Tag Archives: Paris
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
Paris
‘Where is the Universe?’ asks Élise’s (Juliette Binoche) daughter in the title sequence. Élise is with her children, standing high, looking over Paris. ‘The Universe Is everywhere,’ she declares in a calm, unassuming voice. And then director Cédric Klapisch cuts … Continue reading
Paris Nous Appartient (Paris Belongs to Us)
Wide spaces and open ideas connect with paranoia and penned-in desire in Jacques Rivette’s first feature, the title of which is inspired by Charles Péguy’s reflection that Paris belongs to those who spend the summer there preparing for the winter … Continue reading
Les Femmes du 6e Étage (The Women on the 6th Floor)
Watching Fabrice Luchini fall in love, bemused, is a comforting pleasure. He’s something of a bourgeois older-Prince: a romantic heart, papered-over by routine, cynicism and gentle cowardice. It’s early-sixties Paris and stock-broker Jean-Louis (Luchini) and his socialite wife Suzanne (Sandrine … Continue reading
