french cinema

If history is told from the perspective of the victor, then the biopic has always been something of a consolation prize for the runner-up. In defeat, Napoleon has had a far greater impact on popular culture than his enemy the Duke of…

Pacification has the markers of a taut political thriller. There is an exotic setting, a colonial possession, and a white linen suit. One can image a well-intentioned Yves Montand playing the martyr for Costas-Gavras. Albert Serra,…

French cinema has always had a reputation for artistic flair. The very word for a great director who brings his vision to the screen, auteur, comes from the French word for author. In France cinema is idiomatically known as le septième art…

Anaïs in Love opens with its title character in a frenzy, running up the stairs to her apartment with a bouquet of flowers to meet her landlady, who gives her a smoke alarm to install. Through the ensuing dialogue, dominated by the nonstop…

Vortex, writer-director Gaspar Noè’s latest picture, is a slow, heartfelt portrait of an elderly couple (Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun) throughout their day-to-day lives, while respective physical and psychological ailments take their…

Jean-Stéphane Bron's documentary The Brain is screening as part of the IFI French Film Festival 2021. The Brain addresses the ever-nearing ethical dilemma: the fact that our advance A.I. will soon outstrip our understanding of the…

It feels beyond redundant to say that nostalgia has had a huge impact on cinema in recent years. When 2019 has new releases called Dumbo, Aladdin and The Lion King, what more do you need to know? However, considering the title of Nicolas…

Romantic comedies are tough to get right. It takes skill to craft a film with charming protagonists, romantic chemistry, witty dialogue and cracking one-liners. When done to perfection, there is very few genres that elicit a similar type of…

Last October, I caught an advance screening of Belgian-French horror Raw, directed by Julia Ducournau. It tells the tale of a female freshman and vegetarian who, after being forced to eat raw meat during a hazing ritual, develops an…