Like a black and white Amelie (2001) without the whimsy, French director and graphic novelist Nine Antico’s first feature tracks the travails of hapless Sophie (Sara Forestier) as she searches for love.
Continue readingPlaylist (2021)
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Day 24: My favourite film with a colour in the title
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Three Colours: Blue (1993)
I found this the hardest prompt of the lot but, in the end, I couldn’t not choose Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs (Three Colours) trilogy. After Hal Hartley, Kieślowski was my next favourite director and this trilogy was the first time I saw films that interconnected.
Continue readingThe Truth (La Vérité) (2019)
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Image via http://www.indiewire.com
Hirokazu Kore-Eda has crafted a deceptively complex story within a film that feels as airy as a soufflé. Continue reading
The Extraordinary (Hors Normes) (2019)
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Image via http://www.affrenchfilmfestival.org
I wasn’t expecting to love this feature, by writer directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, so much. Their huge hit The Intouchables (2011) achieved all the right notes of feel-good, odd couple drama with a social subtext and rarely overplayed its hand. It felt like an elegant and understated Hollywood pic though and it is unsurprising that it was re-made in 2017 as The Upside (which I can’t bear to watch). I was expecting the same with The Extraordinary and so was unprepared for its social and emotional depth and understated authenticity. Continue reading
The Translators (Les Traducteurs) (2019)
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Image via http://www.palacefilms.com.au
I like the resurgence of clever whodunnits, particularly the ones that are character-driven and unpredictable. With The Translators, director Régis Roinsard takes an unlikely but compelling story and fills it with dense narrative, quirky characters and some truly unexpected plot twists. Continue reading
Young Ahmed (2019)
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Image via miff.com.au
The Dardenne brothers are respected auteurs for their social realist dramas but it feels like they weren’t the right ones to tackle this story of young idealism turned into fundamentalism. Continue reading
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) (2014)
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Image via http://www.tribecafilm.com
I booked this one without knowing much about the film, enticed primarily by the live soundtrack by Sampa the Great and the story about being a young, poor, black French woman, with all its beauty and tragedy. Continue reading
Deerskin (Le Daim) (2019)
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Image via miff.com.au
The perfect film to see at a midnight screening, Quentin Dupieux’s Deerskin is a wry and disturbing romp that never takes itself seriously. Continue reading
The Sisters Brothers (2018)
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Jacques Audriard (Personal Shopper) has created a serviceable yet unremarkable Western that seems to delight in perpetuating well-worn tropes. Continue reading
Climax (2018)
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Image via miff.com.au
Climax is a drug-infused, sweaty and self-indulgent nightmare. It immerses you in a single night with a bunch of unlikable dancers as bad things happen to them. Continue reading
