Vivre, Mourir, Renaître

Life After HIV

October 1, 2024 | By Nick Hammond | Film

There is something poignant in director Gaël Morel’s decision to situate his new film, Vivre, Mourir, Renaître (To Live, To Die, To Live Again), between 1990 and ’95; it was during that period that Morel first made his name as … Read More

Making Of

Through a Lens Darkly

February 2, 2024 | By Nick Hammond | Film

There is nothing film directors like more than to make movies about their own craft. From classics like Fellini’s 8 1/2, Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine (Day for Night) and Singin’ in the Rain to more recent examples like The Artist, … Read More

Vincent Doit Mourir

Paranoia Strikes Deep

November 15, 2023 | By Bill Burgwinkle | Film

It’s not all that unusual to find allegory lurking in current cinema and in media in general, especially in horror – one message hidden behind another, symbols that face one direction while pointing toward another, political dog-whistling in all its … Read More

L’Été Dernier (Last Summer)

Echoes of Phaedra

September 25, 2023 | By Nick Hammond | Film

Writer and filmmaker Catherine Breillat made her name with explicit, prolonged depictions of sex and sexuality, perhaps most notoriously in Romance (1999), in which she directed Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi in a number of unsimulated sex scenes, and À … Read More

Yannick

(Dangerously) Live Onstage!

September 12, 2023 | By Nick Hammond | Film

Quentin Dupieux is one of the most original, innovative and downright wacky movie directors around. All his films have started from a completely absurd premise; for example, in Deerskin, the protagonist falls in love with a deerskin jacket that speaks … Read More

Mon Crime

French Stars Camp It Up

April 12, 2023 | By Nick Hammond | Film

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