THE RULES OF THE GAME — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
To the eyes of most modern filmgoers Jean Renoir’s 1939 masterpiece of French Cinema may seem like nothing more than…
French Cinema
POTICHE
François Ozon’s flamboyant adaptation of a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy is a light comic confection. That the…
THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER — CANNES 2010
“The Princess of Montpensier” is a lavish, French period drama full of dynamic sword fights and ill-concealed emotions. It is…
THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE…— THE CRITERION COLLECTION
The setting for this adaptation of the classic story is fin-de-siècle Paris. Danielle Darrieux is ravishing as Madame Louise de…
POTICHE
“Potiche” rings with a sophisticated brand of restrained comic expression. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that…
INCENDIES
Brilliantly constructed from the bountiful narrative fabric of Wajdi Mouawad’s complex stage play about a familial legacy passed down from…
HEARTBEATS
“Heartbeats” is a witty movie for chic twentysomething misfits who almost know what they want. Cole Smithey.
OF GODS AND MEN
“Of Gods & Men” is a chamber piece tragedy trapped in a bubble of naive optimism. A little cynicism could…
WHITE MATERIAL — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Criterion Collection, Drama, FOUR STARS, French Cinema, Video Essay, War, Women Filmmakers, Women's Cinema
“White Material” is a glimpse inside the self-destructive mind of people attempting to impose their will on a place that…
THE WAGES OF FEAR — THE CRITERION COLLECTION
Capsules Blog, Classic Cinema, Criterion Collection, FIVE STARS, French Cinema, Politics, Social Satire
“Wages of Fear” is as much about where the salary of fear originates as it is about the folly of…
CARLOS — CANNES 2010
This condensed two-and-half-hour version of director Olivier Assayas’s three-part miniseries, about one of the most notorious terrorists of the 20th…
HIDEAWAY
Francois Ozon (“Swimming Pool” – 2003) continues his cinematic quest at weighing social pressures against the internal demands of the…
ARMY OF CRIME
Robert Guediguian makes a fascinating Altmanesque character study of a mixed group of foreign resistance fighters (called the “FTP-MOI”) working…
HEARTBREAKER
Evidence that the French know more about romantic comedy than Hollywood, Pascal Chaumeil’s tightrope act of cliché-baiting makes the most…
MESRINE: KILLER INSTINCT
The international scope of Mesrine’s legend comes across in the ways that the criminal uses the media to his advantage.…
THE CONCERT
French farce doesn’t come more sentimentally skewed than co-writer/director Radu Mihaileanu’s musically bound European dramedy. Former Russian symphony conductor Andrei…
WILD GRASS
Alain Renais’s condensing of Chrisitan Gailly’s novel “L’incident” functions more as a random cinematic lark than it does as a…
LET IT RAIN
French auteur Agnes Jaoui creates an effortless pastiche of modern French existence with this light comedy that plants the high…
MADEMOISELLE CHAMBON
The simmering romantic desire between Jean (Vincent London), a married construction worker, and his son Jeremy’s temporary elementary school teacher…
THE FATHER OF MY CHILDREN
Writer/director Mia Hansen-Love has made half of a good movie. Cole Smithey.
COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA
