Read More
Nikola Carton gives an exceptional performance as a man who thinks he is the reincarnation of Wilde. Last week, I saw the star-studded A Little Night Music by the legendary Stephen Sondheim at the sold-out Théâtre du Châtelet and a … Read More
