Currently browsing the "French" category.

The Artist

I have my favorite movie of the year now, and I expect that The Artist will be at the top of a lot of other reviewers’ lists, too. I’ve been told I gush about it. And I do not gush often. Considering that it is in black & white and is a silent film, you might wonder why.

Mozart’s Sister

Incendies

Incendies is a French Canadian drama that was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign language film and is totally deserving of the honor. Living in small town USA can be frustrating for the lag time in getting to see these films in a theater, but finally, it arrived. (Only 2 left now.)

Potiche

Potiche is a delightful chique flique or peut-être une comédie romantique starring two of France’s biggest stars, Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu. Mostly it is Deneuve’s show, as the trophy wife (la potiche) Suzanne Pujol who realizes her real potential when she takes the reins at her family’s umbrella factory (a nod to Deneuve’s classic Umbrellas of Cherbourg) after her philandering husband has a heart attack. Set in 1977, the film is full of women’s lib moments and silly 70s pop culture references, including a scene where Deneuve and Depardieu disco à la Saturday Night Fever.

Certified Copy

There are some movies that are nearly impossible to review because to tell the story is to give away (ruin) the experience of watching it. Certified Copy is one of those films. Directed by Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry) and starring the luminous Juliette Binoche who won the Best Actress Award at Cannes for her role in this film, it is about the most confusing 106 minutes I have spent in a long time. Not a bad confusion, but a well planned, edge of your seat waiting and wondering when it is all going to make sense confusion. The central question, which pops up about 20 minutes in, has you questioning what is true and what isn’t right up until the end. And in addition to the twisting plot, the film alternates between English, French and Italian.

Micmacs

What a wonderful film! From director Jean-Pierre Jeunet who brought us the delightful Amélie, Micmacs is the story of a group of misfits who, to avenge the wrongs done to one of their family, conspire to bring down a couple of big arms dealers. It is a perfect political comedy, a genre that (with a few exceptions) only foreigners seem to be able to pull off.

Coco avant Chanel (a.k.a. Coco Before Chanel)

It’s good to see Hollywood paying homage to a bevy of strong, independent, talented and spirited women (Fanny Brawne in Bright Star, Amelia Earhart in Amelia, Coco Chanel in Coco Before Chanel). I just wish these movies weren’t quite so… boring.

Priceless

The French make breezy little romantic comedies as easily as they do a good cup of coffee. Perhaps it is because it is a more romantic sensibility. Maybe it is just that the language sounds more romantic and the locations are so quaint. But I can enjoy absurd situations in a French film that I could never accept in an American movie. Case in point is Priceless, starring Audrey Tautou (Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) and Gad Elmaleh as Irène and Jean. Irène is a gold digger staying at a fancy hotel on the Riviera with her rich older boyfriend when she mistakes Jean, a bartender, for a young wealthy mark. He lets her believe he is rich but when her boyfriend catches on and leaves her, the jig is up. She goes looking for her next meal ticket only to be followed by the lovesick Jean. Irène returns his ardor with a vengeance, spending Jean’s every last Euro then walking out, leaving him with an enormous hotel bill that he cannot possibly pay.

Apres Vous

If you’re looking for a tasty little French romantic comedy, Apres Vous is just the ticket. Nothing deep here, nor laugh out loud funny, but the French have a way with the romances and I have a thing for Daniel Auteuil. Here he stars as a restaurant manager (Antoine) who saves a stranger in the park (Louis) from hanging himself and then tries to repair his life. He finagles him a job as sommelier at his restaurant but things get a bit more complicated when he decides to get Louis and his ex-girlfriend Blanche back together. Of course, he falls for her himself losing his own girlfriend along the way. He can’t tell the suicidal Louis, but cannot help himself and naturally Louis finds out.