France
Personal Shopper is the rare film that is unclassifiable in terms of genre, refusing to neatly fit in to the preconceptions of a horror film, as well as lacking a distinctive explanatory reading.
One of the first films from Sub-Saharan Africa to make waves on the international stage, Black Girl remains nothing less than masterful.
In our latest beginner’s guide, we take a run-down through the films of Jacques Demy, a French director who triumphed in the musical genre.
Departure is a coming-of-age film focused on the budding romance between a boy and his friend, yet it doesn’t fully succeed in this prospect.
More people died, many were saved. Fire At Sea is an expression of pure sorrow and joy inextricably linked together; the story of their exodus.
La La Land was one of last year’s big hits, and if you’ve read much about it, you’ve probably heard Jacques Demy cited as an influence. And he should be – not for nothing does the word “parapluies” appear near the place where La La Land’s main character works, a direct shout-out to the French title of Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Of course, it would be a mistake to put too much emphasis on him when La La Land draws on plenty of other influences, including various strains of American musical, Nicholas Ray, Powell and Pressburger, and maybe even Alfred Hitchc*ck.
The Unknown Girl sees the directors yet again flirt with their beloved recurrent theme of criminality, here taking their most overt detour into procedural thriller territory to date.
Elle faithfully transcribes the original book “Oh…”, presenting masochistic and sadistic elements as comedy in the darkest form.
Racism in France has been a long-discussed topic within cinema, from Mathieu Kassovitz’s eponymous film La Haine to 2011’s hit comedy Les Intouchables. In recent days Muslim/Arab citizens have been the focus of racial prejudice from the French justice system; Fatima could not come at a better time with its refreshing take on Arab/French culture. Philippe Faucon adds to this conversation with a portrayal of racial tension in France.
We shot Dead Certain in the French Alps during seventeen intense days in the winter of 2014. A post-epidemic thriller, we wanted the film to feel desolate and lonely. The quaint town of Monnetier-Mornex offered a perfect setting:
No matter what the critics say, film festival juries frequently appear to be in their own little bubble where they award the top prize to the film with the most political relevance, instead of the best artistic qualities. Last year at Cannes, the middling immigrant drama Dheepan trumped some of the year’s most widely acclaimed movies, from Son of Saul to Carol, for the festival’s top prize. But this was far from the only area critics were left bemused, as Rooney Mara’s performance in Carol suffered the indignity of sharing the Best Actress award with the unhyped Emmanuelle Bercot in My King.
In Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a treatise about the human condition, he wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” For many people the work they do is pointless, only going far enough to provide limited sustenance while killing the spirit inside which yearns to be free. Naturally, this is nothing new.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is female-directed French films.
First released with Kung-Fu Master! in 1988, Jane B. Par Agnès V.
Entering the world of an Agnès Varda film requires coming to terms with who she is as a filmmaker. She understood and explored the ways in which documentary and fiction are inextricably linked while generally eschewing linear narratives, working instead to show her own complex relationship with her films as she made them. Films like Jane B.