In 1963, abortion was illegal in France. Happening is a harrowing tale about an intelligent student who unexpectedly falls pregnant but has to keep it a secret for fear of what could happen to her. Her name is Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei) and she is 23. She hangs around with her gal pals, Brigitte (Louise…
How was the restaurant born? The French dramatic comedy Delicious (Délicieux) provides a fictional answer to that question. At the dawn of the French Revolution, Pierre Manceron (Gregory Gadebois) is a master chef in the employ of the arrogant Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe). The Duke loves the food Manceron and his chefs prepare in…
A surreal nightmare, Titane pushes the boundaries of taste. Still, it’s intriguing throughout and doesn’t let up for its entire 100 minutes plus. A father (Bertrand Bonello), who turns out to be a doctor, is having trouble controlling his seven-year-old daughter Alexia (Adele Guigue) in the back seat of their car while driving. She makes…
Perfumes is a gently paced, delightfully nuanced French comedy about a woman with a nose for fragrances. Anne Walberg (Emmanuelle Devos) was employed by Dior, where she created some of the world’s most popular perfumes. But now she works for an assortment of contract clients, often trying to find ways to mask undesirable smells. She…
French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert displays her comedic side in Jean-Paul Salomé’s crime caper The Godmother (La Daronne). The film starts out as a conventional crime drama with the cops looking to intercept a shipment of drugs, but ends up in some pretty wild territory. Huppert plays Patience Portefeux*, a translator with the Paris police….
In Antoinette in the Cévennes, the passionate Antoinette Lapouge (Laure Calamy) is a bundle of energy. She teaches grade five and is having an affair with Vladimir Loubier (Benjamin Lavernhe), the father of one of her students. She’s particularly looking forward to the holidays, which are upon them, because she can spend a few days…
Only The Animals surprised me. This remarkably well-constructed French mystery-thriller is three stories in one. Alice Farange (Laure Calamy) is in a loveless marriage in rural France. She’s having an affair with a strange loner named Joseph Bonnefille (Damien Bonnard), who barely tolerates her. Then Bonnefille seemingly callously ditches her giving no reason. There’s a…
French cinematic touchstones and a powerful feminist message merge in Martin Provost’s How to be a Good Wife. This slightly bonkers film traverses similar ground to Philippa Lowthorpe’s Misbehaviour, and does it with a similarly entertaining flair. But it also leans heavily into the traditions of French farce. Provost’s previous film was the far more…
In the Name of the Land is the first feature fiction film for Edouard Bergeon, a former photojournalist and documentarian. It has been largely inspired by the life of his own father, a farmer who passed away in 1996, and to whom the film is fittingly dedicated. This is a grim – often bleak –…
How tough a job is teaching and disciplining a bunch of lively, but often disinterested and unmotivated students? The engaging French dramedy School Life (La Vie Scolaire) explores that question. A new vice-principal, Samia Zibra (Zita Hanrot), arrives at a school in economically disadvantaged Saint-Denis. She wants to do all she can to make a…
