Le Redoutable
Taking the 'God' Out of Godard
The title of the film Le Redoutable comes from a radio play Jean-Luc Godard (played by Louis Garrel) listens to every morning in his kitchen. He repeats its catchphrase in a voice dripping with radiophonic drama from time to time … Read More
Barbara
Worshipping at the Altar of a Departed Chanteuse
Mathieu Amalric’s Barbara is less of a biopic than a worshipful homage to the chanteuse who won the hearts of the French with her plaintive songs of heartbreak and incest. So what, you might say, who needs another straightforward biopic anyway? The … Read More
Visages Villages
Seeing the Power of the Imagination
What a surprising pleasure to see the new documentary Visages, Villages, by 89-year-old Agnès Varda, made with 34-year-old artist JR and first shown out of competition at this year’s Cannes Film festival. Throughout the course of the film, both Varda … Read More
L’Amant Double
Psychosexual Gothic Romance
I hate reading reviews of films before I see them because I like to be surprised and want to avoid being influenced by someone else’s opinion. I do, however, try to get a sense of whether a film is a … Read More
Les Fantômes d’Ismaël
Hitchcock, Bergman, Truffaut? Non!
The popular French film director Arnaud Desplechin is back with a new movie, Les Fantômes d’Ismaël (Ismael’s Ghosts), which opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This is another one of the director’s sprawling, apparently autobiographical, angst-ridden psychodramas, so sprawling that … Read More
L’Opéra
Backstage at the Opera (And the Ballet)
The Opéra National de Paris is a big, unwieldy machine that encompasses not only the French national opera company but also the national ballet. Jean-Stéphane Bron’s new documentary, L’Opéra, like Frederick Wiseman’s recent documentary on the National Gallery in London, … Read More
Le Secret de la Chambre Noire
Creaky Vehicle for Ghost from the Past
Le Secret de la Chambre Noire (Daguerreo-type; misspelled as Daguerrotype), the first movie by Japanese horror film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to the great Akira Kurosawa) to be made outside of his country, in France, is basically an old-fashioned … Read More
Victoria
American Touch for French Comedy
Director Justine Triet admits that for her third film, Victoria, she set out to make an American-style comedy. Being French, however, she chose as her chuckle-generator the subject of depression, not everyone’s idea of a barrel of laughs. But what … Read More
Merci Patron!
All’s Fair in Love and Class War
François Ruffin is being called the French Michael Moore, and for good reason. The beginning of his documentary, Merci Patron! (Thanks, Boss!), is a pure ripoff of Moore’s Roger & Me, with Ruffin going to the headquarters of the LVMH … Read More
Rosalie Blum
The Stalker Stalked
Rosalie Blum, the directorial debut of screenwriter Julien Rappeneau, is a feel-good film in the tradition of Amélie, with its quirky storyline and many twists and turns of plot. Those twists and turns make it difficult to write about it … Read More