Tag: French Cinema
2025 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 7 – Julia Ducournau’s ‘Alpha’
Body horror, psychological issues, and social commentary best describe the cinema of Julia Ducournau and we could potentially find the same in what could...
Alpha | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Turn to Stone: Ducournau Hits a Wall with Disease Allegory
“Death is the cure for all illness,” wrote English writer Thomas Browne, which is a...
Dites-lui que je l’aime (Tell Her I Love Her) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Family Tree Grows Tangled Roots In Romane Bohringer’s Metafictional Feature
Family can make you and family can break you apart. The ties that bind...
Meteors | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Male Friendship Comes Apart In Hubert Charuel’s Assured Sophomore Feature
A meteorite enters Earth’s atmosphere moving up to 72 kilometers per second and (usually) burns...
The Richest Woman in the World | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Biggest Camel: Klifa Recruits Huppert to Spoof the Bettencourt Affair
Thierry Klifa, who continues to work some of the most notable grand dames of...
2025 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 4 – Hafsia Herzi’s ‘La Petite Dernière’ (The Little Sister)
Actress-filmmaker (she forever stole our cinephile heart for her role in Abdellatif Kechiche's The Secret of the Grain back in 2007) Hafsia Herzi has...
La petite dernière (The Little Sister) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Lost Daughter: Herzi Passes Up Potency in Standard Adaptation
“My name is Fatima,” is one of the constant refrains utilized in Fatima Daas’ celebrated...
Que ma volonté soit faite (Her Will Be Done) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Burn Witch, Burn: Kowalski Nurses a Curse in Sinister Backwoods
For her sophomore feature Her Will Be Done (Que ma volonté soit faite), Julia Kowalski...
2025 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 3 – Dominik Moll’s ‘Dossier 137’
Known for a filmography heavy into psychological thriller portraits with noir and crime element trimmings, the French-German filmmaker saw his second and third features...
Dossier 137 | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Investigation of Citizens Above Suspicion: Moll Persists with Police Procedural
Dominik Moll reunites with his usual collaborating scribe Gilles Marchand in Dossier 137, their third...
L’Engloutie (The Girl in the Snow) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Snow Way: Hémon Delivers Unwanted Help in the High Alps
A young, idealistic school teacher almost literally chooses her hill to die on in Louise...
Enzo | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Call Me By Your Pain: Campillo Gently Guides Cantet’s Swan Song
Laurent Cantet was a filmmaker consistently concerned with humans existing on the margins, those...
Leave One Day (Partir un Jour) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review
Chef’s Kiss: Bonnin Uses Familiar Recipe in Pleasant Debut
For her directorial debut, Partir un Jour (Leave One Day), based on her own 2021 Cesar...
Black Tea | Review
Spill the Tea: Sissako Flounders with Tepid Brew
The level of ineptitude apparent in every regard of Black Tea, Abderrahmane Sissako’s first narrative feature in...
Puissant Paris: Huppert, Efira, Cassel, Niney & Adam Bessa Topline Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Parallel Tales’
Megawatt quintet Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa (plus a bonus appearance by Catherine Deneuve) will populate Asghar Farhadi's...
Standing on a Beach: François Ozon Reteams with Benjamin Voisin for ‘L’Étranger’ (The Outsider)
He broke out big in François Ozon's Summer of 85 (he confirmed his prowess with his following film the Venice Film Fest preemed Lost...
The Empire (L’Empire) | Review
The Satire Strikes Back: Dumont Claims His Own Multi-Verse
It’s sometimes difficult to predict what mode French auteur Bruno Dumont will be choosing for his...
Interview: Producer David Thion – Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Hansen-Løve’s If Love Should Die
This year marks the silver anniversary of French film producer David Thion, who made his debut with Emmanuel Mouret’s Laissons Lucie Faire! in 2000....
The Ice Tower (La Tour de Glace) | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hearts of Glass: Hadžihalilović Casts a Wintry Spell
A chilly scene of winter unfolds in La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) at a glacial...
Ari | 2025 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Murmur of the Heart: Serraille Conquers Indifference Through Sincerity
With her third feature, Ari, director Léonor Serraille confirms a clear pattern of interest in exploring...
Marcello Mio | Review
In the Name of the Father: Honore Pays Homage via Identity Crisis
“I only exist when I am working on a film,” Marcello Mastroianni...
Joy Division: Camille Razat, Elsa Zylberstein & Lyna Khoudri Topline Mounia Meddour’s Drama Romance
After her break-out female empowerment portraits in the Cannes Un Certain Regard selected Papicha (2019) and Houria (2022), Franco-Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour is moving...
Snowed In: Quentin Dupieux Enlists Exarchopoulos, Leklou & Kiberlain for ‘L’Accident de piano’
Quentin Dupieux had enlisted alumni Adèle Exarchopoulos and then add-ons Sandrine Kiberlain and Karim Leklou for L'Accident de piano (formerly L'Avant-dernière séance). As per...
Interview: Nora El Hourch – HLM Pussy (Sisterhood)
Selected for TIFF's Platform section (Toronto's only competition section), French-born filmmaker Nora El Hourch pulled from some of her own narrative for her high...
Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) | Review
Nora El Hourch’s Fiery Sisterhood is La Haine for the #MeToo Generation
Arriving like a molotov cocktail thrown through a plate glass window — or...
Eat the Night | Review
The Sway of the Sword: Reality Bytes in Poggi/Vinel's Bleak Online/Offline Portrait
Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel's sophomore feature outing pulses with the heartbeat of...
