Author Archives: Helen Van Kruyssen
Festival Film Francophone d’Angoulême 2016
Isabelle Adjani, Sandrine Bonnaire, Romain Duris, Isabelle Huppert, Sophie Marceau, Lambert Wilson and Catherine Corsini were just some of the talent that attended the 9th Festival Film Francophone… Source: Festival Film Francophone d’Angoulême 2016
Festival Film Francophone d’Angoulême 2016
Isabelle Adjani, Sandrine Bonnaire, Romain Duris, Isabelle Huppert, Sophie Marceau, Lambert Wilson and Catherine Corsini were just some of the talent that attended the 9th Festival Film Francophone d’Angoulême, France’s one festival that only screens films from French-speaking countries. It’s … Continue reading
Les Garçons et Guillaume, à Table! (Me, Myself and Mum)
Guillaume Gallienne’s face is pale, soft rising dough that’s been squished with an insensitive fist, in this comic exploration of sexuality, gender and self-acceptance. Written, directed and starring Guillaume Gallienne (as himself, and also his mother) Les Garçons et Guillaume, … Continue reading
La Belle Saison (Summertime)
Love between two women is a swaying hammock in Catherine Corsini’s tale of complicated romance in the wake of 70s feminism. Carole (Cécile de France) is the sunshine with whom Delphine (Izïa Higelin, a popular singer in France) understandably falls … Continue reading
Coco Before Chanel
Coco Before Chanel is a cinematic chessboard of personal politics and black and white design. Of wild horses, reluctant pawns and bishops who refuse to oblige. The queen is of course Audrey Tautou’s Coco; and she observes their moves. Director Anne … Continue reading
Paris meets Japan: the Price of Liberty
Troubled love on a melancholy Seine, angst on open boulevards, and the clashing of enquiring minds in cafes: for decades French film-makers have shown us Paris through the lives of its inhabitants. Parisiennes is different because it shows us the … Continue reading
Eperdument (Down By Love)
Combustive desire shatters lives in writer-director Pierre Godeau’s portrait of a director who falls in love with an inmate in the women’s detention centre he manages. If the narrative wasn’t based on real-life events it would be difficult to believe just … Continue reading
Elle
At its dark, oddly humorous heart director Paul Verhoven’s thriller is a about a wealthy woman’s response to trauma. Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), owner of a successful video-game company, lives alone in a house in a nice part of Paris, has … Continue reading
Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie) Every Man for Himself
Godard’s charm is particular: his ability to hold us close to his characters, shake us for a reaction, and then pull us back to the position of voyeur. Sometimes we are with them, and sometimes we aren’t. Depression and solemn … Continue reading
