Tom Ridgway
Camille Claudel 1915
Arthouse Film Without the Art
Bruno Dumont’s film Camille Claudel 1915 is one of those movies that critics call “challenging” and “difficult.” It’s one of those films that they give five stars to because they feel guilty about spending their days watching films, and an … Read More
Julia
Split Personality Julia (Tilda Swinton): aging goodtime girl, serious alcoholic and marvellously self-destructive. March 12, 2008 Typical. You wait 10 years for a new Erick Zonca movie and then five come along at once. Unfortunately, the director of The Dreamlife … Read More
Les Témoins
False Witness Johan Libereau, Michel Blanc and Emmanuelle Béart party down. In André Téchiné’s Les Témoins (The Witnesses), it’s 1984 and Manu (Johan Libereau) has just arrived in Paris. He soon meets a doctor, Adrien (Michel Blanc), in a cruising … Read More
Mauvaise Foi
Keeping the Faith Ismaël (Roschdy Zem) and Clara (Cécile de France) confront the issues in Mauvaise Foi. Ismaël (Roschdy Zem) and Clara (Cécile de France) have been together for four years. They’re a happy couple, but when Clara discovers that … Read More
La Californie
Deadly Serious The splendid Nathalie Baya is great at playing a drunk. Last week I went to see two vastly different, yet similar, films. Both were well-written, well-directed, well-acted – and both were deadly dull. The first was Clint Eastwood’s … Read More
Président
Vote Non! Président isn’t a bad film – it’s a monumentally terrible film. You’re watching a film about a fictional president of France with the surprising title of, well, Président, and you’re thinking, Now, any country can make a mistake … Read More
Sheitan
The Devil You (Don’t) Know Would you want to spend the night here? Photo: Alex Lamarque Sheitan is “un film de genre,” a disparaging term in France for any movie that isn’t exactly high art, which this most definitely isn’t. … Read More
Le Temps qui Reste
This Is the End The last few months in a young man’s life. François Ozon’s Le Temps qui Reste (Time to Leave) can be seen as a companion piece to the director’s 2000 film Sous le Sable. Both are meditations … Read More
Cow-boy
Funny Peculiar
Benoît Poelvoorde. You probably don’t recognize the name, but you might remember him as the charismatic serial killer in his 1992 debut, Man Bites Dog. Since then he has gone on to become one of France’s most beloved actors (even … Read More
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon
Diving Deep
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