CHOUF — CANNES 2016
Cannes, France —Audiences new to modern-day gang related international crime dramas could get a crash course in the genre from…
French Cinema
RESTER VERTICAL — CANNES 2016
Guiraudie overleverages the story into a climax scene involving homosexual necrophilia that is sure to elevate “Rester Vertical” to instant…
FROM THE LAND OF THE MOON — CANNES 2016
Nicole Garcia’s formal approach to compositions and dramatic climaxes gives the movie a feeling of being trapped beneath gauze. Garcia…
MA LOUTE — CANNES 2016
Cannes, France —“Slack Bay” is the English title for “Ma Loute,” Bruno Dumont’s devilish French period farce of class conflict and cannibalism…
CANNES 2016 — PHOTO JOURNAL
Cannes Film Festival, Culture, Current Affairs, Film, Film Blog, Film Festivals, Filmmaking, Food and Drink, French Actresses, French Cinema, News, OFCS
David McKenzie with Chris Pine and Ben Foster at HELL OR HIGH WATER screening.
PERSONAL SHOPPER — CANNES 2016
BDSM, Cannes Film Festival, Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, French Cinema, LGBTQ, ONE STAR, Psychological Thriller, Women's Cinema
Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper drew boos from French locals at Cannes who didn’t appreciate the psychological thriller. Cole Smithey.
PAULINE AT THE BEACH — CLASSIC FILM PICK
“Pauline at the Beach” is an acerbic study of romantic power games that the sexes play, and the destructive influence…
LA GRANDE BOUFFE (THE BIG FEAST) — FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT’S DAY FOR NIGHT
Cinema, Culture, Current Affairs, Directors, Film, Film Blog, Filmmaking, French Cinema, News, Podcast
Mike Lacy and I drink "The Truth Double IPA" (from Flying Dog) and discuss "Day for Night" in our third episode.
A REAL YOUNG GIRL — CLASSIC FILM PICK
Classic Cinema, Coming-of-Age, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Reviews Blog, sex, Sexploitation, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
Breillat’s magically real tale of sexual adventure owes a debit to Philip Roth’s “Portnoy’s Complaint” and to J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher…
RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2016
RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA 2016
A MAN ESCAPED — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Prison Escape, Video Essay
The film’s opening scene displays the hands of Fontaine (Francois Leterrier), a captured French Resistance Fighter, as he fingers the…
JEAN DE FLORETTE / MANON DES SOURCES — CLASSIC FILM PICK
“Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources” is an emotionally potent movie whose lush depiction of Provence captures your imagination…
LA TETE HAUTE — CANNES 2015
“La Tete Haute” (“Standing Tall”) is a French social realist drama from director Emmanuelle Bercot that avoids clichés as it…
AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Coming-of-Age, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Video Essay, War
Louis Malle’s semi-autobiographical rendering of his wartime youth, partially spent in a private Catholic boarding school in Nazi-occupied France, haunts…
GIRLHOOD
Cannes Film Festival, Coming-of-Age, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Reviews Blog, Video Essay, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
You might read the title “Girlhood” and think that some ambitious (perhaps female) filmmaker is taking on Richard Linklater at…
MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Black and White, Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Comedy, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Video Essay
Jean-Luc Goddard famously said, “French neorealism was born” with the cinema of Jacques Tati. At first blush, the statement might…
CLAIRE’S KNEE — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Nouvelle Vague, Video Essay, Women's Cinema
Eric Rohmer’s place as an establishing member of the French New Wave movement is marked by the fact that he…
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, New York Film Festival, Nouvelle Vague, Politics, Video Essay, War
Alain Resnais’s early addition to the Nouvelle Vague cannon finds his pair of culturally diverse lovers of rising from the…
GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE — CANNES 2014
Cannes Film Festival, Experimental, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Nouvelle Vague, NYFF, Reviews Blog, sex, Transgressive Cinema, Video Essay
Godard views the dichotomy between nature and industrial degradation with a sardonic eye. God couldn’t humble man, so he humiliates…
BREATHLESS — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague, Video Essay
Jean-Luc Goddard’s 1960 debut feature arrived as an explosive third installment in the Nouvelle Vague (French New Wave) movement, behind…
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
