Scarlet (L’envol) is something of an international mash-up. Italian director Pietro Marcello has very loosely adapted a novel (Scarlet Sails) by Soviet writer Alexander Grin into a story of French village life in the interbellum years. As the film opens, Raphaël is returning home at the end of World War 1 when he discovers that…
Sometimes filmmaking takes on filmmaking, giving us a look at a little bit of what goes into creating what we see on screen. That is the case in The Worst Ones, from directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. The film-within-a-film we see being made is very much like the film we are watching, which creates…
Does passion provide an adequate foundation for how to live a life? In Ana?s in Love, from director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, we watch a young woman who focuses her life around shifting passions that blow through her life. Does it lead to happiness? Will it ever last? Ana?s (Ana?s Demoustier) is a thirty something student who…
Fear takes many forms, some is personal, some is rooted in society. But it often leads to pain and suffering. In Soumaya, directed by Waheed Khan and Ubaydah Abu-Usayd, we see fear that grows within a culture that tries to put others down by making them afraid. Soumaya is awakened early one morning by police…
Why do people (now a few thousand) climb Mt. Everest? George Mallory (who may or may not have been the first to reach the summit) famously answered the question by saying, ?Because it?s there.? But there has to be more to it than that. Mountaineering is a dangerous, often lethal, activity. In The Summit of…
If you?re in the mood for a time-bending coming-of-age story, Petite Maman will do the trick. From director C?line Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady On Fire, Tomboy) this is the story of eight year old Nelly, who after her grandmother?s death goes to the grandmother?s house with her parents. This is her mother?s childhood home….
Everyone is looking for love? but not everyone knows what it is. Set in the France?s frigid Causse Mejean, Only the Animals begins with the unsettling image of an abandoned car on a snowy road. A woman has disappeared and no one seems to have seen her or knows her. (Well, admits to knowing her anyways.) Telling…
Mama Weed (La Daronne), from director Jean-Paul Salom?, takes us into the Paris underworld, but from a somewhat different perspective. Our entry into that world is not through a hardened career criminal or long-suffering police officer. It is a woman who stumbles into an opportunity and makes the most of it. Patience Portefeux (Isabelle Huppert)…
Today?s films range from the mundane to the worlds of power and money. Documentaries are ways to mark points in time, to see life in new ways, and to broaden our knowledge. That happens in these films. The HBO Documentary Series Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union premiered the first two episodes at…
How far would you really go to be with the one that you love? Many of us think we have the answer to this question yet, when the moment arrives, our true hearts are always revealed. When trouble finally rocks the boat of our relationships, will we stand back? Or are we willing to stay…
