Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
★★★★☆
The meaning of life, cinema and everything, Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria is a powerful, thought-provoking two-hander of subtle performance from Stewart and Binoche.
France
Girlhood / Bande de Filles (2014)
★★★★☆
Set to a pulse-pounding soundtrack, Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood encapsulates the careless, giddy energy of teendom.
Argerich Bloody Daughter (2012)
★★★☆☆
A family portrait and a fly-on-the-wall bio-doc of a great pianist, Stéphanie Argerich’s Argerich – Bloody Daughter wraps itself up in maternal knots.
Suite Française (2014)
★★★☆☆
Turning Irène Némirovsky’s novel of French occupation into a love story across enemy lines, Saul Dibb’s Suite Française is a powerful, arrogant adaptation.
Festival Review: Diary Of A Chambermaid / Journal d’une Femme De Chambre (2015)
★★★☆☆
A handsome adaptation of Mirbeau’s novel, Benoît Jacquot’s Diary Of A Chambermaid is a vibrant celebration of fin-de-siècle style.
La Maison De La Radio (2013)
★★★★☆
Did video kill the radio? Nicolas Philibert uncovers the mystery of the medium in his warmly human documentary La Maison de la Radio.
The Last Of The Unjust / Le Dernier Des Injustes (2013)
★★★★☆
If this is a man. Claude Lanzmann’s The Last Of The Unjust recuts unused Shoah interviews to reveal the controversial figure of Benjamin Murmelstein – Europe’s last Jewish Elder.
Eastern Boys (2013)
★★★★☆
A strangely romantic tale of east meets west, Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys brings European immigration from the political into the personal scale.
School of Babel/La Cour de Babel (2014)
★★★★☆
French director Julie Bertuccelli’s classroom documentary School of Babel examines twenty-four foreign teenagers’ struggles as they adapt to a new life, culture and language in France.
London Film Festival 2014: Return To Ithaca / Retour à Ithaque
Return To Ithaca Centred round a reunion of a group of fifty-something friends in Havana, Laurent Cantet’s Return To Ithaca is an intensely moving…
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ARCHIVE: Le Jour Se Lève/Daybreak (1939)
★★★★☆
A fatalistic tale of love and jealousy, Marcel Carné’s Le Jour Se Lève is a captivating and tragically romantic French classic.
Violette (2013)
★★★☆☆
With a powerful performance from Emmanuelle Devos, Martin Provost’s Violette is a stylish biopic of influential author Violette Leduc and the power of the female pen.
You And The Night / Les Rencontres d’Après Minuit (2013)
★★☆☆☆
After causing a stir in Cannes earlier this year, Yann Gonzalez’s You And The Night is an existential orgy of misfits finding each other after midnight.
Attila Marcel (2013)
★★★★☆
A musical homage to Marcel Proust, Sylvain Chomet’s Attila Marcel is eye-catching, genre-busting and mad as a bag of frogs. Let’s face the music and dance.