Stitched Together: Ella Rumpf, Louis Garrel & Garance Marillier Join ‘Coutures’
Production is officially underway on Alice Winocour's fifth feature film, Coutures aka Stitches, and the casting announcements keep getting bigger. Joining yesterday's reveal of...
Upcoming Collections: Angelina Jolie Strikes a Pose for Alice Winocour ‘Stitches’ (aka Coutures)
Back in September we reported that French filmmaker Alice Winocour had begun pre-production on her fifth feature film and a major casting announcement has...
Emilia Pérez | Review
Risky Business: Audiard Surprises with Vibrant Genre Musical
Although it’s assembled from unlikely, even questionable sources, Jacques Audiard’s latest feature, Emilia Pérez, a genre...
Make No Promises: Virginie Efira & Arieh Worthalter Topline Kruithof’s ‘Les Braises’
In a double Virginie Efira casting news type of day, we learn that after dropping in Rebecca Zlotowski's Vie Privée, the actress will move...
Murder She Notes: Efira, Amalric, Lacoste & Luana Bajrami Join Zlotowski’s ‘Vie Privée’
Last week, we got the confirmation that Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil were toplining Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée and now we have a more...
We Were Two: Jodie Foster Joins Daniel Auteuil in Rebecca Zlotowski’s ‘Vie Privée’
She's coming off a career-best with Other People's Children (2022 Venice Film Festival selection) and recently was one of the scribes on Audrey Diwan's...
Daaaaaali! | Review
Good Golly, It’s Dali: Dupieux Dreams Surreal in Distinctive Biopic
It seems surrealism’s pioneer Salvador Dali is experiencing something of a culturally concentric resurgence as...
Time for Change: Anna Cazenave Cambet Begins Production on ‘Love Me Tender’ with Vicky Krieps, Reinartz, Chokri & Ji-Min Park
French filmmaker Anna Cazenave Cambet was setting up shop for her sophomore feature with Vicky Krieps and Antoine Reinartz (Anatomy of a Fall fame)...
Number Five: Alice Winocour is in Pre-Production on Paris-Based Young Adult Portrait
A recent casting notice reveals that French filmmaker Alice Winocour, whose last film Revoir Paris was selected for Directors' Fortnight in 2022, is in...
The Quiet Son (Jouer avec le feu) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Father Knows Best: The Coulin Sisters Examine the Detrimental Ripples of Fascism
With their third feature, The Quiet Son, French directing duo Delphine and Muriel...
And Their Children After Them | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Teenage Wasteland: Boukherma Bros. Sprawl with Coming-of-Age Melodrama
French directing twins Ludovic & Zoran Boukherma swing hard with their fourth feature, And Their Children After...
Three Friends (Trois amies) | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Lyon Lies Bleeding: Mouret Explores L’amour Fou (Encore)
Even for those unfamiliar with the filmography of Emmanuel Mouret, his latest film, Three Friends will unequivocally...
Planète B | 2024 Venice Film Festival Review
Say My Name Say My Name: Rapin Conquers Hearts, Minds and VR HeadSets in Wonky Digital Dystopia Piece
After exploring themes of rebirth and reincarnation...
Exclusive Clip: Invalid Expire Dates in Aude Léa Rapin’s ‘Planet B’
After splashing in the Critics' Week section on the Croisette with Heroes Don't Die (2019), Aude Léa Rapin returns to another Critics' Week section...
Cent mille milliards | 2024 Locarno Film Festival Review
The Unhappy Hooker: Vernier Explores Ennui in Monaco
Interconnected drifters aligned with sex work once again provide the backbone for Virgil Vernier’s third feature 100,000,000,000,000...
Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret Prefer “Ma frère”, Emmanuel Marre Goes Solo on “Notre salut”
As usual, the folks at Cineuropa get the dibs on CNC’s advance receipt news and today we learn that The Worst Ones (Les Pires)...
The Deep Blue V: Sophie Letourneur Sets Sails for “L’Aventura”
Savory wine, blissful beaches, rugged topography, and an elusive Philippe Katerine who plays Jean-Philippe -- we've been keeping close tabs on what will be...
Two for 2025?: Xavier Giannoli’s “Jean et Corinne Luchaire” & Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Vie privée” Receive CNC Support
We have the first details on the next feature films from a pair of French auteurs who arguably are both coming off what might...
Third Time’s A Charm: Dupieux & Exarchopoulos Re-team on “L’Avant-dernière séance”
After collaborating with the other half of the Blue is the Warmest Color tandem, Quentin Dupieux is re-teaming with actress Adèle Exarchopoulos for L’Avant-dernière...
Interview: Léa Drucker – Last Summer (L’été dernier)
She was pulled from obscurity (or non-retirement since her last feature was 2013's Abuse of Weakness) when Saïd Ben Saïd optioned the rights to...
The Vourdalak | Review
Love in the Blood: Beau Resurrects Russian Vampire Clan in Eccentric Genre Throwback
Chuck Palahniuk wrote it best, referencing an ‘old saying’ in his 1996...
Laying Brick: Robin Campillo to Shoot “Enzo” this Month
The passing of the torch was confirmed around Cannes, and rather than what might have been an August shoot, Les Films de Pierre producer...
The Most Precious Of Cargoes | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review
The Zone of Disinterest: Hazanavicius Reanimates the Holocaust in Moral Fable
What’s most interesting about director Michel Hazanavicius are his valiant attempts at dabbling in...
L’amour Ouf (Beating Hearts) | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review
Thief of Hearts: Lellouche’s Sprawling Romance Has Arrhythmia
A common occurrence for actors moonlighting as directors is not knowing how to hone a focus, crafting...
