Pacifiction–Tourment sur les Îles
Entranced in Tahiti
Take a very thin script, set your film on a gorgeous tropical island, hire some good actors but let the main character do most of the talking, then stretch the movie out to two hours and 45 minutes. The result … Read More
L’Innocent
A Question of Innocence
L’Innocent is not really sure what kind of film it is. It’s a kind of stylish mystery/thriller/family drama, like Sophie Marceau’s latest, Une Femme de Notre Temps, but it’s also a kind of heist film, a kind of comedy and … Read More
Une Femme de Notre Temps
Target Practice
The French actor Sophie Marceau, who is approaching the age of 57, has been an absolute star in France and elsewhere for some 42 years, ever since her first adolescent role in Claude Pinoteau’s La Boum (The Party) in 1980. … Read More
Tout le Monde Aime Jeanne
French Stand-up Queen Excels On-screen
Tout le Monde Aime Jeanne is in some respects a very conventional movie. It follows all the rom-com clichés of a single woman having to decide between various men, with the probability that she will end up with the man … Read More
La Nuit du 12
A Caring Copper
As crazy as it might seem to be going to the movies in the middle of a heatwave in Paris, over two hours spent in an air-conditioned cinema afforded a much-needed respite from temperatures that have been edging above 40 … Read More
Peter von Kant
Rages and Tears
What’s the point of remaking an old film? Not much that I can see in such cases as Gus Van Sant’s word-for-word and shot-for-shot 1998 copy of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. That is not a problem, however, in the stylish new … Read More
Ça Tourne à Saint Pierre & Miquelon
Whose Life Is It?
The film Ça Tourne à Saint Pierre & Miquelon (Fishy Business in Saint-Pierre et Miquelon), directed by Christian Monnier, starts out with some overplayed comic moments that are disquietingly close to the broad comedy of the kind that elicits groans … Read More
The 7 Lives of Léa
Alluring but Potentially Deadly
The 7 Lives of Léa, a difficult-to-categorize French TV series recently released on Netflix, deals uncompromisingly with racism, sexism, ageism, domestic violence, body-shaming and sexuality. The heroine, Léa, wakes up on seven consecutive mornings in the body of a different … Read More
En Corps
Step by Step
In spite of enthusiastic recommendations from friends and good reviews in the press, I was hesitant to see Cédric Klapisch’s new film, En Corps (Rise). I had loved his early film Chacun Cherche Son Chat (When the Cat’s Away) but … Read More
Retour à Reims
Book to Film, Left to Right, Key Element Omitted
Cinematic adaptations of books always carry with them multiple challenges. How faithful, for example, should one be to the written text? What should be omitted or added? And how does the film work purely on its own terms, without knowledge … Read More