Just outside the tall windows of the splendid new Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine stands one of France’s most famous monuments, the Eiffel Tower, while inside visitors inspect detailed casts and scale models of many of the country’s other … Read More
Not only does actress Julie Delpy act in Two Days in Paris, but she also wrote, directed and edited her second feature film, and composed the music. The result is surprising success: a smart, witty Woody-Allen-style comedy with the human … Read More
One of the magical things about Paris is that you can step into the only cinema where a new French film is showing and discover a gem. I remember a few years ago a film, directed by Olivier Jahan, called … Read More
Et Toi, T’es sur Qui? is the simplest of films – the story of the awakening of love and sexual desire in a small group of teenage classmates – but it is told with such gentle humor and authenticity that … Read More
Identity cards play a major role in Très Bien, Merci, a film with a serious identity crisis of its own. One minute it seems to be turning into a French version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the … Read More
Actress Ludivine Sagnier may be on the road to typecasting as a French musical comedy star. Following her noted role as the cheeky teenager in François Ozon’s 8 Femmes, here she is again, all grown up and singing her heart … Read More
Paris at the end of May, when the whole cinema world is living it up in Cannes, is a feast for film lovers. Piggybacking on the free publicity the films get simply by being shown at the festival – with … Read More
The problem with many biopics is that they treat art as an accident of genius. Think of Ed Harris in Pollock, with Jackson “discovering” drip painting one day while drunk. Art, in biopic language, comes not from hard work and … Read More
Les Ambitieux, directed by Catherine Corsini, stars Karin Viard in a near-perfect portrayal of a tough (but attractive, of course) book editor for a major French publisher. Judith is a man-eater who uses men for sex and dumps them as … Read More
A book by one of the most widely read restaurant critics in France that promised to dish the dirt on the country’s entire food scene was too appetizing a temptation to pass up. Bon Appétit, Messieurs is by Léo Fourneau, … Read More
