Tag: french film
La Belle Époque
Friday, August 21st, 2020 Film Reviews,When the Alliance Française French Film Festival was suspended earlier this year because of the pandemic it seemed as if Sydney would miss one of its favourite events. It turns out there was no need for concern, as the AFFF came roaring back for a return season towards the end of July, and has seen […]
Deerskin
Friday, August 14th, 2020 Film Reviews,Until Deerskin came along, the ultimate cinematic love story between a man and an item of clothing must have been F.W.Murnau’s The Last Laugh (AKA. Der letze Mann). In this silent classic of 1924, a German doorman falls in love wth his uniform, suffering all the pangs of an abandoned suitor when he is laid […]
Alliance Française French Film Festival 2020
Friday, March 13th, 2020 Film Reviews,“I film, therefore I am.” If asked to guess who made this heroic declaration you might imagine it was some famous French director such as Henri-Georges Clouzot or Jean Renoir, or perhaps a more recent auteur, like Jean-Luc Godard or Agnès Varda. In fact, it was Charles Aznavour, the small, dark, weedy crooner who dominated […]
Alliance Française French Film Festival 2019
Thursday, March 7th, 2019 Film Reviews,Aside from the Indians, the French are probably the greatest talkers in the world. We Aussies, by comparison, are notably inarticulate. Perhaps that’s why we have such an inexhaustible affection for the annual Alliance Française French Film Festival, an event packed with movies in which characters babble on and on in a language which most […]
Alliance Française French Film Festival 2018
Friday, February 23rd, 2018 Film Reviews,Every year at the opening of the Alliance Française French Film Festival we gasp with excitement at the news that this is the biggest festival of French films in the world, outside of France. Unless we think of Cannes as a “French Film Festival” this probably means it’s the biggest in the world. Australia’s love […]
Happy End
Saturday, February 10th, 2018 Film Reviews,When Michael Haneke calls a film Happy End, one anticipates a thoroughly miserable experience for everyone concerned. Forewarned is forearmed. If you go into this movie expecting a withering indictment of the cold-hearted French bourgeoisie you might even squeeze out a snicker or two at the sheer awfulness of the dramatis personae. It’s to be […]
The Innocents & Things to Come
Saturday, April 29th, 2017 Film Reviews,There’s no category in contemporary cinema more demeaning than the ‘chick flick’. It suggests a sloppy romance of the Barbara Cartland variety, or a superficial, feel-good movie with a ‘girl power’ theme. Either way the term eliminates one half of the human race as a willing audience, and patronises the other. This week two very […]
Folies Bergère
Saturday, December 13th, 2014 Film Reviews,Isabelle Huppert has the rare ability to conjure up a character while remaining almost completely impassive. Some actors undergo an expressive transformation from one role to the next, but Huppert’s style is that of a minimalist. The straight face gives an impression of hidden depths, and this may be why – although far from conventionally […]
Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2013
Saturday, March 9th, 2013 Film Reviews,“Gwynplaine we are made for each other. The monster you are outside, I am inside.” Where do you get to hear – or at least read – lines like that? Only at the 24th Alliance Francaise French Film Festival, or until a featured item gets an Australian release. From an exceptionally strong program last year […]
Paris-Manhattan & Quartet
Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 Film Reviews,“Heartwarming” must be the most overused word in the film critic’s lexicon. It suggests we enter the cinema as cold-hearted types and are transformed by the power of a movie. When the lights go back on we are more sensitive, more optimistic; we believe in the essential goodness of human beings and the necessity of […]