There’s a style of filmmaking that I don’t seem to respond to. I find it in A Prophet — a nominee this year for Best Foreign Language Film, representing France — and I’ve found it in recent French films Flight of the Red Balloon and Summer Hours, which are alike in that they received near [...]

A film like Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion is difficult to approach so long after the fact as having been discussed and dissected for decades by film critics and scholars, it’s impossible to say anything new about it. Released in 1937, it was immediately embraced by the film community, becoming the first non-English film ever nominated [...]

The title of Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale evokes a sentimental, fairytale-like feeling. It suggests a story in which all problems are brought to heel by spirit of the holiday, sweeping away conflict and renewing old bonds. Desplechin’s film does not play out this way, but is instead a deep and complex family drama (occasionally [...]

Forbidden Games presents a delicate balance, contrasting as it does the innocence of children with the grim reality of war. As German planes fly over France, dropping bombs behind them, two children - Michel (Georges Poujouly) and Paulette (Brigitte Fossey) – come face-to-face with death for the first time and in their efforts to understand [...]

Bob (Roger Duchesne) is a gambler and ex-con who has managed to stay out of trouble for a number of years. He’s a legend in the neighbourhood and a mentor, of sorts, to Paolo (Daniel Cauchy) who, despite his status as a con, is somewhat naïve in terms of how he deals in the underworld. He trusts the wrong people and Bob takes it upon himself to pull Paolo out of situations that clearly spell trouble for him. Little does he know that he’ll be the one who facilitates Paolo’s ultimate fall.

The 400 Blows is something of a strange case. It’s hailed as being one of the most groundbreaking films ever made, yet watching it what remains the more astonishing is its simplicity. Francois Truffaut’s debut feature length was based on his own experiences as a child and focuses on the experiences of Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a French boy in his early teens who is always getting in trouble in school and at home. His mother Gilberte (Claire Maurier) is a young looking woman tired with the routine of her life..

I was little apprehensive about watching ‘The Class’ at first, despite of its Palme D’Or win and Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Film category. It focuses on the familiar grounds of teacher student relationships on which by now, hundreds of movies and tens of great movies have been made. But here’s my bit of advice – don’t close your eyes to this one, timeworn as its subject may sound. And if you have The Class screening anywhere close to your neighbourhood, make it there - on emergency footing.The film tells us the story of Francois..

Flight of the Red Balloon is Hou Hsiao Hsien’s 2008 tribute to Albert Limorisse’s thirty four minute short The Red Balloon, the legendary film about the adventures of a little boy who was magically trailed by a willful red balloon through the old-fashioned streets of Paris. This too is about a wondrous red balloon that follows a little boy through his footprints in Paris, but unlike its inspirational film, this docile balloon shadows the lives of the grown-ups the same. The film shows the soft and shy preteen Simon

Kristin Scott Thomas was serious Oscar bait for her performance in last year’s very famous French flick, I’ve Loved You So Long. And I come to concur - she proved handsomely deserving! The movie marked Philippe Claudel’s debut with direction, after he was widely applauded for his famous French novel Les Âmes grises (Grey Souls). While I’m bashfully ignorant of his writing, there’s a thing that can be stated without doubt – if there’s one filmmaker in the bygone year with oodles of talent and promise..

Chrisophe Barratier’s directorial debut The Chorus became an acclaimed masterstroke worldwide. About an inspirational music teacher who comes to teach at a boarding school for rebellious children, Les Choristes, was inspired by a little known French film La Cage aux Rossignols (The Cage of Nightingales). A deeply moving psychological film on childhood, The film is about the early feelings of injustice and abandon; the inbuilt sense of fright together with those rebellious impulses that lurk…