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Out of Season – movie review

Co-written by Marie Drucker and director Stephane Brize, Out of Season is a sensitive, slow-moving romance. Mathieu (Guillaume Canet) is a famous Parisian movie star, married to a prime-time news anchor. Four weeks before making his stage debut, Mathieu gets cold feet and pulls out, leaving everyone in the lurch. While he knows his withdrawal…

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A Difficult Year – movie review

The past few months have been a boom time if you’re into European – particularly French – cinema. And that trend continues with the engaging A Difficult Year. I mean, the idea of a comedy about anti-capitalist activism doesn’t sound like a winner, but writer-directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano manage to pretty much keep…

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Last Summer – movie review

We seem to have been getting more European – specifically French – films in Australian cinemas recently. That might be a hangover from Hollywood’s troubles over the past year or two, but it provides an opportunity for more diverse offerings. And few films could be further from a Hollywood blockbuster than Catherine Breillat’s enigmatic Last…

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Suddenly – movie review

Thomas Bidegain’s tension-filled thriller Suddenly involves a couple marooned on a remote Antarctic island. Their hopes of survival diminish as days turn to weeks and months. Ben (Gilles Lellouche) and Laura (Melanie Thiery) have been together for five years as they embark on a global sailing voyage. Their next populated port of call is a…

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Win tickets to Last Summer

– Last Summer – Only in cinemas from 5 September 2024 Courtesy of @PotentialFilmsanz, we are giving away 2 double passes and 2 “Buy One Get One Free” passes to see LAST SUMMER in select cinemas from September 5. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Acclaimed French auteur Catherine Breillat returns with…

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Iris and the Men – movie review

Iris and The Men is a comedy with distinctively French proclivities. Written and directed by Caroline Vignal, there is a sadness, yearning and yet joie de vivre about it. The film’s origins were in what Vignal heard from a 51-year-old friend who had embraced life after her husband suddenly left her. Another friend had encouraged…

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The President’s Wife – movie review

According to the reliable IMDb, The President’s Wife (released elsewhere as Bernadette) marks the 142nd screen appearance of the legendary Catherine Deneuve. Her career stretches back to the French New Wave of the 1960s, and includes some of the seminal films of Jacques Demy. She’s appeared in films by Roman Polanski, François Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Melville…

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Sidonie in Japan – movie review

The artistic links between France and Japan run (perhaps surprisingly) deep. The French Impressionists were obsessed with Japanese woodblock prints, for example. In the 1950s, while French filmmakers and audiences embraced Japanese cinema, with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and Kinugasa Teinosuke’s Gate of Hell (1954) featured at the Cannes Film Festival; while Alain Resnais’ seminal…

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