Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) was a big beast in his lifetime, one of a triumvirate of famed French sculptors, alongside Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol. After he died in 1929, his reputation faded, but he’s been rediscovered in recent years, and … Read More
Mon Crime is the latest in the extraordinary number of movies that director François Ozon manages to churn out at a very regular rate. Since his first short film in 1988, he has released at least one movie per year … Read More
Adapting a much-loved novel for the big screen is always a fraught business: how do you keep the book’s readers happy while at the same time creating a piece that can stand on its own as a cinematic work? Philippe … Read More
Director Christophe Honoré has spoken of his latest film Le Lycéen (Winter Boy), which evokes the death of his father when Honoré was only 15, as his most personal yet. He has chosen, however, not to place the action in … Read More
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 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
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 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
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
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
