France

What is love? Love is a pain, love is death, love is a bitch. But friendship, that’s even worse. Friendship is nebulous; it’ll steal your affections, spread rumors about you, scrawl dirty lies on your locker. Life-affirming and, ultimately, life-ending, friendship is like coffee laced with slow-acting poison. At least that’s how it works in Melanie Laurent’s gorgeous Respire, an unsettling usurpation of your usual coming-of-age story, and one of the most confident sophomore films of recent memory.

“I disappear between these two moments of speech/ self-portrait not autobiography” – Jean-Luc Godard Never has Godard been so melancholic and comedic in one film. JLG/JLG: self-portrait in December (hereafter referred to as JLG/JLG) is a portrait of an artist, the artist of cinema, at sixty four. Part documentary, part film essay, JLG/JLG is a …

Alain Resnais is inarguably one of the most prolific directors to come out of the French New Wave, with nearly 50 films under his belt, not least of which including his masterworks Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, and Night and Fog. Undeterred by age, he seemed to have been working up until the day he died, with his swan song Life of Riley being presented posthumously at this year’s New York Film Festival. Those only familiar with his Nouvelle Vague work will be in for a pleasant surprise: Life of Riley is perhaps more fun that it deserves to be.

Aux yeux des vivants Written and Directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury France, 2014 Aux yeux des vivants is the newest film from the French extremist duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Their best known film, À l’intérieur, ushered their misanthropic and violent vision to genre fests across the world and became a much …

To celebrate their 65th anniversary UniFrance, an organization charged with the promotion of French Cinema around the world, has created a short documentary about the extended and powerful influence of French cinema in the world today. Bringing together stories from filmmakers across the world, this short 12 minute documentary is a sharp and clever look …

Bright Days Ahead Written by Fanny Chesnel and Marion Vernoux Directed by Marion Vernoux France, 2013 The opening credits to the new French film Bright Days Ahead, so named for the senior club the lead character joins in the opening scenes offer a sense of the urgency that the film itself isn’t interested in matching. …

Last May with the announcement of Bruno Dumont’s television debut, I wrote an article outlining accessibility issues when it comes to International television. With television becoming as increasingly artistically rich medium, demands for accessibility to international content is in greater demand. Certain shows have broken the threshold, most obviously those from the UK that found …

France ruled the film world in 2013, producing some of the most critically acclaimed and controversial titles. La Vie D’Adele took home the Palme D’Or and has since been subject to intense debate around the ethics of the film’s production and its depiction of sexuality. Among the other highlights was Alain Guirandie’s L’Inconnu du lac, …

There is a certain simplicity in Alain Guiraudie’s L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake) not seen in many films these days. However, that is not to say this is a simple film; it happens to run deep with emotion, stimulation, and humor. The story is set in what appears to be the early 1990s in the south of France, where local men gather around a crystalline lake to swim, sunbathe in the nude, and cruise. Starring Pierre Deladonchamps as Franck, a sensitive and curious young man; and Christophe Paou as Michel, a seductively dangerous stranger, the film is suspenseful, sexy, and smart, not to mention beautifully shot.

Male bodies glisten in the summer sun while wandering eyes fall upon a murder that leads to a torrid love affair with a killer. This is the premise to Alain Guirandie’s L’inconnu du lac, an incredible thriller with the mood and atmosphere of a great horror.

The French animated horror anthology Peur(s] Du Noir, or Fear(s) of the Dark, is all atmosphere, though it uses this to great purpose.
The film is surprisingly immersive, even as an anthology of six shorts with different animation styles, two of which are used as buffers between the other four, played in sequence.

Camille Claudel 1915 is a 3-day portrait of great sculptress Camille Claudel and her life in an institution. A rarity in art history, Claudel found success during her lifetime and was often exhibited alongside male contemporaries.

A Cat in Paris Directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol Written by Jacques-Rémy Girerd and Alain Gagnol France, 2010 As contentious as every Oscar inevitably is, one of the few areas of consistency is in the Best Animated Feature category (and perhaps the Best Documentary Feature). The 84th Academy Awards saw five worthy candidates, …

Beauty Written and directed by Oliver Hermanus France/South Africa, 2011 From across the room, François (Deon Lotz) witnesses a paragon of unequivocal beauty. With a painstaking allure and an irresistible smile, François is immediately, and unmistakably, enamored beyond all control. To him, this is love at first sight. Already married, François approaches his extramarital muse …

Bye Bye Blondie Written and directed by Virginie Despentes France, 2011 Perhaps a paean to the 1960 stage musical and its 1963 film adaptation, Bye Bye Birdie, Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie tries to be the social satire its American counterpart was. But with a protagonist suffused with libertine barbarism and a narrative of moral …

Let My People Go! Directed by Mikael Buch Written by Mikael Buch and Christophe Honoré France, 2011 In a small, idyllic Finnish town, Ruben (Nicolas Maury) is living a similarly idyllic life. His lover, Teemu (Jarkko Niemi), is a blonde bombshell of a boyfriend, he finds steady work as a postal worker, his neighbours seem …

Off-White Lies Directed by Maya Kenig Written by Maya Kenig and Dana Diment Israel/France, 2011 As a parent, you can’t prepare the world for your children; the best you can do is prepare your children for the world. So what happens when a homeless, estranged father readopts his teenage daughter amongst the backdrop of a …

Let My People Go! Directed by Mikael Buch Written by Mikael Buch and Christophe Honoré France, 2011 While confiding with his Rabbi, Ruben (Nicolas Maury) begins checking off his laundry list of foibles. From his precarious relationship with a schoolteacher in Finland to his exhausting family problems back home in France, Ruben becomes disillusioned with …

Naomi Directed by Eitan Tzur Written by Edna Mazia Israel/France, 2010 If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, then tales of infidelity must be one of the oldest forms of storytelling. From the bible to Nabokov, Adele’s entire discography to Adrian Lyne’s entire filmography, the devastating consequences of adulterous liaisons have provided ample inspiration for …

The Day I Saw Your Heart Written and directed by Jennifer Devoldère France, 2011 In Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Julie Delpy prophetically describes what it means to be French. Delpy’s Celine, while philosophizing with Ethan Hawke’s Jesse, says, “Each time I wear black, or like, lose my temper, or say anything about anything, you know, …

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea Directed by Thierry Binisti Written by Thierry Binisti and Valérie Zenatti France/Canada/Israel, 2011   Friends who want to stay friends don’t discuss religion or politics. Contentious and divisive, discussions about these hot topic issues tend to lead to fiery debates, with interlockers entrenched in their predisposed ideologies. Verbal disputes …

OSS 117: Lost in Rio Directed by Michel Hazanavicius Written by Jean François Halin France, 2009 Before Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin were Oscar-winning artists, they collaborated on the spy spoof comedy, OSS 117: Lost in Rio, the sequel to OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies. Although Hazanavicius’ love for the genre is quite evident, …

Tales of the Night Written and directed by Michel Ocelot France, 2011 French director Michel Ocelot is perhaps best known for his animated films Kirikou and the Sorceress, that film’s sequel, and Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest. His latest feature Tales of the Night is an anthology film made up of six short allegorical …