Pierre Morel’s twist on ‘Escape From New York’ set in a near-future Paris is a lean, clean, B-movie action machine fueled by adrenaline and indignation.
Tag: France
‘Breathless’ – Jean-Luc Godard’s new wave classic on HBO Max, Criterion Channel, and Kanopy
Jean-Paul Belmondo plays a charming rogue of a street thug in this cinematic blast across the bow of the French filmmaking and international cinema.
‘Le Doulos’ – the French criminal code on Criterion Channel
Jean-Paul Belmondo stars as the smiling underworld informer in Jean-Pierre Melville’s cool, often cruel classic French noir.
Last chance: ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ to French cuisine on HBO Max
Helen Mirren plays the bastion of fine French cuisine and unshakable tradition in this feel-good foodie drama of racial tolerance, cross-cultural acceptance, and fusion cuisine.
Oscar-winning Hollywood love letter ‘The Artist’ on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max
The Artist (2011) is a valentine to silent movies. You’ve likely heard that before and it’s true, but it’s more than that. A modern movie in a classical mode, shot in glorious black and white without spoken dialogue (but filled with music and sound) and directed with a lively spirit of romance and adventure and […]
‘Fantastic Planet’ – the animated cult classic on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
La planète sauvage, the original French title of Rene Laloux’s legendary animated feature Fantastic Planet (France, 1973), is a better indication of the torments that await the inhabitants of this cult science fiction classic. The oppressed (and very human-like) Oms live in a world ruled by blue-skinned giants called the Draags, who treat the diminutive […]
‘The Lovers on the Bridge’ – L’amour fou on Paramount+
The Lovers on the Bridge (France, 1991), Leos Carax’s tale of l’amour fou, was the most expensive film ever made in France at the time and remains one of the most ravishing made anywhere ever. It was also a commercial disaster, alternately celebrated as a triumph of personal expression and vilified as the French equivalent […]
Last chance: ‘My Golden Days’ on Criterion Channel
My Golden Days (2015), from French filmmaker Arnaud Desplichin, is ostensibly a sequel / prequel to Desplichin’s breakthrough feature My Sex Life… or How I Got Into an Argument (1996) but it lives on its own as a remembrance of times past. Mathieu Amalric (Desplichin’s cinematic alter-ego) reprises his role as Paul Dédalus twenty years […]
‘Ismael’s Ghosts’ – Life, art, and love on Amazon Prime
French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin makes films about the messiness of families, lovers, and creative lives that can become quite messy in their telling. Ismael’s Ghosts (France, 2018) jumps abruptly back and forth in time and between biography and fiction and dreams, smudging the line between biography, fiction, and artistic imagination. Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric is […]
‘Point Blank’ – pulse-pounding French thriller on Amazon Prime
The French crime thriller Point Blank (France, 2010), not to be confused with John Boorman’s 1967 post-noir masterpiece, opens in full sprint and pretty much stays in that adrenaline-pumping state. There is one peaceful interlude, a flashback to the calm before the storm with nursing student Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) and his pregnant wife (Elena Anaya), […]