This lavish CinemaScope epic is a fitting testament to the enormity of Ophuls’ vision even though it was a commercial and critical disaster that was unceremoniously butchered by its producers to try to recoup theirContinue reading
Category: French Cinema
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
In collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard and blues musician Ry Cooder, whose soulful, improvised steel guitar licks so perfectly reflect the images on screen, Wenders is able to seamlessly transplant the deep introspectionContinue reading
From Paris With Love (Pierre Morel, 2010)
The first half is genuinely lousy, even by the admittedly low standards to which it is aspiring. Its swaggering cartoonishness is more grating than amusing, and the fast-paced nature of the plot doesn’t so muchContinue reading
Lorna’s Silence (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2008)
One might accuse the Dardennes of treading the same ground over and over if they weren’t so impressive in their craft and genuine in their humanity. And impressive the film is; although filled with bleakContinue reading
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987)
Wenders’ magnificent metaphysical romance and philosophical/historical meditation is dedicated to “all the old angels, especially Yasujiro [Ozu], François [Truffaut], and Andrei [Tarkovsky]â€â€”cinematic masters who left an indelible impression on Wenders’ work. In Wings of Desire,Continue reading
Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)
In his breakthrough thriller, Greek expatriate Costa-Gavras takes us through the dizzying—at times infuriating, at times nearly surreal—process of ferreting out the truth in a politically charged cover-up that, despite its historical specificity, is mostContinue reading
Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
Akerman’s maddening, hypnotic, fascinating, mundane, electrifying, mind-numbing, and ultimately shocking portrait of three days in the life of an “ordinary” widow and housewife is a singular achievement, with its complex aesthetic of unadorned stasis givingContinue reading
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Marking Godard’s full transition from playful Hollywood deconstructionist to radical political essayist, this philosophical/ethnographic exploration of 24 hours in the life of a housewife who has turned to prostitution in order to pay for theContinue reading
Made in U.S.A. (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
Godard dedicated this film to his cinematic muses Nicholas Ray and Sam Fuller, who “raised me to respect image and sound,†which is primarily what it has going for it. While the story is aContinue reading
The Class (Laurent Cantet, 2008)
The English-language title of Cantet’s Palme d’Or-winning film loses the texture and subtlety of the original French title, Entre les murs which means literally “Between the Walls.†The entire film takes place inside a tough,Continue reading