A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Reviews of films from France and French-language films from Belgium and Switzerland. At this stage, I’m not sure if there’ll be many French-language films from African and other countries coming within my orbit – probably I’ll create a separate category for them and call it French-language Films from outside Europe, or something hopefully more succinct and graceful!
British Films, French and French-language Films
Roman Polanski, “The Ghost Writer” (2009) Circumstances surrounding this film were peculiar enough in themselves: in travelling to the Zurich Film Festival as a special guest…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Terence Young, “Mayerling” (1968) Better known perhaps for directing three James Bond films in the 1960s, the British director Terence Young turned his hand to making…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films, French and French-language Films
Olivier Assayas, “Clean” (2004) Rare are the movies in which two main characters happen to be father and his daughter-in-law yet just this month I’ve already…
French and French-language Films
Michael Haneke, “Caché / Hidden” (2005) An imaginative if overly layered thriller about a couple threatened by an unseen and unknown stalker, Michael Haneke’s “Hidden” is…
French and French-language Films, German and German-language Films
Jean-Jacques Annaud, “The Name of the Rose” (1986) Based on Umberto Eco’s novel of the same name, this film is a very good if underrated adaptation…
French and French-language Films
Jean Renoir, “The Grand Illusion” (1934) Jean Renoir’s film is a moving meditation on war and its effects on the traditions of early twentieth century European…
French and French-language Films
Jean Cocteau, “La Belle et La Bête” (1946) A beautiful and sumptuous film, this interpretation of the famous fairy tale by surrealist writer / film-maker Jean…
French and French-language Films
Louis Malle, “Black Moon” (1975) A curious film this is, based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, in which Alice figure Lily (Cathryn Harrison) is fleeing…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Kurt Engfehr, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, “The Yes Men Fix the World” (2009) Well no, actually they don’t but that was a pretty good little…
French and French-language Films
Anne Fontaine with Wladimir Yordanoff, “Nathalie” (2003) Trust the French to do upper middle class feminist angst with a dash of secret lesbian desire like no-one…