If you read my festival coverage, you’ll know that I am a proponent for short films. I enjoy the chance to take in a program or two of shorts when I attend film festivals. Shorts are more than just practice for aspiring filmmakers. Shorts get to the point quickly and often very effectively. Usually, the… [Read More]
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Doomed Love
I try not to mansplain things. But being a male reviewing Portrait of a Lady on Fire makes me feel as if I’m doing so. That is not to say that the film needs mansplaining. Writer director Céline Sciamma has crafted a wonderful story of women seeking love and fulfilment in a world that treats… [Read More]
By the Grace of God – The Sin of Silence
“Deep down I knew. We all knew. We did nothing.” Although it is not limited to the Catholic Church, sexual molestation of minors by clergy is an issue that continues to burden the church. In France, a notable example centered on a priest, Bernard Preynat, and the Archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin, who oversaw the… [Read More]
Cyrano, My Love – So Many Loves
Cyrano, My Love is an intersection of live and art. It could be debated which is imitating which as we follow fin-de-siècle French poet/playwright Edmund Rostand as he struggles to create the play which brought him fame and success, Cyrano de Bergerac. The film opens as Edmund (Thomas Solivérès) is opening an unsuccessful play. He… [Read More]
Santa Claus (Le Père Noël) – A Parisian Adventure
‘Tis the season of heartwarming holiday movies featuring cute kids, Santa Claus, and the joy of the season.
Memoir of War – Morass of Emotion
For Marguerite in the film, her fear and depression are overwhelming. Even the people around her and their love and attention cannot bring her out of her “slough of despond”.
Custody – A Child’s Pain in Divorce
Custody is a moving look at the pain that can come from a family disintegration—especially as that pain manifests in a child.
False Confessions – A Farce in the Wrong Time
Farce, to me, occupies a place between the Shakespearean comedies of people falling in love and the modern romcom. False Confessions is a 21st century update of an 18th century French farce. If it seems stagy it is because of more than just its historical roots.
The Midwife – Life’s Transitions
Life is a series of transitions, bookended by the two great transitions of birth and death. But along the way there are many more shifts in our lives—some trivial, others more profound. The Midwife is a story of the transitions of life that is (like life) a mixture of humor and poignancy.
Elle – Obsessions and Revenge
“It’s twisted.” That brief line of dialogue defines Paul Verhoeven’s Elle in more ways than one. The plot certainly has very interesting turns along the way, but the convolutions of the personalities are what really make this entertaining and interesting. This is an intense psychological thriller, with the accent on psychological. Michèle (Isabelle Huppert) is… [Read More]
