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…

Arguably Truffaut’s most audacious and experimental work, it is a loving homage to and a fascinating pastiche of American genre movies, especially but not limited to, film noirs, gangster films and B-movies. The story of a washed out protagonist trying to escape his past, comical shady thugs, and love on the run might be straightforward; but the array memorable dialogues, brilliant comical interludes, moments of heart-touching delight and humanism, unabashed self parody, and marvelous turns by the leads, truly makes this a great cinematic achievement…

An oddly lovable film about a subject as somber as transexuality, Alain Berliner’s Ma Vie En Rose (My Life in Pink) is an engrossing fairy tale like movie about Ludovic , (Georges DuFresne ) a seven year old delectable boy, who wishes to swap from the blue for boy, to the pink for princess way of life. A gleaming casket of first-rate performances, picture-perfect cinematography and realistic circumstances, My Life in Pink is a cinematic must watch and a heartfelt directorial debut by Berliner.

To the uninitiated it must be told that Michel Gondry is obsessed with that intricate maze of thoughts and illusions that resides within the layer of subconscious or the unexplored part of the human psyche. His own mind is capable of concocting the most unimaginable tales, and presenting them in a potpourri of images where the real cannot be distinguished from the surreal. And honestly, it’s refreshing because unlike other directors (barring few exceptional ones like the legendary Luis Bunuel)

After his back to back successes with Le Salaire de la Peur (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955), Henri Clouzot was considered a leading contender for the throne of “The Master of Suspense” and a force Hitchcock had to reckon with. Incidentally, Hitchcock himself was hot under the collar for having lost the filming rights of the above two films to Clouzot who had delivered them big time. Though not as prolific or consistent as Hitch, Clouzot is nevertheless placed in the same league as the former…

Any mention of French Cinema is incomplete without the mention of its two icons – Jean Luc GodBreathlessard and Francois Truffaut – who have been known to experiment and come up with some truly ground-breaking films, starting with Breathless. It is a result of not just one, but both of these geniuses at work (although Truffaut didn’t stick till the end). It was a deviation from typically conservative approach back then, with its chutzpah and impulsiveness that is more rebellious than bourgeois. Supposedly one of its kind, it is credited to have initiated the nouvelle French new wave genre, and it’s a dubious salute to its elder sibling, Hollywood.

Once upon a time, there was an extraordinary man, who led an extraordinary life, but didn’t know how much extraordinariness he had in him. Unfortunately, it took a cruel blow of fate that brought out this fortitude in him that he was till then unaware of… Fate that gave him his diving bell, [...]

With this review, I complete my review hat-trick of movies by Jean-Paul Jeunet – a feat I’m happy to boast about simply because the greatness of this film maker is fait accompli and I’ve watched three of his creations now! In A very long engagement, he makes a splash with his award-winning team of Audrey [...]

This movie is a caricature of sorts – and to be honest, I can’t form my opinion on it. It has certain strangeness to it, which may be appealing and repulsive at the same time to a cinephile such as myself. A strange plot, with an even stranger assortment of characters, and set gives it [...]

Director: Jean Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Audrey Tautou
In the words of a character in the movie, “This story is about the girl who’s in the middle, yet outside.” She is in the middle of reality, sanity and the mundane but is an outsider to the very world, the surroundings, the milieu she lives within. And so, she [...]